Big Sky Roundup
Montana State Genealogical Society
November 2004
MSGS WEB SITE
http://www.rootsweb.com/~mtmsgs
November 2004
2004 –2005 Officiers
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE
President Robert Cummings
265 Tuoby Road - Helena, MT 59602
Ph: 442-3515;
Elected Sept. 2004 (1st term ends Sept. 2006)
First of all I would like to thank everyone who
supported me in becoming the Montana State
Genealogical Society President. I would like to
extend my gratitude to Betty Marshall for doing
an outstanding job over the past four years. I
hope I can do as fine a job as Betty has done.
I am very enthusiastic about the next few
years.
I would like to extend my appreciation to
everyone who worked on the Montana Death
Index. At the state conference Del Harris gave
all the local societies a CD with the completed
index.
We have advertised these CD’s for
sale on our web site and in some genealogy
magazines. If you would like additional copies,
please
visit
our
web
site.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~mtmsgs/
One of the projects we are working on as a
state society is indexing the 1930 Census for
the State of Montana. Several of the counties
have been completed already. I would like to
thank all of you on the hard work that you have
done on this project.
I am trying to fill the positions for our state
committees. I would like to express gratitude to
everyone who has served on the committees in
the past for the wonderful job they have done.
Several people have decided to continue on
the committees, while others have decided to
step down to allow the opportunity to get
involved. I will be asking people to be on
committees, if you feel the need to get
involved, with the state society and would like
to be on a committee, please let me know. We
can use the help and value your opinion.
I would like the local societies to keep the
Montana State Genealogical Society informed
of any changes in email addresses so that we
1st Vice President Verba Valentine
3462 Barley Circle – Billings, MT 59102
Ph: 652-6132 work or 656-9840
Elected Sept. 2004 (2nd term ends Sept. 2006)
2nd Vice President Carol Woodley
421 So. 13th St. – Livingston, MT 59047
Ph: 222-3468
Elected Sept. 2003 (1st term ends 2005)
Secretary Shirley Rogers
Box # 24 – Boulder, MT 59632
Ph: 225-3597
Elected Sept. 2003 (1st term ends 2005)
Treasurer Nancy Alley
Box #989 – Boulder, MT 59632
Ph: 225-9570
Registrar Del Harris
Box # 436 – East Helena, MT 59635
Ph: 227-6244
Elected Sept. 2003 (2nd term ends 2005)
Immediate Past PresidentBetty Marshall
Box # 476 – Chester, MT 59522
Ph: 759-5627
Newsletter Editor Betty Marshall
Web Page and Montana L Manager
Cleve Kimmel – 5915 South Ridge Rd. – Billings,
MT 59010 Ph: 256-5662
<montana_cal@aurorastar.com>
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Big Sky Roundup
Montana State Genealogical Society
may contact you with any news or events that
are up and coming. We need to let you know
what the state society is doing for you.
I would like to know if there is anything I can
do for you. Please send me an email at Robert
Cummings. Since I am new to the state society I
would like to hear from you.
November 2004
and writing stories. With that in mind we hope
to have it to the printers in the spring or early
summer and out to the public by fall. We’ll be
sending notice to all submitters of this volume
and also to those of Vol. I. Cost is unknown at
this time.
For those of you who wished they had
submitted their Montana ancestors earlier,
we’re pleased that this project will continue,
under direction of a new committee and you
may begin to submit your entries anytime
or email if you have questions. Send to Al
Stoner, 44 Wonder Rd, Clancy, MT. 59634
Email: Alasto@aol.com
Robert Cummings, President of MSGS
Ph: 406-431-4954
#####################################
MONTANA DEATH INDEX CD
The Montana State Genealogical Society has
finalized the Montana State Death Index CD,
which covers all the deaths reported to the
State from the 1800s through 2002. This CD
has over 650 thousand death records included
in the data. Most of the records give the
person’s age and the county where he or she
died. The data is in Microsoft ACCESS format
in 10 year searchable increments if you don’t
know exact information. Included on the CD is
a current list of Montana Counties, their
numbers, and addresses. There is a helpful
“read-me” file that explains some of the
intricacies of the database.
This is an
excellent resource, which is being offered
for $20.00, which includes postage and
handling. Send your order to MSGS, c/o
Robert Cummings, President, PO Box #
5313, Helena, MT. 59604.
EXTERNAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
Pat Ludwig- Sept. 23-25, 2004
Although the committee has not met, I have
been sending out very regularly, the records
that are being disposed of by the Records
Disposal Committee. Most of these are not
relevant to the state genealogists. However, I
do keep paper copies of all and also have them
stored in a file on my computer if anyone would
need to have them copied or forwarded.
The Records Committee has met twice since
the last conference. In November of 2003 we
met in Helena at the SOS office. At that
meeting, the group was asked to, vote on and
approved adding letters or forms requesting
birth and death certificates and military
discharge records be added to the disposal
records. Further it was decided that a 2-year
retention would be sufficient. If the records are
deemed confidential, they will not be in the
general notification. The group further defined
the confidentiality of Motor Vehicle registrations
and noted that the counties need to mark that
they are confidential. Only items that are not
confidential come up on the list serve. If they
are offered on the list serve, there is a 180 day
holding period before they are disposed of.
Rather interesting was a statement from Janice
FIRST FAMILY AND EARLY SETTLERS
Everyone’s been asking, “When is First
Families of Montana, Vol. II” coming off the
Press? How much will it cost and will you let
me know when it’s ready?
The committee is working hard currently doing
the layout of the pages, scanning the photos
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Big Sky Roundup
Montana State Genealogical Society
November 2004
September 16 – 17, 2005
T. Mark Lowe , Speaker
NGS/FGS Sate Liaison:
Doggett, Legal Council for the SOS office, that
schools can adopt the retention schedule and
dispose of any record under ten years old
without submitting a disposal request. There
was still some question about this and she was
to get back to us. Many other requests were
considered but are not genealogically relevant.
On April 8, 2004 the group met again in Helena
and I was not able to attend the meeting. I did
get the minutes, which are rather lengthy, but
for our group I thought the fact that they would
be working on updating the manuals
individually was important, and they have been
doing this for the upcoming meeting, which will
be October 14 at 10:00 a. m. in Great Falls. I
do plan to attend this meeting but since I plan
to resign from this committee, I would like an
interested person to attend with me.
I also try to keep up with pending legislation
and at the moment, see nothing that concerns
us as genealogists, but as general citizens, I
would like to urge all to follow the workings of
the U. S. Congress, especially items
concerning Social Security and Medicare.
President Bush is committed to a plan, which
would allow younger workers to invest part of
their Social Security payroll taxes into private
accounts. For many of us this seems to
weaken the present Social Security fund. Also
in the last Congress, a prescription drug bill
was passed that forbids Medicare from
negotiating prices and making it illegal to
import drugs from other countries. Please
watch these proceedings and notify our
Congressmen and President if you do not
agree with something that is being considered.
Finally, this is an important year and many bills
are being and will be introduced into our State
hoppers. This committee should be a vital link
in keeping us on track.
Since I will be
resigning, we need someone to step forward
and keep us on track.
Terry Atwood from Helena has volunteered to
serve on the Records Committee.
The MSGS has decided to have a state liaison
to work with the National Genealogical Society
and the Federation of Genealogical Societies.
Verba suggested that there be three member
committee. Anyone wishing to be on this
committee please contact Verba Valentine’s
address and phone number and email is on the
front of this newsletter.
Research List
The MSGS will be making up a list of people in the state
that will do research for people that need research done, in
certain areas of the state. We would like to get every
county covered so volunteers are welcome. Their names
will be put on the web page with their address and email so
the contact can be made to the person doing the research.
Betty Marshall will be contacting each society to see if
there is anyone in the area that would be willing to do
research. You can email her at Betty Marshall if you have
any questions. I will be contacting each society and asking
questions on how we should handle this.
SOCIETIES REPORT
GIVEN AT THE SEPTEMBER CONFERENCE
Lincoln
County Genealogical Society,
Libby MT: The first meeting of our Society
began September 16, 2003. It was held in the
Lincoln County Annex building conference
room.
An overview of what genealogical
societies were and could be doing was given
and discussed.
Then time, place, and
frequency of the meeting were discussed. A
motion was made to nominate officers and to
move ahead with organizing the Society.
