Finney County Genealogical Society Immediate Past President

Published 9/18/2008 in the Garden City Telegram

Lilia LaRee Shearmire, 76, died Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008, at Homestead Health & Rehabilitation Center in Garden City.
She was born Feb. 1, 1932, in Scott County, to Ira Prosper and Julia Lenihan Minnix.
On June 5, 1949, she married Ray Shearmire in Friend.
A resident of Garden City since 1955, moving from Scott City, Mrs. Shearmire had been owner and operator, along with her husband, and was an integral part of Garden Bowl, Garden Mimeo, Garden Skate, and Hard Rock Lanes & Tumbleweed Turf and was an English as Second Language teacher.
She was a member of Church Of The Brethren of Garden City, where she was the church's first woman moderator, taught the Menninger Bible Study for 28 years and was a Sunday School teacher for 38 years. She also held many offices in the State Bowling Proprietor Association and was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2004. She was a member of the Women's Chamber, and enjoyed playing bridge, piano and organ, drama with local groups, signing, photography, cross stitch, genealogy and traveling, having visited 21 countries. She was a collector of crystal, elephants, coins and stamps, and loved being with her family.
In addition to her husband, other survivors include a son, Gregg Shearmire of Garden City; two daughters, Linda Owen and Susan Stout, both of Garden City; a sister, Wilda Werner of Atwood; 12 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents and a brother, Berl Minnix.
Funeral will be 10:30 a.m. Friday at Church Of The Brethren in Garden City, officiated by John Elder, pastor. Burial will be in Valley View Cemetery, Garden City.
Visitation is until 8 tonight at Price & Sons Funeral Home in Garden City. Condolences may be sent at www.priceandsons.com. Memorials are suggested to the ALS (Lou Gehrig's) Association or to the church, both in care of the funeral home, 620 N. Main St., Garden City, KS 67846.

Did Granny Tell You There Was an Indian in Your Past?

Family History Month Seminar by Robert Winter Owl Vann, Genealogical Lecturer and Native American Storyteller with session topics: Climbing the Family Totem Pole, Geographical Migrations of Native Americans, Government Records for Indian Research and Methods of Organization and Records Management. (Sessions are intended for beginning genealogists and those just starting their Native American Research.
Active in genealogical research since 1963, Robert Winter Owl Vann has taught genealogy classes to church groups as well as adult Community Extension classes through Sam Houston State University. He is an LDS Family History Center Associate Director, a Beta tester for the new familysearch.com program, a family Church Services Missionary, and is the current President of the Walker County (AL) Genealogy Society.
Mr. Vann has national experience as a Native American Historian and Storyteller, and regularly does workshops and lectures on things Cherokee. His three-issue article on Cherokee research was published in the Valley Leaves Quarterly of the Tennessee Valley Genealogical Society.
Join Midwest Historical and Genealogical Society on Saturday, October 11, 2008 from 8:15 AM to 4:30 PM at the Eugene M. Hughes Metropolitan Complex at Wichita State University, 5015 East 29th Street N, Wichita, KS. Reservations made by September 30 will include a box lunch at no additional charge. $25 for MHGS members, $35 for non-members. For reservation contact MHGS at 316 264-3611 or by e-mail.
Funded in part by a grant from the City of Wichita.

Kansas Council of Genealogical Societies August Board Meeting

Kansas Council of Genealogical Societies will hold its board meeting, August 23, 2008, at the Emporia Public Library from 9:30 am to 2:00 pm. Agenda items include a review of the 2008 conference in McPherson, preliminary planning for the 2009 conference in Wichita, and an update on the computerization of the Forgotten Settlers project.

Any genealogical or historical society that is a member society of KCGS is entitled to send a representative to the board meeting.

Kansas Council of Genealogical Societies Annual Conference 2009

Kansas Council of Genealogical Societies Annual meeting and conference will be held on June 20, 2009 in Wichita, KS with Wichita Genealogical Society as co-host. Megan Smolenyak will present four lectures:Trace Your Roots with DNA, Welcome to Roots Television, Reverse Genealogy: Techniques for Finding Your Lost Loved Ones and Find That Obituary: Online Newspaper Research. Keep in touch for registration information but mark your calendar now.

