Previous Grants Awarded 2004
December 2004
The Mount Olive Cemetery, located in Clarksville, Tennessee, is an African American cemetery that has been in existence since the 1860s. More than a thousand people are buried in the cemetery, which has been abandoned for more than 60 years. Students minoring in African American Studies, along with a ground-penetrating radar team from University of Tennessee Knoxville, are trying to restore the cemetery. Students are also going through old death certificates to identify those buried in the cemetery. This grant will be used to help publish a booklet listing the names of all the people buried in the cemetery in the 1914-1920 timeframe, as well as to run ads in local African American newspapers in an attempt to find family members.
November 2004
Peter Roberts has launched the Bahamas DNA Project to "support traditional genealogy in matching up individuals or families who share direct male or direct female ancestry in the Bahamas and to trace their origins in Africa, Europe, and North America." A grant has been made to sponsor a participant in this intriguing, regional genetealogy investigation.
October 2004
Eve Jankowicz has recently completed a much needed index to an 800-page book called Stalin's Ethnic Cleansing in Eastern Poland: Tales of the Deported, 1940-1946. The book was written by survivors who were deported to Siberia during WWII and contains countless name and place references that could be invaluable to those with roots in this area. Eve will to use the grant to help self-publish the book and make it available to others.
September 2004
The Park County Genealogy Society of Montana will use this month's grant to help construct a marker at an old cemetery near the location of the former county "poor farm." The marker will include a plaque containing the names of 109 individuals who were buried there since no other markers were ever erected at the grave sites. The society is also in the process of computerizing all local cemetery records.
*** Update as of July 2005
The Park County Genealogy Society, with the help of others, has combed through old newspapers and Park County death records to identify burials between 1892 and 1924. At least 110 people were interred in unmarked graves. We have completed the first phase of the project which was to have the names of those buried at the cemetery, as well as burial dates, engraved on metal plates. These brass plates are now on display at our local courthouse and they are beautiful. The next phase of the project is to erect a marker at the sight on which to place these brass plates. We have old brick available from the demolition of the original poor house and this will be used for the base of the marker. One of our members is a brick mason and has volunteered his services to construct it for us. I am attaching a picture of the poor house as it looked circa 1900. -- Mardella Whitmore, Vice President, Park County Genealogy Society
August 2004
StoryCorps is a 21st century WPA whose objective is to "to instruct and inspire people to record each others' stories in sound." To this end, they have constructed a StoryBooth in NYC where anyone can record a broadcast-quality interview for $10 (subsidized by the organization's donors). You get a copy of the CD and a copy is submitted to the StoryCorps Archive, housed at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. A grant was given in support of this worthy mission.
July 2004
The Newberry Library, established in 1887, is a research library in the Chicago area with a department devoted to genealogy. The department has limited funds for certain types of preservation/digitization activity, so a grant has been awarded to assist with the microfilming and digitization of the 1940 Chicago telephone book in order to prevent wear and tear on the originals and make the books more accessible. The intention is to produce CDs that could be copies for patrons and other libraries, and to use this project as a model for future digitization efforts.
June 2004 *** Special 50th Anniversary Honoring Our Ancestors grant***
The Genealogy and Local History Services Department of the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library serves the genealogical and historical research needs of patrons, locally and through an in-depth website most genealogists could only dream of for their towns of origin (it's worth a visit!). This grant has been given in support of a collaborative project involving the Howard County Genealogical Society, the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library, and the Howard County Clerks Office. The project entails the preservation (through digitization) and indexing of government records from the 19th and 20th centuries - including marriage, probate, delayed birth, and various other records which are presently stored in a barn with no heat or humidity controls. The group intends to preserve these records and provide public access by placing them on the library's website.
May 2004
Many of you are familiar with Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness, which was recently featured in the New York Times. The site hosts a network of volunteers around the world who offer to obtain documents and photos in the area where they live. This long-distance service is provided to anyone for cost reimbursement only, and having tapped into it several times to help solve my Army cases, I can attest to the professionalism of the generous volunteers. This grant will be used to assist with server and operating expenses.
April 2004
The Wayne County Cemetery Preservation Society was established in 2000 for the purpose of locating and identifying all the cemeteries in Wayne County, Ohio. By 2002, they supplied the Ohio Genealogical Society with GPS readings and activity reports on 244 known cemeteries. They are also recording and digitally photographing inscriptions on the older and weathering tombstones in their pioneer cemeteries and in the older sections of the largest cemeteries. The group is trying to educate the public, with emphasis on school children and genealogists, on the existence of these old cemeteries and the need to record and protect them. This grant will be used to purchase a projector to help deliver their message to schools and community groups.
March 2004
Ksenija Batic is a student of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology in Slovenia, and has been researching her own family since the age of ten. She is working to develop a course on Genealogy and Family History at the University of Ljubljana as a first step toward eventually establishing an independent department - something of a challenge in a country that has only had a genealogical society for seven years. As part of her effort, Ksenija has enrolled in the National Institute of Genealogical Studies (Toronto, Canada). Having recently passed the basic series of course with flying colors, she will use the proceeds of this grant to take the intermediate series.
February 2004
Totem Tracers Genealogical Society is the only genealogical entity in the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska (an area larger than Massachusetts and New Jersey combined), except for the local Family History Center. Totem Traces invites the public to their monthly meetings, as well as their monthly "Resource Saturday," held at the Kenai Community Library. They also produce a monthly newsletter and supply volunteers at the local library three days a week. This grant will be used to put Kenai Peninsula cemetery data on CDs for distribution to libraries and the public. An update to a book produced 20 years ago, this undertaking requires extensive effort, including travel to outlying Native villages (sometimes many trips, usually flights or by boat) to read and map their cemeteries, as well as speak with Elders in the villages to insure that the organization is planning a respectful publication. The project currently incorporates 41 cemeteries and over 5,000 entries, and will be an important addition to Alaska genealogical resources, since the Kenai Peninsula was among the earliest areas settled in the state.
*** Update as of July 2005
Here's a photo of Cemetery Inscriptions and Area Memorials in Alaska's Kenai Peninsula Borough, a reference book of 425 pages listing about sixty cemeteries and memorials with more than 5,000 entries. The book was published by the Kenai Totem Tracers Genealogical Society. It was made possible with a starting grant from Honoring Our Ancestors Grants Program, local donations and volunteers and is available at many libraries and for sale by the Society. We couldn't have done it without your help and encouragement. We are very proud of the final product and it has been very helpful to researchers from all over. -- Loretta G Mattson, Kenai Totem Tracers
January 2004
At funerals in the black community, a program is distributed with a photo and biography of the deceased. The Buffalo Genealogical Society of the African Diaspora recognized that these programs provide a wealth of information for genealogists and decided to collect and preserve them. Members solicit programs from individuals, funeral homes and churches, copy them, and then return the originals to the owners. This month's grant will be used for protective supplies, such as polypropylene sleeves and binders. The society is also working on a web-based index of the materials.
