Ancestral Endeavors A MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF LAFAYETTE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY www.nettally.com/lgsla Volume 2004 Issue 7 July 2004 The Minutes of the July 16, 2004 Meeting Call to order for Committee Meeting at 5:30 p.m. Committee members talked about ways we could regain interest in old members. We have had over 20 members since 2001 that are no longer with us. Some of the reasons discussed were age, transportation, health problems, and lack of interest. The committee agreed to work on ways to make our society more interesting, such as our yearly periodical being done like other societies and our rootsweb news list. In addition, we talked about. Placing more items the society works on in our publications. This way our members would see progress in their hard work. As well as making "Les Memories" more appealing to non-society members. As discussed last month the Society chose to go with Rootsweb as their host for the web page. The information for our web page is completed. However, we are in need of pictures of the Louisiana area and their families to do the top boarder of the page. Cindy Hofmeister is the one designing the web page. This is taking time, but be patient as she has never done this type of thing before. If anyone in the society does know how to do web pages? Cindy has asked that you contact her (337)839-9246 or Cell (337)288-7278 or hofsearch@aol.com if you have any ideas. (Remember this is your society so volunteer with ideas) Our regular scheduled meeting was held at the Dupre Library at UL and was called to order at 6:30 p.m. By president elect, Earl Gates. The meeting consisted of a general Welcome, Moment of Silence for our military. Followed by the Pledge. Eula made it back to our meeting and presented our speaker "Estelle Perrault" It is nice to have Eula back, and making such wonderful progress. We had 24 individuals present at our meeting, several visiting from the Imperial St. Landry Genealogical & Historical Society, Dana Elow who has been present at our meetings, and Janette Comier Merrill who was seeing what our society is all about. Janette, is just starting with her family history. And welcomes any help our members can give her. The families she is researching are (CORMIER; ABSHIRE; and KRAUSE) Speaker Estelle Perrault - Estelle is the president of the Imperial St. Landry Genealogical and Historical Society. http://www.imperialstlandry.org/, Estelle, spoke to our society about a book her society is working on. Which is about the "History of St. Landry Parish" Their society is looking for anyone willing to donate stories or histories about the Parish and families that may have lived in the area. In addition, to the need for stories and history, Estelle explained problems the society has ran into while trying to work on this historical book. A local newspaper had sold out to new individuals, who in the take over process threw out old photos of the town, people and stories about the town. Some items were thrown out, because it was felt they had no value. Other items were placed out on a porch during a moving process and ended up in the trash. Never, to be seen again! This story has brought up the importance of how valuable our history is. And that each and every one of us, must do what ever we can to preserve our HISTORY. Old Business - Rayne's Genealogy Conference seminar September 25, 2004 with volunteers Brenda, Cindy, Regina and Earl. We would like to be able to sell our vital record CDs at this conference. And are in need of individuals, who know how to burn CDs. Or possibly a place that will charge a minimal fee for doing this service. However, FREE is best! If you have a CD burner, or no someone who does and are willing to help us with this project? Please contact Earl Gates or Cindy Hofmeister, ASAP. Ancestor Road Show through the library. Cindy Hofmeister has asked for the help of the Louisiana APG members for help with this project. She got responses from eight of the twenty-one members willing to help. However, they will need to be notified closer to the date. In addition, Earl Gates spoke to the new genealogical librarian about the Ancestor Road Show and requested to know when would be the best date. New Business- August Meeting Our August meeting will be at the downtown library, Thursday, August 19, 2004 and our speaker will be Lauren Smith our previous Lafayette genealogical librarian. And now the new Computer training librarian. Lauren will be teaching about Internet research with an emphasis on "Ancestry Plus" http://www.ancestryplus.com/ In addition, getting magazine articles from the libraries web site with your library card. We are in need of Saturday volunteers for the library. If you have not volunteered, Please put your name on the list!! (This is one of the ways we pay the library back for having a facility to host our meetings.) TREASURER'S REPORT PERIOD ENDING June 2004 $2,818.53 BEGINNING BALANCE JUNE DEBITS NEWSLETTER/Publication POSTAGE/BOX RENT $0.00 SUPPLIES/presents $25.00 BOOKS $0.00 Banquet/Publication $0.00 CREDITS DEPOSITS (MEMBERSHIP DUES) BOOK SALES (Calendar) Postage BANQUET $0.00 ENDING BALANCE $2,793.53 If you have any questions or concerns about this newsletter please contact Cindy Hofmeister hofsearch@aol.com