Board Members

Berrien County Genealogical Society

Berrien County Michigan

"Finding our family one branch at a time"

Board Members

President- Aloma Custer
Aloma has been a member of the Berrien County Genealogical Society for 3 years. She has served as the Director of the Family History Center for the Benton Harbor ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 4 years and has served as a librarian in various other Family History Centers in the church for 3 years previous to being a director. She began her research as a teen with her mom as her inspiration. Her favorite family history experience was spending several years working with her sister in collecting family histories of every ancestor on the 5 generation pedigree chart. She has also compiled a CD of family history on her 8 brothers and sisters with their posterity, including all of their wedding pictures, family pictures and personal histories. She has taught beginning genealogy classes to all ages and really enjoys it.

1st Vice President- Patsy Miller
Patsy has been a member of the Berrien County Genealogical Society since 2006. In addition to being 1st Vice President, she also edits our newsletter "The Past Finder". She is a lifelong resident of Berrien County and can trace all lines of her genealogy to at least four generations of Berrien County residents. She built a house on property that has been in her family for more than 150 years. This inspired her to start her genealogy research. She tries to fit in as much research as possible between her full-time job, being a Board member, and writing "The Past Finder".

2nd Vice President- Alma Arent
Alma first joined the BCGS in 1987 and was a member until 1997. She took a short time off and joined us again in 2001. She has been working on her genealogy since she first joined in 1987. Alma's favorite genealogical experience was finding her great-great grandfather's name on a ship's manifest on a ship originating from London. She had been researching the ships from Bremen, because they were from Germany. She said that this was just "beginner's luck" to find him. Alma is a great support to the BCGS as a board member.

Treasurer- Dale Frie
Dale has been a member of the Berrien County Genealogical Society for 8 years now. He is presently serving as Treasurer. He also has served as Sergeant At Arms and Parliamentarian. Dale’s favorite genealogy experience was last time he and his wife (the genealogist) went to Allen County Library in Ft. Wayne, IN, he spent the whole day researching Richard Wagner’s opera Der Ring des Nibelungen

Recording Secretary- Marge Yetzke
     Marge worked from 1967 until 1998 at Whirlpool Corp. mostly in Research & Engineering. After battling cancer twice she did not return to Whirlpool. She works part time at Watervliet United Methodist church and enjoys her free time with gardening, genealogy, antiquing, stained glass, taking & editing digital pictures. She is a member of the "Grave Stone Five" a loosely formed group of Bainbridge Twp. neighbors (plus Bob Cooley) who have cleaned, repaired and recorded 5-6 cemeteries in the township.
     She has been a member of the Berrien County Genealogical Society since about 2001. She joined after meeting Cindy, Dale & Bob at the Byers Cemetery clean-up day which she helped organize in 2000.
     Marge has been working on and off for 30 years on her genealogy, her aunt Virginia was her inspiration. She became intrigued when they sent for Michigan Bicentennial certificates for the whole family.
     Marge’s favorite genealogical experience was finding a handwritten letter from a co-gold miner of her Great-Great-Grandfather, Joseph H. ENOS from 1851, California. It was written to a neighbor of his and told how her gggrandfather died in the gold fields of California. (Marge found out about the letter from a neighbor of hers who is very distantly related to her.) Small world.

Corresponding Secretary- Janice Plangger
I have been a member for about 10 years. I have served as Board Member, Treasurer and currently as Corresponding Secretary. I started getting interested in genealogy when in 1965 we were able to locate my fathers sister whom he had not seen since they were adopted as very small children. This peaked my interest and I have been researching both sides of the family every since.

Librarian- Nancy Cooley
Nancy has been a member of the BCGS for 2 years. She started attending with her husband Bob and then accepted the position as BCGS Librarian. She and Bob have been responsible for the BCGS holdings in the Berrien Springs library. She is on the look-out for good resource books to add the BCGS holdings. If you should have any suggestions you can e-mail the society and she will be glad to look into it.
Although she has not yet started her research, she is an avid support to her husband Bob, who also serves on the board.

Parliamentarian/Sergeant at Arms-Barbara Pence
     In the fall of 2005, Barbara saw a notice in the newspaper for a Family History Workshop at the Mormon Church in Benton Harbor. As the person in her family who listened to all the stories, she thought attending might be interesting. Everyone there was so helpful, and more than willing to answer her endless questions; in no time at all she was hooked. The volunteers at the Family History Library showed her many tricks of the genealogical trade and willingly spent even more time and energy helping put her two left feet on the right path. She joined the Berrien Genealogical Society that year to learn more, help where and when she could, and in turn met an incredible group of researchers with great senses of humor.
     After more than two years she has uncovered some truly interesting and tantalizing information on many members of her family, come to enjoy spending time in libraries and courthouse basements, thinks the smell of musty paper is more enticing that Chanel No. 5, and can find her way to the Ft. Wayne Library without getting lost. Well, most of the time.
     Being someone who has always loved a good mystery, she now thinks she’s Sherlock Holmes!

Director- Bob Cooley
We’re not sure how many years Bob has been a member of the society. He’s a little shy of giving out this information. Bob is our Cemetery Headstone specialist. He spends many hours repairing the broken or tarnished headstones in the local cemeteries. Bob has also spent many hours compiling the Cemetery Books that the BCGS has published. Not only has Bob personally walked the cemeteries to glean the information, he has researched the Berrien County records to complete the information that is not found in the cemetery records.
Bob has also made a framed picture of Berrien County and located each of the cemeteries in the county with a colored flag that denotes ownership of the cemetery. We appreciate all of the work that Bob does to preserve our heritage.

