PGCS References

What Various People Say About PGCS

Associations

Association of Professional Genealogists (Washington, DC, 1996) – Kay Germain Ingalls, CGRS, President
“The Association of Professional Genealogists supports the goal of Publisher's Genealogical Coding
Service. As a certified genealogical records specialist, Jean Legried, CGRS, will be a valuable member of
your Steering Committee.”

Council of Genealogy Columnists (Ocean Springs, MS, 1996) – Regina Hines Ellison, CGRS, President
“Most of our Board has replied and all with positive comments on your concept of coding for obituaries.
Therefore you can count on the support of the Council of Genealogy Columnists in your endeavor.”

Federation of Genealogical Societies (Salt Lake City, UT, 1996) – Curt B. Witcher, President
“Obituaries represent some of the finest and most concise personal data records for the family historian,
local historical researcher and sociologist. It would be a boon to researchers to have a 'publishers code'
accompany each published obituary (and death notice). Such a code would enhance the opportunities for
proper documentation and greatly assist researchers in getting back to source documents when verifying
data. The Board of Directors of the Federation of Genealogical Societies, Inc. voted to fully endorse your
efforts to convince the publishing industry of the need for coding all obituaries and death notices in such a
way as to identify at least the paper and date of publication.

National Genealogical Society (Arlington, VA, 1995) – Carolyn J. Nell, President
“The Council approved the recommendation to endorse your endeavor to convince publishers of obituaries
to obtain a seven-character Publisher's Genealogical Coding Service (PGCS) code and use it, plus eight
additional characters, within every obituary published.”

Libraries

Hennepin County Library (Minnetonka, MN) – Charles M. Brown, Director
“I believe your inventive and easy-to-use proposal offers a wealth of potential assistance to genealogical as
well as other researchers, both professional and amateur, alike.”

Monroe County Public Library (Bloomington, IN) – Ms. Bobby Overman
“I wish you good luck with PGCS and I hope you get the support you need to establish this coding system
worldwide.”

New Hampshire State Library (Concord, NH) – Kendall Wiggin
“Having spent years working at public library reference desks, I know how frustrating it can be to track the
source of an obituary!”

Northfield Carnegie Library (Northfield, MN) – Lynne Young
“Your idea of a publisher's genealogical code seems to me to be an excellent one.”

Portsmouth Public Library (Portsmouth, NH) – Sherman Pridham
“Your idea of establishing a code for obituaries so they can be identified as to date and newspaper which
published it is excellent.”

St. Charles Public Library (St. Charles, IL) – Virginia Champion
“The PGCS coding would certainly be very helpful to genealogists & librarians – to anyone tracing their
family history.”

Genealogists

Freeborn County Genealogical Society (Albert Lea, MN) – Jean R. Legried
“We applaud PGCS' goal of standard identification coding in every published obituary! It is a long over-due,
simple method of identification that will be of inestimable assistance to genealogists, librarians and
researchers.”

Genealogy House (Minneapolis, MN) – Jan & Michael Haase
“Why didn't someone think of this 150 years ago?”

Madeline Bovery Galbraith (Maspeth, NY)
“Your 'Scheme for Ensuring Obituaries are Useful' has my total and complete support. This would benefit
not only the genealogical community, but also historians and the public at large.”

Neil Hofland (Santa Monica, CA)
“Our growing & mobile population makes genealogy more and more difficult. Your ID code will be a
godsend.”

Patricia Haslam (Stowe, VT)
“I just wish this had been invented 27 years ago when I started! Your fresh idea will be an invaluable aid,
simple, and inexpensive to use for publishers who have (or have not) been collecting obituaries for their
morgue.”

Vesterheim Genealogical Center (Madison, WI) – Blaine Hedberg
“This common sense coding will do much to help present day and future genealogists quickly find
references on their ancestors.”

History Societies

Norwegian-American Historical Association (Northfield, MN) – Lloyd Hustvedt
“It goes without saying that I would endorse your plan for an obituary code.”

Ontario Historical Society (Willowdale, ON) – Jean Burnet, Editor, “Ontario History”
“As an inveterate clipper of newspapers and user of the clippings of others, I applaud your PGCS. Undated
clippings and...source...unknown clippings are extremely frustrating. Your system seems simple and
sensible.”

Ramsey County Historical Society (St. Paul, MN) – Virginia Brainard Kunz
“Your plan will be of immense help, not only to other writers and to the librarians we often turn to for help but
also to the thousands of genealogists who are riding the wave of this intense interest in a family's past.”

Newspapers

Rich Kleber, publisher of the Northfield (MN) News, started using PGCS coding – within a week after he first
heard of it – in May 1998. Rich writes:

“As newspaper publishers, we provide extremeley important genealogical records of the lives of people who
live in our communities. For people like me who study family histories, an accurate and complete obituary is
a very important document. Many times, when an obituary is clipped and saved, part of that important
information is lost. Having a source code like PGCS will help future generations of researchers piece
together the puzzles.

“It will be a valuable tool and is so simple for us as publishers to implement. I encourage every
publisher to begin using this system; it is well thought out and can be started immediately.”