Ford Genealogy Club March 8, 2001 Meeting

Meeting brought to order. 11 present. No new folks.

Reports: No Reports

Old Business: Modifications on constitution are attached to the agenda for tonight’s meeting. Motion to accept Bob Beiting’s changes, including what was discussed tonight. Accepted by all. The revised constitution will be sent to FERA once the final edits have been applied.

Chuck asked about changing our term limits for offices. We have a two year limit. Should we change it to 5 years or more? We have agreed we need to adjust upward of 2 years. But would like more feedback on how many years. We think we need a term limit though. Maybe you think 2 years is sufficient,

New Business: Post office box. We need to have the ‘owner’ named as John Nelson taken off and a new person listed as owner. They will not take a club name as owner. John Nelson was our original treasurer who opened our P.O. box. Chuck will handle the update.

Elections: It was a unanimous vote to select the slate as presented. So the new officers are as follows:

• President: Karen Krugman miprofgenie@wwnet.net
• Vice President: Diane Oslund diane@dianesgenealogy.com
• Treasurer: Mark Krugman krugman@wwnet.net
• Secretary: Mike Brautigan mbrautig@ford.com

Chuck Oslund will continue as our membership chair person: He has done this job for several years for the club, continuing while he serves as our president. So he won’t fade into the woodwork.

Presentation:

Show and Tell

Even though the turnout was small. I think everybody there brought in interesting items and we all enjoyed listening to them talk about it.

• Mary Beth Wilkie: Her family is Irish and German; She brought in a document found in the family home when her aunt, who lived there, moved. She gave Kathy a box saying ‘you like that genealogy stuff. Here.’ Inside was a (German) her grandfather’s father’s parents document (if I got the generations correct) It ended up being a German English language mixture. And the form was more Dutch than German. It lists names and dates of births, deaths, and marriages. Dates 1846-1865 for births. One of the children is her great grandmother. It turns out that it was one of the children of her great grandmother who wrote it. She was born in Germany but came to the U.S. as a small child.

• Diane Oslund: Back when Michigan celebrated it’s Sesquicentennial the Michigan Genealogical Council was giving out Pioneer Certificates to anyone who could prove they had ancestors in Michigan over 150 years. In other words anyone who had pioneer ancestors in Michigan before it became a state or settled in Michigan in that first year of statehood. Since I could prove this on my Roberson line, I got the necessary papers copied and sent in with the fee and received the certificate. Since I don’t have old items passed down in my family this certificate that means a great deal to me is what I brought it to show. It names me as the person to receive the pioneer certificate ‘in recognition of the contributions’ of my pioneer ancestor David Roberson who settled in the State of Michigan prior to December 31, 1837. My ancestor moved from New York to St. Clair County MI in the early 1830’s. It took land deeds, birth, death, and marriage certificates to prove my line from David to me.

• Matt LaDuke: He found papers at the Library of Michigan that a relative sent in (just like I did above) for their Sesquicentennial Pioneer Certificate. He discovered a relative (missed who) had a previous marriage no one in the family was aware of. He even found his grandfather’s death certificate in this record. Even though he didn’t have the items with him this he says is what started him on his genealogy trek.

• Bob Beiting: Copied and brought in funeral cards for family members who are religious (Catholic) with a prayer and person’s name and dates of birth and death. The idea behind these funeral cards is for you to use, maybe as a book mark or somewhere else and each time you view it to say the prayer on the card, for the deceased person soul. Bob made some copies of several he has and passed them out to us. One was is even in German.

• Herb Liedel: Didn’t bring anything in but he told us about his wife who was born in France near the Belgium border. She moved here to the U.S. as a small child. Years later she went back to visit the area and asking about possible family in the area, at a local store, she found out that a cousin was the local beer distributor and she had many relatives among the local farmers.

• George Newton: Brought in several old photos. One was an old photo of his Grandmother & great-grandmother who moved from Wisconsin to Chicago. She (great-grandmother I think) ran a boarding house. He got the picture from a relative in Ohio just got a couple weeks ago. On another picture he brought in, he told us that on the broach pinned to her dress, was a photo of her husband. Using a magnifying glass he can see the man’s face clearly. Picture I think was dated 1908. In another picture about 1904 his dad appears in, family photo, at age of 4 or 5. Pictures were expensive back then, costing about a weeks worth of labor. Isaac Newton is one of the fellas (not that Isaac Newton). Another photo was of a Masonic order of commandry. It had Individual photos all one sheet. Another photo was of Western High School, class of 1922. It was Art Newton’s class, George’s father. He brought other pictures in acid free plastic covers. All were very wonderful pictures. Many of them found in the old family homestead in the attic.

• Mike Brautigan: Brought a book on one of his family lines. A few years ago, he found a letter from 1946 in his mother’s things. His sister? Mike sorry I can’t remember just who, she threw out all his mother’s letters as they were personal and kept such things as the letter from 1946. It was similar to the letters many people get from Bath Ohio, claiming they have a book on your family or your family crest. The name was very unusual so Mike looked for a phone number. He got a gal who said the woman from the letter was her aunt. He gave him her aunt’s number and Mike called her. She, the aunt, said she still had copies of the book but could not say if Mike’s branch of this surname were in the book. Years later Mike found a copy of the book at the Detroit Library, Burton Room, and found his family was in it. His parents and siblings were even listed. He was not as he wasn’t born yet but it had generations of his ancestors back to the 1600’s. He called the gal back and discovered she only had one copy left and it was not even bound. He purchased it anyway. One year for his birthday his wife have it bound for him. The book is on the descendants of Thomas Bacon. Published in the late 1940’s.

