THOMASVILLE- The Executive Board of the Thomasville Genealogical Library, located on the Forbes Campus ofThomas University, 1501 Millpond Road, is proud to announce a new director has been hired, taking the position of the former director, Kathy S. Mills, who retired after twenty-seven years of service to the library.

The new director is Lillian Wingate, a native of Pelham, Georgia. Wingate’s first day on the job was Tuesday, January 7, 2025. The new hours for the opening of the library are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The telephone number is 229-226-9640, the same number that the library has had since it was founded by Marguerite Neel Williams in 1988. The motto of the library remains the same: “Enriching the Present While Preserving the Past.” The use of the library continues to be free and accessible to everyone who chooses to use it. That was one of the principles upon which Williams insisted.

Wingate is a perfect match for the library. She holds an A. A. Degree in History from Bainbridge College, a B. A. in History and a B. A. in Anthropology from Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia, and is certified in Technical Communications. She has attended institutes in genealogy in Salt Lake City, Utah, and institutes of genealogical and historical research on African American Genealogy Methods and Strategies, Research in the South: Colonial States, and Strategies for Pre-1850 U. S. Research, and Genealogical Principles at Boston University Genealogy Studies Program.

She has been employed for the past nine years at the Statesboro-Bulloch County Library as the Regional Genealogy and Local History Coordinator. Wingate conceived and coordinated a state genealogy resource fair that has been attended by several hundred people. She founded the Bulloch County Genealogical Society in 2017 and still serves as its president and is also the Education Director of the Georgia Genealogical Society. In 2023, she was the recipient of the Georgia Genealogical Society President’s Award.

The public is encouraged to go by the Thomasville Genealogical Library and welcome Wingate to Thomasville and the library. She is very anxious to network with the Thomasville History Center, Landmarks, Historic Preservation Commission, the Thomas County Public Library System, the Jack Hadley Museum, Thomasville Center for the Arts, and all the lineage societies in the area.