Dear LGS Members, Over the past three years I have been approached by several members about their concerns of our society. One big concern of the society, was what we could do to improve our membership? When talking to several members and listening to members at our monthly meetings, I have noted their likes and dislikes of our society. And we have tried our best to implement the things that would make our society better. However, this has become a sever problem. As we have NO help from society members out side of the Board of directors. I have also noticed that at our meetings our members have all kinds of ideas and opinions of what we are doing or not doing, but no one steps forward to HELP! In general most of our members do not participate in any activities that we have worked hard on to give further education, Nor participate in any events our society is included in. We have asked countless times for volunteers and always get the same faithful few individuals. For these few I'm truly grateful for all you do (you know who you are). For the others, When you do not volunteer any time what so ever. It means that the few individuals that do. Have to put in even more time in to make the society a success. These individuals also have families, full time jobs, and other activities that they would like to be doing. May I ask, is it to much for you to give to the society 15 min a week or more? (This breaks down to about 2 min a day. And I know all of you could give up one set of commercials in your weekly programs to devote to our society) Here are some things we need help with. 1. We need someone to decorate the Library case, that is given to our society for showing Family History or Genealogy Stuff. This will take  about 1 hour a month to do 2. We need help with finding websites that can benefit our members to be included on our website. (1 hour a month) 3. Volunteers on the 1st Saturday of every month (1-3 hours once or twice a year) 4. Small articles written that can benefit members on areas of interest for our publications. (1 hour a month) 5. Individual willing to make phone calls to repositories to find out if we can copy records such as cemeteries and mortuaries (1 to 2 hours a month) 6. Individuals willing to go to court houses to do indexing of succession records (1 to 2 hours a month) 7. Individuals willing to photograph cemetery head stones (1 to 2 hours a month) 8. Individuals willing to read newly published books and write small article about the book for our publication (time unknown) 9. Individuals willing to play with new genealogical soft ware and share with the society about its pros and cons. as well as write small article for publication. ( more time consuming, about 10 to 12 hours total a year) 10. Individuals willing to scan family photos for our members website. (1 to 2 hours a month) 11. Individual willing to be in charge of our query list. (1 hour a month) 12. Individuals willing to help with our annual banquet (1 to 2 hours a month) 13. Individuals willing to work in our booths at events to promote our society (time depends on the event) These are just some of the things we need help with at this time. If you feel this is asking to much please let me know. Cindy Hofmeister <hofsearch@aol.com > PS to break it down to show you how many hours individuals who participate regularly. Earl Gates: Works at least 20 or more hours a week on society issues by responding to emails, going to News media, making sure society issues are taken care of, talking to corporations about sponsoring our society, volunteering on our vital records project, working with the library on their issues, etc. Cindy Hofmeister: Works on an average of 20 or more hours a week, by answering emails, working on website, finding online information that can benefit our members, planning society events, preparing classes, and giving personal genealogical help to individuals inquiring of help from our society. Warren LeBlanc: Volunteers 3 to 5 hours a month: Takes care of the money the society gets, collects mail, goes to bank, up dates the society members information. Brenda Fuselier: Volunteers at least 5 or more hours a week. She writes up our society newsletter, volunteers for our vital record project weekly, sends letters to individuals and volunteers at any other genealogical event that we have going on. Charles: Volunteers 3 or more hours a week for our vital record project weekly, and volunteers at any other genealogical event that we have going on. James and Leona Bourque: Volunteer 5 or more hours a month by keeping track of our books for sell, answering letters, and volunteering their services at the library several times a year, etc.      Sincerely, Earl Gates - President Cindy Hofmeister - Vice President

I wanted to let our members know that from 12:00 to 5:00 PM The, LA Dance company will be having their second annual Family Expo and Dipper Derby today. The Lafayette Genealogical Society and History of Family Search will have a booth at this event. Please come and join us in supporting this event and promoting Family History Sincerely, Earl Gates President Cindy Hofmeister Vice President

