In furtherance of our mission, one of the first projects undertaken by the Society was to petition the Washington County Library Board to establish a genealogy and history center at the Washington County Public Library - Jonesborough Branch in May of 1990. Over 86 pages of letters, petitions, and enthusiasms for the oldest town in Tennessee to have a genealogy and history collection were assembled into a packet. The packet included 51 letters from genealogists, historians, and researchers from Tennessee, Virginia, Indiana, Oklahoma, Arizona, California, Michigan, Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Missouri, Colorado, Alabama, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Kansas, and Ontario, Canada. The Society's effort took multiple attempts and several months to get approved by the Washington County Library Board. Once the space was approved, the Society's effort shifted to collecting materials for the new History and Genealogy Collection.

The Society and other community members collaborated to develop a History and Genealogy Collection at the Washington County Library - Jonesborough Branch. A group of Society volunteers host a Genealogy Help Night on the 2nd Thursday of each month for from 6PM - 8PM at the Jonesborough Library. Genealogy Help Nights are free and open to the public. The Washington County Public Library - Jonesborough Branch is located at 200 Sabin Dr, Jonesborough, TN 37659. Visit our Events calendar for upcoming member meeting dates/topics, member trips, workshops, Genealogy Help Nights, and other genealogy related community events.

“Digging For Your Roots” was first published in Jonesborough's local Herald and Tribune newspaper on August 22, 1990, with an article by Lorraine Bennett Rae called “Serendipity,” about the newly founded Jonesborough Genealogy Society. The “Digging For Your Roots” articles are prepared by volunteer members of the Society and has been published in the Herald and Tribune newspaper each week since.

The Society's newsletter, the Jonesborough Record, was first published in August 1990. The Jonesborough Record started as a quarterly newsletter that became bi-annual, and then yearly. The newsletter was discontinued in 1995, but was revived in 2015. It has been printed yearly ever since.

The Surname Indexing Project started in 2014 is an effort to create a searchable database or index of all surnames/names listed in the books and vertical files of the History and Genealogy Collection at the Washington County Library - Jonesborough Branch. 

The Library Scanning Project began in 2016, with the purpose to inventory, arrange, and digitize the library and Society’s Genealogy and History Collection to better serve the patrons and Society members who use it. Since this time, Society members have completed an inventory of the genealogy collection. In December 2016, scanning of the vertical files began, starting with the Family Files.  After 1,249.4 volunteer hours, all of the Family Files have been scanned.  The Genealogy and History Collection has Family Files on 895 surnames. In July 2018, scanning of the location/subject files began. Work done in other areas of the Collection include: arranging of the genealogy journals, books sent for cataloging, scanning of some articles in genealogy journals, and other projects have been completed.

In 2017, the Jonesborough Genealogical Society joined the McKinney Center on a project called the Jonesborough Community Story Initiative. To collect these stories, the Jonesborough Story Brigade, a select group of trained Jonesborough volunteer story collectors was created and meets at the McKinney Center. If you know someone who needs to be interviewed or would like more information about volunteer opportunities, please contact the McKinney Center about StoryTown: The Jonesborough Community Story Initiative .