Cottage Grove Genealogical Society marks 50 years, seeks volunteers to digitize archives

Deborah Montsev, president of the Cottage Grove Genealogical Society, told the Cottage Grove City Council the volunteer-run group is marking its 50th anniversary and needs volunteers and equipment to digitize and index a large local archive.

Montsev invited residents to the society’s fiftieth-anniversary open house “Wednesday in the Shepherd Room from 2 to 6:30 p.m.,” and described the society’s holdings and current preservation work. She said visitors can tour the Ellis Memorial Research Library, pick up a free getting-started packet and talk with volunteers who will be available to answer research questions.

The society serves genealogical researchers and preserves local history: Montsev said the group has collected “hundreds of thousands of obituary and life event clippings” and manuscript files for people who lived in South Lane County, and that its collections include material for all 50 states and some international regions. She said volunteers have recataloged the collection and are adding an extensive run of genealogical periodicals to the society’s online catalog.

Montsev described a continuing digitization project framed as part of the society’s disaster-preparedness plan and said at least some indexing work can be done remotely. “If you have internet, home computer, basic computer skills, you can do this work at your house,” she said, noting training is available by email request.

She reported two recent grant awards and other partnerships. Montsev said the society secured two grants totaling $22,000 from the Woodard Family Foundation to support the Partners in History effort to digitize local newspapers. She also said a State Historic Preservation Office grant and the City of Cottage Grove helped fund the Partners in History series that republished a society story in the Chronicle.

Montsev said the society recently obtained temporary storage for a pallet of negatives and slides from the local paper and that a private donor’s grant will pay for equipment to digitize them; she estimated the pallet contains “700,000 plus images.” She added the Sentinel has agreed to place its bound newspaper books on permanent loan with the society, and staff are coordinating the transfer.

On technical risks to searchable archives, Montsev warned that earlier microfilming can degrade and harm optical character recognition. “Does everyone know what OCR means? Optical character recognition? It won't work when there's all these dots,” she said, explaining that oxidizing microfilm and low-quality photographic reproduction can make text and photos unreadable without access to original papers.

Montsev closed by noting volunteer time logged in 2024 and encouraging residents to attend meetings or the anniversary open house. “Cottage Grove Genealogical Society is where discoveries happen,” she said.

The presentation was given during the council’s public comment period and did not require any council action.