Greene County Genealogical Society
by Valerie Ogren
Meeting notice: The next meeting of the Greene County Genealogical Society will be Saturday, Oct. 4, at 10 am in the Jefferson public library. Guest speaker will be Ces Melson-Brunow. She will give us some helpful hints on “Telling Your Stories”. She grew up in this community and, with her husband John, relocated back to Iowa a few years ago. Ces is currently serving as president of the Greene County Historical Society. The basement meeting room is handicapped accessible. Guests are always welcome!
October is Family History Month: A hint of fall is in the air and some of you might be thinking about house cleaning or preparing your yard and garden for winter. Wouldn’t it be more fun to sit and organize family history and photos you have collected during the summer? If you haven’t started to record your family history, now would be a good time. There is no right or wrong way. We have ancestor charts and other forms available, but do what works best for you. Start with what you know and work back to what you don’t know. Put it in journal format if you wish.
A few years ago I found myself inundated with PAPER. Since I began researching long before I had a computer, I had hand written info in notebooks, photocopied material from various libraries across the country, obituaries, memorial folders, census records, etc. And it wasn’t all in one place. There were boxes and folders in the closet, under the bed, in the computer desk, file cabinet and in the store room (things which hadn’t been unpacked since moving to the condo 23 years ago). I invested in an inexpensive computer program called Family Tree Maker. There are many other brands, but this works for me. I take all those scraps of paper and enter the information I have for each individual. Now if I find new info, it can easily be added. Then I discard the newspaper clipping to the recycle sack. I’m not done, but I’m gaining on it.
Community Fellowship Gathering: In observance of Family History Month, I was asked to be guest speaker at Trinity Lutheran Church on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 4:30 – 5:30 pm. It will be geared more toward beginning genealogy, but bring all your questions and “brick wall” problems. If you have a laptop computer, bring that also. There are many web sites available to help.
Civil War Sesquicentennial 2012-2015: I am continuing to help a volunteer from a veterans’ group locate graves of Civil War veterans. Right now he is concentrating on the Iowa 39th. We may have located another one without a gravestone. Have you remembered your Civil War ancestor? If you know of an unmarked grave, please contact me. “Leave No One Behind!”
Reference library: Hours are Wednesday afternoon from 1 – 4 and Saturday mornings from 9 – 12. Other times may be arranged by appointment. Volunteers will assist you with any research problems you may have. Some of the surnames being researched recently are: FRY, BERRY and FORD.
Contact us: Our web page is located at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.
