Greene County Genealogical Society
~by Valerie Ogren
Meeting notice: The next meeting will be Saturday, Nov. 1, at 10 am in the Jefferson public library. (These meetings that fall on the first day of the month have a way of sneaking up on me.) Elaine Deluhery will share a fun program “To Grandmother’s House We Go.”. Rumor has it that this might be an audience participation event, so bring your thinking caps. We will see how much we remember about Grandma’s house. The basement meeting room is handicapped accessible. Guests are always welcome!
Officers: The nominating committee has been at work. If you haven’t been contacted yet and you would like to serve, please call Arlene Johnson or Shirley Ross. We will elect on Saturday and install at the December meeting.
SAPIC: Our organization has been a dues-paying member of the State Association for the Preservation of Iowa Cemeteries for a number of years. The state group has been instrumental in helping to enact legislation to preserve the burial places of our ancestors. It has also assisted county supervisors in forming a Pioneer Cemetery Commission within their county. Unfortunately, not every county has such a commission, but we are fortunate to have forward-thinking supervisors here in Greene County. GCGS is also proud to have two of our members, Shirley Clark and Ada Ross, serving on the Greene County Commission.
Greene Gleanings: The fourth issue of our quarterly newsletter was sent this week via email to 60 of our members and via USPS to 30 others. It seems to have increased attendance at meetings, brought in a few renewals and a few new members. We hope that trend continues. Since we were chartered in 1978, the objectives of our society are 1) to create and foster an interest in genealogy; 2) to preserve genealogical and historical data, particularly of our ancestors and the early settlers of Greene County, Iowa; 3) to aid individuals in compiling family genealogies; and 4) to improve and help maintain, through contribution of members of the society, the genealogical reference sections of the public libraries in Greene County, Iowa.
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: Johnson and Denny in Highland Twp., Riley in Cedar Twp., Kreamer in Washington Twp. and Kirkham, Wright and Gymer in Bristol Twp.
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.
