ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ7) – The growth of DNA test kits and online ancestry tools are spurring people to take a look into the past. Even with advances in technology, that renewed interest is leading people to the library. Specifically, many are flocking to Roanoke’s South County Library.

“So these are people that are not in your tree, but maybe you can add to your tree,” says Alan Hale in front of a group inside the library.

Hale is a reference librarian for the South County library, and even his own family.

“I’m just fascinated by documents,” Hale said. “That we can learn things about our ancestors from a long time ago, just by documents.”

Knowing the renewed interest in genealogy, thanks to new DNA kits and websites, Hale started a Genealogy Club.

“I guess I am seeking to keep the past alive,” he said.

Once a month, a consistent crew of amateur historians congregates to share what they’re learning, including Ted Metzger, who’s traced his roots all the way to Charlemagne.

“Sometimes you can go so deep into it and I might spend 30 hours a week that it’s like, I gotta take a break!” he said.

The crew shares the frustrating dead ends as well as the highs of discovery.

“Connections I know to Jamestown, to second supply ship of Jamestown, there are connections to Mayflower,” Metzger said. “There are connections to indentured servants. I know that there are from Kentucky, there are some who were slave owners. In Pennsylvania there were ancestors who were involved in a major Indian massacre, Christian Indians. A lot of this stuff I’m not real happy about, but it’s history, it’s what happened. I can’t change it, but it is something that I’ve learned.”

Hale says they spend the hour they meet once a month sharing new tools and discoveries made since the last meeting.

“I was looking at my grandfather and I found a picture of him when he was a junior in high school on Ancestry.com,” Hale said. “Just very exciting, i’d never see what he looked like until I saw that picture.”

Though they’re branches of different family trees, everyone here is rooted in the joy of discovery.

“People are an accumulation of all of their past,” Metzger said. “And I enjoy finding out what that past was and where my family played into that past.”

Hale said everyone is invited to being their genealogy journey by joining the club. They meet every first Wednesday of the month at 10 inside the South County Library.