Giles, Ollie

Biography

Ms. Ollie Giles (1933-2021), as an avid history enthusiast, traced the history of local African-American families including her own. She was active in many community activities and boards including the San Marcos Historical Commission, the Calaboose Museum, Dunbar Neighborhood Association, City Council of Neighborhood Association, and the Southside Community Center. Mrs. Giles employed her love of history and genealogy and her considerable historical research skills in A.C.T.O.R.S, Ancestry Chart Tracing, a business she started at the age of 62.

Early in her career she was employed by the San Marcos Baptist Academy and later created her own business A.C.T.O.R.S., Ancestry Chart Tracing, Ollie’s Research Services, where she utilized her love of history and genealogy to chart family histories and deed searches for many companies.

Giles was interviewed as part of a project designed to connect high school students with long-time San Marcos residents.  The interview appears in The Ties That Bind, a book edited Oren Renick, Randall Osborne, and Megan Hamid. 

LBJ100 Oral History Project

Ollie Giles begins this richly detailed interview by talking about her early life, moving from the segregated south to attending integrated schools in California, and then moving back to San Marcos when her children were in school. She talks about her family’s education and how segregation limited their opportunities. She also talks about life in San Marcos from the 1940s through the 1960s, including a story about a shop owner sidestepping segregation norms so that Giles’ mother could try on new clothes from a downtown store.

Throughout her interview, she talks about various jobs she held and going to business college—which led to a 23-year career at the Baptist Academy. She then talks about how she began doing research, first for the Austin Statesman, then teaching an African American history class at the Baptist Academy, and then starting her own business. Giles shares a wealth of detail about San Marcos history, including stories about the KKK, and discusses the results of some of her in-depth research into the history of the surrounding community.