Genealogical Fair
08 Nov 2008
Read a report of the day's events here.
Members of the 2008 CCGS Board (left to right):
Nelvin, Ida, Chuck, Shirley, Denise, Jeanette, Rosella, Marilyn, Jean, Faye, Lynda, Steve & Joan
We were joined by special guests from
Decatur/Macon County Montgomery County
Shelby County Jacksonville/Morgan County
In addition to Guest Speakers
Gary Hargis Mary Kirgan
Past President of IGS LDS - Family History Center
Thank you to eveyone who joined us on this VERY special day!
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Your comments and contributions are always welcome. Please direct them to ccgs28@gmail.com
A report of the day's events, written by Ida Sloman
The Christian County Genealogical
Society celebrated their 25th Anniversary with a Genealogy Fair on
Saturday, November 8 at the University of Illinois Extension Center in
Taylorville.
Special
guests were welcomed from the Genealogical Societies of four surrounding
counties. From Decatur Genealogical
Society – Macon County, Gail Leonard,
Nancy Sheppard and Dorothy Albert; from the Jacksonville Area Genealogical
Society - Morgan County, Elizabeth Hardy; Carol Berry from Montgomery County
Genealogical Society and Donna Lupton and Julie Elbert from the Shelby County
Genealogical Society. Each county had a
table display of their publications and hand-outs, and had the opportunity to
tell about their Society and what new things were happening in their
organizations.
The
morning speaker was Dr. Gary Hargis of North Aurora, Illinois. He is the immediate past-president of the
Illinois State Genealogical Society and retired as the Technical Director of
Research from the Medical Center in the Chicago area. His interest in family history began while as
a young boy he visited his grandparents on the farm in Christian County.
Mary Kirgan of Springfield spoke in the
afternoon. She was the founding Director
of the Springfield Family History Center established in 1986. Mary served as Public Affairs Director for
newly formed Springfield Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints. She recently spent a year
answering the 1-800 Help Line number published on the Family Search website and
responded to e-mails sent in by patrons from the entire English speaking world.
The
five Societies represented each provided door prizes. A cook book from the Decatur Society was won
by Dick Reber. Nancy Sheppard’s name was
drawn for a copy of the Illinois Blue Book brought by Morgan
County Society. Montgomery County gave a
1 year membership won by Joan Blood. The
book ‘Shelbyville Past & Present’ by Shelby County was awarded to
Nancy Sheppard. The Christian County
Society provided three prizes: the book ‘Portrait & Biographical
Records of Christian County–1893’ went to Dorothy Albert; An index of all topics published in the first
20 years of the Christian County Society Quarterlies was won by Libby Klocke
and a 1 year membership went to Peter Knope.
Drawings
for three beautiful hand-crocheted Afghans donated by Board Member, Lynda
Sparling, went to: Carol Maxwell, Dr.
Gary Hargis and Jeanine Biondolino.
Board
Member, Joan Blood, had a continuous running computer display of some of her
photos of tombstones of the area. Her
project is to photograph each tombstone in every Cemetery of Christian
County. At this date she has completed
14 county cemeteries and those pictures can be seen on the Society’s website.
Throughout
the day, Chuck Courtwright, our computer expert highlighted the day’s program
with the Society’s history, announcements of activities and enhancing the
speaker’s presentation by projection on the big screen.
Anniversary
cake was served at noon.
Dr.
Hargis honored us by presenting to the Christian County Genealogical Society
from the Illinois State Genealogical Society a Special Recognition Award “for
countless efforts over the past twenty-five years to promote genealogy to the
genealogical community.”