2018 Meeting Minutes
Rush County Genealogical Society Meeting Minutes
January 20, 2018
President Carol Jones called the January 20, 2018 RCGS meeting to order with six members in attendance. Katrina Cooper read the November 11, 2017 meeting minutes and they were approved with a correction noted. Treasurer Marilyn Yager reported a balance of $3366.36. It was noted that we have received dues for just 16 members. $150 donation has been given to the Rushville Library to be used to help pay their subscription for Ancestry.com. Bookcases have been purchased from Ikea and are now located at the home of Carol Jones. She has placed on the shelves: the donated books for Kentucky, the Obituary Binders, RCGS plaque from Don Craig. Carol asks that if you interested in using the materials, that you call to schedule time with her.
Carol reported that she had done some research on the Moscow Cemetery with a lead that Eli Greene who is buried there was the grandson of Nathaniel Greene and has found that not to be true.
The Indiana Genealogical Society Annual Meeting and Conference will be held Saturday, April 28, 2018 at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany, Indiana. The theme will be “From Albany to New Albany” and the featured speaker will be Jane E. Wilcox from the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. The cost is $30 for members and $35 for non-members if pre-register by April 24, 2018. Some of the topics will be: New York and Kentucky Vital Records, NY Immigration, Kentucky Civil War, Allen County Library Update on Collections, An Eighteenth-Century Woman’s Story Using Original and Authored Sources, Finding American Women’s Voices through the Centuries and Researching the Sons of the American Revolutionary Library.
It was noted that there is a free website for digitized Indiana newspapers – newspapers.library.in.gov.
Carol has participated with Family Tree Maker’s “Tell Us What You Think” program. She advised that they are working on the issue with sourcing your work that she has mentioned previously and they plan to implement something to show the change in family names through the years such as the different spelling of the name DeMares, Demaris and Demarie.
Carol would like for us to go back to work on getting every Rush county tombstone listed in Find A Grave. It was noted that it is difficult to copy and paste from the sight with the changed format.
For our February meeting, David and Cindy Nichols from Fayette County will speak about Cemetery Restoration.
Carol noted that if you are looking at doing a DNA test, something to consider is if the company might share the information with Insurance. They could go in and look for pre-existing conditions for instance. Ancestry.com does not share your DNA results. For others, it might be good to verify what their policy is on sharing your results.
Discussion turned to our August meeting with Larry Stout as presenter. The Library has scheduled a meeting at the same time we usually meet so the room will not be available. Should we move the location or change the date? It was decided to check on the availability of using the Elks Club to keep it on the same date. Carol will be our contact person with the Library for scheduling purposes.
For interesting reading there is an article entitled Point of Entry: Baltimore, the Other Ellis Island by William Connery. It was first used by Irish and German immigrants.
Respectfully submitted,
Katrina Cole Cooper, Secretary
Rush County Genealogical Society
Rush County Genealogical Society Meeting Minutes
March 10, 2018
President Carol Jones called the March 10, 2018 meeting to order with nine in attendance. The minutes of the January 20, 2018 meeting were read by Katrina Cooper and treasurer Marilyn Yager reported that our balance is $4105.69. We have received three more membership dues. Katrina sent out a reminder to past members who may have forgotten to send them.
Carol reported that there will be another Genealogy for Night Owls event at the Indiana State Library on April 18, 2018 from 4:30 to 8:00 p.m. Deadline to sign up is April 16, 2018.
Carol also brought to the group’s attention a genealogy site that has Irish records and Catholic church records for New York parishes called Find My Past. There is a charge; however, they have a 14-day free trial so you can try it first.
Discussion turned to the upcoming Video filming. Carol will be going on a trip to Yellowstone in May. We will do Manilla and Fairview on May 12th and Milroy, Moscow and the Aldridge Cemetery on May 19th. We will not have ameeting that month.
Carol asked Katrina Cooper if she would prepare a presentation for our July 14th meeting on the editing program she uses -paint.net. Reminder that we will be going to the Wilbur Wright Museum in June, Larry Stout will do a presentation on August 18th as the Library is not available on August 11th and Katrina will give a program on Circuit Riders in November.
