In early August, Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society volunteers Judy Thompson, Gretchen Murray and Kathy Greene met with three generations of one local family.

Sitting at the society’s computers, the trio helped the family locate information relating to an ancestor who lived during the American Revolutionary War.

“They were interested in filling some gaps in the lineage back to a Revolutionary War patriot,” Thompson said.

“The end result was they had three or four generations to clarify the lineage they needed to follow back to the known patriot.”

That family wasn’t the only one who wanted to track down their ancestors ahead of the United States’ 250th anniversary.

The society — now in its 54th year — had many people reach out to see if they had ancestry from the American Revolutionary War, volunteers told Noozhawk.

Run entirely by volunteers, the nonprofit organization’s mission is to help people discover, document, share and preserve their family histories, no matter where they come from.

At its peak, the society had more than 600 members.

Now, partially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the society has around 500 members, society president Kate Lima said.

Mary Jacob, the society’s development officer, a board member and editor of the organization’s quarterly magazine, joined the group in 2016.

She was inspired to volunteer to help others find their family history.

“It can be a powerful, even highly emotional, experience to learn about who your ancestors were and what they experienced,” Jacob added.

The society has a collection of more than 16,000 books, periodicals, newspaper clippings, maps and other items members can use to help trace their lineage.

While the group now has a dedicated headquarters located at 316 Castillo St. in Santa Barbara, its story began with two people.

Cathy Maddux and Carol Roth founded the society in 1972 after they published a newspaper advertisement seeking other people who were interested in researching their family roots.

Twenty-eight people responded to the first message. The society met at libraries, members’ houses, community centers and churches until 1998, when Dr. Melville Sahyun, a local medical pioneer, donated his laboratory property to the society.

Since then, the former lab just north of the Cliff Drive-West Montecito Street intersection has served as the organization’s home. 

“We do exhibits, table at different places, and have an outreach group for the community,” Lima added, pointing to a recent Fourth of July celebration at Goleta’s historic Stow House.

The society also hosts exhibits about Santa Barbara’s cultural and ethnic groups every other year to allow the community to participate and share their histories.

Jacob said this also helps to preserve and publicize family histories.

At a recent preview exhibit on Santa Barbara Hispanic families between 1850-1970 at the Santa Barbara Public Library, two individuals who didn’t know each other discovered they were related after reading the posted story at the gallery, according to Jacob.

“It just shows how doing family history is not always about the past — it can connect you to family in the present that you did not know you had,” she said.

The society publishes a monthly family tree tips, a discussion of what the society is doing that month, and a quarterly journal, Ancestors West, in which members share stories often relating to specific themes.

Over the next several months, the society will host an open house from 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 4, a biennial picnic in the Santa Barbara Cemetery on Oct. 24, and an annual Día de los Muertos celebration.

“Día de los Muertos is all about honoring your ancestors, so it’s perfect for us,” Lima said.

The society also is publishing a monthly Noozhawk column that Jacob hopes will bring people to the society and potentially help them find their own ancestors. Click here for the first column.