Director- Joyce Stockman

Director- Gene Rose
     Gene and his wife Ann, have been members of Berrien County Genealogical Society for about 4 years. He is presently serving as a member of the Board.
     Gene was born and raised in Buchanan Township. His Great Great Grandfather Asa Batchelor settled on banks of the Saint Joseph River in1850, which was then Niles Township but is now Buchanan Township.
     Gene started his research in the 70’s. Then decided to quit after staying up all night and then going to work.
    When Gene was transferred to Ohio, he and Ann resumed research at the Cleveland Library and at the Family History Center at the Mormon Church in Kirkland, Ohio. He then continued his research while living in North Carolina. After they returned to Michigan in 2002, they resumed heavy research when his mother Ruth Rose was preparing for the descendants of Asa Batchelor's 90^th reunion. Both he and Ann have some 5000+ names logged. They continue to search for proof, verification and more of their family information.
     Gene and Ann are researching Rose, Smith, Denno, Shoemaker, Greene, Goehring, Coger.
Other information about Gene:
     He graduated Buchanan High School
     He also graduated from Michigan State University, Bachelor Science Agricultural Engineering
     He spent 5 years with J.I. Case Co testing and designing far tillage equipment.
     He worked 40 years with Clark Equipment Co and Volvo Corporation testing and designing large rubber tired
Front end loaders.
     He has served 17 years as a member Buchanan Township Zoning Board.
     He is a 15 year member Berrien County Planning Commission.
     He is currently a 44 year Charter member of Howard Community Lions Club. Current Sec,/Treasurer.
     He has served 5 years as State appointed board member of Berrien County DHS.
and has served 6 years as a member of Friends of Oak Ride Cemetery in Buchanan
     Gene is a 52 year member of American Society of Agricultural Engineers.
      A 35 year member of Society of Automotive Engineers,
             - serving as a Committee   membership
             - Rim and Tires of Off Highway
             - Steering Controls and Ergonomics
             - Coauthored SAE Standard for Secondary Steering
     Gene currently holds a patent for Transmission and Engine Controls for large front end loader.
     We are proud to have Gene as a member of the BCGS board.

Board Member At Large- Margaret Schmieding
Margaret has been a member of the Berrien County Genealogical Society for 6-7 years. She has been doing research on her family for the same amount of time. Her favorite genealogical experience is attending Norwegian Log Stevnes. They have lots of Norwegian genealogical research aids (i.e. church records) in one place and “interpreters” usually available.

Board Member At Large- Oline Edge
Oline Edge has been a member of the Berrien County Genealogical Society for 5-6 years. She has been working on her genealogy for 5 years. Her favorite genealogy experience was going to a Norwegian stevne*, touring around with my aunt to see some family sites and cemeteries. Genealogy is a fun and challenging hobby even though it seems she’s always at a dead end. Oline is researching Norwegian, German, Irish and English. Surnames of Wagner, Manske, Luvaas, Edge, Hynes and Byrne.
*A stevne deals with Norwegian culture and they usually have parish, farm and many other Norwegian records. Usually a stevne is for a specific area or maybe a couple of adjoining areas.

Board Member At Large- Stacey Wigent
Stacey is presently serving as a member of the Board. Stacey was born in Niles. Her parents and grandparents have been lifelong residents of Berrien County. Her Great Great Grandfather Michael Cauffman settled in Berrien County before 1860. She began researching genealogy with her great grandfather William Arthur "Pete" Miller as her inspiration after a visit to the National Archives in Washington DC with her husband and brother in-law. She has some 4679 names logged in her family tree so far.
Stacey enjoys taking pictures of headstones, collecting old family pictures and has been learning to play golf and sew. Some of the names Stacey is researching are Braddy, Bridges, Cauffman, Duran, Edwards, Kazmirski, Miller, Rough, Walls, Wigent and Wolford.
Other information about Stacey: She graduated from John Adams High School. She also graduated from Penn Foster Career School

Ex Officio- Cindy Frie
     Cindy served as the BCGS President for 6 years. She has been a member of the society for about 6 ½ years and working on her genealogy for about 27 years.
     When asked “What is your favorite Genealogy experience?” she said “I grew up knowing very little about my fathers family, both of my grandparents died before my father turned 30, this gave us a huge gap of information on his family. So I would have to say Overall just learning about his lineage has been my favorite experience, especially when I had the opportunity to see the joy on his face when I found something "new".
     Besides the Basic Genealogy Classes she has taught, she has given presentations on the following:

Researching Census Reports – Which State & Federal Census Reports can be accessed
Researching Ancestors Military Background – Wars fought in America
Beginners Genealogy - Learn the Basics of researching your ancestors
Organizing your Genealogy - Different Genealogical Programs available for purchase and how to control your paper trail
Different Sources available to further your research
Melungeon Research - What is a Melungeon and how to research this group of people.
African American Research – Researching your African American Ancestors
Cemetery Preservation – How to preserve our Cemeteries, proper cleaning and repairs.
Native American Research – Researching your Native American Ancestors