John Willoughby: Greene Publishing, Inc.
On any given Thursday, you may find Ann McLeod at Treasures of Madison County museum. However, if you dig deeper in the building, you'll find a genealogy library in the back room, where her heart is full and her mind is open.
As she prepared to retire from the U.S. Air Force in 2006, after 26 years of service, McLeod discovered www.ancestry.com where she researched the McLeod lineage and "got hooked." Around 2009, she began working with the genealogy library that lies within the W.T. Davis building at the corner of Rutledge Street and Range Avenue, in Madison.
Aside from welcoming the curious, McLeod also does research on families in and around Madison County. Recently, McLeod met with a local Madison woman whose family was traced back seven generations, all the way to South Carolina. "They don't have to be in Madison, but it helps," McLeod added.
McLeod is currently in the process of organizing all information obtained about genealogy in Madison County, but welcomes anyone to stop by when the library is open each Thursday.
If you would like to become a member of the Madison County Genealogy Society, membership is $25 for an annual membership, which includes access to www.ancestry.com and the wealth of knowledge that lies in the local library. If your curiosity strikes you, you may also visit www.madisongenealogy.com.
Because the genealogy lab is in the same building at Madison's beloved history museum, McLeod is a member of both organizations. McLeod, who is the wife of John McLeod, is a member of First Baptist Church of Madison and supports local missions with Mission Possible, an organization that helps the local community with needs, such as simple construction.