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Subject: [PABUTLER-L] Butler County Gen Society Meeting Minutes
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2003 08:53:04 EDT

Butler County Genealogical Society
P O Box 662
Butler, Pennsylvania 16003-0662
www.rootsweb.com/~pabutle2

Minutes of the June 10th, 2003, Meeting

Open
Mrs. Pat Collins called the meeting to order at approximately 7pm at the
Butler Area Public Library, located on North McKean Street in Butler,
Pennsylvania. There were approximately 30 people in attendance of the meeting.

Handout Table
Several items were made available to our members and presented on the Handout
Table. Some of the items were helpful forms to help you search all sources
for information on your ancestors, charts to determine relationships among
members of your family tree and other sales literature given to the Society from
various genealogy companies. Pre-printed nametags were available for the
members of BCGS and a new business card listing our new email address
() were distributed.

Membership Cards
Mrs. Collins also distributed to limited edition, charter membership cards to
the paid members that were present. These are unique membership cards,
specially designed for this, our charter year and may one day become heirlooms for
your descendants. Members not present at this meeting will receive their
cards with the first edition of the newsletter due out in July.

Logo Contest
The logo contest has been extended until September 2003. Since we have had a
surge of interest in the society over the internet, a decision was made to
expand the contest deadline in order to give some of these new members a chance
to put their BCGS logo ideas down on paper and get them submitted. So quick!
Hurry! Go draw something and send it in!

Standing Committees
As most of the members had signed up for the Projects Committee, a discussion
took place on what projects the BCGS would take on.

Our main focus will be on the county cemeteries. Several smaller, out of the
way cemeteries were missed when the Butler County Historical Society created
its Cemetery Index of the county. We would like to document as many of these
as possible, and create a digital inventory of the stones within them if at
all possible. We began a list of volunteers who would be willing to go out and
help located and document these cemeteries either during the week or on
weekends. If you can help, but did not sign up at the meeting, contact Pat Collins
().

We would also like to have volunteers available for some amount of time in
the Butler Library's Weir Room to assist others with genealogy research.

If you have other suggestions, please let us know.

Meeting Programs Scheduled
Mr. Curt Rauschenberger, Program Director, provided more details regarding
our first field trip to the Carnegie Library's Pennsylvania Room, scheduled for
Saturday, July 19th.

The hours of the Pennsylvania Room (and Carnegie Library) on Saturday are
from 9AM to 5:30PM. Members may either meet us at the library that day or form
car pools here in Butler to travel down together. Those wishing to join a car
pool (or help drive a car pool!) are to meet at 7:45AM at the old Wal-Mart
Garden Shop in Moraine Plaza, Butler. We plan to be on the road by 8AM and
arrive at the library when it opens at 9AM.

Our group will be given a guided tour of the Pennsylvania Room's research
resources and equipment, which includes four computer terminals with access to
Ancestry.com's variety of databases. Also available will be the resources of
the Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society's collection of family histories
in their offices located across the hall from the Pennsylvania Room. The
Western PA Gen. Soc. Office will be open from 10AM till 2PM that day.

We plan to spend the whole day at the library, but car pool groups or
individuals who meet us there may certainly leave whenever they have had enough names
and dates for the day. Car pools who depart from Pittsburgh about 5:30PM
should arrive back in Butler about 6:30PM.

Important details to note if you plan to attend are:
· Since space is limited at the library, we have been asked to keep our
group under 25. A sign up sheet was passed around at the meeting, but if you
didn't sign up there and wish to attend the Field Trip, contact Curt
Rauschenberger () no later than Saturday July 12th. When you rsvp for
this trip be sure to state how many individuals are coming, if you meet us in
Butler or at the Library, if you need a ride or can drive a car pool and if you
can drive a car pool, how many people will fit in your vehicle.
· At this point, we need more drivers for the car pool. We have many more
people who wish to ride with someone else than spaces available in cars.
· Photocopiers at the library cost 15¢ per copy and accept all
denominations of US Coin Currency
· Microfilm Printers at the library cost 30¢ per copy and ACCEPT ONLY
DIMES!!!!!!
· Change machines are available to exchange US bills into coin, but only a
limited number of dimes are available at the library. Be sure to bring enough
for your own copies!
· If you have a library card for your local library, and it has a blue
Access PA sticker on it, you will be able to check out books from the Carnegie
Library and return them to your local library when they are due. The
Pennsylvania Room has a number of genealogy reference and source books that are available
to be loaned out. Remember to bring your local library card with you on the
field trip. Don't have a library card for your local library? Get one! J
· Costs involved in going on this field trip should be nominal. Parking is
available in the rear of the library at a cost of $3 for the entire day. You
will be expected to make a small donation towards your driver's gas and
parking fees. You will be responsible for paying for your own copies made while
researching at the library.

