To help celebrate the beginning of the new century, the VAGHS is offering certificates for
those with Brown County ancestors. The certificates are on 8 1/2 x 11 attractive gold parchment paper, and will include
the name(s) of your ancestors, date each arrived in the county, your name, seal of the Society, etc..
To qualify, the applicant must be a direct descendent of an individual who settled in the area
which now makes up Brown County, between 1825 to 1880, and be a current member of the Versailles Area Genealogical &
Historical Society. An application fee of $15.00 must accompany your request for an application.
Complete rules and forms will accompany the application. If you have more than one ancestor
here in the same family line, you may include additional ancestor's names on the certificate at no additional cost for these
supplementary names. Example: Both a Gr. Grandfather and spouse (Gr. Grandmother), could be included on the same
certificate. Also, the Gr. Grandmother's parents (or one of them) if they were also a proved early settler to the county.
Also, one or both parents of your grandmother were early settlers, different names, but the same lineage of yours. There
would be no additional charge for these names being added, but proof must be shown for each individual named. Different
family lines would require an additional application for my mother's line (say Johnson), because it is most likely an entirely
different lineage from my parents back.
Upon receiving and filling out the application form, documented proof showing year of the ancestor(s)
arrival to the county and proof of lineage descending to the applicant, must be submitted. All supporting dates will
become the property of the VAGHS to be placed in a book, at a later date and filed for other researchers to view. Examples
of proof may be census, obituaries, birth, marriage and death certificates, tombstone readings (photo or charcoal rubbings),
wills, probate files, school records, etc.. NO typewritten, or handwritten records, or stories by family members will
be accepted. History book biographies may only be used to substantiate the other data.
If the applicant wishes too have an additional certificate for a parent, son, daughter, grandchild,
brother, or sister, these are available for $5.00 each; in addition to the original $15.00 application fee. You would
have to include proof of relationship from the applicant to the other family member(s) you wish certificates for. COUSINS
ARE NOT INCLUDED!
Send your request for application forms, along with fee to: First Settlers Project,
Versailles Area G & H Society, P.O. Box 92, Versailles, Illinois 62378-0092
