IAHENRY-L Archives

From: "Leslie W. Saint" <>
Subject: Re: [IAHENRY] ATT:HCGS & News
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 23:08:31 -0600

Norma,

I talked to one of the members of the Henry Co., Genealogical Society
about two weeks ago to get some clarification about why they were
disbanding. There was a general lack on interest. They had tired by
having a beginning genealogy class, but no one came. The few members
that did attend meetings were not actively researching. Only 2 of the
founding members are alive. And many are in poor health. There didn't
seem to be enough energy to start any kind of new project to preserve
Henry County records, etc. The Dover historical museum at New London
that took away some the people and energy from the HCGS

The HCGS didn't start till 1985. I thought there sta in the 1960's or
1970's but was wrong on this fact.

My own observation is that they didn't fully embrace computers and the
use of the internet for genealogical research which might have drew more
people. There are probably many people in Henry County slugging away at
their computers with genealogical programs and using the internet that
would have benefited from computer genealogical lessons, but that just
didn't seem the focus the HCGS.

In Milwaukee I belong to the Milwaukee Area PAF Users Group with 300
members, with 200 coming to meetings. The focus is on research on the
internet, computer genealogy programs, as well as non-computer programs
at meetings. On the other hand the group does not do projects to
abstract records, etc.

Also there are a lot of people that move into and out of Henry County
quickly and don't get involved in all community activities. This was
especially true of the people working at the Motoroa and some of the
other industries.

On a brighter note, there seems to be a lot of work being done by the
Henry County Pioneer Cemetery Association in preserving the older
cemeteries. They made a report to the County Commissioners about three
weeks ago stating that they had done work at 19 of 44 pioneer cemeteries
and also had done some work on small plots on individual farms. Sad to
say, but some of these small plots get plow under by farmers. I think
the state archeologist found some of these graves when the new bypass
around Mt. Pleasant was being built.

Also, the Mt. Pleasant library will be moving to the old high school
after some rebuilding. The removal of asbestos and some other
demolition has been completed. There will be a special room for Henry
Co. history and genealogy.
.
That's the news that I know from infrequent trips to Mt. Pleasant.

Leslie W. Saint

Norma F. Jennings wrote:

Are there former members of the Henry County Genealogical Society that would
be interested in merging with the Louisa County Genealogical Society? This
was brought up at our LCGS meeting. Although we have a rather large
membership, the majority of them live too far away to attend meetings. We
have an average of 8-9 working members that attend meetings. We won't be
having another meeting until January as we don't meet in December.

If you are at all interested please contact me at:

I will pass the information on to other members.

We currently meet in Wapello, Iowa but could probably work out a compromise
meeting place at least part of the time.

Sincerely,

Norma Jennings

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