Previous Grants Awarded 2008

January 2008
Lynn Maffessoli of Jersey City, NJ is making a documentary about the discovery of information surrounding her great-grandmother’s unsolved murder. After researching her family’s history for five years, she was startled to learn that her great-grandmother was murdered in March of 1930. In her documentary, Lynn will recount her ancestor’s actions on the day she was murdered. The grant will be used in support of this documentary – and I confess that one of the reasons I selected this application is because it resonated with me since one of my own great-grandmothers was murdered in 1932.

February 2008
100th Honoring Our Ancestors Grant Awarded!

March 2008
The Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance has been locating, registering and preserving Alabama's lost cemeteries since 2003. They have located many cemeteries that were hidden in the woods or about to be destroyed by new developments, and had legislation passed to protect the rights to visit those cemeteries. Their website is utilized by every county in Alabama as well as accessed by other visitors. The grant award will assist them with finding a new server for their website.

April 2008
The Italian Genealogical Group in New York is an organization dedicated to furthering Italian family history and genealogy, but one which benefits just about anyone who’s ever had an ancestor reside in the metropolitan New York area. To date, they have computerized over 12,000,000 vital and naturalization records as part of an ongoing project. They will use their grant award for postage, envelopes and ink to keep the project moving forward.

May 2008
The Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society is a very active society that has over 50 publications, has walked and read all cemeteries in both Lake and Porter County, and has added numerous indexes to their website to assist researchers. They have recently come into possession of books that document marriages performed by the Justices of the Peace in Crown Point, IN. Because of the delicate shape they are in, it would do damage to them to scan these records or even copy by hand. The grant award will fund the purchase of a digital camera that will be used to copy the records.

June 2008
Through her website, Arkansas Ties, Pris Weathers has been photographing and archiving Arkansas history since 2000. She has over 200 cemeteries indexed online and over 1,800 pages of Arkansas History. The grant will cover website fees, allowing her to double the size of her site and provide even more Arkansas information and pictures.