Genealogy finds new home at nonprofit Billings Community and Senior Center

BILLINGS — The Yellowstone Genealogy Forum was housed in the Billings Public Library for 40 years and later wanted to vacate the area In April.

Monday marked the first day in a new space for the nonprofit with an open house from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Genealogy forum materials are available to the public during the community center’s open hours at 360 N. 23rd St. Volunteers will be on hand from 1 to 3 p.m. to help anyone in need.

Billings resident Connie Genger, who is interested in history, was one of the first to inspect the nonprofit’s new home.

“It’s very exciting. It’s very time-consuming but really fun,” Genger said Monday at the community center. “During the pandemic, I spent eight to 10 hours a day on my computer.”

He owes his love of the family tree to his father.

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“My dad would travel to D.C. every once in a while, and he would always look through the phone books and see if there was anyone with his last name, and he couldn’t find anyone,” Genger said. “And I picked up that habit and found out there were other people with the same last name as me.”

He tries to use all the resources he can find, such as materials from the Yellowstone Genealogy Forum.

“When they were told they had to move, I started doing research in the library room,” Genger said.

After the Billings Public Library notified the nonprofit in April that they would need space to store the forum’s materials, members began looking.

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“The Billings Community and Senior Center offered us some space here for our books and programs in exchange for us doing some programs for them on a regular basis,” said Mary Parker, the nonprofit’s recording secretary. “We’re now open to the public every afternoon from one to three. And we want to see anyone who has any questions about genealogy, we want to start there.”

The forum will host a series of programs at the center, one of which will be Initiatory Genealogy on October 10 and the other will be the Constitution and Naturalization program on October 22.

But that’s not the only change the nonprofit is facing.

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“We reduced our book collection from 4,000 to about 300. And we didn’t throw anything away. We advertised that we had all these books, and we were able to give the books to their military museum there, Fort Missoula. And the books that went there were official records of the U.S. Civil War,” Parker said. “And then the Great Falls and Missoula Genealogical Societies took some of our books. The museums in Columbus and Big Timber took some of our books. The Family History Library in Salt Lake City took some of our books.”

Genger says it’s comforting to know others will benefit from what the nonprofit lost, because it’s a new resource to keep the hobby and history alive.

“I was particularly interested and curious about my family tree on my father’s side because I still felt the German connection that I hadn’t found. But I think it just gives you a sense of self and where you are,” Genger said. “I think it’s good for everyone to get involved and connect with their own history.”