Carol Jones talked to Carol Holtzback at the Rush County Historical Society Fall Meeting about working with them on a Fair booth in the manufacturer’s building and we had agreed to share costs with them. We can use the banner we had made for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. It was decided to have some postcard type hand-outs printed instead of brochures. It would be good also to have pens or pencils for a give-away.
Marilyn Yager reported we had received a $750 gift from George Hibben and she has sent a thank you letter. A donation was given to Rush County 4-H in memory of Katrina’s mother, Evelyn Cole.
A suggestion was made to apply for a grant from Rush County Community Foundation in 2019 for restoration of Pioneer cemeteries. Marilyn Yager was congratulated for being appointed to the board of RCCF.
A very informative program was given by Cindy and Dave Nichols and Amy Brumfield, president of the Fayette County Cemetery Commission. They discussed proper methods of preservation of cemeteries. They are not paid to do this like people who do restoration of cemeteries. The first step was that you need to find out who owns the property and get their permission to be on the property and do this work on the cemetery. They cautioned that you should not go alone. Next you would assess the situation and be sure to document, making sure you do no harm. You should not do work on the cemetery until you have the ground taken care of. Do not just pull off vines- best to wet the stone and then use a plastic scraper. If the stone is sugaring, it is deteriorating – do not touch. There are stabilizers that can be used. Document by taking photos before and after. They use a tripod to lift stones. Be careful as stones can fall on you. To repair stones, you need specific training. You should only clean a stone once every 10 years. They use Orvus Soap and D-2 to clean stones and gave samples of the Orvus Soap to all who wanted some. Always take lots of water- first to wet down the stone and then to wash off the stone after cleaning it. They use a gas-powered wheelbarrow to take in supplies. Remember you are trying to preserve the stone so that you can read it – not making it look new. They recommended everyone attend workshops before you start to learn best practices. These are hands on and you learn from each one. Fayette County may host one in July.
It was noted that the law on cemeteries is vague. It says each county may establish a cemetery commission. If there is an old family plot that is not being maintained, the Trustee can ask the owner to release the property. Donna Tauber reported that the Henry County Cemetery Commission got a $10,000 Food and Beverage Grant to purchase cemetery markers; however, some land owners would not allow the signs to be placed on their property. Cemetery funds come from the Township’s General Fund. The Trustee would have to go to the County Commissioners for more funds. They can create a separate Cemetery Tax. This would be done at a Budget Hearing. The County Prosecutor can make a property owner stop allowing animals to roam in a cemetery and allow the county to put up a fence to protect the cemetery.
Sincerely,
Katrina Cole Cooper, Secretary
Rush County Genealogical Society
Rush County Genealogical Society Meeting Minutes
April 14, 2018
The Rush County Genealogical Society Meeting was called to order by President Carol Jones on Saturday, April 14, 2018 with four in attendance. Katrina Cooper read the March 10, 2018 minutes and Marilyn Yager reported the balance of our treasury is $4,138.65. We welcome Kevin Springman as a new member.
Carol Jones reported that we need to change the date of filming for the Milroy, Moscow and Aldridge Cemetery video tapings to March 26th at 9:00 a.m. due to a trip she has scheduled. The Fairview and Manilla Cemetery tapings will be on May 12th to begin at 9:00 a.m.
Rush County Historical Society will be hosting a tour to Gettysburg on Monday through Thursday during the School Fall Break (October 22-25, 2018). It will cost about $150 per person If they get enough people to go. It is planned to got to 3 historic home, the Battlefield Museum and Battlefield Tour.
RCGS plans to go to the Wilbur Wright Museum on June 16th with a cost of $6.00 per person. There has had to be a change of initial date due to an activity already planned on June 9th there.
