Dawn Carlile wanders through the aisles of periodicals and papers stacked high on shelves at the Oregon Genealogical Society in downtown Eugene.

With more than 10,000 items and 3,000 periodicals, Carlile — OGS’s vice president — declares that “We have something for almost all states in the U.S.,” as well as “some collections from other countries,” be they European, Asian-Pacific or Central American.

She, along with other staff members at the OGS, will preach, with an almost religious zeal, the educational benefits as well the joy of genealogy, of locating hard-to-find records and putting the puzzle pieces of a family together. When talking earnestly about research and discoveries of her own family, Terri Thompson — who chairs the research and certificate committees at OSG — sometimes has to laugh, pause a moment and backtrack. “I’m going too fast,” she confesses.

The 25-member all-volunteer staff, steeped in the knowledge of research from both professional and personal projects, is ready and willing to help others in their genealogy searches, and they are also ready to celebrate OGS and get the word out about its work with a 60-year anniversary gathering Sept. 24.

The pandemic was difficult for OGS and for other genealogy societies, Carlile says. Some societies closed, she notes, while others — even with Zoom — saw attendance drop dramatically. 

OGS managed to slug its way through COVID-19 via donations (“We did not believe it would…