TROY IRISH GENEALOGY SOCIETY
Troy, New York

April 19, 2012

1. Acting president, Tim Stone called the meeting to order and introduced new members Nicole and Jay Maloney and Terry Shea.

2. Meeting minutes will be taken by Kelly Grimaldi.

3. Reports:

Treasurer’s Report submitted by Lizette Strait and read by Donna Vaughn in Lizette’s absence. The previous balance in March 2012 was $3,201.86. There were no expenses between then and now. A deposit in the amount of $80 was made and included dues payments for 2012 – 2013. Petty cash on hand totals $21.63. Total assets - $3303.49. There are 65 paid members to date.
A suggestion was made to post the names of paid members on the website with date of payment. Tim Stone suggested this may be a privacy breach and will review the bylaws.

List Administrator Report: Brad reports there are 255 list members.

Facebook Report: Donna reports TIGS has 227 “likes”. Members and non-members are free to post.

4. Project Updates: Bill McGrath reports that Book 2 of the St. Mary’s Cemetery interment records from May 1910 – December 1918 have been scanned and transcribed. They were sent to Jeanne to download to the website. There are 3,434 names in Book 2. Book 1 and Book 3 have already been downloaded to the website. Book 4 is being scanned. A new scanner is on order. Scanners are needed but must check with Jeanne Keefe to see when they may visit her office.

The Troy newspaper project continues to make progress. Work is continuing on formatting the final 10 years of records from the Troy Daily Whig 1869 – 1878. The death records for this time period have been reviewed and are in final format. Marriage records have to be analyzed before they can be put into a final file. Once death and marriage records are finished, they will be sent to Jeanne for uploading to the website.

It was noted that the Rensselaer County Historical Society has a 20 page booklet called: “Black and white and Read” which categorizes the history of Troy newspapers. They will allow TIGS to borrow the book for scanning.

5. New Business: Donna Vaughn reported that she attended a meeting for the Spindle City Historical Society and there was talk of forming an affiliation with TIGS. It is a large organization with a nice museum. They have 231 members and $12,000 in their treasury. All agreed it would be a natural partnership. Donna will go to the Spindle City Historic Society next week and see where we may collaborate on projects.

Tim polled the group to see if there was interest in a group trip to the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Three to four people would consider going on this trip.
In order to attract new members, it was suggested that a Genealogy Day be held at the Troy Library. All present agreed this was a wonderful idea and Tim Stone will follow up with the head librarian. A Saturday in the spring or fall would be best.

6. Elections:

Gerri Sherri has stepped down from her position as president. The following nominations were presented for the slate of officers:
President – Tim Stone
Vice President – Chris Cooney
Treasurer – Lizette Strait
Co-Secretaries – Kelly Grimaldi and Mike Gilligan

The next meeting will be held on May 17th at Moscatello’s Restaurant. Elections will be finalized at that time. The slate of nominees will be posted on the website and a request for votes will be made.

7. Other Business: Donna Vaughn will offer a genealogy seminar on May 7th at Most Holy Redeemer Cemetery in Niskayuna at 6:30 and on May 17th at the Albany Ancient Order of Hibernians at 7 PM. For more information on the May 7th event call Kelly at 463-0134. For more information on the May 17th seminar, please email [email protected]

Heidi reported that a tour of Oakwood Cemetery will be offered during the NYS Heritage weekend (May 19th). The tour will be led by historian, Mike Barnett and will include the Gardner Earl Chapel which has recently been placed on the National Historic Register. Oakwood Cemetery’s new website went live thanks to a grant from the City of Troy.

With no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted, Kelly Grimaldi