Carol reported that there was a nice article in the Connersville News Examiner about the Presentation made last month about Preserving Pioneer Cemeteries. You can see the article on the Fayette County Cemetery Commission Facebook page. On that note, Carol spoke with Rick Levi recently about the possibility of having a Rush County Cemetery Commission. He said he was open to talk to her about it. It was noted that the Joseph Hinchman Cemetery has a pass-through fund at the Rush County Community Foundation set up by Pete Osting and Julie Connoly.
The Rush County Historical Society will have their Fair Booth inside the Manufacturer’s Building this year. We are still trying to work out details as to whether we can share their booth space. Carol will have Tim work on a postcard type promotion piece we could hand out. It was suggested to use a picture of the Beech Church as a soft background.
Marilyn Yager suggested a future program on shadow boxes to display family memorabilia that she saw on Pinterest. A presentation about DNA testing was again suggested. Marilyn briefly spoke about out upcoming meeting on Oral Interviews. She suggested we set up a booth and people could bring a family member that we could talk to and that we would tape these. The question came up as to whether RCHS is also doing the same thing.
Discussion turned to how to increase our membership. One way is to increase our visibility. Accomplishment to showcase at the Fair Booth are: Beech Settlement Tour, Photo Restoration program, Cemetery Videos, trip to Fort Wayne Library, and visit to the Wright Museum.
Carol reported that we now have 3 bookcases and they are pretty much full. Will need another bookcase soon. It was suggested that at our July meeting we have a working meeting to move the bookcases and books upstairs in the thought that people might be more likely to come use the library.
Eleanor Arnold referred a person looking for help on her family to Susan Huston and she told us that Linda Foxx of Tennessee who graduated from New Salem High School and was looking for information about her Kirkpatrick and Oldham family lines in the Raleigh/Fayette County area. She is trying to find proof that Jan Oldham who married David Kirkpatrick is the daughter of Stephen and Rebecca Oldham. He was a minister in Fayette County. It was questioned if might have died in Fayette County – may be buried in East Fork Cemetery.
It was reported that the East Fork Cemetery is overgrown. We need to talk to Eric Allen about getting it restored. It would be good if we take a survey of all the Rush County Cemeteries to check on each one’s condition.
It was mentioned that there is an LDS Church and Library located at 900 E. Stop 11 Rd, Indianapolis and their library door is on the east end of the church.
Respectfully submitted,
Katrina Cole Cooper, Secretary
Rush County Genealogical Society
Rush County Genealogical Society Meeting Minutes
August 18, 2018
Marilyn Yager called the Rush County Genealogical Society meeting to order as president Carol Jones could not attend. There were seven in attendance. Marilyn read the minutes of the last meeting held at the home of Carol Jones on June 16, 2018 to plan our participation at the Rush County Fair Booth. Rush County Historical Society is allowing us to share part of their space. They also moved the RCGS bookcases and books from the basement to the main level of Carol’s home.
Marilyn reported the balance of our treasury to be $4,329.22 having paid our annual insurance bill of $86.00. She needs to pay $50.00 to RCHS for the Rush County Fair booth, and reimburse Carol Jones for another bookcase.
The trip to the Wilbur Wright Museum was reported to have been enjoyable with five in attendance. We showed several of our cemetery videos at the Fair Booth and talked with many people about RCGS. Thanks was given to all who helped man the booth Sunday through Friday.
The Fairview and Manilla Cemetery videos are now viewable on historyinyourownbackyard.com. Moscow and Milroy should be ready soon.
Discussion turned to the filming of the Little Blue Baptist, Bell/Barrett and Aldridge Cemeteries. It came to light that there was a misunderstanding on the date of the filming and we will need to see if we could re-schedule due to a conflict of activities.
A reminder was given of the upcoming Historical Home Tour to be held Saturday, October 13th. Research for the project is coming along.
The program was turned over to Larry Stout who gave an update on the Beech Settlement restoration which will begin September 15th. He reported that the ancestors of church members had thought they owned the deed; however, the deed really is in the name of the AME Church. This is a $200,000 project with one man from Indianapolis having matched funds up to $100,000.
