Jerry Smith started tracing his genealogy after his ailing father gave him a suitcase full of family photographs.

His father had inherited them from his mother, and his mother had inherited them from her mother. Some were nearly a century old. On first inspection, Smith noticed that some were unlabeled.

“Who are these people?” he asked his dad. He didn’t know. Nobody knew.

“I realized at that moment that that’s when those people really died — when nobody knew who they were,” Smith said. “If you don’t make a record of your ancestors, they’re dead from all memory of humans. That’s when you really die.”

That realization sparked a passion in Smith, who is now a volunteer at the Clark County Genealogical Society.

“That’s kind of the overriding impetus for all of this, even if it’s just honoring your mother and your father and so forth,” he said. “There’s so much stuff in media now, it’s easy just to forget all about them. And they shouldn’t be forgotten.”

The Clark County Genealogical Society turned 50 on Saturday, and Smith was volunteering at the celebration held at the organization’s library at 3205 N.E. 52nd St.

The event — a 1970s-themed costume party — included a ribbon-cutting ceremony, library tours, a costume contest and lots of…