GALLIPOLIS — Have you ever wondered what kind of disputes took place in Gallia County in the late 1800s?

The Gallia County Genealogical Society, OGS Chapter Inc., has recently published a book titled Justice of the Peace Records, which features extensive records from Walnut and Symmes townships.

“This book is a valuable tool to researchers because there are so many family names in here,” said Henny Evans, president of the GCGS. “It’s interesting to find out what they were up to back then.”

The book chronicles justices of the peace such as John Hively, Friend McDaniel and others in Walnut Township between 1854 and 1882, and W.H. Kelley, Samuel Miller and others in Symmes Township between 1884 and 1924.

“The justice of the peace was the person in the township responsible for reporting everything back to the court,” said Evans. “He was the decider of disputes, like a constable.”

The books sell for $20 and contain a variety of birth, marriage and debt records. Originally published in 2002, author Maxine Marshall donated the remaining copies to be distributed by the GCGS, so supplies are limited.

The GCGS is located at 57 Court St., next door to the Gallia County Convention and Visitors Bureau. It currently distributes about 30 publications and contains a research room where visitors can look through volumes of family histories, military records, funeral home records, census records, probate court cases dating back to 1803, will and estate records, and other resource materials in order to trace their lineage.

“Our main goal is to help anybody researching their Gallia County roots trace them back as far as they want to go,” said Evans. “These books are full of family information. Right now genealogy is one of the largest hobbies in the United States and many people are researching their roots. They want to find out where they came from, and we can help them with that.”

The GCGS is also involved with area lineage societies, and has a surprise publication in the works.

“It will be of interest to a lot of people,” said Evans. “We’re really excited.”

The GCGS website is constantly being updated. It contains information, links and hundreds of historical photographs as well as alphabetical records of everyone who has ever been buried in Gallia county.

“There are about 38,000 burial records listed on our website, and the database is easy to search,” said Evans.

The office is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and also by appointment. For more information call 446-1775 or visit www.galliagenealogy.org.