Rushville’s downtown continues to see rehabilitation with many projects going on at this time. The old Knights of Pythias/Boys Club/Rush County Players building is being restored. When it was sold, there had been restrictions placed to protect it from being torn down or the front changed.
Larry Stout gave a very interesting program on Kid McCoy, middleweight champion of the world who was a native of Rush County. Interestingly, he was born on October 13th which was the birthday of Knowles Shaw who he gave a presentation on the last time he joined us. Kid McCoy was known for his corkscrew punch and was married ten times – one of the wives he married 3 times. Everyone enjoyed hearing about this unique person.
Sincerely,
Katrina Cole Cooper, Secretary
Rush County Genealogical Society
Rush County Genealogical Society Meeting Minutes
September 8, 2018
Carol Jones, president, called the RCGS meeting to order at 11:00. Katrina Cooper read the minutes of the August meeting and Marilyn Yager, treasurer, reported a balance of $4,287.49. Bookcases have been paid for and $11.39 was received from the Amazon Smile program.
Discussion was held about the October 14 RCHS program Bridges and Brownies. It will be with a local artist – similar to a wine and canvas activity.
Carol proposed that we sponsor a brick at the Wilbur Wright Museum at the cost of $50.00. This was approved.
Suggestion was made to apply for a Rush County Community Foundation grant to do restoration of cemeteries. When Carol spoke with Bruce Levi about forming a Cemetery Commission, he indicated the county has Township Trustees to take care of cemeteries. Carol reminded us of a project that we have put on the back burner of taking a survey of the cemeteries and completing photographing of tombstones for findagrave.com.
Katrina – Ripley, Center and Posey townships
Marilyn – Anderson, Richland and Noble
Carol – Walker, Jackson and Rushville
Shirley – Washington, Union – not sure if can do with moving to Danville
Possibly Larry Stout - Orange
Discussion turned to the last videos that were done by Satolli Glassmeyer and our disappointment with the camera angles. We received a request from Gretchen Stiers to contribute toward the Aldridge Cemetery and for us to do a video on the Goddard Cemetery. Katrina reported that she had given her a cost of $350 not remembering that was the cost because we were doing 6 videos at a time. It was decided to honor that amount and RCGS will make up any difference on the cost. She has asked that we include information on Ruhama Stiers and her son Samuel who are buried at Aldridge Cemetery and Stiers and Krammes family who are buried at Goddard Cemetery. She has indicated she will send $450 for both projects.
Suggestion was made that we might want to look at participating with surrounding counties’ genealogy societies – possibly join them for regional activities.
Consistency in our meetings was brought up as a possible reason for low attendance to our meetings. It was decided we need to stick with the Second Saturday of the month for our meetings. We need to ask the Republican to put announcements of our meetings in the Tuesday and Friday newspaper as well as putting it in the What’s Happening column of weekend events.
Fair ideas were suggested. It would be good to have a Raffle and Give-aways to get people’s attention. It would be good to get Middle School and High School ages involved. We need to wear name tags. Could we possibly offer to do some quick research via Ancestry.com?
A suggestion was made and agreed upon to start our meetings at 10:00 a.m. and to have refreshments of some sort at the meetings. We will try this for 6 months and look at it again at that point. We will continue to meet at the Library on the Second Saturday of the month.
The group brainstormed ideas for programs for 2019 and this is list of the possible topics we came up with.
January – Voyage to America – from Germany - Carol Jones in charge
February – DNA – Ancestry.com DNA kit drawing
March – Shadow Boxes – how to display your heritage – Marilyn Yager
April – possibly Eleanor Arnold presentation
May – Steve Mahan, Civil War
June – Prepare for County Fair
July – Roots Conference – No meeting – July 19-20, Marriott East, Indianapolis, IN
August – Field Trip to Allen County Library in Fort Wayne
September – Cemetery Scavenger Hunt – East Hill –Wilkie Days
October – Find Ghosts in your Family – using Ancestry.com, Fold 3, Newspapers.com
November – Preservation of Documents – Marilyn Yager
December - No Meeting
Sincerely,
Katrina Cole Cooper, Secretary
Rush County Genealogical Society
January 20, 2018
President Carol Jones called the January 20, 2018 RCGS meeting to order with six members in attendance. Katrina Cooper read the November 11, 2017 meeting minutes and they were approved with a correction noted. Treasurer Marilyn Yager reported a balance of $3366.36. It was noted that we have received dues for just 16 members. $150 donation has been given to the Rushville Library to be used to help pay their subscription for Ancestry.com. Bookcases have been purchased from Ikea and are now located at the home of Carol Jones. She has placed on the shelves: the donated books for Kentucky, the Obituary Binders, RCGS plaque from Don Craig. Carol asks that if you interested in using the materials, that you call to schedule time with her.
