A trip to Forsyth Cemetery was included in the kick-off to a summer history course for participants of the Forsyth Boys & Girls Club. Educational events like this have been a goal of ours for some time, especially when it touches on so many areas that we’re involved in – history, research, historic sites, cemetery hopping, collection care and oral histories. We’ve started off with 14 members involved, and have another 10 registered to join after summer school ends!
A particularly fun aspect of this program is that we had each research team draw the name of an individual who’s buried in the cemetery to “adopt” for research this summer. While at the cemetery, each team transcribed all of “their” person’s information and took photos for their future presentation displays, plus learned a little about military markers and the various symbols found on some tombstones.
During the next five weeks, the teams will review pictures of Forsyth when it was in its’ original Shadow Rock Park location, conduct research at the Historical Society, Forsyth Library, Taney County Recorder’s Office, and Community Presbyterian Church, learn to search historical records online and interview a Taney County native who personally knew each person being researched. After the final presentation in August, the team displays will be exhibited for a few weeks at the White River Valley Historical Society.
