The Ancestor Detector

The Ancestor Detector The Ancestor Detector is a writer, genealogist, and Spring Hill, TN historian.

08/12/2026

🥎 It’s time for our huge event announcement! 🏆

On November 7th, 2026, from 10:00am to 2:00pm, we will be hosting the first ever CITY VS. CITIZENS SOFTBALL GAME at Evans Park, which will feature TWO fundraiser softball games! The first game will be a face-off between the Spring Hill Fire and Police Departments, and following will be the City Vs. Citizens game. This event will be a fundraiser to help the Spring Hill Fire Department restore Fire Belle, Spring Hill’s FIRST fire engine. The fire department is needing $65,000 to restore the old fire engine, and we are going to do our best to raise that much money with the event!

Here’s what we know so far:

🥎 The City team will be composed of City of Spring Hill staff, government officials, etc., and the Citizens team will be composed of business leaders from the Spring Hill Chamber of Commerce!
🎟️ Tickets will be for the entire event (both games) and will be available in the coming weeks. Price will be $5 per person. Children under the age of 2 get in free.
🌭 If you get hungry at the event, the concession stand will be open at the park! (No outside food/drink will be permitted.)
🅿️ Parking will be available at the park and at the nearby Spring Hill Elementary School.
🪑There will be very limited seating on the park bleachers, so please be sure to bring your own chair just in case!
🚫No alcohol will be permitted at the event.
🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 This event will be family friendly and fun for everyone!

There are more details currently in the works, and we plan on releasing more soon!

Let us know in the comments who you think will win both games! (Fire Vs. Police and City Vs. Citizens.)

07/15/2026

*UPDATE: We only have a limited amount of unreserved cookbooks available! Once we run out of unreserved copies, a small number of them may come available after our reservation pick-up deadline of August 1st. If we run out of copies on July 22nd, check back with us at our August Gathering and we may have a few available! We are not taking reservations at this time.*

Were you unable to get a copy of our America 250 Spring Hill, Tennessee Cookbook on July 7th? No worries! We will be selling them between 1:00pm-5:00pm on July 22nd at the First Presbyterian Church of Spring Hill! Feel free to stop by during that timeframe and purchase a copy of the cookbook. We look forward to seeing you there!

If you reserved a copy/copies, please let us know when you arrive so we can mark your name off our list. ALL RESERVED COOKBOOKS NOT PURCHASED/PICKED UP BY AUGUST 1ST WILL BE SOLD ON A FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE BASIS.

Cookbook Price & Membership Discount:
$25 for non-members of the SHH&GS.
$20 for members.
Membership discount only applies to one copy, or one copy for each person included in your membership.

Thank you so much to everyone who has reached out about the cookbook! We truly appreciate all of you.

🇺🇸

06/15/2026

The cookbook is officially FINISHED and heading to the printer!

Thank you so very much to TN First Lady Maria Lee for giving us a few of her own family recipes for our America 250 Spring Hill, Tennessee Cookbook! It is an honor to be able to share some of Mrs. Lee’s recipes as part of our America 250 project.

In the cookbook, a timeline of Spring Hill history will be printed all throughout! Before she passed away in 2024, Naomi Derryberry (an avid and knowledgeable Spring Hill historian) wrote the timeline with all the information she had collected through the years. We are sharing Naomi’s timeline for the first time in our one-of-a-kind cookbook!

The cookbook is on track to be released in July, possibly for our SHH&GS America 250 Open House! Below is the price of the cookbook and the membership discount broken down:

$25 for non-members of the SHH&GS.
$20 for individual (annual or lifetime) members (discount only applies to one copy.)
$20 for family (annual or lifetime) members (discount only applies for one copy per person named on your application.)
CASH OR CHECK ONLY PLEASE.

$5 off every cookbook purchase will be donated to Fire Belle ! Fire Belle is a 1957 Ford F-700 Seagrave fire engine that served as Spring Hill’s FIRST fire engine. The City of Spring Hill still owns the retired truck and is seeking donations to restore the historic vehicle. Help us help Fire Belle by purchasing your copy of the cookbook once it is released! We will only be printing 250 copies.

More information on where/how to purchase the cookbook will be posted very soon!

06/06/2026

AMERICA 250 SPRING HILL, TENNESSEE COOKBOOK: The cookbook is almost ready to send to the printer! We have only a few more things to fix and it will be ready to go. The cookbook will be sold at $20 for members of the SHH&GS, $25 for non-members. We will also be donating $5 off of every cookbook purchase to Fire Belle. Fire Belle, a 1957 Ford F-700 Seagrave fire engine, was the FIRST fire engine in Spring Hill! The City of Spring Hill still owns the retired fire engine and is seeking donations to restore the historic vehicle. Help us help Fire Belle and and purchase your copy of the cookbook when it is released next month!

We will only be printing 250 copies!

This was absolutely awesome! Thank you so much to State Librarian & Archivist Jamie Ritter & Tennessee Secretary of Stat...
05/30/2026

This was absolutely awesome! Thank you so much to State Librarian & Archivist Jamie Ritter & Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett for asking me to lead the Pledge of Allegiance at Statehood Day today! (See pictures below.)

05/30/2026

Seeing young people get excited about local government, civic engagement, and history gives me so much hope for the future. 🇺🇸

Benny is an incredible young man with a true love for our country and a heart for service. His passion, curiosity, and patriotism are inspiring, and I have no doubt he will continue to do great things.

I was honored to receive the book he wrote about veterans from our own Spring Hill.

I can’t wait to see all that lies ahead for him. The future is bright. ✨

05/20/2026

A couple weeks ago, I received an email from State Librarian & Archivist Jamie Ritter with an invitation to lead the Pledge of Allegiance at the Statehood Day Ceremony on May 30, at 11:00pm, at the Tennessee State Library & Archives! It is a true honor to be able to do this. My family always attends this annual event to see the original Cumberland Compact, which Gen. James Robertson signed. James was my 6th Great-Granduncle through his sister, Ann Robertson Johnston Cockrill.
This is so exciting! I hope to see you there.

05/15/2026

Join the Brigadier General Richard Winn Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and Spring Hill, TN Parks & Recreation for a ceremony honoring our fallen heroes on May 22nd at the Spring Hill, TN Community Senior Center.

Light refreshments will be served starting at 9:30 a.m. The ceremony begins at 10 a.m., featuring keynote Speaker Morley Levine, Director of Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 1140.

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