The Surry County Genealogical Association members are accustomed to presentations during their meetings from folks who have a particular area of expertise in the field of genealogy. Sometimes it may be a historian there to discuss a certain period in local history; other times it might be explaining research techniques or tools; often it is simply a local resident giving a presentation on his or her family tree.
What they are not used to is a presentation by someone who is still in middle school.
That is exactly what is on tap for the planned July 11 meeting, when 12-year-old Elijah Smith is set to give a talk about his family tree — making him the youngest person to have ever made such a presentation, according to society president Esther Johnson.
“Most of the time it’s old people doing the family history,” Johnson said with a laugh when discussing the upcoming meeting. “I wish I had started loving genealogy at his age and was as smart as he is.”
Elijah, the son of Chad and Leigh Ann Smith and a rising seventh grader at Mount Airy Middle School, said he became interested in genealogy years ago, when he was much younger.
“My grandparents and great-grandparents and I would look at pictures and stuff,” he said, recalling reviewing photos of his ancestors. “When I got older, I started asking a lot of questions.”
While he was able to fill in much of the recent information on his family from his grandparents and great-grandparents, it wasn’t long before Elijah wanted to know more. He soon turned to ancestry.com, local courthouse and U.S. military records, and met Johnson.
“I found out we were kin,” he said. With encouragement from his newfound relative — a local authority on genealogy — he continued diving into his family’s history.
“I probably spend a lot of time on it…I get really involved in it, definitely,” he said. “I enjoy knowing where I came from, seeing photos of my kinfolk and thinking that’s a part of me, in a sense. Sometimes I’ll go to the courthouse and look at records occasionally. I have a bunch of records my grandparents have, photos with writing on the back, family Bibles.”
He’s managed to find military records of his ancestors from World War II, the Civil War, and other conflicts. It was while looking over military records that he had one of his biggest surprises.
“My great-grandpa, he was in the army during the Korean War. I found out where he was stationed at, how long he had served through some papers and stuff. That was a surprise.” He said his great-grandfather, Davis Smith, never once mentioned his time in the war.
“I found one ancestor on grandma’s side; he was in World War II. Most of his platoon got killed, but he made it back,” he said of another startling discovery.
While Elijah has spent a great deal of time learning of the military history of his family, the research hardly stops there.
“I’ve made it back to Germany on my Smith side, they called it Schmidt, and that’s in the 1600s,” he said of his never-ending hunt for more family knowledge.
As to the upcoming presentation, Elijah said he’s not nervous. “I’ll just take it easy until the day comes and then I’ll just do it,” he said. Truth is, he’s putting in more advance work than it seems. He has had some help in putting together a slide presentation he will use to talk about his family tree, showing pictures of his ancestors along with records and other information, with a focus on those who served in Korea, both War Worlds, and the Civil War. He plans to touch on the Gates, Smith, Jarvis, Isaacs, Ray, Marion, and Johnson families.
“Then I’ll take questions at the end,” he said. He is particularly looking forward to the question and answer session. Elijah said he has been to a few genealogy society meetings, and the Q&A periods are always fun.
The meeting which includes Elijah’s presentation will be at 6 p.m. on July 11 at the Mount Airy Public Library. For more information on the organization contact Johnson at EPDJ1@triad.rr.com The meeting is open and free to the public.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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