Officers nominated and voted for were: Ruth
Taylor, President; Priscilla Pollman, Vice
President;
Claudine
Merrell,
Secretary
(correspondence and recording); and Charlie
2005 Conference in Missoula at Ruby’s Inn
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Big Sky Roundup
Montana State Genealogical Society
Peek, Treasurer.
The name for the
organization is Kootenai Country Genealogical
Society.
We then set to putting our bylaws together. Iva
DeShazer was asked to serve as a Director to
the Executive Board. Then the task of setting
up a website was accomplished when member
John Feldenzer offered his knowledge and
services.
This has resulted in a very
informative website for the area and Society.
The name Kootenai Country has many
similarities to various sites in Montana and
state of Idaho. The final name that works for
the northwest Montana area is Lincoln County
Montana Genealogical Society or LCMGS.
There are a variety of Links that help the
viewer find and locate areas where family or
friend may have resided.
The main project that was identified early by
society members was to index the Lincoln
County cemeteries. This proved to be a
challenge in obtaining the information. Again,
John Feldenzer personally talked with various
city clerks in the county and individuals who
were familiar or caretakers of outlying
cemeteries. Through sharing what the website
was about, the cooperation came through.
John and Myrtle (also a member) did a lot of
traveling to get photos, road directions and
GPS (GLOBEL POSITIONING SYSTEMS)
readings of all known area cemeteries.
We have shared with each other some
personal insights of genealogy research
through
websites and historical papers,
writings, and personal knowledge. Speakers
this year have been Sammi Pierson - Lincoln
County Library Director, Debra Blystone and
Vicky French – Lincoln County Clerk & records
assistants, and Mark White – US Forest
Service Historian working on preserving local
historical sites information.
As a member of the Montana State
Genealogical Society, we were asked to help
index the 1930 census for Hill County and
Lincoln County.
This has been completed.
We have been asked to do a verification of the
November 2004
index before sending back and are in the
process of completing this. Our membership
currently stands at twelve.
Ruth Taylor President.
Beaverhead Hunters Genealogical Society,
Dillon MT: Activities by this Society:
1. Visited the newly formed Historical Society
in Lima; tour of town and cemetery, potluck
dinner.
2. Completed index of Beaverhead Co.
marriages from pre-statehood days to the
present. Copies for sale.
3. Working on indexing the 1930 census for
Beaverhead Co. Not quite finished.
4. Completely revamped our website. Now the
indexes for Obits, Marriages, and 1930 census
can be searched on the site.
5. We now have the fast Internet connection on
our computer in the research room.
6. We have been giving lessons to the public
on computer use and Internet use.
7. We answer MANY queries, send out
hundreds of obituaries, and have helped many
out of town people.
8. We take turns sitting in the museum every
weekday during the summer to help visitors do
local research on their ancestors.
9. Had a summer rummage sale as a
moneymaker.
10. Put on a Spring Genealogy Workshop,
with good attendance, including out-of towners.
Pat Darling, President.
Powell County Genealogical Society:
Greetings from Deer Lodge!
We have 16 total members this year and 10 of
us are very active!
We have one volume (2 years) left to index and
our New Northwest newspaper index will be
finished. These are on microfilm that is hard to
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Big Sky Roundup
Montana State Genealogical Society
read and the going is much slower…we were
spoiled with our hard copies. Hopefully we can
finish the cards and begin putting them on the
computer his year. That is our goal!
We completed our indexing of the Silver State
newspaper from 1888 to 1920. A volunteer
from our public library started with 1920 and
the last time I checked, she was up to about
1955. These are on index cards and hopefully
will be put on the computer in the future.
Last summer our courthouse gave us a large
box of marriage packets (yes, originals!). They
ranged from 1915 through about 1950 and
were sporadic.
We immediately started
indexing them separately by Bride and Groom.
We put them on index cards and then on of our
members, Elaine Miles, computerized them.
This project was finished around the 1st of
November.
One year ago, two high school senior girls,
Jamie
Malcolm
and
Melissa
Mjelde,
approached us about assisting them in creating
a walking tour of old-timers’ graves in our
cemetery.
They were in the Girl Scout
program and wanted to do this project in order
to achieve their Gold Award ( the equivalent of
Eagle Scout Award for boys).
