Members
of TIGS did meet on 5/20/04
at Mahrs Tavern in South
Troy and what a great meeting
it was. Attending
were Lizette Strait, Cathy
and Bill McGrath, Frank Ryan,
Jeanne Keefe, Mike McAlonie
and Wendy ?, Marialice Mangan,
Lynn Grice, Connie LaPosta,
Larry Malone, Kay Brearton,
Ed Connolly, Eileen Harvey,
Carolyn Helin, Kristin Ayotte,
Mary Ann McConnell and Donna
Vaughn.
Old
Business
Being
the largest group to meet
to date there were lots of
new faces so we did start
out with everyone introducing
themselves and telling the
group the surnames they are
researching. The notes from
the last meeting were read briefly. There
was some conversation about restructuring
the evenings events (meal, meeting,
informal conversation) so that the
meeting is comfortable and convenient
for all attending. No definite
plans were made but it will need
to be addressed.
New
Business
1.
Kristin Ayotte suggested
that if the group were going
to continue to grow there
was a need for some further
organization with the suggestion
of a Chair and Co-Chairperson
to provide an agenda, facilitate
the meeting and ascertain
that minutes are taken. This
suggestion was met with enthusiasm
amongst the members attending. Hopefully
it will produce more structure, keep
the group on topic for the business
part of the meeting so that we can
cover it more quickly. At the suggestion
of Ed Connolly we have agreed
on a revolving Chair with each team
of 2 chairing two consecutive meetings.
Donna Vaughn and Lizette Strait will
Co-Chair the meetings in June and July. Jeanne
Keefe and Ed Connolly will Co-Chair
the August and September meetings.
2. Further discussion
was held on Rules of the Chair, Roberts
Rules of Order, parliamentary procedure,
etc. and I am confident that as the
group grows and organizes we will need
to implement even more structure.
3.
With that in mind Lynn Grice
and Marialice Mangan brought
up the subject of the minutes
of the meeting and it was
unanimously decided that
the minutes of the meeting
should be sent to the attendees
prior to being posted to
the general list. The
attendees should have priority to review,
edit, correct and/or add to the minutes
prior to the posting. Speaking
for myself only, this is my error and
I am happy to correct and proceed properly. I
will send to the attendees, they will
have 7 days to review, etc. and then
the edited notes will be posted. Eventually
the minutes will be sent to Jeanne
Keefe who will in turn post to
the website.
4.
Lizette Strait suggested
arranging for speakers at
the meetings. The
group agreed that we would each contribute
to the cost of a meal for the speaker. Several
names were suggested to invite to speak
for different purposes all related
to our goal as a Genealogy Society. Ed
Connolly suggested that we have a well
developed agenda prior to inviting
speakers. Several members agreed
with Ed and felt that a speaker would
need confidence in the group they are
speaking to and at this point the group
still needs more structure and credibility. Their
comments were accepted and agreed with
by the majority of the attendees. Lizettes'
suggestion was tabled for a few
months to see where we are as
a group at that time.
5.
The transcription of the "Burials in Mt. Ida Cemetery" was
read as part of last months meeting
and revisited under New Business. Lynn
Grice reported that at this time the
project would be too cumbersome to
be attempted due to various technological
issues. The project is not viable
at this time. Jeanne Keefe did suggest
that we piecemeal it on the website. Anyone
gathering information from the records
for their own research should send
their results to Jeanne for posting
on the website. Marialice Mangan,
on behalf of the group, has asked that
we recognize the time, effort and energy
that Lynn put into the investigation. Lynn
went the extra mile of doing a test
of the procedure to be certain what
results would be obtained so that her
report to TIGS would be 1 00% accurate. We
as a group would like to thank
Lynn for this effort on her part
and look forward to her leadership
on future potential projects that
will benefit those interested
in Troy genealogy research.
6.
Lynn Grice and Bill McGrath
are already moving forward
on investigating another
project, previously mentioned
on the list by Rich Shea,
the transcription of the
Burden Iron Works Employee
Rosters and Employee records. Contact has been made
and they will be meeting with Jim Corsaro,
the Librarian at the Renss. County
Historical Society. Lynn and Bill
will meet with him to get a sense of
his expectations from the project. There
are over 100 boxes, not sorted. Bill
believes there is a finding aide and
he will attempt to get a copy of that. Lynn
and Bill will update the group
at the next meeting.
7.
Jeanne Keefe will investigate
the records from St. Peters
Church in Troy, this being
another hot topic on the
list. She will write
to the Librarian of the Diocese and
ask for the Diocese Policy on Church
Records. Lynn Grice is under the
impression that the Pastor has the
right to set policy. We hope to
get clarification as we recognize these
records as vital to our goal as
a group to have them available
for genealogical research.
8.
The Chat Room Format was
discussed and as a whole
we feel that the formal meeting
of TIGS should remain as
is at this time. Chat Room
in general is not being
ruled out, down the road
if anyone on the
list wants to organize and set it up
members from Troy are anxious to participate. We
will continue to formally meet the
3rd Thursday of each month at a site
determined at the prior meeting. The
mailing list is out there open
to discussion by the entire group,
the minutes of each meeting will
be posted and available for all
to comment on, items for the agenda
will be accepted from anyone offering
such items and any member from
out of the area will be welcomed
if they are in the area and can
attend. If any out of area members
are going to be in Troy at a time
when the meeting is not being
held please post to the list and
I am confident several members
will be more than happy to meet
with you anyway.
9.
Ed Connolly took a survey
of members to determine which
counties in Ireland their
surnames came from. He was under the impression
that most Burden Iron Workers were
from Tipperary. The results seemed
to support this idea. While not scientific,
the survey showed that the far more
people with surnames connected to South
Troy were from Tipperary than any other
single county - and, in fact, all other
counties put together. There were fourteen
(14) Ireland counties listed from the
responses. The place of origin in the
USA was broken down to one of three:
A.) South Troy, B.) other Troy, and
C.) other area - outside of Troy. Respondents
indicated 11 times that their South
Troy surname connection was from County
Tipperary. The next closest was County
Cavan, with 2. The other Counties that
attendees had connections to were (from
all areas in Troy and outside troy):
Limerick; Cork; Clare; Antrim; West
Meath; Meath; Waterford; Offaly; Tyrone;
Laoise; Donegal; Longford.. It
is fair to say that most Burden Iron
Workers would have lived in South Troy
near the mill and the fact that so
many meeting attendees from South Troy
had origins in Tipperary, would suggest
that the majority of Burden's Irish
workers may have come from . Ed Connolly
recommended the Book " Worker
City, Company Town" (available
through Amazon.com secondary
sellers (very inexpensive)) to
any members who wish to familiarize
themselves with the Irish working
at Burden Iron Works. This book
was made into a PBS movie.
11.
Ed then shared some information
about Emly a small town in
West Tipperary (near the
border with Limerick) and
the Emigrant Memorial there
that contains many names
of families that emigrated
to Troy. Ed has
done much research in Tipperary and
Limerick and welcomes any inquiries. He
has asked that anyone doing Tipperary
research contact him and share
findings.
The
meeting then came to a close
and the group split into
smaller groups for even further
conversation. Everyone
was pleased with Mahrs, the room is
pleasant, the meal was good and the
service excellent. We agreed to
meet there again next month, June 17th
at 6:15. Please submit any
agenda items in advance, any comments
are appreciated and we look forward
to input from all list members.
Kristin Cooney-Ayotte
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