Your Society and the IRS

Provided by Cath Madden Trindle, CG, FGS Treasurer

Many genealogical organizations have applied and been accepted by the IRS as 501(c)3 organizations. In the past, those organizations that had average annual income of less than $25,000 were exempt from filing any paperwork once their initial five-year qualification
period was over.
This is no longer true. Starting in 2008, while still exempt from Federal income tax, genealogical societies are among those organizations that must file an annual return no matter how little their income is. The good news is, if average income is below $25,000 per year, the society will only need to file 990-N, or e-Postcard. This form takes just minutes to fill out. You will need your FEIN and contact information when you access the postcard from the IRS website at http://www.IRS.gov .
For those who feel slightly intimidated anytime they deal with a government form, the IRS website offers a wealth of materials to help the non-profit society determine their filing requirements, which form to use, and how to complete it. Failure to file a return for three years will result in an organization losing their non-profit status. If your society hasn’t filed for 2008, be sure to do so right away. Late is better than never.

News from the Kansas State Historical Society

Provided by Sara Keckeisen -

As you may have heard or read in the newspaper, the Kansas Historical Society (like all state agencies) was recently required to reduce budgetary expenditures to help the state achieve a balanced budget. At the Historical Society, that has meant a reduction in our professional staff (here in Topeka and at some of our historic sites) and in some of the services we are able to provide. We are, however, still striving to provide researchers, both in person and distance-researchers, with accurate and efficient reference help, and our facilities are still open their regular hours (Tuesday-Saturday from 9:00am-4:30) but we did lose one reference librarian in the recent cuts and we have had to raise our research fees. We can now do one obituary search (when the death date and place are known) for a $15.00 research fee. All other research requests for in-state patrons are $20.00 and for out-of-state patrons are $25.00. These fees are payable in advance and include 30 minutes of research and up to 5 pages of photocopying if we find anything. As of now, per-page photocopy charges and postage charges for copies above the 5 included copies are remaining the same. More complete information can be found on our website: http://www.kshs.org/contact/ask_question.htm or feel free to call the Reference Desk at 785-272-8681, ext. 117. There is still no charge to use our collections in person.

Part of the budget cuts has affected our ability to purchase new books and materials for the library research collections. So donations are more important and appreciated than ever! If you have been working on compiling a newspaper index or compiling cemetery inscriptions or transcribing vital record information from county records, please keep us in mind. We would love to have a copy of our work, even if it is not Kansas-related. If you have identified photographs of Kansas-related people and places, we’d love to consider them for our photographs collection. Nowadays, loaned-for-copying or donated photographs are digitally scanned (as well as having a preservation copy made) and most are uploaded to our swell Kansas Memory website (www.kansasmemory.org). You can find photographs on everything from the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad to the St. Marys, Kansas pharmacy in the 1920s to the Greensburg tornado on this searchable database. And the images available there grow every day.

I want to highlight a couple of outstanding cemetery books that have recently been cataloged. Viola Schwind Gouvion’s St. Francis Hieronymo Parish Cemetery, St. Paul, Neosho County, Kansas not only covers interments there between 1852 and 2008 but Ms. Gouvion went beyond recording dates of birth and death and cemetery plot locations. She also, for many of the burials, went to the newspaper obituaries and funeral home memory cards and has published those additional sources of information in her book. This is such a valuable additional piece of research and will save the researcher precious time. This book also features an index.

Likewise, Von Rothenberger has compiled a 936-page compilation of Osborne County, Kansas Burials 1866-2000. His alphabetically-arranged work includes additional information for each name where it could be determined, like military service, cause of death, parents’ and childrens’ names, and burial locations. This massive work will be invaluable for Osborne County researchers. Bibliographical information on both of these books is available on our on-line catalog, ATLAS, which you can explore on your home computer.

Reno County Genealogical Society Receives Grant

RCGS was awarded a grant in the amount of $260 from Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak of Honoring Your Ancestors. She awards a monthly grant that is funded by her personally. Megan serves as Chief Family Historian and spokesperson for Ancestry.com. She is also President of RootsTelevision.com. RootsTelevsion is online TV for genealogists.

The grant is for the Reno County Cemetery sign project. You can read about it here:

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ksrcgs/events/events.htm

"Lincoln Comes to Kansas"

Atchison Genealogical Society will meet Tue, Sept. 1 at 6:30 at the Atchison Library. Jorgine Drake, Referencing and Senior Programs Director of the Troy Library, will give the program: ”Lincoln Comes to Kansas” in honor of the 200^th birthday of Abraham Lincoln celebrated this year. Free to the public, Refreshments served.

Parmelia and Pluma Bailey

Is anyone out there interested in a file folder of family information for John Aberne(a)thy's family and the collateral family of John LaBore? The wives of these families were sisters, Parmelia and Pluma Bailey. Most of the family lived in Wisconsin, but at least three groups came to Kansas to Cawker, Ft Scott, and Salina.

Some of the persons were born in Canada and some in Vermont. Names included are Smith, Brown, Gilbert, Dugas, Duvall, Edgar
Shadowen, Hardwicke.

