In 1943, a group of friends with a common interest in family history began meeting at the Memphis home of Virginia Walton Brooks and Berry B. Brooks. In time, this group became the Memphis Historical Society, and in 1952, they created a corporation, the Memphis Genealogical Society.

In 1954, they began publishing a quarterly news bulletin, Ansearchin' News.

On December 6, 1965, the Memphis Genealogical Society, under a new state charter, changed its name to the Tennessee Genealogical Society, with the purpose of acquiring, preserving, and making available genealogical history and records, to educate family history researchers, and to publish materials relevant to Tennessee history and genealogy.

Over the years, TNGS has had a number of locations, starting with Hawthorne Street in Memphis, then 3340 Poplar Avenue, followed by ten years at Davies Plantation in Bartlett. Finally in 2006, TNGS moved to our present location on Poplar Pike in Germantown.

For a more detailed history of the Society, please read History of the Tennessee Genealogical Society by James Bobo.pdf