In preparation for our research field trip, the July BCGS meeting on
Saturday, July 8th will be on Brick Walls. Bring your toughest brick wall research
with you to the meeting. All attendees will be divided by research level into
smaller groups following the general business session. More knowledgeable
researchers will head the groups and we will brainstorm on ways of bursting
through these tough brick walls with new directions of research. As many brick
walls will be broken as time allows. Can't make it to the July meeting? Email
your brick wall issues to Joyce Rauschenberger () no later than
Monday, July 7th and the group will discuss your ancestors. Joyce will then
email our thoughts back to you later that week.

The August meeting to be held Tuesday, August 12th, will spotlight the
information that can be gleamed from funeral home and cemetery records. Robyn
Miller of Thompson Miller Funeral Homes here in Butler will speak to us regarding
the types of records kept by funeral homes in Pennsylvania and how to go about
obtaining that information. Glenn Miller, also of Thompson Miller Funeral
Home, sits on the Board of Directors for North Cemetery here in Butler. Glenn
will provide us with similar information about cemetery records.

Featured Speaker
Tonight's meeting program was a guided tour of the newly remodeled Butler
Area Public Library and its genealogy research room, The Weir Room by Ms. LuAnne
Eisler, Genealogy Librarian for the Butler Area Public Library.

After a walking tour of the various library departments, we descended upon
the Weir Room and the great wealth of knowledge and resources it contains. Here
genealogy researchers can access obituaries, census records, newspaper
microfilms, history books, passenger list records, family history books, and
numerous publications regarding the churches and communities within Butler county and
our surrounding county neighbors.

The obituary index provides quick access to obituaries that were published in
the area's newspapers from about the late 1800's forward. There is a huge
gap in the indexes around 1960, but if a date of death is known, the newspaper
images are available. Currently, Slippery Rock University students are
computerizing the Obit Index.

Mrs. Eisler also demonstrated for our group the computerized card catalog
system that the Butler Library has available. By using this card catalog system,
you may do a good deal of your initial research from home, as the card
catalog system is available over the Internet. Simply go to
http://www.butler.library-online.org and click on the main page to go to the new Online Card Catalog.
From there select the option that best suits your needs (such as Search) and
enter the data you wish to search by. Information contained within the
library's genealogy department are included in this card catalog. This is
especially helpful when researching a specific surname as many of the family histories
held in the department cover a variety of surnames, not just the one
mentioned in its title. By performing this search, you would be able to tell if your
particular surname of interest also appears in one of these other texts. So
before you even enter the library, you can have a listing of which books you
need to refer to while doing your research on a specific surname.

Family Group Sheets
In addition to the Surname Database Project, we would like to collect Family
Group Sheets for everyone's great-grandparents. We will be using the format
provided in the Family Tree Maker software, as that seems to be the most
popular type of genealogy software used by our members who were present. Please
bring with you to the July meeting a printed report of your four great
grandparent's family. If you do not have Family Tree Maker software, contact Joyce or
Pat and one will be sent to you, or we will have blank forms available at the
meetings.

Future Meetings
Our next meeting will be held July 8th, 2003, at 7pm at the Butler Area
Public Library. In July the library will be operating under their summer hours
schedule and closed at 7pm. All members attending the meeting should plan to
arrive promptly at 7pm and meet at the back door of the library. This door is
the one closest to Fidoles' Music Store and along North Cedar Street, located
between the library and First English Lutheran Church. This door will be our
only access to the meeting and will be locked shortly after 7pm. Please be
prompt. Parking is available either on the street, in the small library employee
parking lot (located on North Cedar Street) or in the city parking lot located
just beside the church and behind the library.


Conclusion
This meeting was adjourned at 9pm.
Joyce Rauschenberger
Acting Secretary, Butler County Genealogical Society

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