Mary Belle Keysor Meyer
Biography
Biography
Anyone who has done research in central New York State or in the state of Maryland might have encountered the name of Mary Keysor Meyer. Mrs. Meyer did a good deal of publishing abstracted records from New York and copied more than her share of cemeteries there.
After moving to Maryland she was a genealogical reference librarian at the Maryland Historical Society from 1967 to 1983 and while working there, published guides to Maryland research; guides to the holdings of the historical Society itself; and edited the Maryland Magazine of Genealogy. She also published directories of genealogical societies and directories of "who's who" in genealogy periodically along with other aids to Maryland research. About 1976 Mary addressed the Kinologists while visiting Norwalk, on the activities and assets of the Maryland Historical Society.
When she retired she worked with her former supervisor P. William Filby on his first three volumes of passenger and immigration lists. There are many other important works with Mary's name on them, and no doubt more were on her worktable when she died suddenly at the end of January [1998]. I am told that she was attending a genealogy meeting when she collapsed and could not be revived by EMS personnel.
Mary Belle Keysor was born in Greenwich Township of Huron County on October 20, 1919, one of the several children of William and Grace Switzer Keysor. Her early education came in the East Greenwich School on Rte. 224 before her parents moved to New York State, where she was eventually married to Christian C. Meyer.
There is much more I could say biographically about Mary, but I prefer to wax personally for a moment. Mary and I were fourth cousins, in that her great grandmother and my great grandmother were first cousins and both originated in Berlin Township of Erie County. I encountered Mary soon after I began my feeble attempts at research forty years ago, and it was due to her advice and suggestions (and by much trial and error) that I developed the research skills I enjoy today. Of course, there was a reason for her to be so patient with me -- one mutual line of ours that she wanted to work on had clues in Huron County records and I was a convenient researcher! I remember the day I learned that I had found something which a paid researcher had missed, and that it was the important clue Mary needed to proceed with more New York research. I was so excited to think that I had actually found something which would eventually be useful to both of us.
Mary started her research in the days before microfilm, reprinted and indexed county histories, and long before "computer genealogy." I am told that as a young wife and mother she walked some distance to a bus stop and then rode several miles to a research library, more than once winter and summer. It is true that her earthly life ended in a genealogy meeting after such a long and fruitful career, what more could any of us ask?
Submitted by: Henry Timman, Huron County Historian
Previously published by: The Huron County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society in
Huron County Kinologist, Vol. 13, No. 1, Spring 1998. Republished with permission.
Back to: Biographies
After moving to Maryland she was a genealogical reference librarian at the Maryland Historical Society from 1967 to 1983 and while working there, published guides to Maryland research; guides to the holdings of the historical Society itself; and edited the Maryland Magazine of Genealogy. She also published directories of genealogical societies and directories of "who's who" in genealogy periodically along with other aids to Maryland research. About 1976 Mary addressed the Kinologists while visiting Norwalk, on the activities and assets of the Maryland Historical Society.
When she retired she worked with her former supervisor P. William Filby on his first three volumes of passenger and immigration lists. There are many other important works with Mary's name on them, and no doubt more were on her worktable when she died suddenly at the end of January [1998]. I am told that she was attending a genealogy meeting when she collapsed and could not be revived by EMS personnel.
Mary Belle Keysor was born in Greenwich Township of Huron County on October 20, 1919, one of the several children of William and Grace Switzer Keysor. Her early education came in the East Greenwich School on Rte. 224 before her parents moved to New York State, where she was eventually married to Christian C. Meyer.
There is much more I could say biographically about Mary, but I prefer to wax personally for a moment. Mary and I were fourth cousins, in that her great grandmother and my great grandmother were first cousins and both originated in Berlin Township of Erie County. I encountered Mary soon after I began my feeble attempts at research forty years ago, and it was due to her advice and suggestions (and by much trial and error) that I developed the research skills I enjoy today. Of course, there was a reason for her to be so patient with me -- one mutual line of ours that she wanted to work on had clues in Huron County records and I was a convenient researcher! I remember the day I learned that I had found something which a paid researcher had missed, and that it was the important clue Mary needed to proceed with more New York research. I was so excited to think that I had actually found something which would eventually be useful to both of us.
Mary started her research in the days before microfilm, reprinted and indexed county histories, and long before "computer genealogy." I am told that as a young wife and mother she walked some distance to a bus stop and then rode several miles to a research library, more than once winter and summer. It is true that her earthly life ended in a genealogy meeting after such a long and fruitful career, what more could any of us ask?
Submitted by: Henry Timman, Huron County Historian
Previously published by: The Huron County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society in
Huron County Kinologist, Vol. 13, No. 1, Spring 1998. Republished with permission.
Back to: Biographies
Transcribed from the old Huron County OHGenWeb site
© 2005-2014
All Rights Reserved.
© 2005-2014
All Rights Reserved.