Kansas Genealogical Society, Dodge City, Celebrates 50 Years

July 13, 2008 - Kansas Genealogical Society, will present "Half a Century of Memories" Village Square Mall, Lower Level, 2601 Central, Dodge City KS from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. There will be Prize Drawings, Refreshments and Exhibits. No admission charge.

Master of Ceremonies: Gay Rooney

Speakers: Norma Jane Daniels, Julia Mae Hembree, Gertrude Jones, Mary Shoemaker

Written Contributions: Virginia Herrman, Ethel Taylor

Historical Presentaions: Betty Herrman, Ruby Schaffer

Come share the experience and memories of long time members and view exhibits of early day KGS and genealogical items.

Osborne County Genealogical & Historical Society

Osborne County Genealogical & Historical Society is pleased to announce a new web site located at http://www.ocghs.org . Visit the site and see what they have to offer.

Midwest Historical & Genealogical Society Hours

Midwest Historical and Genealogical Society has announced that their library will be open on the third Tuesday afternoon of the month from 1:00 until 6:00 p.m.
New library hours are:
Every Saturday morning from 9 am till 12:30 pm
The second Saturday afternoon from 12:30 pm till 4 pm
The third Tuesday afternoon from 1 pm till 6 pm.

Please call 316 264-3611 to make sure we are open if there is inclement weather forecast.

Reno County Genealogical Society

Reno County Genealogical Society invites you to join them for their
June program, "Through The Eyes of Young Pioneers",  June 16,
2008 at the Hutchinson Public Library,  901 N. Main Street.
Among many of the thousands of homesteaders and town builders
in the19th century Kansas were children and teenagers who
recorded their experiences. Using diaries, letters, and reminiscences,
this program considers the land, people, towns, and daily life as seen
through the eyes of the young.

Provided by the Kansas Humanities Council
Presented by Marilyn J. Holt

Reno County Genealogical Society
P. O. Box 5
Hutchinson, KS 67504-0005

Wilson County Genealogical Society

The Wilson County Genealogy Society Chapter of the Wilson County Historical Society is pleased to announced a new web site located within the KSGenWeb project on Blue Skyways. The home page can be seen at http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/society/fredonia/index.html. The society members will be adding Wilson County tombstone pictures in the very near future.

New Hours at MHGS Library

Midwest Historical and Genealogical Society has found it necessary to cut back on the hours the library will be open. As of April 1, 2008, the MHGS library will be open on Saturday mornings from 9:00 AM until 12:30 PM, and on the second Saturday afternoon of each month from 12:30 PM until 4 PM. You are encouraged to email mhgs1121@aol.com or call 316 264-3611 in advance if you are planning to visit the MHGS library to ensure the library will be open.
If more library volunteers can be trained and a head librarian can be found, the society hopes to return the library to the previous schedule.

Central Plains Region National Archives

Researchers with Kansas connections might find some interesting resources at the Central Plains Region National Archives in Kansas City. Why not put a visit in your plans while attending the NGS conference in May!

The National Archives Central Plains Region holds the retired records of federal agencies in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. We hold records of over 100 different government agencies dating from the 1820s to the 1990s. These agencies include the National Park Service, the Weather Bureau, the National War Labor Board, and the United States Geological Survey, among others.

Many records at the Central Plains Regional Archives are of interest to genealogists. Among them, for example, are the records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which contains information about reservations, schools, and agencies of northern woodland and plains Indians. These records document tribal economic, political, and social life of American Indians, the government's perceptions regarding them, and the American Indians' relations and opinions of the government. In addition to reports, correspondence, and other textual records, there are photographs and maps among these records.

The records of the Bureau of Land Management document land records for the states of Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska from 1840 to 1915. Among these records are homestead claim papers, abstracts of land entries, tract books, and material related to surveys of the land.

A large record group at the Central Plains Region Archives that is of interest to the genealogical community is Record Group 21, Records of the District Courts of the United States. These records include civil, criminal, equity, and habeas corpus proceedings that took place in courts in the seven-state region. Also in the records are naturalization proceedings, which include declarations of intention, petitions for naturalization, and citizenship certificate stubs. This record group also includes World War I-era enemy alien registrations from the state of Kansas.

