Compiled By: Peter J. Gossett

In 1996, a group of people met to prepare a book titled Heritage of Winston County, Alabama, a history on the county through stories and pictures submitted by the public.

Once the book was completed in 1998, certain persons of this group decided to form the Winston County Genealogical Society, which was done on January 19, 1998, for the purpose of helping to preserve the history of Winston County and to allow people to share information about their family lineage with ties to Winston County.

The early minutes of the society were either not kept or has been lost over time, but the minutes from September 17, 1998, forward are complete with the exception of December 2004. The first president was Brad Mattox. During the first year, the society met at different locations in the different towns of Winston County, always on the third Thursday of the month. A milestone meeting was November 19, 1998. A central location was discussed for a permanent meeting place; a committee was also "brought up" to form a newsletter. Bobby Walker suggested "Free State Heritage Tracker," but "Winston County, Alabama, Trail Tracker" passed as the name. As early as 1998, the society was talking of using Dr. Blake's old building in Double Springs as a place for an archives. However, the time being, all of the society's holdings were at Linda's Trophies in Double Springs.

February 18, 1999, was the first meeting in the new centralized, permanent location: Community Bank, in Double Springs. This was also the date of the first Trail Tracker quarterly newsletter. By May of 1999, a pictorial book was already under way. Many of the photos in this book were submitted by members of the society, and Donald B. Dodd, author of Winston: An Antebellum and Civil War History of a Hill County of North Alabama, helped in compiling and authoring it. It was released in September 2000, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the county, with reprints in May of 2004.

On February 17, 2000, Mike Frazier, a teacher at Winston County High School, shared his collection of old videos with the society. They included a short film on the Clear Creek Falls, before they were backed up to create Smith Lake, and then he showed a video of the possible opening of Crittenden's Store in Double Springs in 1948. Mr. Frazier was back on October 19, 2000, to show a video on former sheriff Crant Berry. On August 6, 2000, Peter J. Gossett created the "Winston County Genealogical Society/Winston County, Alabama" web site. Also during the year 2000, Ruth and Johnny Ferguson, along with Brad Mattox and Stella Pratt visited cemeteries in the county and transcribed them, a huge task. In October of 2000, their work was published in the 600 plus page book Cemeteries of Winston County, Alabama.

Starting in April of 2001, the society again had to start meeting at various locations. It was not until July 19, 2001, that the society found another meeting place at the Town Hall Auditorium in Double Springs. On August 16, 2001, the society was informed that they were the "Person of the Month" for September for the newly formed "Free State Advertiser Journal," a free publication on historical information. Bettye Steele Watters published her book titled Shipman in October of 2001. On December 20, 2001, president Brad Mattox resigned. Darryal Jackson was elected president on January 17, 2002.

In March of 2002, Trevia Hood completed her project of copying the loose records at the court house. These included early estate files of our ancestors. On August 12, 2002, the web site officially became part of the USGenWeb/ALGenWeb. The cemetery maps, created by Gene Gravlee, became available on September 24, 2002. This shows all the known cemeteries of Winston County.

In February of 2003, records were compiled for all the old post offices and their postmasters, in its entirety. In April of 2003, the society paid to have old movies and interviews of deceased citizens professionally transferred to DVD; this is a set of 4 DVDs. Photography of all cemeteries in Winston County was started in June 2003.

A previous mistake in history was corrected in the story "Free State Civil War Events and the Jasper Raid," a compilation of known Civil War records, on May 24, 2004. Linda Hall retired from her business, Linda's Trophies, in August of 2004. The society's archives that was at her shop was moved to a small building at Darryal Jackson's house. The first time that the society did not meet at the regularly scheduled meeting date was on September 16, 2004, due to Hurricane Ivan.

The meeting place at the Town Hall Auditorium was no longer available to the society in late 2004, and the society moved to the Double Springs Community Center starting January 18, 2005; the meeting date was changed to the third Tuesday of every month. The society had never published a quarterly newsletter more than eight pages long until the September 2005 issue. Thanks to Joann Holdbrooks and her hard work, the newsletter went to sixteen pages. On November 28, 2005, the society donated $900.00 to Sandra Wright, Revenue Commissioner, to reproduce the first plat book of Winston County to CD-ROM.

Any hope for the society to have Dr. Blake's old building to house an archives was crushed on January 18, 2006, when the county tore down the building. Plans were to build another building built to specifications for an archives; the groundbreaking of this building occurred on November 13, 2006. In January of 2006, Joann Holdbrooks prepared documents on the different kinds of tombstone art and symbolism. On June 24, 2006, members of the society and descendants of the Lovett's met at the Old Lovett Cemetery and cleaned it off. This cemetery contains the oldest known tombstone in the county.

Starting with 2007, the society had a new president, Diane Miller. Also on April 17, 2007, the society adopted official bylaws.