~by Valerie Ogren, Greene County Genealogical Society
Meeting notice: The Greene County Genealogical Society will meet Saturday, Sept. 5, at 10 am in the basement meeting room of the Jefferson public library. Bob Tucker will share some of his family research “The Hoppes Family – Switzerland to America – Part 2.”
If you have some family stories you would like to share for a future program, please let us know. Genealogy is sharing.
The library is handicapped accessible and guests are always welcome. The reference library will be open at 9 am if you would like to do some research before the meeting.
Pioneer certificates: Occasionally we have reminded you that we have pioneer certificates available for $5 each to descendants of Greene County pioneers who were residents of the county by 1870. In the recent issue of our Greene Gleanings newsletter, I listed the names of 85 ancestors named on previously issued certificates. The list is too long for this column, however. Check with our librarians. If one of them happens to be your ancestor, then your application is nearly filled out for you. They make nice Christmas gifts.
Clutter cleaning: It must be the cool weather. Last week I decided it was time to clean off the computer desk. I gathered up all the clutter into a nice neat stack 8 inches deep and started going through it. So far, I think I have thrown away about 10 pieces of paper. One was a note with a phone number – no name – and Switchboard.com said it was a cell phone. Another note with a name, address and phone number from a man in Texas who was seeking info to aide in writing his mother’s obituary – which I sent.
On a tiny scrap of paper was the name, birth date, death date, place of death, and naturalization date of one of Duane’s family members. That along with three obituaries of family members are now typed in Family Tree Maker.
In a small notebook which I carried on our trip to Scotland (1991) I found the name of the golf course in Edinburgh that Duane played with his cousin – which I had been trying to think of. It also contained the name of a resort town near Loch Lomond (The Trossachs) which I had also been trying to remember. Duane bought a beautiful wool sweater there.
On a trip to Texas ca. 1993, we visited President Johnson’s home at Johnson City. As we stepped off the porch and to the sidewalk, a little old lady in a car came zooming toward us from the post office across and down the street. I was afraid she was going to run over us. She just wanted to tell us that she was LBJ’s cousin and that he gave his first speech from that porch announcing his candidacy for Senate. Her name was Ava Cox, she was 88, retired school teacher and didn’t make over $100 a month until 1954. That was all I scribbled in my notebook after we got back in the car.
It was just enough info to make me curious now, some 20 years later. I logged onto Findagrave.com. She died in 2001 at the age of 96 and is buried in the Johnson City Masonic Cemetery. RIP Ava. Now I can throw that piece of paper away.
Oh yes, if you happen to know Matt Campos who lived at 3305 E. 13th, Des Moines ca. 1991 and was about 10 years old at the time, tell him I’m sorry I never got around to sending him those Nicholas Lindros NHL hockey cards. We met him and his mother in a laundromat in Bowie, MD.
Reference library: If you have an interest in family history but need help getting started, we have volunteers in our reference room every Wednesday from 1 to 4 pm and every Saturday from 9 am to noon. We have an online computer and a copy machine available. If your family has compiled a family history, we would welcome a donated copy for our collection.
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.
