WeRelate and Ancestry

From FGS conference.

The Dallan Quass discussion of Discovering WeRelate <https://wiki.familysearch.org > was really interesting. WeRelate is the world's largest genealogy wiki. A wiki website is where anyone can edit or add information quickly. Pages are created collaboratively. It is Wikipedia for genealogists. Gedcoms may be uploaded, information about how and where to look for data. Our cousins might upload some information about the people we have been researching, maybe the very dates, places, connections that have been eluding us for a long time. If someone adds something to an article in an effort to correct it, i.e. perhaps claims the wrong ancestor, and we know their information is faulty, it is possible to correct the error. A discussion can be held with those cousins and information can be shared. A history of all the changes made is kept. Managers monitor the site against vandalism. All this is free for downloading also.

Ancestry is offering FREE access to all its databases through December 21. Also they are giving new subscribers $10 off the annual subscription so it costs $49.95. Subscribers will receive a Free Ancestry Reference Library CD-ROM.(contains 15 genealogy reference books)

"How Genealogists Seek Information" by Scott Lucas

September 12, 2009, MGHS Library, 1203 North Main, Wichita, KS, 1:00 pm till 2:30 pm.
Free and open to the public.

Scott Lucas has been an avid genealogist for fifteen years. He has presented at several library and Genealogical conferences and workshops around Kansas. Dr. Lucas received a PH.D from Emporia State University in Library and Information Management in December 2008. His dissertation topic was "The Information Seeking Process of Genealogists". He also currently serves on the library boards ar Clearwater Public Library and Wichita Area Technical College. Dr. Lucas resides in Clearwater with his wife and 2 girls.

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