Greenup library receives genealogy society donations
Sep. 5—GREENUP — The Kentucky Genealogical Society recently donated a century-old ledger book, along with a document and book scanner, to the Genealogy Room at the Greenup County Public Library.
The book is from a former Greenup business owned by Elwood Kinner. One of Kinner's descendants donated it to the Kentucky Genealogical Society, who in turn felt it would be best placed with the local county.
Kinner, who died in 1928, owned a general store on Main Street across from the Greenup County Courthouse. The contents documents the store's business during the early 1920s. Financial transactions were recorded with a nib pen dipped in an inkwell and statements for merchandise purchased from wholesalers were randomly placed between the pages. Kinner bought products to sell from as near as Portsmouth and from as far away as Chicago, Illinois, and Boston, Massachusetts — all delivered to Greenup by rail.
The document and book scanner, along with another scanner the library acquired last year, will be used for digitizing paper records. "The Genealogy Room has numerous binders filled with paper-based records," genealogy and local history librarian Bill Hughes said. "Scanning these documents will allow us to preserve them in a digital format for years to come."
The electronic format also makes it easier to assist patrons from out of the area who are tracing their family's history and need a copy of a record.
