Greece Historian, Marie Poinan, has a request for families this holiday season, “You really need to ask more questions of the family members that are around you. And now is the best time to do it. Talk to your family at the holidays and get the family pictures out. Share them, and keep them, and write down the details, that is your best source for family history. I think you will be surprised how family members can recount memories off the top of their heads.” In the past, family gatherings for the holidays were fifty or more relatives coming together to celebrate. The numbers gathering together are much smaller now, which makes it even more important to talk. Poinan says another great source is the Family Bible which many times holds valuable information.
Poinan is an active member of the Greece Historical Society and the Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse Historical Society. Her quest for family history was sparked by a conversation she had 20 years ago with her father-in-law. “My husband John’s family was a pioneer family who settled Greece. The details that my father-in-law shared intrigued me, and led to me wanting to learn more. I really didn’t like history growing up, even though my mother was a history teacher, I didn’t appreciate that as a kid. After starting research into families, I never stopped,” she said.
Poinan’s interest in family history has culminated with a new book which she co-authored with Jo Ann Ward Snyder, “Pioneer Families of the Town of Greece, Volume 1”. The book is available at the Greece Historical Society Museum’s Gift Shop, and from Amazon. Volume 2 will be available in the Spring of 2022. “We had such a huge response from the families that we decided to do it in two volumes,” Poinan said.
“Pioneer Families of the Town of Greece, Volume 1,” contains the stories and photos of 44 of the founding families of the Town of Greece. The criteria was, the family must have settled in the area before 1872. The book is written in celebration of the Bicentennial of the Town of Greece in 2022. “We wanted to highlight the families that nobody knows about. We invited as many families as we could to participate. We crafted the stories by talking to family members, asking about where the family originally came from, what year they settled, if they were property owners, and do they have any death certificates. We then researched the leads for accuracy and verification,” Poinan said. The goal of the book is to let the people tell the history of Greece through their family stories.
Poinan and Snyder were fully involved with the research. They provided tools for families to do their own research if they chose to, and helped those who didn’t know where to begin. “People have a renewed interest in their family history. We can now access information from the comfort of our homes instead of spending long hours in the library. One of our biggest questions we get is, “I live here, on this street, tell me about that?” That is why Historical Societies are so important. If you need information on local history where do you go for help? That’s what we do as a Historical Society, preserve local history,” Poinan said
People come across local history documentation in many places. It could be a photo album for $5 at a garage sale. Even if you think the old paper isn’t worth saving, bring it to your local historical society and let them decide. Information and photos can be copied and returned, and history is then documented, and kept safe for the next generations. “I really encourage people to share their history with their local historical society,” Poinan said.
In their research Poinan and Snyder found little gems of historical facts. Poinan said, “We got information on landmark homes in Greece and discovered their origins and history and about the families that lived there. Looking through family trees we discovered cousins that didn’t know each other, and we introduced them for the first time. It really makes you feel good to make these connections.”
The Greece Historical Society will be honoring the founding families that shared their stories for the books with Pioneer Family Certificates.
Family Holiday Traditions
The authors shared some of the Holiday Traditions they learned about from their Pioneer Families:
•The Cole and Kenyon family had a tradition of baking peach pies for Christmas.
•Myrtle Lemcke baked her Christmas bread to give out to her children and grandchildren.
•The Reilly family had tall evergreens on their property, and each Christmas would go out and cut the top of the best tree to use for their holiday tree.
• Author Marie Poinan also shared her family holiday tradition. “My family tradition is celebrating the Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve with my grandmother’s tablecloth that comes out just for one day each year. She crocheted the tablecloth in the 1920s.”
For more information on the ““Pioneer Families of the Town of Greece, Volume 1” visit the Greece Historical Society website at www.greecehistoricalsociety.org.