Hello Everyone, I have added more links to our website today. :^) This includes links to Louisiana Military records, confederate application index, etc Links to Louisiana Census Images and Census Transcriptions, Bible Records, Native American, African American, etc. there are over 11 different items in Favorites to search around. In addition, I have included upcoming Family Reunions. If you or someone you know is having a family reunion from Louisiana have them send me the information and I will include it in our family Reunion area. Dana Elow has added her up coming family reunion information to our website so please go check it out. I hope you guys are liking the progress of the website so far. Cindy Hofmeister LGS - Vice President LGS - Web Designer Hofsearch@aol.com

For those of you who don't know the address of our website it is < www.rootsweb.com/~lalgs> Please mark this website as a favorite so you can come back to it often and see our progress. <G> In addition, I have added some links to US Genweb for Louisiana making it easier for you to locate information. At the present there is problems with the Evangeline Parish links. And I will be contacting rootsweb about this problem. I can use all the help can get with this website. Please submit any information pertaining to Louisiana and our areas history. Help our site grow! Cindy Hofmeister - Vice President hofsearch@aol.com

This is to let our members know I have updated our website. It is still under construction and will be always. If you have any genealogical information or favorite websites you would like to add please send them to me so I may add them. In addition, I have added our website to Cyndi's list it will take it a bit to be added so please be patient. I will also be registering our site with search engines, etc. We have been online since January however I have not sent our website information to individuals as I was wanting to have the site be user friendly. I hope everyone likes what they see. If you have problems with the site, questions or you would like to be on the website committee please let me know. I NEED ALL THE HELP I CAN GET! Thanks, Cindy Hofmeister - Vice President hofsearch@aol.com

Patrons, This is to let you know that we will be adding new hours to our schedule at the Family History Center, beginning this week. Please note the new hours added on Thursdays. Tuesday 9 am - noon Wed. 7-9 pm Thurs. 6:30-8:30 pm Sat. 9 am -noon For those of you who haven't done any family history, please come in and give us the opportunity to help you get started. Family history is a wonderful hobby and we'd like to help you learn how it's done and how to make the most of it. We can show you how to get to know your ancestors and what they were all about. It's YOUR History! For the pros.....our center is opened to you for free use of our resourses. Hope to see you soon. Sincerely, Your Family History Consultants   (Ph# 984-7182 during hours of operation)

Dear Members, I'm trying to up date our website and have included a page for Family Reunions. If you are having a family reunion or if you know of someone having a family reunion in the area would you please send me the information. Thank you! Cindy Hofmeister - Vice President hofsearch@aol.com

Lafayette Genealogy Conference held Oct 2004 will be on channel 5 open channel Sunday 20th 12:00 noon and 10:42 pm. Friday 25th 6:00 pm. Ancestor Road Show will be on channel 5 open channel Feb 22 at 4:00 pm and March 3 at 10:30 pm. Earl Gates - President Lafayette Genealogy Society

I wanted to let everyone know that after ten years of using AOL I have decided to change my ISP. I will now be using Cox Internet in order to have a faster connection. This has been a very hard decision to make sense I have had the same email for years and years <G> Anyway, if you would like to keep in-contact my new email address will be hofsearch@cox.net Sorry for any problems this may cause anyone. Cindy Hofmeister hofsearch@cox.net

Hello, I wanted to remind everyone that we have our monthly meeting tonight at the Lafayette Public Library. Our meeting starts at 6:30. Hope to see you there. Cindy Hofmeister -Vice President hofsearch@aol.com

Hi to all, For those of you who may not have heard or seen here is the information on the upcoming Louisiana Genealogical and Historical Society's Annual Seminar and General Membership meeting. The LOUISIANA GENEALOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY ANNUAL SEMINAR  AND GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING Saturday 30 April 2005  Embassy Suites, 4914 Constitution Avenue, Baton Rouge 225-924-6566 for reservations Speakers: Susan Tucker  -- The History of Genealogy John Sellers --  Learning Where Your Ancestors Played, Prayed, Lived and Died        Women -- that Gender You Can't do Without Judy Riffel -- Finding Louisiana Genealogical Records Beth Stahr -- Hidden Clues and Data Analysis for Accuracy First Families of Louisiana Workshop with Judith Lanoux Smith Registration  before 2 April, for members $30.  After 2 April $35.              Non members $35. A buffet lunch will be available for $15 which includes: two entrees, three salads, vegetables, rolls, coffee, tea, water and desert. Send your registration, lunch fee to: LGHS PO Box 82060 Baton Rouge, LA 70884-2060 Hope to see all of you there,

