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TIGS Monthly Meeting Notes
July 2004
These notes were taken and transcribed by TIGS Member Kristin Ayotte
and originally distributed thrrough the TIGS mailing list

 

Troy Irish Genealogy Society Meeting Notes
July 15 2004

The monthly meeting of the Troy Irish Genealogy Society was held on 7/15/04 at Mahrs Place in South Troy.

Attending the meeting were; Lizette Strait, Bill McGrath, Kristin Ayotte, Frank Ryan, Marialice Mangan, Lynn Grice, Kay Brearton, Donna Vaughn, Mike McAlonie and Wendy, first time attendees were Ruth O'Connor, Rick Shea, Eileen Shea and Carol Waldron.

The attendees were welcomed and the meeting was called to order by the
Co-Chairs; Donna Vaughn and Lizette Strait. Donna had prepared and printed for each attendee an agenda for the meeting.

The minutes from the last meeting had been previously approved by the June
attendees and were previously posted to the list.

 

OLD BUSINESS

1. The Burden Iron Works Transcription Project (Lynn, Bill, Marialice and Kay) -Lynn reported that 18 pages had been transcribed as of the meeting. The books are too large and fragile to be copied therefore the project will be done at the RCHS. The pages are being hand transcribed onto a spreadsheet, these hand written pages are then entered onto a computer spreadsheet at the transcribers home, taken back for proofreading and then forwarded to be compiled and posted. Lynn reports that she will have a better idea of how the project is moving along after roughly 25 pages are completed and will report at the next meeting. For those of the group who work during the day there is the option of going down to RCHS on Saturdays to participate. Bill did have a sample spreadsheet with him and shared it with the group. The records contain; pay date, name, occupation and a remarks column (eg. discharged, work notice, gone to NYC, dead, etc.). The project will be termed a Finding Aide and researchers will be referred to the original document.

2. St. Peters Church Records (Jeanne Keefe) - tabled until next meeting.

3. Website Update - We now have word from Jeanne Keefe that she will be able to manage our site, so member projects should be forwarded to her.

4. Speakers - Tabled until the August meeting

5. Tours - RCHS (Lynn) Members agreed the goal would be to visit the Library and explore the holdings. Since the transcription project is in process we will
delay until further notice. Watervliet Arsenal (Bill) tours are available Sunday through Thursday from 10am till 3pm for the Museum on the grounds. There is no heat or airconditioning so it was recommended that we look towards a Sunday in September.

6. Chat Room - Pat Connors has told Donna that there is a site (bravenet.com) where arrangements can be made for a Chat by the group. Donna is asking anyone that would like to explore it further to do so and let the list know. The list can pick a topic for discussion outside of business and anyone that wants to participate can do so.

7. Solicitation of New Members (Donna, Lizette) - Notices were posted on several other lists and that is how Carol Waldron joined us. Hopefully others will inquire and attend a future meeting. Lizette will prepare a notice for the Advertiser (local weekly in the area). She will forward to Carol and Donna to proofread.

8. "History of Troy Police Benevolent Society" by Don Rittner (Marialice) -
Tabled until August (Marialice is not in receipt of the book and has left several messages asking for its whereabouts.

9. TIGS Constitution and Mission Statement - Much conversation on the list
preceding the meeting. At the meeting this writer voiced concern that the
potential number of drafts that could be received and need to be reviewed could be extremely time consuming and confusing. After much conversation and a show of hands (8 in favor, 6 abstaining) it was decided to look at the 2 that had been submitted and using one as a guide to form a Constitution. The majority of the group agreed that we will call the finished product a Charter rather than a Constitution.

After further discussion the group agreed that the one previously submitted by Pat Connors was the simplier and more to the point. We thank Lizette Strait for the time she took to draw up a template and even she agreed that hers was more cumbersome. We will therefore work from what Pat submitted. A committee consisting of Rich Shea and Lizette Strait will review suggestions by attending members and incorporate the appropriate suggestions into Pat's original draft. The completed draft will be presented at a future meeting for comment. That document will be posted to our website for review and comments by the list members.

 

NEW BUSINESS

1. The Mission Statement, election of Officers, dues, etc., all items discussed
on the list recently will be incorporated into the Constitution.

2. Our new co-chairs for August and September are Jeanne Keefe and Ed Connolly.

3. Bill McGrath spoke of one of our goals that being to automate local records and get them on line. It appears we are finally headed in that direction with our Burden Iron Works project.

4. Marialice and Lynn reminded the group that the list is made up of many
different people with different outlooks. Listers should be sensitive and
thoughtful with messages posted to the list.

5. The group agreed to call for a roll call to get a better idea of how many
participating members we had of the 54 on the list and also to put together a summary of surnames being researched by the list and the location of the list members to see how widespread we are. Frank Ryan came prepared with statistics. He has saved every E-mail to the list outside of the first few weeks. He informed us that there were 49 people who had posted and out of them 2 had only 1 posting and 9 had 2-3 postings. The rest were actively participating. Those are good numbers and show we have strong participation and interest out
there.

6. Donna had taken an informal survey of postings concerning the formation of the Constitution, role of list members, election of officers, dues, chat room and location of the meeting. These items have been addressed in these minutes except the location of the meeting. Obviously this is an issue better
addressed by those that attend the meeting. The majority of the meeting attendees felt that we had progressed with more formalization of the meeting so that a change in location is not crucial to the group right now. We have access to a private room at Mahrs and will verify that we can reserve the room for future meetings. We will place our food order and ask not to be served until 7:15. That will give us an hour to conduct the meeting and we believe that is ample time. However if an attending member can arrange for a more formal setting (library, meeting hall, etc.) we are more than willing to entertain a change in location. We are trying to balance the different wishes of the attendees, conduct business that will move us forward and still maintain a friendly "want to be there" attitude.

7. Genealogy Table - Donna Vaughn shared Surrogate Court Indice's that she purchased on E-bay. Donna has posted a description to the list and has offered look-ups. This writer asked Donna to bring the books again to the next meeting as time was short by this time in the evening. Donna also brought her mother's 1946 Bridal Book to share. The book is obviously a treasured momento for her but from a genealogy standpoint a crucial document listing wedding attendants and other vital information concerning her parents wedding. Frank Ryan brought a copy of the "Eastwick Press Newspaper" that contains excerpts from a 1839 diary. Bill McGrath brought a notebook containing his Family Tree Charts. Bill was also asked to bring them to the next meeting again due to time constraints.

8. Open Genealogy Forum - Lizette Strait gave a 15 minute presentation. She introduced herself as a "Hobbyist Genealogist" and the ancestor of an immigrant. She had prepared well and had visuals to go with her talk. She described America as a melting pot containing many different make ups. Although her ancestors were not from Troy she notes the similiarities between Worcester, MA to Troy. Worcester, like Troy, was an industrial city containing much cheap labor to keep the factories running. She has worked her genealogy from herself backwards and gets excited everytime she finds a "skeleton". Her talk was laced with seriousness and with humour and was much enjoyed by those that heard it.

9. Donna and Lizette both thanked the group for giving them the opportunity to co-chair the last few months and wished the incoming co-chairs luck.

10. Next Meeting - 8/19/04, Mahrs Place in South Troy

11. We have no volunteer for next months Open Genealogy Forum so anyone planning on attending has an opportunity to shine. Please let Jeanne or Ed know so that you can be put on the agenda.

Kris Cooney-Ayotte

 

 

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