Well, it certainly looks like ENGS is NOT supposed to meet on Monday.  Snowstorm prevented the February meeting, snowstorm prevented the March meeting and for awhile we thought the browse night on March 22nd was going to be scraped too-but the snow just remained on the grassy areas. Come on, lets have some SPRING! 

YOU KNOW YOUR A GENEALOGIST WHEN:

When your favorite pastime is hanging around cemeteries. 

When your kids groan if you slow down near a cemetery. 

When you start looking at the graffitti on the outhouse or bathroom walls for surnames!! 

  Noted in THE OUTHOUSE Genealogy Humor-Internet 
  Submitted by Marlene Heinsohn. 

TWIGS and BRANCHES from North Central Illinois Genealogical Society March 1999 has some very interesting articles, and we re-print several. 
 

ACCESS OF ILLINOIS PUBLIC RECORDS

Despite current rumors on the Internet, Director John Daly of the Illinois State Archives informs our readers that Illinois public records are NOT closed to reference by anyone not possessing an Illinois private detective’s license.(This rumor has been making the round for quite some time.) 

The Illinois State Genealogical Society is taking steps to amend 1994 legislation of the Illinois Department of Professional regulation that places such a requirement on anyone consulting public records for a “fee or other valuable consideration.” 

The ISGS objective is to clearly exempt those who do so in researching genealogy, lineage, or ancestry. (Tinley Moraine Gen Newsletter, January 1998) 

THE NETHERLANDS

Major genealogical records include population registers, civil registration, marriage supplements, impost taxes, parish records, burgher rolls or citizenship books, judicial records and notorial or court records. 

         NEW MEMBERS 

F-13 
  Annette Remshard 
  1705 N McMillan Lane 
  Greenacres WA  99016-8790 

         F-14 
              Betty J Klemke 
              902 Leroy Drive 
              Northglenn CO  80233-3544 

              F-15 
                  Patricia A Nielsen 
                  101 Sunset Place 
                  Sequim WA  98382 

                  F-16 
                      Susan J Miller 
                       1050 County Road X 
                        Fremont NE  68025-7944 
 

We wish to give a special “thank-you” to those who sent donations along with your dues renewal towards the reader/printer fund.  What a delight not to have to go down to the library to read and print from the microfilm.  Claire especially uses the machine for her research. 

Speaking of research - the mail has increased double-fold since Renee coordinated the Dodge County web-site.  Claire has trouble keeping up with the demand.  We also wish to thank all of the volunteers U.S. wide that are helping Renee with this big project.  It is moving along very well.  Many new ideas are forming since its beginnings. 

IS YOUR ANCESTOR ON AN UNBURNED FRAGMENT OF THE 1890 CENSUS?

  It is generally thought that only records from a few deep south counties survived the disastrous fire which burned almost all of the 1890 Federal census.  But there were small fragments of the other states’ census records which survived.  All are found in the three-roll census microfilm M407, which is indexed on the two-roll census microfilm M496. 

The fragments are from Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas, plus the District of Columbia.  All told, some 6,100 names are included, possibly including an ancestor or yours. 
  (Illiana Genealogist, Winter 1997)

   A terrible tornado visited Schuyler last week.  Its track was from South to North.  It blew four spans of the Schuyler bridge out of water, and passed over one side of town. 

It took up very carefully a small barn, and set it down upon a house near by. 

It blew over a large dwelling belonging to a Dr Wood, injuring some of the inmates. 

Also blew over some of the shops in town, and played smash generally. 

 CORRESPONDENCE TIPS:

DO enclosed a self-addressed, stamped envelope(SASE) for the United States and International Reply Coupons for foreign mail with your letter or request.  On the letter itself, place your name and full address.  Don’t depend on the envelope’s return address. 

DON’T write “send me everything you have or find on the XYZ family.”  Make your letter short and ask only one or two very specific questions. 

DO be patient.  Your’e asking for their time and assistance and they’re under no obligation to help you. 

DO keep a copy of all your correspondence, date it, and attach the answer when it arrives.  Correspondence should use the following format-day/month/year; i.e. 2 April 1872. 

FREMONT TRIBUNE - 30 May 1873  3:4

A young earthquake went “ransacking” the earth below our city Wednesday night between ten and eleven o’clock.  The shock was distinctly felt by many persons who were lying down, and many others noticed the shaking of buildings. 
 

WANT TO HELP?

Claire said it is important to copy down the old obituaries which are contained on the microfilm for the 1870 newspapers.  Originals cannot be found.  She started working on this project in March and if anyone has some time to sit and read the old film and either copy from the reader/printer or print it out on a card.  Some of the old newspapers are dark, and will not copy, so it must be handwritten.  In one instance, there are only two newspapers for 1877.  It is very time consuming and help would be appreciated-check with Claire.

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“It's been fun. Thanks for all who did this. It would take 10  foot years to do what can now be done in finger minutes….” Judith
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 “Just a note to let the people out there know how successfully using the RootsWeb Surname List works. I got e-mail from someone from Oklahoma to let me know he had traced my family name back to England. He called me and has filled in all the blanks. Don't get down on yourself. If you can't find someone, let someone find you. Thanks for the system.”
                                  Carol Benning

ROOTSWEB GENEALOGICAL DATA COOPERATIVE is the  main reason that these genealogists were able to take advantage of the wealth of information presented on the web.  ROOTSWEB provides computer space and technical support for the USGenWeb project and a number of other genealogical information projects including the ROOTS SURNAME LIST, Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild, and Cyndi Howells' Comprehensive List of Genealogical Websites, The ROOTS-L Resources, The ROOTS-L State Pages. 
. 

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 “While all of RootsWeb's databases, mailing lists, and other activities are open to the public, selected services that are conveniences (like  automatic notification when your surnames appear in new material uploaded to RootsWeb) are available only to Contributors and Sponsors. Some services that are expensive to provide (like personal Web space or Web serving of personal GEDCOM files) are available at a nominal extra cost to Sponsors. “

RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative 
P.O. Box 6798, Frazier 
Park, CA 93222-6798. 

Here is an example of how fast information on ROOTSWEB is growing. These NEW Homepages  were listed in the RootsWeb Review, Vol. 2, No. 10, 10 March 1999.  Maybe you connect with one of these or one of the many surname listserves hosted on ROOTSWEB? 

ATKEY, BLACK, LATIMER, and PLETSCH in Canada and elsewhere. 

Debbie MALEC Genealogy & History. AYERS, BUTCHER, CHAPIN, HUGHES, MALEC, SPENSER, TOWNE. 

MERKEL Family of North America 

RUBOTTOM and Allied Families. DIXON, CHANDLER, DUNN, COX, REYNOLDS, and others, primarily Quakers of Delaware and North Carolina. 

Lost Ancestors of VIRGINIA. BARNETT, CARTER, HALL, POPE, PORTER, and others 

MARY's Ancestral Search. ADAMS, BARNES, RSDOTTER, HOPKINS, ISAAC 

homepages.rootsweb.com/~phoebe/WC_TOC.htm

Index for 1902 Progressive Men of Nebraska - Dodge County Edition – proofed by Cleo Bracket 

1870 Dodge County Census – scanned from Claire Mares transcription 

1890 Dodge County Veterans Census - scanned from Claire Mares transcription- proofed by Arla Hoerath 

Historic Picture Gallery started with images scanned from old postcards by Virginia Cisewski of Florida 

Search Engine to find any surname on the Dodge County NEGenWeb site – compliments of RootsWeb 

I would like to say “Thank you” to all those dedicated volunteers who continue to help make this project possible.