Also in the file are four photographs: Eliza Nattier, Celenie Nattier, widow of Arthur Nattier, and a baby possibly Lillian Nattier, plus one of the farm home of Lorenz and Aurora Nattier Junker, which was four miles east of Neodesha, Kansas. The Nattier story is that Aurora was born near Clunny (sp) France in 1843 and came to America with her mother Victorine Nattier, about 1856 after her father, mayor of Autreville, France, had been recently assassinated They first went to a farm in Wisconsin near Port Washington. Aurora later married Lorenz Junker, b Germany. They moved to Ft Scott, Kansas in 1870, and then to Neodesha that same year. They were accompanied by Albertine Nattier daughter of Emile and Eliza Nattier, the girl being Aurora's niece.

Aurora, her mother and her husband are buried in Bethel Cemetery. Is that Neodesha?

This material was rescued at an estate sale in Riley County and is available for anyone who has a connection to these families or who will give it a home in their library. email jcrosson@wamego.net

KCGS on Facebook

Kansas Council of Genealogical Societies announces the development of a space on Facebook as another means of networking with genealogist interested in the happenings of Kansas Genealogy. Visit the space, sign up to become a "Friend" and help spread the word.

Kansas Forgotten Settlers Volumes

The KANSAS COUNCIL OF GENEALOGICAL SOCIETIES has published volumes containing the application and pedigree charts of those individuals who qualified for one of these certificates.

Each volume is soft bound and is 8-1/2" by 11"(while supply lasts) or on CD. Each volume contains the names of approximately 100 KANSAS pioneers. Each application contains the name of the pioneer, birth date and place, death date and place, pioneer's father's name, mother's maiden name and spouse's name as well as the names of the parents of the spouse. The date and place of settlement in KANSAS is also stated. The individual making application for a certificate also sends in his/her pedigree chart. Each volume is fully indexed and contains 200 to 230 pages.

Index of Volumes One through Ten
Index of Volumes Eleven through Twenty
Index of Volumes Twenty-one through 25
Index of Volume 26

KCGS will not make copies of individual pages of the Forgotten Settler Volumes. If interested order the volume(s) you need on the order form below or visit your local library.

Order Your Volume(s) Today
Complete Forgotten Settlers Order Form
Return with payment to
KANSAS COUNCIL OF GENEALOGICAL SOCIETIES
PO BOX 3858
TOPEKA KS 66604-6858

View lists of Forgotten Settlers of Kansas

Territorial Certificates

Pioneer Certificates

Early Settler Certificates

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Kansas Forgotten Settlers

Many of the early pioneers who have helped make Kansas a great state have been lost in history because no other information existed except in family records. In order to gather information on these pioneers, the Kansas Council of Genealogical Societies has a project of issuing a Territorial, Pioneer or Early Settler certificate to a direct descendant of a person who lived in Kansas before 1900.

Eligibility

1. To receive the Territorial Certificate an applicant must be a direct descendant of an ancestor who lived in Kansas prior to 29 January 1861.
2. To receive the Pioneer Certificate an applicant must be a direct descendant of an ancestor who lived in Kansas between 29 January 1861 and 31 December 1880.
3. To receive the Early Settler Certificate, an applicant must be a direct descendant of an ancestor who lived in Kansas between 1 January 1881 and 31 December 1900.
4. Applicant must be able to prove descent with an official record of some type or some other acceptable source of proof (i.e.: census records; obituaries; county histories; birth, death or marriage records; school or church records; newspaper clippings and any other records showing proof.)
5. Applicant does not have to live in Kansas or ever have lived in Kansas.

To apply for a certificate, each applicant will need to complete a the four-page application form. This form includes the certificate application (page 1), permission to publish (page 2), a line of descendant chart (page 3) and a pedigree chart (page 4). In addition, each application will need to submit documentation to substantiate the information included in the line of descent chart. Pages 1 and 4 will be printed in a Forgotten Settlers book at a later date.
The documentation sent to establish eligibility for a certificate is placed in the Library and Archives Division of the Kansas State Historical Society. It is available to researchers as part of The Forgotten Settlers of Kansas manuscript collection, no. 206. For information about doing research in person at the Center for Historical Research, please go to the KSHS website, http://www.kshs.org/places/chr/index.htm. Information on reference policies and requesting copies by mail is at http://www.kshs.org/contact/ask_question.htm. When requesting copies, the file number, either a letter-number combination such as G28 or a number such as 5922, should be included if possible. It appears at the bottom of each Form #1 in the published The Forgotten Settlers of Kansas volumes, available in many Kansas and some out-of-state libraries.
The cost of the certificate is $12.00 for out-of-state residents and $13.00 (includes KS sales tax) for Kansas resident.

Apply for Your Certificate Today
Complete Forgotten Settlers Certificate Application in PDF Format
Please click on "Shrink to Fit" when printing

Return all four pages of the completed application with copies of documentation to
KANSAS COUNCIL OF GENEALOGICAL SOCIETIES
PO BOX 3858
TOPEKA KS 66604-6858