General Meeting
Thursday July 21, 2011 – 6:30 pm
Mosciatello’s Restaurant
The meeting was called to order by President Gerri
Sherry. Donna Vaughn offered to take the meeting minutes.
Welcome to our Guests: Kathy Sheehan, Rensselaer
County Historical Society.
Attendees (19):
Gerri Sherry, William McMahon, Mary Grace Keegan Bulger, Bill
McGrath, Cathy McGrath, Debbie Gilligan, Katie Gilligan, Mike
Gilligan, E. Richard Boland, Gail Landrigan, Kris White, Jeanne
Keefe, Patrick Surace, Donna K. Vaughn, Kathy Buckley, Tim Stone,
Lizette Strait, Kristin Ayotte, Kathy Sheehan
June Meeting Minutes are posted on the TIGS Website.
Reports: Treasurer (Lizette Strait):
$3,997.44 in the Treasury ($3,975.81 + $21.63 in petty cash. List
Administrator (Brad Miter): 244 list members
Facebook (Donna Vaughn): 195 like us on Facebook
Ongoing Business: Transcription
Opportunities: (Bill McGrath)
St. Mary’s Cemetery, Book 1: Now on-line on our website,
3400 names. Technical difficulties with Book 2 are being worked
on (Jeanne Keefe). Book 3 scanned and ready to be sent out to
transcribers.
Newspaper Project: Troy Whig, 1839-1848
transcribed and on-line on our website. Bill in the process of
working on 1849-1858. Churches & Synagogues 1793-1890 copied
from “Troy's 100 Years” book, will be put on-line,
528 names.
Outreach Opportunity: Irish Night at The Joe Bruno
Stadium Tuesday August 9. Presented by Irish 2000 Music &
Arts Festival, Performance by Hair of the Dog: Sign-up sheet was
available at the meeting.
Adopt A Civil War Veteran for Monument at St. Agnes
Cemetery: $100 each: A motion was made by Cathy McGrath and unanimously
approved to adopt 4 veterans. A voting will be held on the mailing
list,to decide which veterans,. Donna suggested that one of them
might be the Cooney veteran that was suggested by Kris Cooney
Ayotte, in honor of Kris’ service as a past president.
Newsletters: Lizette will follow
up with a NJ guest from a previous meeting who had offered to
work on the newsletter. Lizette will report at a future meeting.
Possible Scotland Trip April 2012: Kris is planning
an 8 day 7 night trip for interested parties, either Apr. 7-16
or Apr. 14-22, $2178 per person including air fare ($1478 tour
part of that is a guaranteed price; airfare portion may vary some).
A minimum of 10 people is required. Some interest was expressed
at the meeting. Kris will now post to the list.
New Business: Rensselaer County
Historical Society and Surrogate Court Increased Fees: Kathy Sheehan
of the RCHS thanked TIGS on behalf of the Rensselaer Co. Historical
Society and their Board, for the efforts of TIGS transcribers
working on this index. The RCHS decided to increase their fee
from $5 to $30 per record request. due to being “inundated
for requests in the thousands,” and due to the increased
cost of postage and printing. Some concern was expressed by those
at the meeting about the size of the increase, and that TIGS was
not notified directly by the RCHS, in advance of this increase.
TIGS recently learned of the increase from a list
member who had requested a record and was told by RCHS that the
price was going up as of 7/1/11. Bill McGrath had then e-mailed
the RCHS, and their response confirmed the increase. The index
was then suspended on the TIGS website until the matter can be
resolved.
It was noted by both Kathy Sheehan and TIGS members
that we have had a good working relationship with RCHS to this
point, and that Kathy has brought to our attention many other
interesting projects and records for transcription. Regarding
the surrogate record requests, RCHS has offered to have a $25
fee for TIGS members, and $30 for the general public. The matter
was tabled for further discussion among the officers and TIGS
members.
Back-up of TIGS computer files:
Jeanne Keefe requested funds to purchase a hard drive and flash
drives to back up our TIGS computer files. This will be an expense
of approximately $150. Cathy McGrath made a motion and Mike Gilligan
seconded, to approve this. It was unanimously approved.
Transcription Opportunity: Rensselaer
County Naturalization Records: Italian Genealogy Group of NYC
has reached out to us to work with them on transcription of the
Rensselaer County Naturalization Records. The Italian Genealogy
Group will work directly with our transcribers, and TIGS will
put a link to the records on our website. A motion was made in
favor of this, by Tim Stone, seconded by Donna and unanimously
approved.
Outreach Opportunities: Waterford
Historical Society’s Irish Festival Saturday August 13,
2011 – Starts at 3 pm, music by Hair of the Dog. Sign-in
sheet for a TIGS table was available at the meeting.
Troy's Little Italy International Festival Sunday
September 24, 2011 at the
Market Place - Sign-in sheet will be available at the August meeting.
Tenement House Museum: Kathy Sheehan
talked about this museum, which is at 95 Orchard St. in Manhattan.
This tenement house (5,000 lived there) was active from 1830’s
to the 1920’s. Kris Ayotte will look into the cost of a
trip and tour for TIGS.
Genealogy Table /Discussion: Jeanne
brought a book that a neighbor of hers found in the trash! It
is a NYS Curriculum book on the Irish Famine.
Donna Vaughn was thanked for her presentation at
the last meeting. Tim Stone suggested that members sign-up for
brief presentations at each meeting, to be held after the business
portion of the meeting. He passed around a sign-up sheet and offered
to do the presentation for the Aug. meeting. Topics can be broad
or narrow; one suggestion was to present a “brick wall”
research problem for the members’ brainstorming and suggestions.
Next Meeting: August 18, 2011 at
6:30 pm, Mosciatello’s Restaurant.
There being no further business, the meeting was
adjourned at 8:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Donna Vaughn
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