Hi Everyone: I wanted to let everyone know that our meeting last night was awesome! We had Sue Smith Badeaux speak to us on Cemeteries. She showed us things she uses for cleaning head stones, proper ways to transcribe head stone information, as well as how to properly plot a cemetery. The information she provided was very valuable. And for me something I knew nothing about and now have an idea. I hope those that were able to make it to our meeting also enjoyed the class. For those that didn't make it, please mark your calendars for our up coming meetings held the third Thursday of every month. We are planning some wonderful classes this year. And our hope is that they are of interest to you our members. If you have something you would like to learn more about, please let Cindy Hofmeister know <hofsearch@aol.com> so she may do her best to try and get speakers to come and teach a class for you and the society. Remember your input is important <G> In addition, here is a website that was just sent to me that may be of value to anyone doing research. This is a census website that contains US and Canadian Census information. There are links to paying websites. However, that is not why I'm sending this link. The purpose for sending this link, Is to let our members know this site has information that can benefit your research for FREE! The site list other records that are available in areas that can be used to verify information. In addition, they have free blank census forms, genealogical tips, list of other censuses you may not have known existed such as State and Agriculture censuses. Not to mention they have links to other websites that can be of value to you in your genealogical and family history research. The address is <http://allcensusrecords.com/> just cut and past the URL in your browser and have fun. Remember it is time to renew your Society Membership! Hope to see you at our next meeting Cindy Hofmeister hofsearch@aol.com

This is a reminder of our January 20th meeting. Our regular schedule meeting will be at 6:30 PM in the Lafayette Public Library's meeting. Our Guest speaker will be professional genealogist Sue Smith Badeaux from Baton Rouge. She will be speaking on the Dos and Don'ts of researching in a cemetery. Sue has presented this class at the last two genealogical conferences held here in Lafayette. With wonderful feed back from her attendees and a topic that can benefit all of us. In addition, As stated earlier this month Belva Gurr has resigned as President Elect due to her having several jobs and no time to commit to the society. Therefore we will be needing to fill her position. And elections will take place at our meeting. We will also be discussing committee positions that need to be filled. Sincerely, Earl Gates LGS President GatesEarlG@aol.com

This is to remind our members that Saturday, January 15th, 2005. The Lafayette Genealogical Society will be hosting our first Ancestral Road show. From 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM in the meeting room of the Lafayette Public Library. WE NEED HELP FROM ALL OF OUR MEMBERS. The help of our members will make this event a success. So please donate of your time and come early to help. Sincerely, Earl Gates LGS President Gatesearlg@aol.com

Dear Members: It has come to our attention that Belva Gurr "President Elect" has resigned from her society position. Belva is now working three jobs and is not able to take on this commitment at this time. Therefore Earl Gates "President" has asked Jean Kiesel to step up into Belva's position as President Elect. By doing so it has now left the position of Vice President open. And this position must be filled by our January meeting. There has been a nomination of Cindy Hofmeister to take over the position of Vice President, if you know of anyone else to nominate for this position and who is willing to work with our board please contact Earl at GatesEarlG@aol.com or by phone (337)856-7663 this way we can vote on this at our January 20th meeting. Sincerely, Lafayette Genealogical Society Presidency Earl Gates - President Jean Kiesel - President Elect

Ancestral Road Show Saturday January 15, 2005, 10:00 - 2:00, Library Meeting Room The Antique Road Show has nothing on this program...The "antiques" getting valued in this one-of-a-kind show are up close and personal. A volunteer group of experienced genealogists are willing to help you put together an antique treasure far more valuable than anything in your attic. This treasure is your personal ancestry story. Drop in the library meeting room between 10 and 2 and meet with experienced family history researchers. Be prepared to share family names, a bit of chronology, and learn how to create a basic family history chart. These volunteers will guide you through this post holiday pick-me-up with a gift for yourself. The Ancestral Road Show may start your new year off with an exciting new journey into your past. This free program is sponsored by members of the Lafayette Genealogy Society and the Library. Please call Earl Gates at (337) 856-7663, _GatesEarlG@aol.com_ (mailto:GatesEarlG@aol.com) for more information. Members: We need volunteers to man the tables at the library, Saturday, January 15 from 9:30 till 2:30 at the meeting room. They will help people fill out forms of their parents, grandparents and grandparents and then go to the Genealogy section of the library to find out what tools are available to research their family history. The books and computers, etc. Please call or e-mail Earl Gates at (337) 856-7663 or _GatesEarlG@aol.com_ (mailto:GatesEarlG@aol.com) . This will get the word out for new members and help anyone interested in their family's history.

