Visit to the Wilson County Archives in Lebanon

Thursday morning I gathered up our laundry and drove 8 miles south to the laundromat in Hermitage. It's a large laundromat and there were only a few people there when I got there.
The regular washers cost $2.25 a load and the dryers cost 50¢ for 8 minutes. It cost $16 to wash and dry the 4 loads of laundry I had.

There was a Kroger grocery store in the same shopping plaza as the laundromat and I stopped in there to get a few groceries before driving back to the campground.

I spent the rest of Thursday going through the genealogical notes I made Wednesday at the library and I made a list of documents and records I needed to search for today when I went to Lebanon.

We had a good hard rain last night and it woke both of us up a couple of times last night. I set the alarm for 7:00 last night because I wanted to get an early start this morning. It was 57° and just lightly raining when I got up this morning.

I left the campground this morning at 8:15 and drove 18 miles to visit the Wilson County Archives in Lebanon and arrived there a little after 9:00.

From Lebanon, TN

I met Thomas E. Partlow when I entered the Archives and told him the families and the time frame I was researching. Thomas is a co-director
of the Archives and has spent years going through county records and extracting the information. He has published over 100 books and I used several of his books yesterday at the Mt. Juliet Library and most of the books on Wilson County in the Archives were Thomas'. I told Thomas I really appreciated all of his work extracting the information in county records and thanked him for his dedication to his work.

Thomas was extremely helpful in locating books that would help me in my research. When I told him that I had learned that my 3rd great-granduncle John Borum might have been a Baptist minister, Thomas handed me a book that had John's biography and listed the different churches John had been associated with.

I found some new information on my ancestors, but my main purpose today was to get a copy of my 3rd great-grandparent's marriage record in December 1816. Thomas went back into the county records and brought out the ORIGINAL marriage certificate. I expected to just see a microfilmed copy, not the original paper certificate. Thomas made a copy of the marriage certificate and I copied John Borum's biography.

The walls in the archives are covered with photos of Wilson County and I took these 2 photos with my cell phone of Sam Houston (yes, the Sam Houston of Texas fame) and the photo of his law office in Lebanon.

From Lebanon, TN

From Lebanon, TN

After leaving the archives I stopped to take some photos of the Lebanon Town Square and the Confederate Memorial there.

From Lebanon, TN

From Lebanon, TN

I made a quick stop in at Publix to do a little shopping before going back to the campground. The rain has stopped but it has been overcast and gloomy-looking all day.