From lights flickering on and off to a swish of a Victorian skirt or a photo copier left on in the dark, Miss Elizabeth is one of the most popular ghosts in Gainesville.

Women who work at the Gainesville branch of the Hall County Library System say they have had close calls with Elizabeth over the years, including local storyteller and Northeast Georgia History Center board member Kathy Amos and library assistant Gail Hogan.

The duo even enlisted the help of Michelle Babiarz of the Lawrenceville-based Paranormal Science Investigations Network a few years ago to record some of the supernatural events.

Miss Elizabeth is a name Hogan gave the resident ghost for no other reason than the time period she is believed to be from.

"I feel like we've traced her back to (the 1800s) based on different people's descriptions of what she's wearing," Hogan said. "Based on the descriptions she was wearing a long dark skirt, a light colored top with a light shawl and a broach at her neck. She said she had dark hair that was pulled back from her face and that she had a rather plain-looking face, and even though she was probably young, she looked much older."

Hogan added some locals keep trying to tie Elizabeth back to the Wheeler Hotel, once located on the site where the library now stands, but she has found no evidence of that.

"If you trace back the history of (the library) property all the way back to the 1800s ... it belonged to the Brown family," Hogan said.

On July 3, 1861, a group of 81 soldiers gathered there and marched all the way to Gettysburg, Pa.

"The group was Company A of the 11th Regiment of the Gainesville Light Infantry of the Confederate Army," Hogan said. "We can find that on that date that 81 men signed up to fight, so far as I know 31 of those men did not return. They marched toward the North."

To this day, visitors to the library can stand in the building and see the same view Elizabeth the ghost may have seen.

"That far window that faces toward Brenau, they would have marched in that general direction, and that area is predominantly where Miss Elizabeth has been felt."

Which also is the location that Hogan has felt the presence of Elizabeth - near where the Civil War books are shelved.

"I think that there is a lot of activity ... it is taboo to talk about them," Hogan said.

It was after her encounter with the ghost when Babiarz came and investigated.

"We use our scientific methods as well as using a psychic approach. So we will go in and someone will know the reported history of what is going on there," said Babiarz, who will be featured in an episode of A&E's "Psychic Kids, Children of Paranormal."

Babiarz witnessed Elizabeth switch some lights on and off, and books fell during the investigation.

Even recently, a copier in a dark room was turned on when it should have been off and book scanners were activated when nothing was there to activate them.

"This is all part of the mystery and the story, which always is changing," Hogan said.