Yellowstone Genealogy Forum

Gen-Bug® July 2000Newsletter 

Table of Contents

MONTANA STATE CONFERENCE WAS GREAT

The Great Falls Genealogy Society hosted the 11th annual Montana State Conference, May 5-7, 2000, and carried it off with style. What a way to celebrate their 25 years as a society! Curt Witcher of Fort Wayne, Ind-iana, was the keynote speaker and did his usual excellent job making 6 presentations. There was a good mix of additional speakers to give those attending a variety of classes from which to choose.

The State Society elected Betty Marshall president. You'll be interested to know that Athna May Porter was selected to edit the state newsletter, "Big Sky Roundup" with help from Verba and Shawna Valentine.

A new feature of the Montana State business meeting was a Memorial Service. Members of each society carried a long stemmed carnation to the front as the names of the deceased were read and placed their flower in a large vase at the podium.

The first issue of the Montana Pioneers book didn't quite make the event but followed a few days later.

Those attending from the Billings area were Athna May Porter, Shawna and Verba Valentine, Betty Hedges, Denise Harper and Louise LaRue.

Next year's conference will be held at Bozeman, probably in the fall.

May 16, 2000 YGF Meeting

By-law changes were approved and new officers were elected at the May 16, 2000 meeting of the YGF. The new officers are:

President--Suzanne McPherson

Corresponding Secretary--Pat Miller and Peggy Williams

Program Coordinator--Athna May Porter

Recording Secretary--Joyce Nitschke

Treasurer--Shannon Behounek

We are pleased to have this slate of offi-cers and they ask for your cooperation and support.

COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN

Membership--Sue-Ann Jacobson

Publicity--Jenny Johnson, Wanda Hofferber

Calling--Bernice and George Mowat and team

Library Acquisitions--Ellen Cushing

(Periodicals)--Athna May Porter

Research--Myrle Theimer and team

Historian--Bernice Korwald

Book & CD Sales--Bobbie Burroughs

Lending Videos & Audio Tapes--Donna McKamy

P.A. System--Lee Mills

Newsletter--Louise LaRue, Mae Seyler, Laura Alvin and Bobbe Sullivan

Thanks to those listed for being gracious in accepting the above positions. Additions to these committees are still needed. If you'd like to help in some capacity, call Suzanne and volunteer.

LIBRARY LIMITS MEETING USAGE

Perhaps you noticed in the paper that Parmly is squeezing the hours the YGF can meet there. Suzanne is looking for an alternate meeting place and hopes our members will check on any place they might know about and in turn, let her know. ***

FROM YOUR PRESIDENT

We are beginning a new year in the Forum and with that comes changes. I respectfully appreciate the members of the Forum. I realize that we are very busy being responsible people that our parents raised us to be. Taking care of our families and friends can be very time consuming. It is because of this that I am adopting a new plan called the 'buddy system'. The idea is that we 'job share'. Let me give you an example. It takes approximately 3 hours a month to be head of the calling committee. If we 'buddy-up', 2 people can do the job and they will both put in 1 1/2 hours a month! This system should also help out when a volunteer needs to leave town, or is unable to do their job. The buddy can then step in and the job still gets done. My hope is that this will make it easier for us to make our group strong and healthy! If you have any ideas or suggestions, please feel free to let me know!

By the end of July, we will be the proud 'owners' of the YGF Web Page. A group of people are working on that now. Cleve Kimmel and his 'buddy', will be maintaining this page for the first year.

Volunteers are needed to help with publicity. We are going to make an extra effort to get our name out to the public this year. Brochures need to be displayed in libraries and museums, other societies need to be advised of our future programs. Lots of options here!

We also need help deciding what records we want to film with our new micro-film machine. This group will need to be aware of records in the county and prioritize them to be filmed.

YGF is looking for another person to assist Ellen Cushing in ordering books for the gen room this coming year. This job needs people to be active researchers who are willing to look through book lists that come through the Internet i.e. Ancestry.com, as well as brochures that come to us from different publishers.

Did you know that the year 2001 marks Parm- ly Library's 100th birthday? They have invited us to join in the festivities. We will be designated a month (April is looking good) when we can 'strut our stuff'. We can hold work shops, have a fund raiser or what ever else we can think of. If you are interested in this group, contact Ann Ferguson!

A lot of new and fun things going on in the Forum this year. If you can find time to give and hour or two a month, please give me a call, or a fax or an e-mail. I guarantee you will NEVER get a busy signal!

suzanne@imt.net Suzanne McPherson

406-652-4610 phone or fax

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FGS/UGA CONFERENCE in SLC

The Federation of Genealogical Societies is sponsoring its annual family his-tory conference on 6-9 September 2000 in Salt Lake City in conjunction with the Utah Genealogical Association. It's an event you won't want to miss! This conference offers an extraordinary selection of more than 135 classes, taught by professional researchers from around the country. A unique feature of this conference is the conference site of Salt Lake City, home to the world's largest genealogical repository--the LDS Family History Library. The Library is staying open extended hours during the conference at the Salt Palace Convention Center. Many hotels, shops, and fine eating establishments are also located within easy walking distance of the confer-ence site and the Family History Library, making it an ideal location for conference attendees.

For more information, check the web site: www.fgs.org or call the FGS office toll-free at 888-FGS-1500. Call Sue-Ann at 252-2568 or Athna May at 259-2552 for local car pooling and room-sharing help.

