JARRETT GOODMAN
Staff Writer
The South Pittsburg Historic Preservation Society (SPHPS) has recently invited Meagan Grim of the Chattanooga Public Library to host a public presentation regarding the ways which local folkore and history can be researched.
Grim, who also hosts her own YouTube channel called “Grim History with Meagan Grim”, introduced herself to the audience, explaining how she started the web series as a means of presenting what the library’s local history & genealogy department has to offer in terms of resources for historical documentation. She also explained that the purpose of the presentation was to show that residents of a community can utilize a local library or archive to research local folklore, the paranormal, or any form of topic in general.
“I want to make sure that people feel like they don’t have to research something super serious to come visit us at a library or archive. If you’re curious about fun topics like folklore and the paranormal, you have a place in libraries and archives,” said Grim.
During the presentation, she detailed the various ways which resources regarding folklore or the paranormal can be obtained, such as how specific books can be researched through online catalog such at Chattanooga Public Library’s and WorldCat. WorldCat is an online catalog that directs users to which library has a specific title.
Another major source includes old news articles and obituaries, as well as the use of genealogy databases such as Ancestry and Family Search. However, because death records are vulnerable to fraudulent scams, many states across the U.S. have designated time periods which a death and birth record is available for public viewing.
“In the state of Tennessee, its specifically 50 years for death records and 100 years for birth records,” stated Meagan.
The idea to have the presentation stemmed from Kellye Hogan, who’s a member of SPHPS. She felt because of Meagan’s background with the Chattanooga Public Library’s Local History & Genealogy department, in addition to the Halloween season being right around the corner, a public presentation regarding local history, the paranormal and the ways research on both topics can be conducted was a perfect and fitting opportunity for SPHPS to publicly host. Additionally, because of Chattanooga Public Library’s larger selection of resources, residents of Marion County are able to order a specific book or document from the library and have it shipped to one of Marion County’s own libraries, ensuring that the community can look abroad for different resources if they needed to .