They did an excellent job, designing and
printing brochures detailing the tour. The
graves were identified and marked and the
project was completed in May 2004. Why not
plan a field trip this fall to the Deer Lodge
cemetery and take the tour!
Our Society was chartered on November 8,
1989, the anniversary of statehood for
Montana, and every year on that date we
celebrate with a luncheon. Last year was our
14th year.
On May 23, 2004, Kohrs Library celebrated its
100th birthday by hosting a wonderful History
Fair. Our Society took an active part and had
an open house in our genealogy room in the
library. It was well attended by the public and
great fun.
November 2004
We are anxious to finish our projects and get
started on the next one……… the 1930 census
for our county!.
Please stop by and visit any time you are in
Deer Lodge. We love genealogists!!!!
Megan Thompson, President
Bitterroot Genealogical Society
Hamilton
Alan Cosper, President
1. Last year one of struggling to see if the
Society was even going to continue.
2. Operated for a while as “AD HOC”. Finally
a group agreed to assume leadership roles
after the death of Margie Ahlgren.
3. Updated web site with Ravalli County
Cemetery listing & 1910 County Census
Index.
4. Started a project to update Cemetery
listings
Park County Genealogical Society
Livingston
Mardi Whitmore
We are small with 23 members.
We
reorganized in 1999 after dissolution in 1993.
So we are now five years old or a reorganized
group. Our meetings are the fourth Tuesday of
the Month at the Senior Center but not in July
or August.
We have had good speakers and a tour of our
Park County Museum.
Carol Woodley the 2nd Vice President of the
Montana State Genealogical Society is our
incoming president again. She is the one that
keeps us going in a lot of ways. She does lots
of research for people all over the Country.
Carol’s pet project is the computerization of
Park County’s Cemetery Records. We have
had a struggle with getting a computer
program that will work, but it’s finally
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Big Sky Roundup
Montana State Genealogical Society
November 2004
happened. Carol is very determined that this
project will be carried out to completion.
Lewis and Clark County Genealogical
Society
Robert Cummings, President
Our Society’s accomplishments over the past
year.
 Our library has been remodeled and is
now open. We were closed for about 9
months.
 Our new web page is now up and we
have several indexes that can be
searched online.
*Obituary index from the Independent
record 1984-2003
*Lewis and Clark County death index
1860-1950
*Lewis and Clark Divorce index 18661944
*Forestvale Cemetery 1859-2003
*Sunset Memorial 1954-2003
*Resurrection Cemetery 1907-2003
*Rural Cemetery
 http://www.rootweb.com/~mtlsgs
We kicked off the 2003-04 year by co-hosting
the 14th annual Montana State Genealogical
Society Conference. Teaming up witht the
genealogy societies from Chester, Chinook,
and Cut Bank, the conference was held in
Havre and was very successful. Our vice
President, Sylvia Murray, was a guest speaker.
At this time our society joined the State
Society.
On October 19, 2003, our treasurer, Marie
Marden died in Great Falls. Marie’s family
designated Memorial donations to be made to
the Fort Assiniboine Genealogy Society. The
money will buy new books for the Havre-Hill
County Library, Genealogy section and the
Family History Center Library, in memory of
Marie.
One of the highlights of this year was a field
trip to members John Inman’s farm, just South
of Havre. John has a two room sod house still
standing on his property. We also enjoyed a
no host supper.
This spring our members aided a local Boy
Scout, Seth Hinckley with his Eagle Scout
project. Seth’s project was a computerized
database of nearly 20,000 birth, deaths,
marriages, and divorces from the Havre Daily
News published from 1940 to 1950. The index
is available at the Havre-Hill County Library.
We have been slowly rebuilding our
membership and hope to start publishing our
newsletter, Smoke Signals again.
Submitted by Dona Woods

Terry Atwood and Al Stoner have been
working hard this past year on the 1930
census index for Lewis and Clark
county. 30% proofed.

Del Harris, June Hartze and Karen
Huck have been working on the Lewis
and Clark birth Index. Seven Books, 4
typed and 1 checked.

Ron Bremer came to town on a
Saturday and gave a talk on source of
Genealogy research He has a book out
called “Compendium of Historical
Sources”.

New Computer purchased from money
from Raffle.