Carol reported that she had done some research on the Moscow Cemetery with a lead that Eli Greene who is buried there was the grandson of Nathaniel Greene and has found that not to be true.
The Indiana Genealogical Society Annual Meeting and Conference will be held Saturday, April 28, 2018 at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany, Indiana. The theme will be “From Albany to New Albany” and the featured speaker will be Jane E. Wilcox from the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. The cost is $30 for members and $35 for non-members if pre-register by April 24, 2018. Some of the topics will be: New York and Kentucky Vital Records, NY Immigration, Kentucky Civil War, Allen County Library Update on Collections, An Eighteenth-Century Woman’s Story Using Original and Authored Sources, Finding American Women’s Voices through the Centuries and Researching the Sons of the American Revolutionary Library.
It was noted that there is a free website for digitized Indiana newspapers – newspapers.library.in.gov.
Carol has participated with Family Tree Maker’s “Tell Us What You Think” program. She advised that they are working on the issue with sourcing your work that she has mentioned previously and they plan to implement something to show the change in family names through the years such as the different spelling of the name DeMares, Demaris and Demarie.
Carol would like for us to go back to work on getting every Rush county tombstone listed in Find A Grave. It was noted that it is difficult to copy and paste from the sight with the changed format.
For our February meeting, David and Cindy Nichols from Fayette County will speak about Cemetery Restoration.
Carol noted that if you are looking at doing a DNA test, something to consider is if the company might share the information with Insurance. They could go in and look for pre-existing conditions for instance. Ancestry.com does not share your DNA results. For others, it might be good to verify what their policy is on sharing your results.
Discussion turned to our August meeting with Larry Stout as presenter. The Library has scheduled a meeting at the same time we usually meet so the room will not be available. Should we move the location or change the date? It was decided to check on the availability of using the Elks Club to keep it on the same date. Carol will be our contact person with the Library for scheduling purposes.
For interesting reading there is an article entitled Point of Entry: Baltimore, the Other Ellis Island by William Connery. It was first used by Irish and German immigrants.
Respectfully submitted,
Katrina Cole Cooper, Secretary
Rush County Genealogical Society
Rush County Genealogical Society Meeting Minutes
March 10, 2018
President Carol Jones called the March 10, 2018 meeting to order with nine in attendance. The minutes of the January 20, 2018 meeting were read by Katrina Cooper and treasurer Marilyn Yager reported that our balance is $4105.69. We have received three more membership dues. Katrina sent out a reminder to past members who may have forgotten to send them.
Carol reported that there will be another Genealogy for Night Owls event at the Indiana State Library on April 18, 2018 from 4:30 to 8:00 p.m. Deadline to sign up is April 16, 2018.
Carol also brought to the group’s attention a genealogy site that has Irish records and Catholic church records for New York parishes called Find My Past. There is a charge; however, they have a 14-day free trial so you can try it first.
Discussion turned to the upcoming Video filming. Carol will be going on a trip to Yellowstone in May. We will do Manilla and Fairview on May 12th and Milroy, Moscow and the Aldridge Cemetery on May 19th. We will not have ameeting that month.
Carol asked Katrina Cooper if she would prepare a presentation for our July 14th meeting on the editing program she uses -paint.net. Reminder that we will be going to the Wilbur Wright Museum in June, Larry Stout will do a presentation on August 18th as the Library is not available on August 11th and Katrina will give a program on Circuit Riders in November.
