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In the fall of
1971, a group interested in genealogical research gathered in St. Joseph's
Maud Preston Palenske Memorial Library Auditorium where they formed the
Genealogical Association. More heads are better than one when working on
tough genealogical problems. We shared our research experiences and taught
each other new ways to find information. Regular Association meetings were
held at 7:30 p.m. on the second Friday of each month except June, July, and
August, and dues were $4.00 per family. Speakers presented topics ranging
from personal research to determining the age of a photograph at these
meetings. At the insistence of my friend Lois Wier, I paid my dues before
the cutoff date and became a Charter Member even though I could never attend
on Friday nights. Instead, I did projects at home for the Association or
shared genealogical queries and research methods over the telephone. My
earliest copy of THE PASTFINDER is Volume I, No. 3, August 1972, which
carries the names and addresses of all the Charter Members. Some of the
early movers and shakers of the Association were Miss Charlene Andrews, Dr.
Hazel Eidson, Jack and Ruth Green, Craig James Gunn, Mrs. (Joel G.) Marjorie
Pearson, Julius Reinking, Victor and Bernice Reisig, Mrs. (Fred) Norma Jean
Schmidt, Donald J. Stuck, Mrs. (Victor) Lois Wier, Mrs. (Dale) Nancy Wolff,
and Edward and Edith Zuppann. Bernice Reisig was the first President of the
Association, and Edith Zuppann was the second. These early members aimed to
pursue five areas: (1) Continue THE PASTFINDER, (2) Index the cemeteries,
(3) Make a file of the members' four-generation ancestry charts, (4) Copy
and file Bible Records, and (5) Tape recollections of aged people.
Thirty-four years later The Pastfinder is still published, the cemetery
books are printed, the four-generation charts are in our library collection,
and we still copy Bible Records and tape recollections of the past. Our
Founders' aims continue to be fulfilled in the present. |