HI Cindy: Please pass on my note of thanks to all the members of the LGS for helping make my time in Lafayette productive and useful. I have accepted a new position within a mile of my home in Port Allen as the Reference and Genealogy librarian for the West Baton Rouge Parish Library. It is a great opportunity for me with many new challenges ahead. I hope that my time here has been beneficial to all of you and I hope you all keep up the good work we have started. My last day at Lafayette Public Library is this Thursday, Dec. 30. I begin my new position on January 3rd. I encourage you all to email me and stay in touch. I will send Earl my email address to share. I have enjoyed working with you and wish you all the very best. Keep moving forward but keep an eye on your past treasures. Thanks again for being a great group--and helping keep the library on its toes :-)...   Wishing you find many more ancestral challenges and treasures in the New Year...   Cassie Fedrick Genealogy/Reference Librarian Lafayette Public Library

Hello: Wanted to remind everyone that today is the Family History Fest that is being sponsored by the Lafayette Genealogical Society and the Lafayette Public Library. It is being held at the main branch of the Lafayette Public Library from 2-4 today Sunday, December 12th. It is opened to all individuals interested. Hope to see you there! Cindy

Ancestral Endeavors A MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF LAFAYETTE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY www.rootsweb.com/~lalgs/ Volume 2004 Issue 11 November 2004 The Minutes of the November 18th 2004 meeting Our regular scheduled meeting was held at the Lafayette Public Library and was called to order at 6:35 p.m. By President Earl Gates. The meeting consisted of a general Welcome, Moment of Silence for our military, followed by the Pledge. Cassandra Fedrick taught our members how to navigate through the Internet. Showing specific sites of genealogical interest. We learned how to navigate and make the most of the Lafayette Public library's website. How to wild card search on Ancestry plus. Using Rootsweb, State and National Archives as well as the Board of Land Management. For the benefit of members that could not attend our regular meeting Earl Gates emailed a list of websites that Cassie recommends. New Business: Earl Gates discussed up coming events and reminded everyone of Our Christmas Party December 2nd Being held at the Oil Center. And the Family History Fest that will be taking place at the Lafayette Public Library December 12th from 2-4 PM. All are welcome to come. We would like to give a special Thank You to Cassandra Fedrick Librarian at the Lafayette Public Library for all the hard work she has done with the genealogical section of the Library and making it user friendly for genealogist. Thank You! Cassie. The Lafayette Genealogical Society Members. We are in need of society members to update their email addresses. We are in need of members to give ideas for our Website. Which will soon be launched. Old Business: New Officers for 2005: Elections were held in October for the following positions. President: Earl Gates President Elect: Belva Gurr Vice President: Jean Kielsel Secretary: Brenda Fuselier From Warren Treasures Report Period Ending October 2004 Beginning Balance October $2,945.53 Debits Newsletter/Publication Postage/Box rent $76.00 Supplies/presents $84.06 Books $590.76 Banquet/Publication $0 Credits Deposits (Membership Dues) $0 Books sales (calendar) Postage/ Donations $0 Banquet $0 Ending Balance $2194.71

To let the society know. I have been working for the last two days non stop to put more information up on the website. Everything is not in the site yet. However I have uploaded several more files and corrected the mistakes each of you sent me. Of course there will be more mistakes along the way. At this time I have not done all pages of interest to our members. And the ones that have been launched are a work in progress. So if there is something you feel is of value to you in your research please contact me and let me know so I can include this in OUR website. And please be patient with me as I'm not a computer programer. I only took this on so our members could have something to be proud of. Cindy Hofmeister hofsearch@aol.com