Hosted the 2004 Montana State
Genealogical Society Conference
Fort Assiniboine Genealogy Society
Havre
Yellowstone Genealogy Forum
Billings
President of YGF Ann Ferguson
Presentations for public awareness.
Booth at festival of Cultures
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Big Sky Roundup
Montana State Genealogical Society
PBS TV 1/2 hour show with public Library Staff
Monthly library Meeting for the public
Projects: 1930 Census Index nearly complete
Obituary cards filmed by LDS and new
cabinets
Volunteer by members at LDS word Library
and Members doing mortuary extraction of last
100 years.
Club: Quarterly newsletter for 21 years.
Monthly program for meetings. Encourage
members to attend the MSGS Conference.
The Member list will not be on the Yellowstone
Genealogy Forum’s web page, only in
newsletter.
November 2004
layout and adding stories for entries
from
BOTH VOLUME I and from VOLUME
II.
 The layout for Volume II will be much
the same, and because we are adding
stories from both volumes, it will
become a two-volume set.
We
anticipate that those who purchased
Volume I will also purchase Volume II.
 We are not prepared to give you a cost
on this second volume yet, but know
that it will be more than the $20.00
because of increased entries and all the
stories. The stories will be brief and
edited, however.
 We hope to have this publication into
circulation sometime in 2005.
 If you applied and have changed your
address, or have additional information
and proof, please make sure the
committee has this ASAP.
 This will probably be the last volume
with the present committee. It is a
fundraiser for the Montana State
Genealogical Society and if someone
would like to begin the process again for
a third volume, please see me. Nancy
Alley, State Treasurer can give you the
figures generated by this project thus far
over the past eight years.
I would like to acknowledge the committee who
has worked on just this second volume to date:
Pat Ludwig, Betty Marshall, Pat Downs, Lucile
Balfour, Carole Herron, Carol Woodley and I
hope I haven’t missed others. I mention Carol
Woodley because it was through her efforts
that our project was published in a SW
Montana Senior publication. Soon after that
was published applications came in by the
droves especially from Fergus and Park
Counties. Without all their dedication and
continued hard work, we wouldn’t be able to
deliver.
Al Stoner, Project Chair
FIRST FAMILY AND EARLY SETTLERS OF
MONTANA REPORT
Giving details of Volume I:
 We have sold approximately 400 books,
since its publication in 2000, and
continue to do so.
 Submitters have been asking for
additional certificates for descendants
for $10.00 and adding proofs as
necessary to create the link.
 Submitters wanted stories in Volume I.
But we didn’t intend for it to be a
storybook.
 Submitters disliked the caricatures we
chose to use when no photo was
submitted.
So, with that in mind, here’s an update and
progress report for Volume II:
 To date we have 435 entries; 274 Early
Settlers and 161 First Families, and the
deadline has passed.
 We don’t have an exact count of photos
submitted, but the percentage is far
greater than Volume I, and we will leave
the photo space blank if none submitted.
 We are currently proofing all entries,
pulling photos from files to prepare for
scanning, working on the book page
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Big Sky Roundup
Montana State Genealogical Society
November 2004
2005 MSGS Conference
in Missoula at Ruby’s Inn
September 15-16-17, 2005
T. Mark Lowe, Speaker
Montana State Genealogical Society
Yearly dues are due by 31st of
January
The dues structure is as follows:
# Members
are:









There has been a change in how to pay
your dues. The dues structure is the
same, the only thing different is that you
send your dues and a list of your
members to the State Registrar Del
Harris, Box #436 – East Helena, Mt.
59635 – Ph: 406-227-6244
This is so we have a current list of
members by the end of March so that a
mailing list can be made for the
conferences.
Remember membership dues are due
by the end of January. And mail to
Del Harris Registrar
1
11
26
41
56
71
86
101
126
- 10
- 25
- 40
- 55
- 70
- 85
- 100
- 125
- 150
Society Dues
$15.00
$25.00
$35.00
$45.00
$55.00
$60.00
$70.00
$80.00
$90.00
Make check payable to
Montana State Genealogical Society
Please mail to
Del Harris, MSGS Registrar
P.O. Box # 436
Helena, MT 59635
Questions: phone 406-227-6244
Email: Dlhar5@juno.com
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