Morgan County’s history detective - by Kate Shunney - 11/17/2004 Kathern Allemong’s seven great grandchildren won’t have any trouble drawing their family tree when the time comes. Allemong, 91, has been doing historical and genealogical research on her family and the families of Morgan County for over 70 years. Her long career in genealogy started back in high school when her teacher, Katherine Taylor, asked students to compile a family tree. With the help of her father, Allemong began to trace her connections to previous generations. Batt genealogy book In July, Allemong completed a genealogical book on the Batt Family and presented it to the Morgan County Historical and Genealogical Society at the Morgan County Public Library. The Batt Family book begins with Captain Thomas Batt, who was born in 1748 in Berkeley County, Va. Allemong found his records in the Berkeley County Courthouse, including records of a tax paid in 1783 on three horses and eight cows. Allemong’s preface to the book, however, tracks the earliest records of the name to a Peter Batte, Sheriff of London in the year 1215. To juggle as many generations as she worked with on the Batt book, Allemong arranged her six dining room chairs around a table and placed one generation of the family at each chair, moving as she worked. Copies of the Batt genealogy are available for purchase at the Morgan County Public Library. Other work in print The library will add the Batt Family book to the others that Allemong has compiled or co-authored, including genealogies of her own Hovermale and Ruppenthal families. Allemong, with help from members of the Morgan County Historical Society, also compiled the Graveyard History of Morgan County, published in 1980. Along with Edna Yost and George Fearnow, Allemong traveled across the county in search of graveyards they’d heard about. They often packed lunches and took along hoes for their cemetery field trips. They spent cold days trying to uncover, decipher and map the headstones. Allemong is particularly glad that Greenway Cemetery’s stones got read, since some are almost unreadable now. Allemong also compiled several volumes of Morgan County obituaries, pulled primarily from back issues of The Morgan Messenger. Gathering information Now, she keeps some genealogy work on her modern Dell computer. Family tree programs make it easier to keep generations straight, Allemong said. She doesn’t do much research online, though. “There’s not a lot there you can rely on. I’d just have to look it up anyway,” she said. Doing research is part of the joy of what Allemong, a retired school teacher, does. She’s traveled to Baltimore, Philadelphia, Richmond, Lancaster and Washington to track her family’s marriages, births, deaths and landholdings. Courthouses and historical societies have been great sources of information, though Allemong said new privacy policies at courthouses have made research a little trickier. Those trying to find information about their Morgan County roots have benefited over the years from Allemong’s dedication to history. She has sent obituaries and local family information to people around the country. Her efforts haven’t gone unnoticed, either. In 2002, Allemong was honored as a West Virginia History Hero for her work recording and preserving the state’s history and culture. Kathern Allemong doesn’t plan on quitting her detective work any time soon. Even though her book has been printed and shelved in the historical society’s room at the library, just last week Allemong added a fresh newspaper clipping to her Batt family file. Back to Family Pictures & Writings Back to Home Page