Another record group that genealogists may find useful is the Records of the Bureau of Prisons. These contain original prison inmate files created by the U.S. Federal Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. These records date from the first inmate incarcerated in 1895 through the 1920s. The files contain record sheets detailing inmates' crime, conviction, sentence, violations while in prison, and usually, a mug shot.

The Central Plains Regional Archives also has available to researchers over 45,000 rolls of microfilm, including the US Census from 1790-1930 as well as indexes for military records, Freedman's Bureau records, and microfilmed Indian census of the Five Civilized Tribes (Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole). The microfilm research room is designed for self-service, but volunteers are available to provide efficient service and personalized attention.

We invite you to visit the National Archives-Central Plains Region. We are located at 2312 East Bannister Road, Kansas City, MO 64131 and phone number is 816.268.8000. For email reference: kansascity.archives@nara.gov. Visit us online at: www.archives.gov/central-plains/kansas-city
"This article is reprinted from UpFront with NGS, the Online Newsletter of NGS, Volume 8 Number 3, dated 1 March 2008. by permission"

Pamela K. Boyer Coming to Kansas

Kansas Council of Genealogical Societies Annual Conference, June 21, 2008, will feature Pamela K. Boyer as the guest speaker. The conference will be held at The Ceders in McPherson, Kansas from 8:15 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. There will be four sessions that will include: "What's at the County Courthouse?", "Maps: Where to Find Them and How to Use Them", "Our National Treasure: The Library of Congress" and "The Good, the Bad & the Ugly: Evaluating Internet Sources". Plan now to attend. Registration information is available on the KCGS web site.

Kansas Maps

Kansas researchers will find maps showing the formation of the counties in Kansas from 1855 through 1893 as well as Kansas census maps for 1860, 1870, 1880 and 1890-1930 at http://www.mykansasgenealogy.com/ks_maps/ks_cf.htm . If your ancestors were early settlers in Kansas or just passed through the state you might find these maps very interesting and helpful in your research.

Osage County Historical Society Completes Naturalization Index

Osage County Historical Society Museum & Research Center has completed the Naturalization Index for Osage County Kansas. The index can be found under the RESOURCES heading at our website.

Copies of these microfilmed original documents are available. Email us

Topeka Genealogical Society Announces Programs for 2008

Topeka Genealogical Society meetings are held at the society library, 2717 SE Indiana, Topeka, KS at 7:00 p.m., The public is invited to all programs. The schedule for the 2008 meetings is as follows.


23 Jan Genealogy, "Question and Answer Panel"
Rachella Briggs, TGS Member
Eadie Flickinger, TGS Member
Larry Henderson, TGS Member
Rita Neely, TGS Member

27 Feb Call the Coroner, I'am Dead!
Dr. Donald Pojman, Deputy Coroner of Shawnee County

26 Mar Tracking Shawnee County Casualties of World War I
David Murray, TGS Member

26 Apr Conference

28 May Cremation: "Where's My Grandma Now!"
Fred Holroyd, Vice Pres.Community Development

25 June "Is the Remian's in the Closet?" Dan Werner, Property Manager

23 July Kansas Pop Bottles With Privy Diggings
Jim Ricketts

27 Aug Vote for Sam, Third War Governor of Kansas
Herschel and Jacque Stroud, TGS Members

24 Sept My Amazing Trip!
Charles Fantz, TGS Member

22 Oct Share your Genealogy at SHOW (items) and TELL (stories)
All TGS Members

Kansas Genealogists Lose Long Time Friend

Doris Dockstader Rooney, 98, died Sunday, Jan. 6, 2008, at Western Plains Medical Complex, Dodge City.
More information about her life, survivors will be announced later by Swaim Funeral Home, Dodge City. The funeral is scheduled for Thursday afternoon at the 1st Presbyterian Church in Dodge City at 2 p.m. Burial will be in Maple Grove Cemetery. Visitation will be Wednesday at the Swaim Funeral Home until 8 p.m.
Doris Rooney was a long time member of Kansas Genealogical Society and also was instrumental in establishing Kansas Council of Genealogical Societies.