The Genealogy Club celebrates the twentieth anniversary of its founding.
Barbara Barr
The April 6 Genealogy Club celebration luncheon was held at the MountainView Country Club. The organization honored the twentieth anniversary of its founding. Also, the slate of new officers was announced, while outgoing officers, board members and volunteers were recognized.
Chris Nelson opened the luncheon with intriguing quotations about genealogy and family history. Her remarks included the words of Lincoln, Twain and other greats.
Then President Kerry Wolfe began the business portion of the meeting and introduced Gloria Quigg, Nominating Committee Chair. Gloria announced the slate of officers for the upcoming year. Kerry thanked the nomination committee.
Next the club celebrated its founding in 1997. For the twentieth anniversary we enjoyed candles in our brownies with ice cream. We learned about the club’s history and recognized some of the charter members in attendance, Lee Mollica, Sue Nitz and Sue Wood.
The luncheon continued with many accolades for the officers, board members and volunteers who helped the Genealogy Club celebrate a great year! Kerry Wolfe thanked Lydia O’Conner for initiating the club’s publicity. The club has gained several new members because of Lydia’s articles and, in her absence, by Barbara Barr. Kerry also praised the work of Board members: Randy Gibbs for our excellent speakers and programs, Dave Troxell for our program on Revolutionary War uniforms, Pat Spencer, treasurer, for her excellent accounting of the club’s books, Patty Burke, secretary and librarian, for setting up the Genealogy section of the DesertView Library and Chris Nelson for her work as Member at Large. Kerry further expressed gratitude for the audit conducted by Sharon Scanlan, the work of Tom Larkin as Equipment Manager and our incredible Librarians Linda Henriksen and Patty Burke. President Wolfe noted that as Membership Chair, Bonnie Lucas is the first face at sign in who welcomes guests and members. Bonnie also heads up the Irish Special Interest Group (SIG). Lee Mollica was recognized for her dedication to our name tags, while Dave and Pat Tiefenbach were gratefully acknowledged for their efforts on the website. Dave Tiefenbach has also done so much work with Family Tree Maker and RootsMagic and has been so helpful to the members. Sharon Scanlan’s work as the Surname Coordinator was applauded and it was noted that people should continue to contact her about their surname searches. Gloria Quigg was recognized for her efforts in setting up “how to” classes and for leading Members Helping Members and the DNA group. Lastly, Bob Koblewski was recognized for his photographic work at the luncheon.
As the meeting closed, we were informed about the May 4 meeting. Chris Nelson will be speaking on new features in Ancestry as well as on Family Finder and DNA.
If you are interested in finding out about your roots, please join us the first Thursday of each month at 1:00 p.m. in the Coyote Room at HOA 1 Clubhouse. All SaddleBrooke residents, SaddleBrooke Ranch residents and visitors are welcome.