• Mike McCarthy: His father gathered things but didn’t say much to anybody about them. Mike started actively working on genealogy about 1982 when he received a catalog in the mail selling tartans etc. The catalog said ‘if you can find your family tartan in here we can make ‘whatever’ out of the pattern for you. Example: Ties. His wife simply pointed at one and said that was her family’s tartan. Mike could not find one for his family so he started searching for one. That’s how he started in genealogy. He has a very fragile book that has been through a fire etc. so he uses a knife to turn the pages when he uses it. He did not bring it with him, too delicate. He has missionaries in the family who were in Burma for about 15 years. One thing they brought back with them was a small stone carved Buddha. He had it but somehow it got lost and he is just sick about it. Another item he brought in was a bible printed on bamboo. A long narrow strip of wood (from bamboo) and the bible is printed on it in Burmese. It’s roughly 150 years old. It’s very unique. He also brought in a book he got from an aunt in Idaho. About two generations before two families intermarried (three marriages) she descends from one and Mike descends from another. A Bible from the Brokaw family; got it because of its ancient look it was in the library, old beat up looking. He took it down to look at and discovered it had family records in the middle. He asked if he could have it and she said he could. Dates in the bible go back into the 1700’s. This is the only document that exists that Mike knows of that proves the marriage of one particular couple. With that information he passed on to another person enabled that person to find a huge amount of information about her ancestors. The bible also held a letter about the death of a child (not a child at the time). The person died soon after getting his medical degree. He managed to be away from home on every single census during his life and the family knew nothing of him before discovering this letter in the old bible.

• Sharon Brevoort: Brought in photographs that she copied digitally as the photographs are not hers (original) and a Carte de Visete. A marriage photo from 1911 Cape Town South Africa from Latvia. Also a copy of a Post Card addresses to ‘Joseph Zwick America’. Joseph Zwick was her husband’s grandfather. No other address what so ever. This card has the wedding picture of Joseph’s brother Oscar on the other side. All words are in a foreign language assumed to be Latvia (not sure what it’s called). Sharon wanted to find out about these people as her husband’s grandfather was the brother of the groom in this marriage photo. Perhaps finding out about them would help in learning about Joseph himself. She hired a researcher in New York to research this family. She has the 1920 census of Joseph Zwick. For place of birth put the enumerator put the particular the city, then crossed it out and put the country. The city is wonderful even if it wasn’t what should have been put there. Better in fact. They found the census also for Oscar Zwick. It gave the info that he came to the U.S. in 1904, was listed as married, but note this is before the photo post card above). So they discovered a marriage no one knew about. Ship passenger lists give Oscar with surname nothing like what they knew it to be. He was listed as coming to meet the same person her husband’s ancestor (brother of Oscar) was coming to meet on his ship passenger list. They also discovered a declaration of intent from 1936 with Oscar’s name as it was given when he came to the U.S. and nothing like the name as they (the family) know it to be.

• Karen Krugman: She brought in a glass pot with saucer. The pot has a hole in the bottom is a little larger, and taller then a cup. It was passed to her by Mark’s grandmother. She didn’t know what it was. She had to ask. It comes from the very early 1900’s. It is a jelly jar holder. The hole is to put your finger in to push the jar up out of the pot. A very unusual piece. At that time 1900ish you didn’t put jelly jars on the table You had to cover them up. Karen also brought in a quilt. She told of an ancestor who was indentured at the age of 8 years. This was about 1896. The girl’s mother had died and her father put the children in a home. ‘Edna’ was indentured out and it didn’t work so she was brought back to the home and was indentured out again. There were four children or four siblings of Edna’s in the home too. This time however she stayed with the folks who she was indentured to. They signed a contract that they would educate her and teach her the art of homemaking. At the age of 18 they were to supply her with a bible. Edna is Karen’s great grandmother. When married Edna made a quilt for each of her five children. Karen has her grandfather quilt. These people were in Ohio.

• Chuck Oslund: Brought in his copy of his grandfather’s birth certificate (fragile) from Italy. His great grandfather had come her, got naturalized (also brought in the naturalization certificate) and went back to Italy to marry, started his family then brought them back to PA. So his grandfather was born in Italy to an American citizen. The naturalization certificate is folded in many places, has been taped up for many years and on one end on the back is a list of voting dates and precinct. He also brought in a photo clipped from the Washington PA newspaper a couple years ago and sent to Chuck’s dad who sent it to Chuck. It is a picture of a line of men waiting, bag in hand to be inducted into the service during world war II. In the middle of the line of men is Chuck’s father. Chuck’s aunt still lives in the old home town and saw her brother’s photo in the paper and clipped it out. It’s really neat.

This is the end of Chuck Oslund’s presidency and Mike Saulsbury’s vice-presidency. So long fella’s and thank you for two years of running the show. Maybe you can drop them a note if you feel like it saying good bye. Although they will still be around. At least Chuck will. Mike has work problems with meeting our meeting schedule and can’t always make it. He is with us in heart and hopefully will soon be able to attend regularly once more. Welcome Karen Krugman as our new prez. And yours truly as VP.

And welcome Mike Brautigan as Secretary. He will be taking our minutes now. One job I won’t miss all that much.

Thank you Mark Krugman for being willing to continue as our treasurer.

I need to get on the ball and get our programs planned for the remainder of the year.

Next month Mark Krugman and Chuck Oslund will talk about things you can find on the internet to help you in your research. This should be how to find libraries, card catalogues, government agencies and such, not how to find a surname list or rootsweb or the USGenWeb and genealogy sites.

Hopefully this will be interesting and useful to all.

Minutes submitted by Diane Oslund

Ford Genealogy Club - March 8, 2001 Meeting Last updated March 19, 2001. Comments?