Greene County Genealogical Society
~by Valerie Ogren
Meeting notice – PLEASE NOTE change of location: The next meeting will be Saturday, Feb. 7, at 10 am – but NOT in the Jefferson public library. Because of construction work installing the new elevator there, the meeting will be held at the courthouse in the second floor recorder’s office. Marcia Tasler, Greene County recorder, will give us some hints on “Searching Vital Records.” Her office is in charge of keeping records for births, deaths, marriages – and deeds. Tasler will tell us what is available and allow a little time to look up information you might need for your family history. So do your homework and bring pencil and paper. You may use courthouse parking. Please use the east door. Guests or new members are always welcome.
Reference library – WINTER HOURS: We voted at our last meeting to only be open by appointment during the winter months. As a rule, not too many family historians travel around the country during the winter. Please call Arlene Johnson at 515-386-5431 or the Jefferson public library at 515-386-2835 to make an appointment. They have a list of local members who will be glad to help you. Keep in mind that because of the new elevator installation, it may not be possible to have access to our reference room for a couple weeks. However, all of our Greene County vital records, census and cemetery publications as well as census and newspaper microfilm are always available for research in the adult section of the library. We will resume normal hours in April.
War of 1812 pensions: These records contain a small gold mine of genealogical information. Because the applicants had to prove eligibility, pension files are chock full of goodies: pages from family Bibles; original marriage records; original citizenship papers; discharge certificates and so much more. They are among the most frequently used records held by the National Archives — and that makes them among the most fragile, the most in need of preservation and digitization to make them more accessible for us all. Check out http://www.preservethepensions.org/ to see what is being done to preserve these valuable documents.
The State Historical Library of Iowa – CHANGING HOURS: Effective Feb. 1, 2015 hours will be Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 9 am to 4:30 pm. Retrievals of state archives, photograph and manuscript collections will only be made on Thursday and Friday at 9:45 and 11 am, and at 1, 2:15 and 3:30 pm. The reason for these changes is that their staff is evaluating the collection and developing a plan for digital preservation of the collection. The reason is not budgetary but to give their staff two full days per week to work on this project.
Contact us: Our web page is located at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~iagcgs/. Email us at gcgsiowa@hotmail.com or P O Box 133, Jefferson IA 50129-0133.
