In the fall of 1971, a group interested in genealogical research gathered in St. Joseph's Maud Preston Palenske Memorial Library Auditorium where they formed the Genealogical Association. More heads are better than one when working on tough genealogical problems. We shared our research experiences and taught each other new ways to find information. Regular Association meetings were held at 7:30 p.m. on the second Friday of each month except June, July, and August, and dues were $4.00 per family. Speakers presented topics ranging from personal research to determining the age of a photograph at these meetings. At the insistence of my friend Lois Wier, I paid my dues before the cutoff date and became a Charter Member even though I could never attend on Friday nights. Instead, I did projects at home for the Association or shared genealogical queries and research methods over the telephone. My earliest copy of THE PASTFINDER is Volume I, No. 3, August 1972, which carries the names and addresses of all the Charter Members. Some of the early movers and shakers of the Association were Miss Charlene Andrews, Dr. Hazel Eidson, Jack and Ruth Green, Craig James Gunn, Mrs. (Joel G.) Marjorie Pearson, Julius Reinking, Victor and Bernice Reisig, Mrs. (Fred) Norma Jean Schmidt, Donald J. Stuck, Mrs. (Victor) Lois Wier, Mrs. (Dale) Nancy Wolff, and Edward and Edith Zuppann. Bernice Reisig was the first President of the Association, and Edith Zuppann was the second. These early members aimed to pursue five areas: (1) Continue THE PASTFINDER, (2) Index the cemeteries, (3) Make a file of the members' four-generation ancestry charts, (4) Copy and file Bible Records, and (5) Tape recollections of aged people. Thirty-four years later The Pastfinder is still published, the cemetery books are printed, the four-generation charts are in our library collection, and we still copy Bible Records and tape recollections of the past. Our Founders' aims continue to be fulfilled in the present. --Dr. Charlotte V. Groff

The Board has elections every year in November.

1st Vice President

Treasurer