Awards and Recognition

Harriet DeWolfe is recognized for her outstanding support, management and leadership of the Genealogical Society of South Whidbey Island. She was the Society's second president and served before that as treasurer. She was program director four years, raising the level of the society's programs to an extraordinarily high level and improving the speaker communication process. As the seminar chairperson for three seminars she distinguished herself and her committee. Harriet researched nationally-known genealogical speakers and their potential topics. Because of her efforts the society has enjoyed inspiring seminars with superb speakers. Outstanding in her organizational capabilities, she followed the seminars to the end by creating and collecting feedback surveys for future seminars. Harriet can always be counted on as a voice of reason if a subject becomes contentious. She has a wonderful way of getting to the heart of matters and expressing a common sense approach for resolution. She is an exceptional asset for the Genealogical Society of South Whidbey Island and is greatly appreciated.

About five years ago Washington's Secretary of State's office initiated a vital records website with information on births, deaths, census records, etc. Early on, Ralph furnished Island County census transcriptions for their site. Meanwhile, after years of collecting vital records from Island County newspapers for the Genealogical Society of South Whidbey Island, he had been contemplating how best to make that information available for genealogists. Recently Ralph contacted the Secretary of State's office offering these lists for their use. They accepted, and since then he has been reformatting and editing these large computer databases to make them suitable for their use. This project will be a great benefit to genealogists worldwide.

President Laura Roetcisonder presents Ralph Seefeld with his award as Doreen Johnson looks on.

Doreen Johnson is a mainstay of the Genealogical Society of South Whidbey Island. Whenever and wherever a need arises, she is there, volunteering to help. She has taught the monthly education classes for the society and community education classes for both adults and children. She is editor, feature writer including a series on "treasured items" of members, photographer and printer of the society's monthly newsletter. She set up and "debugged" the online delivery system for the newsletter. She almost single-handedly managed the publicity for the 2004 and 2006 seminars and worked on other past seminar committees. When the society set up a "travel basket" of raffle items, she helped decide what to purchase, designed and printed up tickets, and organized members to sell the tickets. She also videotapes the monthly speakers for absent members and for use in the library, which she currently manages on a temporary basis. Doreen took on the surname card file from the society's archivist, converted the file into a database so it can be sorted and printed in any number of ways, and produced a report by state, showing which member was researching where. She constructed a chart to show all of that and a "thermometer" indicating who had turned in their ancestors. She also serves on the society's board as Director of Publications and Archivist. Whatever Doreen does, she does well. She truly exemplifies exceptional and consistent support."

President Laura Roetcisonder presents Doreen Johnson with the award.

Ralph Seefeld distinguished himself in support of the Genealogical Society of South Whidbey Island and other research through his efforts to preserve important genealogical data. With the help of other society members, Ralph surveyed all of the cemeteries in Island County (both Whidbey Island and Camano Island). The resulte were then posted on the web and published in book form which is available to the public. Ralph also transcribed several territorial and state censuses of Island County from the 19th century. These were posted on the web and submitted to the Secretary of State's office for posting on their website. Ralph's ongoing project is the collection and printing of obituaries of Island County. To date there are 40 two-inch binders of obituaries. Copies have been shared with the Island County Historical Society. While going through newspapers, Ralph has also been collecting information on births, marriages, divorces and naturalizations.

Diana received her award in the category of "exceptional and consistent support of the goals and operation of a Society" for her help with establishing a long-term loan arrangement to house our book collection with the LDS books. She, with Myrna Lidell from the LDS, cataloged and classified our collection according to author and title with all other library identification information included. They also used zip codes or the first three letters of a country's name on the spine. These books were moved in 2003 to the LDS Family History Center. Diana then made a list of all of our books, and in 2004 it was added to our website by Richard Guenther.

With the help of other society members, Ralph surveyed all of the cemeteries in Island County which consists of both Whidbey Island and Camano Island in Puget Sound. This in itself was a monumental and time-consuming task. The results were then posted on the web and published in book form which is available to the public. Ralph also transcribed several territorial and state censuses of Island County from the 19th century. These results were posted on the web and submitted to the Secretary of State's office for posting on their website. An ongoing project is the collection and printing of obituaries of Island County. To date there are 32 two-inch binders of obituaries. These have been shared with the Island County Historical Society for copying. While going through newspapers, Ralph has also been collecting information on births, marriages, divorces and naturalizations.

From the very beginning of Ann joining our organization in 1997, she has chaired committees to help change our Genealogy Club status to the nonprofit Society status and to develop the Society Bylaws and Standing Rules. Over the years, she has served as president, vice president, field trip director, education director and is currently our treasurer. Ann has chaired and volunteered countless hours for numerous fundraising projects from rummage sales to a cookbook. She was instrumental in creating many ongoing fundraisers such as our door prize at our monthly meetings. She presented monthly beginning genealogy education programs to our society members and held an evening class for the public at a local school. Besides all this, she also found time to work on the Cemetery Book Committee with Ralph Seefeld and others.