About Us
The Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society  (LLCGS) is open to anyone from around the world who is interested in genealogy/history or who have ancestors from this area of Nebraska. While most of our members live in the city of Lincoln or in Lancaster County, Nebraska, we have members from other areas of Nebraska and other states.

The purpose of this society is to provide education and guidance in genealogical research, stimulate and encourage genealogical research, and to promote the collection and preservation of records of historical and/or genealogical value. 

LLCGS holds monthly membership meetings/educational programs that are open to the public, publishes a monthly newsletter for its members, and maintains a genealogical research library collection for public use. The majority of our collection provides genealogical resources for those researching ancestry in many states, not just Nebraska.

Early Lincoln-Lancaster County History
"Lincoln was chosen as the capital of Nebraska in the summer of 1867 by three young men, David Butler, John Gillespie and Thomas Kennard, who had been named as a commission to do this task. They have become almost legendary figures in the minds of Nebraskans--three men in tall silk hats silhouetted against the prairie sky as they pounded their ponies over the countryside in search of a capital site.

They were very actual people, however: Butler was the state of Nebraska's first governor; Thomas Kennard, first secretary of state and Gillespie first state auditor. At that time of course there were no such streets. The mansion was a country home, from which the governor drove to the capitol and back in state."

How the Capital of Nebraska was Named 
In the legislative act to name Nebraska's capital city, the village of Lancaster was to be renamed "Capital City." However, an Omaha Senator planned to have this act defeated by changing "Capital City" to "Lincoln," after Abraham Lincoln, the popular President of the Union. The Omaha Senator hoped to get the leader of the South Platters, a supporter of the Confederate South, to vote against the law moving the capital from Omaha and naming the village of Lancaster "Lincoln."  His plan didn't work. Lincoln, located in Lancaster County, became the capital city of Nebraska at the same time Nebraska became a state on March 1, 1867.