Zion Genealogical Society of Lake County (Illinois, USA)

June 16, 2025

Start time: 6:58 p.m.
Attendance: In person/Zoom

ZBPL Volunteer Recognition: Chhabria presented a certificate to Charleen McFarlin, a Saturday volunteer, who provides services to patrons and works on the obituaries. She is a most patient and kind person with our patrons and a wealth of knowledge.

Chhabria also presented Joanne Layne a certificate for her long-term dedication to helping patrons with their family research on Saturdays and Tuesdays. She is also a wealth of knowledge and a walking library.

Chhabria - "The library thanks all the volunteers from ZGS from the bottom of our heart." Vicky took pictures of everyone. Joanne asked others to consider volunteering and learn by doing it.

INTRODUCTION

PROGRAM

Topic: Who do you think you are? Where did you come from? How do you find your family history?

The first question involved an ancient deed in Luxembourg and different spelling of names in marriage and death records. See Wiki in Family Search...

Court House Research - Determine what court and records you need. Check all courts for information, Recorder of Deeds, Circuit Court and County Court. Most local courts didn’t keep records until after 1911. Records were found at the State level up until then. Circuit Court hold probate records/lawsuits over property. Recorder of Deeds trace land ancestors owned, bought, or inherited. County Courts holds marriage and death records.

Carol Awe's question was also on multiple spellings of surnames. Her Great-Great Grandmother came from Germany to Niagara County in the 1860's to a Prussian Settlement. Her surname Auhl became Awe. She wants to find information on her naturalization papers. Should she look in New York or Wisconsin where she eventually settled. There isn't much information on early naturalization. After 1906, you can find lots of information. Joanne did find records for Carol in a Wisconsin area research center. When researching be sure to look at all differences in name spellings because they were spelled as they sounded.

Others who summitted problems for the program were Vicki and Angela. Vicki is looking for William Peter Ralls, a Civil War Veteran, whose pension stopped in 1930, in Siever County, AR. She assumes this is the year he died. Look for obits in newspapers around the county – ask for help from local libraries as a place to start.

The final question, from Angela, is about an ancestor. She was finding death records, census records and secondary sources with discrepancies in names and family information about a woman. The woman may have been a stepmother, the only mother this daughter knew or a mistake in the census records. The consensus was to go with what the woman said about herself - a primary source, not what a brother said in an obituary - a secondary source.

(Many people were talking at once at this time and it was difficult to sort out. I did my best.)

BUSINESS MEETING 8:10 P.M.

Secretar's Report:
Is on the website

Treasurer's Report:
Balance $2,724.00

Web Page:
Coming up soon. We won’t have a member only section at this time, with the merger coming up.

Programs:
July Meeting: No speaker - We will have a potluck-picnic at Vicki's house on July 20th. Bring a chair, dish to pass and a donation for A Safe Place. Carol will send a link to the Safe Place wish list and for food suggestions.

Joint Conference with McHenry Genealogical Society - July 12, 2025:
106 people have signed up so far. Several members have volunteered.

Nominations for Volunteer of the Year:
Coming up - $150 for Volunteer of the Year and $75 for the Runner up.

Elections:
We will be electing a new president. Elections are set for September. Lake County GS just had their elections.

Fund Raiser:
Nancy has offered to make some of her canvas genealogy bags to sell at a fund raiser for ZGS.

Lake County Genealogical Society and ZGS Merger:
Briefly - we are looking for locations to hold meetings in a central location in the county. We will continue Zoom meetings in the winter months. We will continue our relationship with the Zion-Benton Public Library and continue to build our own collection. The Board needs to be part from ZGS and part from LCGS. There are many details to iron out and we still need to vote on the merger. They are very flexible and willing to meet halfway. Our name will probably be changed to LCGS as it will give us national recognition. There are many other questions that we will continue to answer as we have more details.

Meeting Ended: 8:39 P.M.

Respectfully Submitted
Gail Dever
ZGS Secretary

Updated July 14, 2025