In the early 1980s, a small group of ladies met in
the Callahan House once a month to share family history work. Their
meetings consisted of getting together to record their research
findings into pedigree and family group sheets, and to write letters
to public officials and private sources seeking additional information
on their ancestors. The Callahan house was available until there were
some security issues and the house had to be locked.
The group was then invited to hold their meetings in Erma Young's
home, but that only lasted a short time before the group became too
large. Sherry Sweetman also used her home for committee meetings.
Meetings were then moved to the Art Room at the Senior Center on the
first Wednesday of each month. Membership grew by word of mouth and a
few published notices in the Times-Call newspaper. The first official
list of meeting attendance is dated March 5, 1986 with ten members
present. Charter membership was offered to members until the end of
1987 for $5, and thirty nine charter members are recorded.
Longmont
Genealogical Society Charter Members
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Ida Biederman
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Birdie Holsclaw
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Paul Pearce
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Marilyn Bilyeu
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Sharleen Hoskins
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Eileen Rennerfeldt
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Cina Brower
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Virginia Hutchins
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Stella Ross
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Lloyd Brower
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Pat Jones
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Claudine Seader
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Virginia Cowan
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Joan King
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Margueritta Spadi
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Willa Craig
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Joyce Lofquist
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Pauline Spooner
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Jean Cross
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Shirley Lund
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Jan Steury
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Pat George
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Viola McCutchen
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Nellie Stiles
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Doris Grauberger
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Ethel McDaniel Loper
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Jean Sweetman
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Eileen Green
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Doris Morgan
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Sherry Sweetman
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Dorothy Greenwald
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Beverly O'Hara
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Doris Ward
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Lola Hall
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Robert O'Hara
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Erma Young
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Mary Heddles
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Mildred Pearce
|
Joy Youngman
|
In August and September of 1987 things started to get more organized.
Bylaws were drafted, dues collected, membership cards issued, LGS
joined the Colorado Council of Genealogical Societies, library
holdings were established, a newsletter published and interim officers
selected. In August of 1988, LGS was officially chartered as a
nonprofit organization under the laws of Colorado. In December of 1988
the first elections were held and officers installed for 1989 were;
President Mary Heddles, Vice President - Sherry Sweetman, Secretary
Cina Bower, and Treasurer - Doris Morgan.
Through the years, LGS has striven to have interesting and informative
meetings, and to provide family history assistance in many ways. There
have been far too many notable speakers to list them all, but a few
include our own Marilyn Bilyeu speaking about her mother's famous
Wyoming photography, and Birdie Monk Holsclaw's "Beginning at the
Black Oak - Reconstructing Your Ancestor's Neighborhood with Tract
Maps" as well as many others. There was a special Saturday program
with Hank Jones telling us about genealogical serendipity and Palatine
research.
Back in the day, before easy computer access, the way to view census
information was to read the microfilmed record. For years, LGS members
car pooled to the National Archives at the Denver Federal Center for
this purpose. LGS groups also took research trips to the Denver Public
Library and the Colorado Historical Society to use the extensive
history and genealogy collections available there.
Society fund raisers through the years have included many garage
sales, preparing and selling a cookbook, selling canvas tote bags, and
LGS lapel pins and t-shirts (both still available for purchase). For a
few years, Celestial Seasonings paid our group per person stipend to
come and taste teas for them.
Our society has accomplished many valuable contributions: Some
highlights are:
- Extracting and publishing in our Quarterlies such items as;
early Longmont water permits and voter records, early newspaper
announcements, and school lists. This also included records of the
Shaw Mortuary, predecessor to Howe Mortuary, which had served
Longmont from the earliest days.
- Walking four local cemeteries: Burlington, Mountain View,
Ryssby and Foothills Gardens of Memory extracting internment data
from over 25,000 headstones and compiling into book and CD form.
All of the Mountain View data was also placed on Find-a-Grave
giving easy access to all.
- Indexing the Longmont Ledger from 1890-1927 for important
genealogy information and obituaries. Also transcribing early
local Longmont city records.
- Manning a booth at the annual Memorial Day observance at
Mountain View, and now also at Foothills, cemetery supplying
information and headstone location maps to visitors.
- Offering many genealogy education classes at the Longmont
Senior Center, as well as the Family History Center.
- Hosting two all day genealogy seminars with various speakers.
Our history documents where we have been. The next 30 years will be
exciting with increased technology and resources such as DNA and the
internet leading us down new pathways of research. And, LGS will
continue to assist members to be good "Ancestor Hunters"*.
* Note: "Ancestor Hunters" was the name of the first LGS Quarterly
newsletter.