Monday, May 11, 2009

IGS Honors Allen County Genealogists

Two people from the Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana were given the Outstanding County Genealogical Contribution Award at the Indiana Genealogical Society's annual conference, which was held in Indianapolis on April 25.

Outstanding County Genealogical Contribution is awarded to an individual for recognition of a singular, outstanding contribution to the field of genealogy in a local area. The individual does not have to be a member of IGS, but the nomination is made by an IGS member.

John Perrey has been volunteering for the Allen County Public Library's Genealogy Center since 1987. One day he realized there were no marriage records for Allen County on the library's shelves and arranged to meet with the Allen County Clerk, beginning a relationship which still exists to this day. John goes to the clerk's office every Wednesday and picks up some marriage records, then takes them to the library and enters the information in a database which eventually becomes a book on the shelf. There are now 86 of these books. John has accumulated 3,689 hours of volunteer work.

Margery Graham has been involved with the Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana since 1983. From 1984-2006 Margery and Marie Goodrich led the Elder Hostel classes using the resources of the genealogy department at the Allen County Public Library. Margery has held several offices in the Allen County society and began volunteering at the Allen County Public Library in 1992 assisting with patron submissions and assisted in copying thousands of Quaker records which took 13 years to complete. In 1994 Margery received Certified Genealogist credentials from the National Genealogical Society board. She also volunteers at Allen County's Vital Records office filling request for birth and death records. Margery says it best: "I enjoy all the various jobs related to genealogy and the library. By volunteering, I have received an education that could not be learned any other way."

Congratulations to both of these award recipients for their years of outstanding service!

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