The State of West Virginia has asked that state, county and local historical, genealogical, preservation, patriotic and/or museum organizations nominate a significant member for a History Hero Award for his/her dedicated service for the organization's programs or a recent significant contribution to state and local history through research, interpretation, publication or preservation. The winners are honored at an annual event in Charleston.

     The Marshall County Virtual Genealogy Society is proud to have selected the following History Heroes.

SHIRLEY FOX ALLEN is a valuable contributor to the Marshall County Virtual Genealogy Society. She has assisted with the updates of gravestone readings in Cameron area cemeteries and has taken more than one hundred photos of Marshall County veterans’ graves, in particular those of Civil War soldiers. Currently, she is working on locating, transcribing, and preserving gravestones that are badly deteriorated, especially those in small cemeteries in remote areas. She also has provided funeral home records, veterans’ obituaries, and many biographies of West Virginia Civil War soldiers to the society’s Web site. Shirley acts as a liaison and tour guide for visitors doing historical and genealogical research in the Cameron area.

T. VERNON ANDERSON has spent more than thirty years compiling a database of the genealogy and history of many Marshall County families. He readily shares his abundant information on the Marshall County Virtual Genealogy Society Web site, and co-authored a book about the Yoho family. In the course of his research, Anderson has identified nineteen ancestors who served in American Revolution, and successfully documented claims for three West Virginia Union Civil War medals.

JOSEPH D. PARRIOTT, devoted to recording local history for future generations, was born in Marshall County and has lived there his entire life. His ancestors participated in the formation of the county and Mr. Parriott published a comprehensive family history, Descendants of Christopher Parrott and Martha Clarke Parrott and Their Descendants, in 1999. On an ongoing basis, he is creating an index of the Moundsville Echo newspapers.  In addition to his family history, he is the author of two other books:  (1) From the Outhouse to the Poor House to the State House and Marshall County History of the Twentieth Century  (2) World War II Veterans of Marshall County.  For presentation on the Internet, he has provided countless articles, as well as his data base of Marshall County Veterans of World War II who are not memorialized on the county courthouse wall.

Coincidentally, Mr. Parriott was also nominated by the Marshall County Historical Society.