WARSAW — A couple of years ago Carolyn Shumaker was looking for something to do and noticed an advertisement the Kosciusko County Genealogical Society Library was looking for volunteers. Already interested in genealogy research, it was a natural fit and she has enjoyed spending the time helping at the library.

Shumaker, of Warsaw, works from about 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays each week at the Old Jail Museum Library for a total of about 12 hours mostly scanning in obituaries as part of a big project the library has been doing. Obits dating as far back as before 1900 are gathered from local newspapers and eventually input into the county’s Beacon system online on the GIS.

The museum will close Dec. 15 for the winter and reopen in March.

Born and raised in the Beaver Dam area, Shumaker went to school there and graduated from the former Beaver Dam High School in 1959. The high school was later closed as part of consolidation and the area is now a part of the Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation.

She lived on a farm, the daughter of George and Geneva Miller. George was a grain farmer and raised several animals, which was typical of that era and was also a carpenter on the side.

Carolyn married Terry Shumaker in 1965 and the couple did extensive traveling because Terry was a minister in the Church of the Brethren denomination. He was a pastor at churches in Decatur, Huntington and several other locations.

“We also did missionary work,” she said, noting that included Mexico, New Mexico and at a school in southeastern Kentucky known as Lost Creek.

“We did ministry work and built houses,” Shumaker said. “I gave sewing lessons to the ladies and we also did Bible studies and handed out food.”

In addition, through Church World Service blankets were provided for those who lost their homes due to fires or other disasters and health kits were also given out.

Genealogy is one of the top hobbies nationwide and it is certainly one of Shumaker’s hobbies. She has traced families on both sides of her family. On her dad’s side of the family, the Millers, she discovered ancestors founded a town originally known as Woodstock, Va., though it no longer carries that name.

On her mother’s side (her mother was a Ramsey), ancestors in Scotland wrote poetry and were wig makers.

“My husband started doing genealogy first and that’s where I picked it up,” she said. “We both wanted to know where we came from.”

She also does some quilting once a while and in past years made baby blankets for donating to a hospital in Indianapolis.

Terry passed away in 2017. Carolyn has two daughters and a son: Melissa Shumaker, Fort Wayne; Renee Sills, Larwill; and Jeff Shumaker, Warsaw.