The Noble County Genealogy Room is in existence due to the diligence and dedication of Lois Blake (1910 – 2003).
Lois spent more than 30 years searching family records and historical facts of Ohio’s youngest and smallest county. What started with her own family’s lineage soon blossomed into a full time passion. She was blessed with total recall. An amazing woman who met life’s adversities with courage and devoutness.
Lois Blake had always been interested in family history and got involved tracing her family. Since Noble County was not formed until 1851, there were no records before that in the Noble County Courthouse, she had to travel to the surrounding counties for much of her information. The Caldwell Public Library had less than a dozen books on history squirreled away in a closet. The micro machine was just a reader and didn’t print. We had no census films, so Lois began sending for more films.
She started traveling to search for family history in all the cemeteries and soon the Noble County Genealogy Society was formed in October 1983. In 1989 the new Caldwell Public Library was constructed. The library board created a genealogy room for the accumulating records. Lois had collected a large number of family histories which she gradually moved to the library’s genealogy room.
Lois has compiled hundreds of family sketches for people. Researched and answered hundreds of inquiries. A copy of the inquiry and her response can be found in the family files.
Lois, along with other members of the Society took on the task of Cemetery Inscriptions. They visited all the cemeteries in Noble County, transcribed all the stones and typed the information. Township Cemetery books was created to sell.
Lois was an expert typist, using an old typewriter from Forest Grove High School, the kind with no letters or numbers. Her son had purchased a new electric typewriter for her but she just couldn’t get used to the new machine.