Photo added to Genealogist of the Year post

We have at last added a photograph to the December 14 post on Fern Eddy Schultz's being selected as the society's second Genealogist of the Year. And here it is as well!
Left: Fern Eddy Schultz. Right: Dorothy Palmer.

1940 census meeting February 14

Seventy-two years and one day after the 1940 US census was taken, its handwritten house-by-house returns will be made public on line April 2, 2012.

What questions were asked -- and answered -- by the 132 million Americans then living?

How can today's researchers find their families when there is no name index yet?

The La Porte County Genealogical Society will meet at 7 pm Tuesday, February 14, weather permitting, at the Swanson Center for Older Adults, 910 State Street. Following a short business meeting, Alan Zeller and Harold Henderson will answer these questions and more.

The society meets there on the second Tuesday of each month at 7 pm. The public is welcome at all meetings. Membership dues are $10 individual, $12 family.

It's not too early to apply for one or more residency certificates for 2012. Our web site at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inlcigs/ has information for those who believe they have La Porte County ancestors (and can prove it!). There's information on how to apply for First Families of La Porte (before December 1840), Pioneer Families (1841-1860), Settler Families (1861-1880), and Civil War Families (1861-1865).

You can also read or search back issues of the society's newsletter, December 2005 through December 2009, including genealogical and historical information from members' research and abstracting work in local records, on our blog at http://lpcgs.blogspot.com.

January meeting recap

A bus trip to Fort Wayne, possible cemetery tours, and a new publications committee were on the agenda when the La Porte County, Indiana, Genealogical Society held its monthly meeting January 10th. Forms will be available in February to sign up for April's all-day bus trip to the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. Bus travel will be $21 per person, and the Michigan City Public Library will co-sponsor the trip.

The recommendation to establish an Indexing, Abstracting, and Publications Committee, plus a set of policies for the committee, will be voted on at the next meeting in February. See the previous post on this blog for the details.

Following the business meeting, members shared relics and discoveries including an old grave rubbing from Winchester Cathedral in England, a long-lost family photograph, a collection of vacation pictures of a trip to Sacajawea's grave site in Wyoming, an ancestor's records from an old US veterans' home, some "peacekeepers" for a south county tavern, and a striking photo of a former Michigan City police chief.

Next month, on February 14, Alan Zeller and Harold Henderson will try to make sense of the 1940 census, which will be released to the public on 2 April. It will not be indexed by name. How can you find your ancestors -- or yourself! -- in the census without an index? Come and find out!

The society meets at 7:15 pm on the second Tuesday of each month at the Swanson Center for Older Adults, 910 State Street, La Porte, weather permitting. The public is welcome at all meetings.

Four applications have already been requested for residency certificates. The deadline for submitting application is July 31, so it's not too early to get started. Our web site at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inlcigs/ has information for those who believe they have La Porte County ancestors (and can prove it!). There's information on how to apply for First Families of La Porte (before December 1840), Pioneer Families (1841-1860), Settler Families (1861-1880), and Civil War Families (1861-1865).

You can also read or search back issues of the society's newsletter, December 2005 through December 2009, including genealogical and historical information from members' research and abstracting work in local records, on our blog at http://lpcgs.blogspot.com.

Proposed new society committee on publications

Here are the proposals the society will vote on at the 14 February meeting.

First a new committee added to the constitution and bylaws:

Section 4. The Indexing, Abstracting and Publications Committee consisting of five members with the following duties (1) To encourage and support the indexing and publishing of public and private genealogical records, (2) To oversee Society initiated abstracting and indexing projects, (3) To solicit and negotiate with authors and compilers for publication and sale of their work by the Society, (4) To oversee printing, binding, and distribution of publications, (5) To oversee on-line publication via the website, including possible on-line publication of older publications, and (6) To report to the membership and the board.

Second, a set of policies for the committee:

POLICIES OF

INDEXING, ABSTRACTING & PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE

(A) Society-initiated projects. Anyone volunteering to work on indexing/abstracting projects under the direction of the Society would sign an agreement relinquishing their rights to the completed project. All necessary materials to do the work on the project would be furnished by the society. All proceeds from sales would go to the treasury of the La Porte County (IN) Genealogical Society. Compilers would each receive one free copy of the published book.

(B) Independent compiler projects. Anyone who wishes to do abstracting or indexing on his/her own may offer the work to the society for publication. The Society could also approach such a person and offer to publish and sell. If an agreement was reached, the individual compiler(s) would sign a Donation of Work form relinquishing all or part of their rights to the work and allowing the Society to publish and sell. All proceeds from sales would go to the treasury of the La Porte County (IN) Genealogical Society. Compilers would each get one free copy of the published book.

(C) Independent publisher projects. Anyone who privately publishes and markets their work may offer the Society a quantity of copies at a lesser price, to be sold by the Society at the same market price offered by the individual, so a small profit would be added to the Society's coffers. Specific arrangements would be subject to negotiation between the committee and the author. These products could be offered for sale by the Society on its web site, in its quarterly newsletter, or in any other manner, but they would not be Society publications. The compiler(s) would retain all rights.

(D) The committee will establish necessary procedures, including forms for the above situations.

January show-and-tell meeting

Have you found something old? Something new? Weather permitting, La Porte County Genealogical Society members and friends will swap favorite genealogy finds, relics, and research stories at their monthly meeting, 7 pm Tuesday, January 10, at the Swanson Center for Older Adults, 910 State Street, La Porte.

The society meets there on the second Tuesday of each month at 7 pm. The public is welcome at all meetings. Membership dues for 2012 are now due as well -- $10 individual, $12 family.

It's not too early to apply for one or more residency certificates for 2012. Our web site at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inlcigs/ has information for those who believe they have La Porte County ancestors (and can prove it!). There's information on how to apply for First Families of La Porte (before December 1840), Pioneer Families (1841-1860), Settler Families (1861-1880), and Civil War Families (1861-1865).

You can also read or search back issues of the society's newsletter, December 2005 through December 2009, including genealogical and historical information from members' research and abstracting work in local records, on our blog at http://lpcgs.blogspot.com.

Fern Eddy Schultz is Genealogist of the Year

Tuesday night's annual dinner meeting of the La Porte County Genealogical Society included the presentation of one award -- Genealogist of the Year. The honoree for 2011 was Fern Eddy Schultz, in recognition of her advice, publications, indexing, and enjoyment of family history, as well as her long service to the society dating back to when it was a part of the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society. The presentation was a genuine surprise, as the committee members involved kept the secret well. In the picture, Dorothy Palmer presents Fern with the award.

New La Porte County Information

Two recent items, the first available only in hard copy and the second only on line:

(1) Fern Eddy Schultz, "Painless Opium Antidote: Invention of 'Dr.' Samuel B. Collins," The Oldletter (La Porte County Historical Society), December 2011, pp. 2-3. Collins (1835-1893) went from brick mason to physician to spiritualist, and from Darke County, Ohio, to La Porte and later to Chicago during his lifetime. The article gives fascinating glimpses of his life, sometimes just one step ahead of the law. The original block naming his building is on display at the Historical Society museum on US 35 south of La Porte.

(2) Rachel Popma, "Hanna High School (La Porte County) Class of 1923 Class Roll and School Photograph," Indiana Genealogist 22(4) (December 2011):166-7. From her great-grandmother Myrtle Hazel Hammerback's papers. Many of the people in the photograph have yet to be identified. (IG is published quarterly on-line as a benefit of membership in the Indiana Genealogical Society.)