In 2005, Carol Cox and Ann Sipes began our tenure as co-editors of Ancestral News. This summer, Ancestral News received the "Periodical Pages Award" from the Kentucky Genealogical Society in Frankfort, Kentucky for the best periodical publication by a genealogical organization in the Commonwealth. The award was presented at KGS's annual meeting held on August 5, 2006. Shown are Ann and Carol after they received the plaque from Mike Watson of KGS at the meeting held at the Thomas Clark History Center in Frankfort.
We could not produce this quarterly without the help of several people whose names are printed on the inside front cover. These include typists, proofreaders, indexers, and department heads. The main content includes some very interesting articles submitted by the membership. We may include some of our monthly programs from time to time, as we have done in this issue. Sometimes some little tidbit that we publish urges the copy editor to do some further researching, such as the article about Hiram C. Boone in this issue. That was prompted by publication last time of the Boone Cemetery in the lower end of Meade County. I couldn't help but wonder about the identity of this man. That led me to the Boone Society's quarterly and the many wonderful people associated with that Society.
After you read the results of our work this time, we hope that more members will be encouraged to write their stories. Someone wrote several months ago and asked me if we had ever printed anything about DNA studies. Please write again. I have misplaced that note and I hope that person will write to us about their experiences along this line. I hope that we have been satisfying another member's request for "records from our member counties", with the publication of vital statistics and court records and cemetery listings. Remember, this takes another member's willingness to abstract those records and send those results in. Do you have an unpublished cemetery list in a drawer at your house? Or do you have a Bible record listing some great, great grandparents and their children whose descendants are scattered all over the United States today? Each person has a story and a unique view. If you have additions or comments about a particular item, let us know.
There are some people behind the scenes of every quarterly and I'd like to mention three of them this time. They have been typing material for us and sending the articles back by email. Norreen Gentry from Casey County, Kentucky is married to a native of Breckinridge County. He was in the ministry and they moved quite a bit before retiring. Norreen, a native of Texas, has been a librarian for almost fifty years. At age 76 she still works part time at the Casey County Public Library as their cataloger and genealogy caretaker. She and her husband have three children. Norreen says, "When I travel and see the condition of some of the old records in court houses, I want to do all I can to preserve them before they completely disappear." Norreen was one of the ladies who indexed the pedigree files last year. I was able to meet Norreen for the first time at the KGS meeting in Frankfort after Carol and I received the award.
Another typist is Caroline Braxton Rober from California. Caroline is a distant cousin of one of our early members, Lottie Bradley. Caroline is a professional genealogical lecturer, teacher, and researcher. She has been doing research for 36 years. She is President of the Southern California Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists and staff trainer for the Orange County California Regional Family History Center in Orange, California. When she wrote her biography for me last spring she said she was the mother of three and grandmother of five. She has had two new grandbabies this summer. Several of us met Caroline and her cousin last year when they visited the library.
Another typist is Amy Roberson Galvin of Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Amy and her husband, John, are brand new parents of a new son, Gehrig Scott Galvin, born on 18 August 2006. Amy has done several pieces of typing for us this past year, but understandably she won't be working on the next few issues. Amy's ancestors have come from Scotland to Virginia, and then to Breckinridge, Meade, and Hardin Counties in Kentucky. Her grandparents have shared much history with her and she plans one day to write a book about the Alexanders of Breckinridge County, Kentucky. Until little Gehrig was born, Amy worked a full-time job, commuting to Louisville from Elizabethtown.
We thank these folks in particular this issue, and hope their efforts will encourage others to join us in preserving the history and sharing it with all our members near and far. You can help us from home if you have some spare time.