The March 12, 2009, meeting of the Madison County Genealogical Society was held at the Edwardsville Public Library in Edwardsville, Illinois.

President, Robert Ridenour, called the meeting to order.

Reports:

In the absence of our Treasurer LaVerne Bloemker, Secretary Barbara Hitch presented the financial report for the month of February 2009.

• General Fund - Beg. Balance $2,352.55 - Income $810.13 - Expense $1,140.08 - End Balance $2,022.60
• Publications Fund - Beg. Balance $10,687.25 - Income $450.00 - Expense - $18.16- End Balance $11,119.09
• Life Membership Fund - Beg. Balance $5,397.28 - No Change- End Balance $5,297.28
• Total Assets as of February 28, 2009 - $18,438.97

Recording secretary Barbara Hitch reported that she was accepting 2009 dues at this meeting. Dues for 2009 are due on 1 January and delinquent on 31 January.

Librarian Elsie Wasser reported that we had received several new items for the library:

St. Kevin's School of East Alton, Illinois, Yearbook 1982-83. Donated by Jessie Burch of O'Fallon, Missouri. Reported at last meeting. This item has been copied. The copy was placed in the genealogy room and the original given to the Madison County Historical Society.

Archdiocese of St. Louis Year Book 1993 donated by Elsie Wasser.

The following have been added to the Family Vertical Files:

CD's from Rev. C. V. Nelson concerning updates and other material on his Williams, Nelson, Hood, and Johnson families.

Information on Starkey connections; Kapp family group sheets from Betty Greenwood; information on the following families: Hollman/Holman, Good, Brown family of Ireland, Fuhrmann-Poneleit.

Robert Ridenour related his experiences with the research into his family genealogy and the results and value of Y-DNA testing. After years of searching, he had been able to trace his Ridenour line back only 5 generations to his 3g-grandfather. Unable to find any earlier information, Mr. Ridenour submitted samples for Y-DNA testing to Family Tree DNA. The results came back with exact matches to several other individuals. One of these gentlemen has been able to trace his Ridenour/Reitenauer line back to 16th Century Switzerland. Robert's line must therefore also be traceable back to the same Swiss Reitenauer. All that remains for him to do is to find the connection between his 3g-grandfather and one of the documented Ridenour/Reitenauer lines.

This presentation was well received and prompted several questions.