***

DUES ARE DUE

It is with some alarm that I say--dues are due. Alarm because the last year has gone so fast and I haven't written up my genealogy yet. How are the rest of you doing? YGF dues are still a bargain--only $10 for an individual and $15 for a family. Don't forget to include a donation to our special funds--YGF Book Fund and the Stern-NARA Gift Fund. Your extra dollars go a long way towards buying extra books and periodicals for the Gen-Room and making more National Archive documents available to genealogists. Mail your check made out to YGF to Sue-Ann Jacobson, 3029 Ryniker Drive, Billings, MT 59102. Your label will show your expiration date.

HOW I SOLVED IT

I was so new at "genealogy" that I didn't know where to begin. However, I DID have a handwritten account of several of my ancestors--the fact that people were referred to as "Grandma Buckland" and Aunt Loretta seemed pretty vague to me.

That is where Louse Erekson entered the picture. We worked and deciphered and pondered the best we could--recognizing a few places, etc.

So one day I said to Louise, "Do you think you could go to Minnesota for a week with me and help me find information at various courthouses". Yes, she could. So that started my quest. For example, in Wadena, we made friends with the girls in the Clerk and Recorders office who gave us free rein in pouring over the BIG books from long ago. We found tons of pertinent material and then started off to our next destination. We'd gone down the highway a short distance when she said, "You know we really should check the cemetery here....I didn't think that was a good idea but we made a U turn and headed back to Wadena. More good news--we located the Caretaker and he showed us all over and there were several graves of my kin folk and monuments pertaining to their service in the Civil War!!!

Now we headed for Minneapolis where Ginger, Louise's daughter lives and is a Registered Genealogist who knew her way around the new Minnesota Historical Society, where we again found loads of wonderful data.

Then on south to the Iowa border where I found a marriage license that helped solve a puzzle. It was a fabulous trip and certainly "hooked" me on my genealogical quest.

In the interest of brevity I must close and get to work on my ancestors!!!!!!

by Bobbe Sullivan

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LAUREL GENEALOGY GUILD

A new genealogy group has organized at Laurel and plans to meet the first Thursday of each month at 6 p.m. at the Laurel Public Library, 720 W. Third St. The public is welcome.

Due to the 4th of July holiday, the July meeting was changed to July 13th. For more information call Michael Furman, Sr. at 628-4987. Happy searching everyone!

FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY CATALOG ON DISK

Anyone can now purchase their own copy of the Family History Library Catalog on CD for $5 which includes shipping. For home use call 1-800-537-5971 and have your credit card ready.

This is the same catalog that you use at the Family History Centers that's on CD and on microfiche. The listings were current as of March 2000. What a great tool to have in your own home!

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YGF BUYS PROJECTOR

YGF members saw their new purchase of a portable overhead projector at our May 16th meeting. Our first speaker to use it was Ron Kaminski from the Retired Railroad Board. The projector was purchased locally and has its own carrying case. It is wonderful to have our own equipment so that programs can be seen by our members.

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MEMBERSHIP UPDATE

Ferguson, Ann, 312 Lewis Ave., Billings, MT 59101, same ph. # 406-248-4082

Grantier, C. Dan, e-mail: cdan@imt.net

Hutchinson, Rick, e-mail: rdhut@home.com

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FUTURE NOVEMBER MEETINGS?

The question of whether to have a November Dinner meeting has been brought up. This has come about as the attendance has dwindled down from 56+ to 48. The price of our holiday dinner was $11.50 per person this past year. That's over 20 bucks for a couple and many people on fixed incomes think twice before spending that amount. Multiply that by more than one club having holiday dinners and choices will have to be made.

Both the membership and Board have had input. A regular program that teaches or informs has been suggested with festive refreshments.

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YGF MEMBER INJURED

Pat Miller suffered a broken pelvis on June 12th in a one car roll over near Big Timber. She will be confined at home for about 3 months except for medical checkups. How about dropping her a few lines, or contact by phone or e-mail? Bet she would appreciate you thinking of her.

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LIBRARIAN'S CORNER

This is a "Sock IT To ME! reference. Big time in reference circles. Our Gen-Room contains 15 large beige books at least 2" thick and 9 X 11 1/4" in size. In case you haven't guessed the blue letters say "Passenger and Immigration Lists Index" edited by P. William Filby with Mary K. Meyer.

These books represent hundreds of books where names with whatever data was available have been extracted into Surname, given name, age, place of arrival, year of arrival, code to source book and page number.

We have 4 sets of 3 books plus 3 yearly supplements only missing the 1985 supplement. If you know your ancestor's name who came across the sea but don't know the arrival, when or where, it would be well worth your time to check each of these sources.

The source book is coded and is listed inside the front covers. You then have a title, author, etc. to pursue in other libraries through rental, interlibrary loan and such so you can see for yourself.

No one person could ever check as many sources as these books represent. For instance, the first edition indexed 480,000 names from 300 sources. You should consider checking for your ancestor in these Filby books!

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TWO MEMBERS DIE

Since our last newsletter, the Forum has lost two fine members, and they will be greatly missed.

Pat Moore has been a member a number of years. She is remembered for having made the mailing labels for our newsletter several years back and often helped with the mailing. She also published the "GRAVES" family newsletter for awhile. Many of her books have been donated to the Gen-Room.

Bill Chapman for a short time he was once our YGF Vice-President. One of his hobbies was Civil War Reinactments--a way of showing appreciation of history.

"A family's history is a common bond between all members and connections of that family, in the past, in the present and for generations to come - at home and across boundaries and seas."

by John G. Stevens

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