2019 Meeting Minutes
Rush County Genealogical Society Meeting Minutes
February 9, 2019
The February, 2019 meeting of the Rush County Genealogical Society was called to order by President Carol Jones. The minutes were read and approved. Marilyn Yager, Treasurer reported a balance of $3,929.91 with checks written to the Library, $799 for the Goddard Cemetery video and Bill for the website costs.
Carol reported that the Indiana Chapter of the Palatines to America will hold their Spring Meeting on April 6 at 9:00 a.m. at the Indianapolis Liederkranz, 1417 E. Washington, Indianapolis. There will be 4 one-hour long presentations to enable researchers to take the next step in their German genealogy research and where to find records.
Carol also brought to the meeting that the Indiana Genealogical Society offers $1000 grants for Cemetery Restoration. The project must be completed in 12 months. We should look at it for next year. Criteria to choose a cemetery would be where located, historical significance and that it is privately owned. Donna Tauber advised it could take $5-10,000 to do a cemetery restoration.
We did not have a quorum last meeting in order to have election of officers so the slate of officers was presented: Carol Jones: President, Bill Baetz: Vice President, Marilyn Yager: Treasurer and Katrina Cooper: Secretary. Carol Yager made a motion to elect this slate of officers and Bill Baetz seconded it.
Last fall there was a request made for a past newsletter. The one they wanted was located; however, we do not have them stored in an accessible location. Bill Baetz upgraded our website to the next tier so it would be possible to have a section that is for members only where these could be stored for future access. Up to 80 members can be attached to this section of the website.
Carol reported we only have 3 of our Civil War books remaining. Do we need to look into printing more? What is a minimum to print? Where would we get them printed? What will the cost be? Susan Huston was the person who spearheaded this project. Bill Baetz questioned if there is a demand for the book at this point.
Carol reminded members of doing the Cemetery surveys. This will be important information when we look into doing a cemetery restoration.
Discussion turned to who was to bring refreshments for our meetings.
March: Carol Jones – Marilyn Yager, Preserving memories in Shadow Boxes
April: Marilyn Yager - Carol will present Voyage to America
May: Katrina Cooper - Steve Mahan – Civil War
The last cemetery video we have scheduled is for the Goddard Cemetery. Katrina Cooper is working on this one and came through a request from Gretchen Stiers who paid $499 and RCGS paid $300 as we did not get any discount since it was a single video versus doing 6 at a time. Katrina will get with Satolli on the proposed May 4, 2019 film date.
Carol Jones brought up that the meeting room was not signed up for us for today. Bill Baetz has signed us up for the first six months now.
A group of twenty-four enjoyed the presentation given on DNA by Denise Anderson-Decina. It was very informative about the process and the differences in the different DNA tests currently available. At the end of the meeting a drawing was held and the prize was an Ancestry DNA Test. Refreshments were provided by Marilyn Yager and Katrina Cooper.
Respectfully submitted,
Katrina Cole Cooper, Secretary
Rush County Genealogical Society
Rush County Genealogical Society Meeting Minutes
March 9, 2019
President Carol Jones opened the Rush County Genealogical Society with 5 people in attendance. She read the minutes of the February 9, 2019 and they were approved with a few corrections. Marilyn Yager, treasurer gave a balance of $4,668.03. We received a generous gift from George Hibben. Carol has registered for the Roots Conference and she and Marilyn are attending the Indiana Chapter of the Palatines to America Spring Meeting on April 6, 2019 at the Indianapolis Liederkranz.
Carol asked that we meet outside the meeting day to inventory the genealogy materials she has at her house. She also noted we need to retrieve the books we have stored at the Rush County Historical Society Museum.
Carol has a goal to get all graves in Rush County listed on Find A Grave.
Katrina is working on the research for the Goddard Cemetery; however, she asked if someone else could be interviewed in case her loss of voice continues. Carol agreed that she could do that. Katrina needs to get with Satolli to confirm the May 4th date.
We went over future meetings: May – Steve Mahan, June – get ready for the Fair, and August – trip to Fort Wayne Library. We had discussion on the Scavenger Hunt at East Hill Cemetery during the Wendell Wilkie Days – September 21st. Would it be a certain time or something people will do independently? We could have them look for certain people or symbols on the tombstones. Will we gear it toward children or all ages? The parade will be at 10:00. There will be the bicycle ride, a concert and a dinner. Carol will get with Julie Newhouse to get approval for this event. Carol noted that she will include Family Tree Maker in her October presentation on Ancestry.com., etc.
Marilyn Yager gave an enjoyable and informative presentation on Preserving our Memories through the use of Shadow Boxes. She showed how to make one and the various supplies that could be used. She had also researched businesses that will create them for you. Refreshments were served by Carol Jones.
Respectfully submitted,
Katrina Cole Cooper, Secretary
Rush County Genealogical Society
Rush County Genealogical Society Meeting Minutes
April 13, 2019
The April 13, 2019 meeting of the Rush County Genealogical Society was called to order by president Carol Jones. Carol read the minutes of the March 9, 2019 meeting and Marilyn Yager reported that our treasury balance remained the same as last month $4668.03.
Carol asked what people felt about the meeting time change to 10:00 instead of 11:00 and the frequency of our meetings. Should we go back to having work sessions. Katrina expressed that she felt our attendance fell off when we went to every other month being a working meeting. Marilyn suggested we hold this type of session after the meetings or present specific help topics or portions of the Genealogy 101 type class. It was felt that there is a need for another beginner genealogy class.