Carol Jones talked to Carol Holtzback at the Rush County Historical Society Fall Meeting about working with them on a Fair booth in the manufacturer’s building and we had agreed to share costs with them. We can use the banner we had made for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. It was decided to have some postcard type hand-outs printed instead of brochures. It would be good also to have pens or pencils for a give-away.
Marilyn Yager reported we had received a $750 gift from George Hibben and she has sent a thank you letter. A donation was given to Rush County 4-H in memory of Katrina’s mother, Evelyn Cole.
A suggestion was made to apply for a grant from Rush County Community Foundation in 2019 for restoration of Pioneer cemeteries. Marilyn Yager was congratulated for being appointed to the board of RCCF.
A very informative program was given by Cindy and Dave Nichols and Amy Brumfield, president of the Fayette County Cemetery Commission. They discussed proper methods of preservation of cemeteries. They are not paid to do this like people who do restoration of cemeteries. The first step was that you need to find out who owns the property and get their permission to be on the property and do this work on the cemetery. They cautioned that you should not go alone. Next you would assess the situation and be sure to document, making sure you do no harm. You should not do work on the cemetery until you have the ground taken care of. Do not just pull off vines- best to wet the stone and then use a plastic scraper. If the stone is sugaring, it is deteriorating – do not touch. There are stabilizers that can be used. Document by taking photos before and after. They use a tripod to lift stones. Be careful as stones can fall on you. To repair stones, you need specific training. You should only clean a stone once every 10 years. They use Orvus Soap and D-2 to clean stones and gave samples of the Orvus Soap to all who wanted some. Always take lots of water- first to wet down the stone and then to wash off the stone after cleaning it. They use a gas-powered wheelbarrow to take in supplies. Remember you are trying to preserve the stone so that you can read it – not making it look new. They recommended everyone attend workshops before you start to learn best practices. These are hands on and you learn from each one. Fayette County may host one in July.
It was noted that the law on cemeteries is vague. It says each county may establish a cemetery commission. If there is an old family plot that is not being maintained, the Trustee can ask the owner to release the property. Donna Tauber reported that the Henry County Cemetery Commission got a $10,000 Food and Beverage Grant to purchase cemetery markers; however, some land owners would not allow the signs to be placed on their property. Cemetery funds come from the Township’s General Fund. The Trustee would have to go to the County Commissioners for more funds. They can create a separate Cemetery Tax. This would be done at a Budget Hearing. The County Prosecutor can make a property owner stop allowing animals to roam in a cemetery and allow the county to put up a fence to protect the cemetery.
Sincerely,
Katrina Cole Cooper, Secretary
Rush County Genealogical Society
Rush County Genealogical Society Meeting Minutes
April 14, 2018
The Rush County Genealogical Society Meeting was called to order by President Carol Jones on Saturday, April 14, 2018 with four in attendance. Katrina Cooper read the March 10, 2018 minutes and Marilyn Yager reported the balance of our treasury is $4,138.65. We welcome Kevin Springman as a new member.
Carol Jones reported that we need to change the date of filming for the Milroy, Moscow and Aldridge Cemetery video tapings to March 26th at 9:00 a.m. due to a trip she has scheduled. The Fairview and Manilla Cemetery tapings will be on May 12th to begin at 9:00 a.m.
Rush County Historical Society will be hosting a tour to Gettysburg on Monday through Thursday during the School Fall Break (October 22-25, 2018). It will cost about $150 per person If they get enough people to go. It is planned to got to 3 historic home, the Battlefield Museum and Battlefield Tour.
RCGS plans to go to the Wilbur Wright Museum on June 16th with a cost of $6.00 per person. There has had to be a change of initial date due to an activity already planned on June 9th there.
