This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Miller, Mays, Story Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Yh.2ADE/1942.1 Message Board Post: I have Paul as the son of Samuel Benjamin Franklin Miller and Rebecca Jane Story, married 1868. The family is discussed on p 728 of the White County history. I haven't done a lot of census work on this family branch. Samuel was a son of Robert "Robin" Miller and Mary Mays. Can you use a Gedcom on the family?

Charlene Shields is one of the co-founders of the Mary Smith Fay Genealogy Library; she has been one of the most prolific and knowledgeable researchers for the Library, and has spent thousands of hours of volunteer time working at and for the Library. She has also, for several years, written a column for the Carmi Times: "Notes from the Genealogy Library." The title of this e-mail is the title of today's column, which appears in full below: So this is good-bye . . . Saying good-bye is always difficult, but surely writing good-bye is twice as hard. I expect this to be my last column. I have determined it is time for me to leave the library. The library was begun in the mid-1980s, when Bob Wylie gave us half of his one-room office space in the Ratcliff Inn. Janet Armstrong and Janet Pritchet were the ones with the vision to start a genealogy library, and it was started basically with what the volunteers could scrounge up and with the blessings of the Historical Society. Janet Armstrong paid for bookcases and brought in a typewriter. Others of us pitched in with buying smaller items. It was a shoestring operation. Later, my cousin Mary Smith Fay, a Carmi native living in Houston and a dedicated genealogist, helped us out financially. The city gave the old Carnegie building to the Historical Society for us to house our ever-expanding operation. Mary Fay visited in my home each year and always visited the library. She was delighted with our endeavors. At her death two years ago, we learned she had left a considerable bequest to the library. Since then we have bought a great deal of microfilm, CDs, books and equipment. Dozens of volunteers have put in thousands of hours in doing research for people away from here and in helping get the enlarging library organized. We always had a dozen projects going. We are all immensely proud of the library. Recent developments at the library have convinced me that it's time for me to leave. Janet Armstrong is quitting, also, and the librarian has resigned. Now, if I may borrow a phrase from Ray Mitchell, "'Nuff Said." One of the tasks I've most enjoyed during the past several years has been writing this little column. I've enjoyed the input and comments from readers. I shall miss you, and perhaps a few of you will miss me, too. After having spent most of my spare time for the past 14 years working on some library project, I'm looking for a new hobby. Anyone have one of those little looms? Maybe I could start weaving pot holders.

Listmembers, I, too, was saddened to read Charlene's column in today's Carmi paper. We have had a summer of meetings of the historical society and its Mary Smith Fay trust committee, and hoped that some important compromises had been reached after a joint meeting on August 26th. I had considered the problems to be the normal "growing pains" of the library. However, Ms. Davis resigned the next day and Mrs. Armstrong and Mrs. Shields soon indicated their intentions to generally cease their association with the library. Charlene and Janet were my mentors in genealogy, and all three women have given many, many hours to genealogy. However, the White County historical society has employed a new librarian, and has the same library chair and most of the same volunteers who have served for several years. It may take a long time for the library to operate as efficiently as it has in the past, and for awhile the library is going to have to concentrate on service rather than publishing new books. If anyone is interested in more of the non-genealogy details please email me privately. Do remember that the library has new hours, developed from a review of volunteer and patron comments: Tuesday through Friday, 11:30 am to 4:30 pm. Saturday hours will be available by appointment. Please contact the library at 618-382-8425 for more information. Cindy Birk Conley Treasurer, White County Historical Society White County GenWeb Coordinator