Discussion turned to the Scavenger Hunt for Wilkie Days at East Hill Cemetery. Carol reported that she had talked with Julie Newhouse and gotten the okay to have it at East Hill. Marilyn has put on a short notice about the activity. The parade will be at 10:00 a.m. and the Bike ride is 10-12:00. Would a good time be 2-4:00 for the Scavenger Hunt? Dinner may not be held at the bridge as thought. The hunt wou1d be for ages 10 and up. Participants would need to register and we could give them a number. We could have people throughout the area to stamp cards as they find the items. Or they could fill out a clue sheet – dates of birth, dates of death, other items of information on the stones. It was felt we would need to narrow it to a couple of sections. Instead of a meeting on July 13th, we will meet at the cemetery to work on the clues. Another idea for clues would be pictures with an item blocked out that would need to be found. Carol brought up seeing the Noah’s Ark stone that would be interesting.
Steve Mahan will give a presentation for our meeting May 11th about Indiana’s participation in the Civil War.
Carol will speak with the Rush County Historical Society about sharing their Fair Booth again. We will show the cemetery videos we made with History in Your Own Backyard again. It was suggested that we have available copies of the 3 years of the Historical Home Driving Tours. It was also suggested that we could place these at the RCHS Museum. Katrina noted that they used to have pamphlets for walking tours there so they might not be interested in ours. Give away items were suggested: pencils, pens, magnets, chip clips, envelope opener. Rick Conklin with Positive Promotions was a name suggested as a could source for these. We could have a raffle and give away a DNA kit. We have the post cards from last year and Carol offered a larger monitor we could use to show the videos of the cemeteries.
Saturday, May 4th at 9:00 we will be videotaping the last cemetery we have scheduled – the Goddard Cemetery. Katrina will finish up the research and Carol will do the interview due to Katrina having lost her voice.
Discussion was held about a possible donation to the Rush County Community Foundation. There is a match of $2.00 for every $1.00 given and it was moved and approve to give a gift of $250. Marilyn Yager who is on the RCCF board thanked that group for the gift.
Carol Jones gave an interesting presentation on the Voyage to America from Germany. Many who attended added information to the discussion about their family research for German ancestors. There were 10 in attendance for the meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
Katrina Cole Cooper, Secretary
Rush County Genealogical Society
Rush County Genealogical Society Meeting Minutes
June 8, 2019
The June 8, 2019 Rush County Genealogical Society met at the Rushville Public Library with two in attendance. Katrina Cooper read the May meeting minutes. The minutes were approved and Marilyn Yager, treasurer had sent a report of the treasury balance of $4487.49.
Carol reported the Fall Meeting of the Indiana Chapter of the Palatines to America will be held October 5, 2019 at the Indianapolis Liederkranz, 1417 E. Washington. There will be four sessions by representatives of the Central Indiana DNA Interest Group. Personal DNA consultations will also be available. The cost is $20 for members, $25 for non-members and registration needs to be made by September 14th.
Discussion turned to the upcoming Scavenger Hunt we will be hosting at 10:00 at East Hill Cemetery as part of the Wendell Willkie Days. Carol suggested we include the Noah’s Ark tombstone. Katrina will use Find A Grave and use their “Famous People” section to find ideas of who to include. We will need registration Sheets, clue sheets, direction signs (Katrina), pens and/or pencils possibly with RCGS name (Carol). We will need to put together a rule list to include no defacing of the stones – possibly a Liability Statement. We will need participants to check in and check out. We will need to advertise the event with a write-up for the newspaper (Carol).
We will be going to Fort Wayne to the Allen County Public Library to do research for our August 10th Meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
Katrina Cole Cooper, Secretary
Rush County Genealogical Society
Rush County Genealogical Society Meeting Minutes
October 12, 2019
The October 12, 2019 meeting of the Rush County Genealogical Society met at the Rushville Public Library and was called to order by president Carol Jones with seven in attendance. We were glad to have Ric and Sue Floyd and Loren and Beckie (Floyd) Robertson join us.
No minutes were available and our treasury account is $4123.55.
In July, Carol Jones and Lisa Winship attended the Rootsweb Genealogy Conference in Indianapolis. In August, four of our members traveled together to the Allen County Library to do family research. Several found quite a few items. Those who went were Carol Jones, Anna Rouse, Marilyn Yager and Katrina Cooper.
September 21, 2019 from 2-4:00 p.m. RCGS hosted a Scavenger Hunt at the East Hill Cemetery as part of Willkie Days. There were 20 clues plus a bonus question about the grave of Wendell Willkie for each entrant to find in two hours’ time. We awarded cash prizes for First, Second and Third places. There were 14 people who participated in the event and four members staffed the event. $50 First Place prize went to Jason Jones, the $35 Second Place prize went to Lisa Winship and the $20 Third prize was awarded to Patricia Lauderdale. We discussed possibly breaking it into two different age groups if we do this in the future. We also need to make the questions easier and more visually descriptive in order to make finding the stones not so hard. It turned out to be a very warm day and the confusion with the age limit in the newspaper announcement did not help the attendance. All who participated seemed to have a good time.
Carol announced there will be an event at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne – Day with Judy G. Russell, the Legal Genealogist. She writes and lectures on how to use court records in family history to understanding DNA testing. There will be four lectures about the Private Laws of the Federal and State Governments, Using Court Records to tell the Story of our Ancestor’s Lives, Resolving Conflicts in Genealogical Records, and The Year of the Copyright.
Katrina Cooper gave a presentation about Resources to use in your Genealogy research. She discussed using Cemeteries, Census records, Pension applications, Library websites, Church records, and Genealogical and Historical societies. She showed what she considers one of her most valuable tools, the Flip Pal portable Scanner. She encouraged researchers to attend classes or conferences to learn how to do better research.
Respectfully submitted,
Katrina Cole Cooper, Secretary
Rush County Genealogical Society