Carol reported that there was a nice article in the Connersville News Examiner about the Presentation made last month about Preserving Pioneer Cemeteries. You can see the article on the Fayette County Cemetery Commission Facebook page. On that note, Carol spoke with Rick Levi recently about the possibility of having a Rush County Cemetery Commission. He said he was open to talk to her about it. It was noted that the Joseph Hinchman Cemetery has a pass-through fund at the Rush County Community Foundation set up by Pete Osting and Julie Connoly.
The Rush County Historical Society will have their Fair Booth inside the Manufacturer’s Building this year. We are still trying to work out details as to whether we can share their booth space. Carol will have Tim work on a postcard type promotion piece we could hand out. It was suggested to use a picture of the Beech Church as a soft background.
Marilyn Yager suggested a future program on shadow boxes to display family memorabilia that she saw on Pinterest. A presentation about DNA testing was again suggested. Marilyn briefly spoke about out upcoming meeting on Oral Interviews. She suggested we set up a booth and people could bring a family member that we could talk to and that we would tape these. The question came up as to whether RCHS is also doing the same thing.
Discussion turned to how to increase our membership. One way is to increase our visibility. Accomplishment to showcase at the Fair Booth are: Beech Settlement Tour, Photo Restoration program, Cemetery Videos, trip to Fort Wayne Library, and visit to the Wright Museum.
Carol reported that we now have 3 bookcases and they are pretty much full. Will need another bookcase soon. It was suggested that at our July meeting we have a working meeting to move the bookcases and books upstairs in the thought that people might be more likely to come use the library.
Eleanor Arnold referred a person looking for help on her family to Susan Huston and she told us that Linda Foxx of Tennessee who graduated from New Salem High School and was looking for information about her Kirkpatrick and Oldham family lines in the Raleigh/Fayette County area. She is trying to find proof that Jan Oldham who married David Kirkpatrick is the daughter of Stephen and Rebecca Oldham. He was a minister in Fayette County. It was questioned if might have died in Fayette County – may be buried in East Fork Cemetery.
It was reported that the East Fork Cemetery is overgrown. We need to talk to Eric Allen about getting it restored. It would be good if we take a survey of all the Rush County Cemeteries to check on each one’s condition.
It was mentioned that there is an LDS Church and Library located at 900 E. Stop 11 Rd, Indianapolis and their library door is on the east end of the church.
Respectfully submitted,
Katrina Cole Cooper, Secretary
Rush County Genealogical Society
Rush County Genealogical Society Meeting Minutes
August 18, 2018
Marilyn Yager called the Rush County Genealogical Society meeting to order as president Carol Jones could not attend. There were seven in attendance. Marilyn read the minutes of the last meeting held at the home of Carol Jones on June 16, 2018 to plan our participation at the Rush County Fair Booth. Rush County Historical Society is allowing us to share part of their space. They also moved the RCGS bookcases and books from the basement to the main level of Carol’s home.
Marilyn reported the balance of our treasury to be $4,329.22 having paid our annual insurance bill of $86.00. She needs to pay $50.00 to RCHS for the Rush County Fair booth, and reimburse Carol Jones for another bookcase.
The trip to the Wilbur Wright Museum was reported to have been enjoyable with five in attendance. We showed several of our cemetery videos at the Fair Booth and talked with many people about RCGS. Thanks was given to all who helped man the booth Sunday through Friday.
The Fairview and Manilla Cemetery videos are now viewable on historyinyourownbackyard.com. Moscow and Milroy should be ready soon.
Discussion turned to the filming of the Little Blue Baptist, Bell/Barrett and Aldridge Cemeteries. It came to light that there was a misunderstanding on the date of the filming and we will need to see if we could re-schedule due to a conflict of activities.
A reminder was given of the upcoming Historical Home Tour to be held Saturday, October 13th. Research for the project is coming along.
The program was turned over to Larry Stout who gave an update on the Beech Settlement restoration which will begin September 15th. He reported that the ancestors of church members had thought they owned the deed; however, the deed really is in the name of the AME Church. This is a $200,000 project with one man from Indianapolis having matched funds up to $100,000.
Rushville’s downtown continues to see rehabilitation with many projects going on at this time. The old Knights of Pythias/Boys Club/Rush County Players building is being restored. When it was sold, there had been restrictions placed to protect it from being torn down or the front changed.
