The Freestone County Historical Museum awarded a certificate of appreciation to Nancy Rula as she retires from serving on the museum board at a celebration held May 24, 2024.

Nancy stated, “I am not retiring from my volunteer service in the genealogy research and book writing department. I am only retiring from serving on the board of directors.”

She served on the Freestone County Historical Museum board since 2011 and as secretary since 2015.

Many of her accomplishments have been making the historic Fairfield Recorder and Teague Chronicle newspapers available in book format for those doing family or local historical research. These books were known as A History of Freestone County, Its Communities, Its People: Phase I, II, and III and were several hundred pages each. She spent countless hours poring over microfilm, transcribing newspaper articles from 1876-1889 in the Recorder and from 1906-1907 in the Chronicle.

Nancy also wrote several books for the museum which include the Fairfield Recorder Obituaries from 1900-1905, and Fairfield Recorder Obits from 1906-1910, The “Boll Weevil Railroad” Book (from the Teague Chronicle articles, which records the history of the railroad in Freestone County), and The Year of 1890 in Freestone County. She took no money for her efforts and all the profits were completely donated to the organizations involved.

Nancy is also a very willing volunteer helping untold individuals. She is always available to help those who are searching for family genealogical information in the archives of the museum.

Nancy gives of her time and talent, selflessly researching for others, hours on end, not only in the museum archives, but in the county clerk’s office as well.

She is a great blessing to our community.

The Jonathan Hardin DAR Chapter awarded Nancy the Historical Preservation Award in May of 2021. Many of Nancy’s books were accepted into the National DAR Library for their historical content.

Nancy is being presented her certificate by Brad Pullin, Vice Chairman of the Freestone County Historical Museum board.

(Submitted article and photo)