Greene County Genealogical Society
~by Valerie Ogren
Meeting notice: The next meeting will be Saturday, Feb. 1 at 10 a.m. in the basement of the Jefferson Public Library. Dennis Lautner will favor us with another visit and some “Trivia Fun.” Since we are all super sleuths when it comes to tracking down family history that should be a breeze. But put on your thinking caps just in case. There will be a brief business meeting following the program. As always, guests are welcome. Maybe we can chase away the snow and cold. Wonder if the groundhog will see his shadow the next day?
Reference library hours: Volunteers are usually on hand every Wednesday afternoon from 1 to 4 and Saturday mornings from 9 to 12 to assist you with any research problems you may have. However, with the kind of weather we are having this winter you might want to call Arlene Johnson at 515-386-5431 just to make sure someone will be there. If you are just getting started, we have very inexpensive ancestor charts and family group sheets available to record your information. We also have an online computer and copy machine for your convenience. New things are being added to the shelves all the time. One project soon to be completed is an obituary collection (which we have indexed) received from the Jack Watts estate. The 2013 obituary collection is currently being indexed. We also have the “1870 Iowa Federal Census Index” – a 3 volume set. On some “free” web sites this information is not always available. Other books of Iowa interest are: “1850 Iowa Federal Census”, “Abandoned Towns in Iowa”, “Revolutionary War Soldiers and Patriots Buried in Iowa”, “88th Division in the World War of 1914-1918” and “Athletes of Iowa: Hometown Heroes”.
Cleaning house: We have discovered some duplicate books in our reference library and also some slightly out-of-date materials. Watch for a possible book sale at a future date. You may be able to find some things for your own book shelves. Whatever you take home we won’t have to dust!
Greene Gleanings: The society plans to reinstate its newsletter soon. It will probably be two to fouor times a year for now. It became evident that our out-of-state members were missing that contact and not getting much in return for their membership dues. Which reminds me, if you haven’t renewed for 2014 now is the time. [Nag, nag.] This will ensure that your name remains on the mailing list. If you have an ancestor chart or other information you would like to share, send it along. We will also be glad to publish queries.
Contact us: Our web page is located at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.
