Previous Grants Awarded 2000

December 2000
The Martin County Genealogical Society in Stuart, Florida is working in close partnership with the local Blake Library to help develop its collection of genealogical materials. In fact, they did something particularly smart and helped the librarians create an online wish list of books and CDs they would like so that potential contributors know exactly what to give. Wouldn't it be wonderful if more local genealogical and historical societies worked together so closely with their local libraries for the benefit of all? A donation is being made for the purchase of Georgia Civil War Pension Files, Mexican War Pensions, Texas Confederate Pensions, and U.S. Marshalls, so now Blake Library can cross a few items off its wish list!

November 2000
I am privileged to be part of the U.S. Army's Korean Repatriation project to locate family members of soldiers who were KIA or MIA in Korea. With the normalization of relations, we are getting back more remains, but over the last 50 years, the Army has lost touch with the relatives of many soldiers. Several other genealogists and myself are helping find the families again.

The Korean War Project is an online, non-profit effort to preserve the memories of those who served our country in Korea. Among other content, the site contains a database of all the KIA/MIA, and allows viewers to add "remembrances" for specific individuals. Recently, the remembrance added for a particular soldier led me to his niece and helped me solve his case. This site is both a wonderful tribute and tremendous resource. Please consider visiting it. Better yet, add a remembrance for or make a donation in honor of someone you know who served in Korea.

October 2000
Many small cemeteries across America have been badly neglected and are in danger of being lost forever. These cemeteries contain information about individuals which in many cases is not found in public records. Sally Kading and a cluster of friends from Fairacres, New Mexico are restoring and maintaining several such cemeteries. Their hope is that doing so will not only preserve this important historical information, but also demonstrate how individual efforts can make a major impact. The cemeteries which they currently maintain have gone from weed-ridden and inaccessible to being usable sources for the genealogical community.

Recently, this informal group found another abandoned cemetery, wooded and overgrown to the extent that it is not visible from the road. There is nothing identifying it as a burial site and it is extremely difficult to find. They are currently in the process of clearing the area around the headstones and opening a path from the road. A grant will be used to put up a sign to mark the site so that others will be able to discover or locate it.

September 2000
The San Benito County Historical Society (Hollister, CA), established in 1956, is the recipient of September's Honoring Our Ancestors grant. The society has a large collection of primary records, family histories (including oral recordings), and over 3,000 images in their photographic archives available to genealogists. A grant has been made for archival materials such as photo sleeves and acid-free folders to help protect the society's collections.

August 2000
Deborah Brothers and William ("Bill") Furry of Springfield, Illinois have been awarded a grant for a scanner in support of their research project that began with Bill's own family, but now extends to the descendants of approximately 30 children who were transported from Ft. Smith, Arkansas to Springfield, Illinois during the Civil War. The children were gathered up and sent away by the chaplain of the fort, Rev. Francis Springer, a former Springfieldian and neighbor of Abraham Lincoln's. The journey was arduous and some of the children died enroute. Upon arrival, the survivors were distributed to families via the "Home for the Friendless." One of the orphans, Mattie Tully, wrote "The Hardships of an Orphant Girl" about these experiences. Bill also discovered Rev. Springer's war journals and edited them into a book, which will be published by the University of Arkansas Press next spring. In an attempt to share this forgotten piece of our history, Deborah and Bill began to do lectures on Springer and "Hardships" at the Orphan Train Society, genealogical societies, Civil War Roundtables, and churches. They now intend to write a book and develop a website, and will use the scanner to capture photos and documents for both efforts.

July 2000
OK, this one is an admittedly personal choice. My extended Rusyn/Slovak family just had a weeklong village reunion in Osturna, Slovakia. While there, I met with the priest (Ivan Bojcuk) and learned that the church (St. Michael's Greek Catholic) needed repairs. Specifically, it has a hole in the roof that will cost about $10,000 to fix. So while we were there, we held a raffle and quickly raised $1,000 as a start. A private donation was also made to the church my ancestors had attended for centuries, as its records have tied hundreds of us together and I hope it will remain there for centuries to come. Excuse my personal indulgence on this one. I promise the next one will have nothing to do with my own roots!

June 2000
The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, founded in 1892, has been selected as the grant recipient for June 2000. They plan to use their grant to address an important issue facing all genealogical societies, which is how to service "distance members." The GSP's "Virtual Lecture" proposal is designed to bridge the programming gap, just as digitization of records is being used for the access gap. In addition, they would like to encourage lectures and discussions that involve the use of "genealogy as the context for human identity." GSP intends to use the technical support of the About.com network to run the "Virtual Lectures", which will feature a lecture summary followed by an upcoming "event chat" hosted by a prominent genealogical guest on a specific topic of PA genealogy.

May 2000
Congratulations to the Marquette County Genealogical Society in Marquette, Michigan. It has been selected as the first recipient of the grant for May 2000. MCGS was organized to share a common interest in genealogy, help preserve and organize resources in the area, promote family research and maintain a collection of genealogical resources. They also provide the community a genealogical library that is available to the public free of charge. The grant will be used to print interview forms for their ambitious project to interview as many of the county's residents who were born prior to 1930 as possible.