Aunt Marion Springer’s interest in genealogical research extended far beyond her personal family history. As a senior clerk for Steuben County in Bath, N.Y. and member of the County Historical Society, her reputation spread across state lines. At 78, she retired one day and returned the next day to the same office to volunteer full-time in the department she helped establish – the Genealogy Research Department in the Steuben County historian’s office.
Although she died in 2006, the county did not forget her. This past April they inducted her into the Steuben County Hall of Fame and hung her picture in the county’s legislative building. The county’s website (www.steubencony.org/hallfame/springer.html) succinctly recognizes her impact on the county: “Marion Springer was a Jasper, N.Y. native. She was senior clerk for Steuben County Clerk’s Office for 34 years. She was widely respected as a keeper of the records, contributing more than 20,000 hours as a volunteer researcher in the Steuben County Historian’s Office, a true civil servant.”
According to a memorial by Bill Treichler on the Crooked Lake Review website, “Springer was a Steuben County pioneer in recording family history at the government level. Her efforts to help families with their genealogy, brought people here from all over the United States and Canada to learn the history of Steuben County. She was always happy to share her wealth of knowledge about Steuben County and the families that have lived here.”
Googling her name connected me with a genealogy chat line conversation in the 1990s where one person after another referenced Marion Springer as “The Person” to ask for information when the trail led to Steuben County, N.Y.
One family’s experience captures the import of her work. An adopted man came into my aunt’s office because the county was listed on his birth certificate. My aunt directed him to Elaine Osmin Allen, saying, “If anyone knows who you belong to, Elaine would.”
Allen knew. The family expressed their deep appreciation for “helping us to find our missing orphan train rider Bert Allen Samuelson from Oregon – after more than 50 years.”
Others reported asking for help with one specific name and wishfully mentioning others. They received information on everyone – information which put them 10 years ahead in their research.
Aunt Marion began working as the Fremont town clerk, from 1952 until 1964. “During that time she began keeping a card file of all names that had been sought in the town files. She took those files with her when the county took over from the towns in 1964, and she became senior clerk in the county clerk’s office responsible for the records of personal property liens.”
“Besides her official duties, she worked with county historians Charles Oliver and James Hope to cross-reference the 1790 through 1925 census records for Steuben County with the wills and land deeds files, and with the marriage and birth certificates for all the towns in the county, as well as with gravestone readings for all Steuben County cemeteries.”
“She also worked to index and enter into computer files probate records up to 1900. Marion indexed and made computer available newspaper announcements of genealogical importance taken from two Steuben County newspapers. She had some assistance, but she personally read most of the newspapers,” Treichler wrote.
“The card file she kept has over 13,600 cards, each with names and addresses of searchers who have requested information about the person listed on the front of the card. The file has become a valuable cross-referencing system. There are 160,000 names on the computer she used.”
“She created an index of obituary notices published in two local papers from 1967 to present. Besides all the cross-referencing, she also proof-read records several times which were entered into the computer. She wanted as much accuracy as possible,” he observed.
Her days of sorting through the records did not satisfy her. I remember visiting in her home several years ago and walking past an ancient, bound file of newspapers, carefully placed on a stand with a marker noting where she had stopped reading.
Although I knew she loved her work, it was only after reading the accolades heaped at her induction into the County Hall of Fame that I realized the extent of her service to the community which also included the 19 foster children she mothered along with her own four children.
At 83, in 2006, she succumbed to pneumonia leaving behind her surviving children: three daughters, and a proud legacy. I lost an aunt, but the country lost a valuable researcher and historian – one who knew her corner of New York State thoroughly and loved to share that information with anyone who asked.
(Niece of the genealogist and historian of Steuben County, N.Y., Joan Hershberger is a reporter at the News-Times. E-mail her at joanh@everybody.org.)