The Richland County Genealogical Society was organized in May of 1977, due to the efforts of several local people interested in family and county history.

Charter memberships were available until December 31, 1977 and 65 individuals and 11 family memberships were obtained.  Today we have 125 members, with our Society magazine being mailed throughout the United States.

Dues ‘were’ $6.00 with the current dues at $20.00 a year.

Meetings are held the second Thursday of every other month at the Olney Public Library.

Members were asked to turn in pedigree charts and family files which have all been indexed with about 1400 surnames listed in our files.  Several books and family genealogies have been donated to the society.  These are housed in the Genealogy section of the  Anderson Library located at the Olney Central College.

Over the years, thanks to many volunteers, these collections have been increased by the addition of birth, death, obituaries, marriage, county records, state records, and research books. The genealogy library also has this type of information for surrounding IL counties and some states.