Larry Stout gave a very interesting program on Kid McCoy, middleweight champion of the world who was a native of Rush County. Interestingly, he was born on October 13th which was the birthday of Knowles Shaw who he gave a presentation on the last time he joined us. Kid McCoy was known for his corkscrew punch and was married ten times – one of the wives he married 3 times. Everyone enjoyed hearing about this unique person.
Sincerely,
Katrina Cole Cooper, Secretary
Rush County Genealogical Society
Rush County Genealogical Society Meeting Minutes
September 8, 2018
Carol Jones, president, called the RCGS meeting to order at 11:00. Katrina Cooper read the minutes of the August meeting and Marilyn Yager, treasurer, reported a balance of $4,287.49. Bookcases have been paid for and $11.39 was received from the Amazon Smile program.
Discussion was held about the October 14 RCHS program Bridges and Brownies. It will be with a local artist – similar to a wine and canvas activity.
Carol proposed that we sponsor a brick at the Wilbur Wright Museum at the cost of $50.00. This was approved.
Suggestion was made to apply for a Rush County Community Foundation grant to do restoration of cemeteries. When Carol spoke with Bruce Levi about forming a Cemetery Commission, he indicated the county has Township Trustees to take care of cemeteries. Carol reminded us of a project that we have put on the back burner of taking a survey of the cemeteries and completing photographing of tombstones for findagrave.com.
Katrina – Ripley, Center and Posey townships
Marilyn – Anderson, Richland and Noble
Carol – Walker, Jackson and Rushville
Shirley – Washington, Union – not sure if can do with moving to Danville
Possibly Larry Stout - Orange
Discussion turned to the last videos that were done by Satolli Glassmeyer and our disappointment with the camera angles. We received a request from Gretchen Stiers to contribute toward the Aldridge Cemetery and for us to do a video on the Goddard Cemetery. Katrina reported that she had given her a cost of $350 not remembering that was the cost because we were doing 6 videos at a time. It was decided to honor that amount and RCGS will make up any difference on the cost. She has asked that we include information on Ruhama Stiers and her son Samuel who are buried at Aldridge Cemetery and Stiers and Krammes family who are buried at Goddard Cemetery. She has indicated she will send $450 for both projects.
Suggestion was made that we might want to look at participating with surrounding counties’ genealogy societies – possibly join them for regional activities.
Consistency in our meetings was brought up as a possible reason for low attendance to our meetings. It was decided we need to stick with the Second Saturday of the month for our meetings. We need to ask the Republican to put announcements of our meetings in the Tuesday and Friday newspaper as well as putting it in the What’s Happening column of weekend events.
Fair ideas were suggested. It would be good to have a Raffle and Give-aways to get people’s attention. It would be good to get Middle School and High School ages involved. We need to wear name tags. Could we possibly offer to do some quick research via Ancestry.com?
A suggestion was made and agreed upon to start our meetings at 10:00 a.m. and to have refreshments of some sort at the meetings. We will try this for 6 months and look at it again at that point. We will continue to meet at the Library on the Second Saturday of the month.
The group brainstormed ideas for programs for 2019 and this is list of the possible topics we came up with.
January – Voyage to America – from Germany - Carol Jones in charge
February – DNA – Ancestry.com DNA kit drawing
March – Shadow Boxes – how to display your heritage – Marilyn Yager
April – possibly Eleanor Arnold presentation
May – Steve Mahan, Civil War
June – Prepare for County Fair
July – Roots Conference – No meeting – July 19-20, Marriott East, Indianapolis, IN
August – Field Trip to Allen County Library in Fort Wayne
September – Cemetery Scavenger Hunt – East Hill –Wilkie Days
October – Find Ghosts in your Family – using Ancestry.com, Fold 3, Newspapers.com
November – Preservation of Documents – Marilyn Yager
December - No Meeting
Sincerely,
Katrina Cole Cooper, Secretary
Rush County Genealogical Society