A group of people learning about personal, family, and local history continue to meet to share ideas, stories, and heritage.

The Jones County Genealogical Society held its first meeting in September 1995, bringing together Jones County residents interested in family history.

The Society has 95 paid members.

Darroll Jefcoat, president from 2002-04, and elected again this year, joined in 2001 to help his research of the Jefcoat family name in Jones County.

“There were so many Jefcoats in south Mississippi saying they weren’t related,” he said. “But I said of course we’re all related. I’m determined to get to the bottom of it and prove that we are all related.”

His research so far takes the family back to 1600.

The Society meets the fourth Saturday of the month (except December) in the second floor genealogy department of the Laurel/Jones County Library at 530 Commerce St. in Laurel.

A few of the committees include the marriage records committee, cemetery committee and calendar committee. Calendars include photos of historical buildings from around Jones County. The 2009 calendar has photos of the old Eastman-Gardiner Co. sawmill wood waste burner, a silo-like structure; the building at 102 Ellisville Blvd. — the original Eastman-Gardiner and Co. general office building, now the Tanner Construction Building; a Laurel street car; cotton trading day in Ellisville; the Rumble and Ottman building of Laurel, the present site of Signature Coffee House; a 1903 sketch of Peoples Bank, the present site of Burton’s Jewelers; the original Nehi Bottling Co. plant in Ellisville; an 1895 logging crew; Main Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Laurel; Ellisville Lumber Co.; Burkett Auto Co. on North Magnolia St.; Laurel Ice Co.; an upscale Eastman, Gardiner and Co. portable logging house; the Laurel train depot; the N.B. Shelby house of Ellisville; and the Strand Theater on Central Avenue, Laurel.

Calendars are on sale at the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art and Holt and Associates of Laurel, Ward’s Pharmacy of Ellisville and in the library’s genealogy department.

The Society published “Echoes of Our Past,” a comprehensive look at the history of Jones County and its families. A second book is being planned.

The genealogy department features approximately 350 family history books, books about Mississippi and military books. There are bound volumes of the Daughters of the American Revolution magazine and two computers which are Internet-accessible for genealogy-only research. Family files are accessible for research. There are also copies of the Laurel Leader-Call from its inception on microfilm. Genealogy department hours are 1-4:45 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; 9 a.m.-4:45 p.m. Fridays; and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays. The department is closed the third Saturday of each month.