Larimer County Genealogical Society

General Meeting Minutes

June 21, 2007

Harmony Library

Harmony and Shields Street

Fort Collins

Community Room

President Ken Goldsberry called the meeting to order at 6:30 pm. He proposed the following agenda (see attached for more detailed agenda):

Welcome and General Announcements

Evening Program

Business Meeting

Welcome and General Announcements

President Goldsberry welcomed everyone to the meeting and made the following general announcements:

The Recycle Table is a program whereby members can donated unwanted genealogy materials and purchase materials donated by others. Everyone is invited to browse and purchase.

Question and Answer forms are available near the entrance for anyone who wishes to ask a question.

Ken further reported that Publications Chair Hap Hazard has a table where Society publications are available for purchase. In addition, Hap has available several videos that members may borrow. These videos are especially useful for people new to genealogy.

Membership Chair Gene O’Connell has the new Society directories available for those who have not yet received one. He also has Society lapel pins available for purchase.

Finally, Ken reported that longtime member Jim Willard will be having chemotherapy this week; the Society sends him their best wishes for his speedy recovery. He also mentioned that Donna Willard would like someone to volunteer to help her enter some genealogy information into her database. He suggested that anyone who might be willing to help should contact the Willard’s. Ken also reported taking a trip to Wyoming where he visited Signature Rock on which many pioneers had signed their names. One of the names he noticed was that of someone named Willard, possibly a relative of Jim’s?

Introduction of Guests

Several guests were in attendance. Ken welcomed them and encouraged them to join the Society. The guests included: Linda Simonetta, Dana Hawk, Alma and Al Lazer, Gary and Elaine Turner, Jesse Lyman and Sherri Schloss.

At this point a break was taken for refreshments and general conversation. Ken encouraged all members to take the opportunity to visit with new members and guests. He further encouraged members to make it a point to visit with someone they haven’t gotten to know yet.

Guest Speaker

President Ken Goldsberry introduced the evening’s speaker: Cari Taplin. Cari has been doing genealogy for about seven years, although she has had a longtime interest in family history. She presently lives in Longmont and is active in the Boulder County Genealogical Society. Even before she became active in genealogy, Cari enjoyed reading obituaries; since she started pursuing her family history, obituaries have become an obsession for her; she now has over 200 of them.

The title of her talk was “An Obituary Obsession” (see attached informational sheet). Cari reported that obits are an inexpensive, fairly available source for many genealogical clues. She then reported on some of the kinds of information that obits may provide including the basics such as death date, cemetery/burial information, parents, birth, marriage and children. For each of these types of information, Cari presented an obit showing the type of information.

She continued with some out-of-the-ordinary obits that gave more detailed information on immigration, religion, military service, etc. Some obits even give graphic causes of death such as the one she showed describing the gruesome explosion death of one of her relatives.

Finally, Cari described some of the various methods used to obtain obits including online newspapers, volunteer look-ups and visits to local libraries to read the obits on microfilm.

Business Meeting

Minutes of Previous Meeting

Recording Secretary Carol Stetser reported that the minutes of the May meeting are available online; in addition, hard copies of year-to-date minutes are available at each meeting.

Committee Reports

Genealogical Society Representative

President Ken Goldsberry reported that the Society has recently joined two national genealogical societies. He is particularly interested in several of the programs offered by the National Genealogical Society including several contests which our Society may be interested in entering.

Education and Outreach

Dolores Ray has stepped down as chairperson of this committee; hopefully, someone in the Society will agree to facilitate the committee. Ken suggested that anyone who is interested should let a Board member know.

Archival

This is another committee which is seeking a chairperson. This job entails organizing and storing the Society records.

Hospitality

Chair Marge Abrames reported that everything is going well. She does require some volunteers to provide treats for the July meeting. Several members volunteered, including President Ken Goldsberry.

Membership

Chair Gene O’Connell reported that the Society has 125 members at present.

Newsletter

Newsletter Editor Bob Larson reported that the next newsletter will be available around July 1. A few people reported not receiving the last newsletter; Bob will check out the reasons and rectify the problem.

Bob also reported that the Society may, in the future, write a monthly genealogy column for the local newspapers. Writers will be required for the column; Bob asked anyone interested in writing this type of column to let him know.

Publications

Publications Chair Hap Hazard reported that Society business cards are available to members. Members may want to give them to people who may be interested in genealogy or distribute them to libraries, etc. where they are researching.

Hap further reported that a complete list of Society publications may be found on the Society website. Anyone who wishes to purchase any of these publications may contact him directly. In addition, the two Society videos may also be checked out from him.

Publicity

Publicity Chair Kathy Patrick reported that more members for the committee are still needed. Anyone interested may contact her.

Web Site

Webmaster Dolores Ray was not present, but she previously reported to the Board, that per their instructions, all passwords have been removed from the Society website. All of the information on the website is now freely available to anyone who is interested.

Recycle Table

Cathi Smith, Recycle Table Chair, requests that members donate magazines for the Table. In particular, history and ethnic research (such as Scottish, German, etc.) magazines would be welcome.

General Announcements

July Program

President Goldsberry announced that the July meeting will be the annual Question and Answer session. Members should come prepared to ask all of those questions they’ve been storing up.

Board Meeting

Board meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month at the Fort Collins Main Library. The next meeting will be held on July 5. All members are invited to attend. Bob Grundborg, a member of the Board, has recently resigned to take a job in Washington; the Society wishes him well.

Cemetery Stroll

This year’s Cemetery Stroll will on September 15 at Grandview Cemetery. Mayors of Fort Collins will be the theme. It’s an interesting way to get a different view of Fort Collins history, and members are encouraged to attend.

The 2008 Cemetery Stroll is being sponsored by the local Daughters of the American Revolution chapter. The Society may provide volunteers to help with that program.

Questions and Answers and Genealogy Gems

Genealogy Gems

Sharon Koleber reported that her brother took a DNA test for family research. She very recently received the results which confirm that her family is from England, not Germany, as some had believed.

Nancy Abrahams recently attended the NGS conference in Richmond, Virginia. The conference was very rewarding and informative, but, in addition, Nancy visited several Virginia counties and did some personal research in Virginia. She was able to extend one of her lines back two generations to the emigrant ancestor.

Questions and Answers

Roger Long wondered about an uncle who supposedly worked on building the Alcan Highway. He has googled the highway, but most of the hits apply to various ethnic groups who worked on the highway, and he hasn’t been able to find any information pertinent to his uncle. Jim Willard suggested that he search military records since building the highway was a military endeavor. Hap Hazard suggested looking for visitors’ centers at either the beginning or end of the highway. These centers often have a lot of information available. Carolyn Jones mentioned that it is possible to google using exclusionary statements in order to narrow the hits to only those in which Roger might be interested.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 pm.