Awards and Recognition
Each year since 2003 the Washington State Genealogical
Society
(WSGS) recognizes significant contributions of individual members or
projects of WSGS member societies.
The following recognitions have been awarded to GSSWI members or to
GSSWI itself.
2014
Doreen Quayle Johnson is recognized
for her leadership, knowledge, and volunteer efforts toward the goals
and operation of the Genealogical Society of South Whidbey Island
(GSSWI).
Ms. Johnson has been an indispensable member of the GSSWI for more than
ten years. She has used her extensive genealogical knowledge and skill
for numerous presentations to the society, the community, and interest
groups. She has also always been the society’s computing expert,
leading basic computing classes and visiting members’ homes for
hands-on help.
One of Ms. Johnson’s largest projects enabled more than 23,000 Island
County obituaries to be available on the society’s
website. Ms. Johnson is perhaps best known for the
excellent GSSWI newsletter
that she has published for several years.
Ms. Johnson is now moving from the area for more travel and
genealogical research. The GSSWI will greatly miss her knowledge,
willingness, and cheery disposition. She richly deserves this
recognition.
2013
Recognition of GSSWI Volunteer Participation
Jerry Case of
Coupeville, Washington, is recognized for
exceptional and consistent support of the goals and operation of the
Genealogical Society of South Whidbey Island. For several years Mr.
Case served as the Society’s program director. Mr. Case also served
several years as the Society’s Treasurer, bringing a consistent look to
the monthly treasury reports and reliably handling the Society’s
finances. He is currently responsible for maintaining the Society's
award-winning website. Mr. Case’s willingness to share his ideas has
helped the Board of Directors in many areas. The Genealogical Society
of South Whidbey Island is extremely fortunate and appreciative to have
such an able and dedicated member.
2012
GSSWI Web Site Design Award
During its July 2012 meeting, the Washington State
Genealogy Society recognized GSSWI as having the best genealogical web
site in the State of Washington.
Recognition of GSSWI Volunteer Participation
This
certificate, signed by Sam Reed, Washington Secretary of State, was
received by GSSWI in August 2012.
Nancy Hepp for Creative Design and Technical Skill
Nancy
Hepp is recognized for her exceptional design and technical skill as
the web manager for the Genealogical Society of South Whidbey Island.
She assumed responsibility for the Society's web site in 2008 at which
time she designed and implemented a totally different concept for the
website. Her creative use of both photo editing techniques and an
innovative user interface has rendered the web site both much easier to
use and better at presenting GSSWI's data to society members and the
general public.
Laura Roetcisoender for Exceptional Leadership and
Consistent
Support
Laura
Roetcisoender is a multi-talented, enthusiastic leader of the
Genealogical Society of
South Whidbey Island. She has served terms as the Society’s
President and Vice President, as well as serving on several Society
standing committees. Her popular introductory genealogy classes have
helped many members start their own research. In addition,
she chairs the Seminar Committee which has drawn nationally known
speakers to well-attended events. Laura has also been responsible for
outreach –speaking
to many groups
about the Society’s activities. The Genealogical Society of South
Whidbey Island is extremely fortunate to have such an able and
dedicated member.
2011
Bob Richardson for exceptional leadership and
consistent support of the goals and operation of the Genealogical
Society of South Whidbey Island.
We
recognize Bob Richardson for his outstanding support, management and
leadership of the Genealogical Society of South Whidbey Island. This
year, as the Society progressed with completing the digitization of 55
binders of Island County obituaries, he demonstrated his amazing
programming ability by creating several programs that streamlined the
process. His first program converted a variety of digital picture
formats into standard .jpg format. Ne next created a program which
dynamically created an index of the digitized obits and allows the user
to print or email the obit as needed. As the sheer volume of obits
began to bog down progress, he wrote a program which automatically
cropped the scanned obits saving volunteers untold hours of manual
labor. Next he updated the Society's website, adding a searchable obit
index which includes a Beider-Morse Phonetic search. He also created a
searchable index of the Society's cemetery files and provided an
innovative method to search any section of a cemetery to see who is
buried nearby. Bob is a tireless, enthusiastic, creative and highly
respected member of the Genealogical Society of South Whidbey Island,
and he is greatly appreciated.
GSSWI for Valuable Contribution to the Preservation and
Access of Washington State History
This
certificate, signed by Sam Reed, Secretary of State, has been received
by the society from the state of Washington:
"Enclosed is a certificate of appreciation for your
society's participation in the Washington State Historical Records
Project. Currently, there are over 28 million searchable records online
at the Washington State Digital Archives and 100 million records
preserved. Thank you for your outstanding efforts!"
2010
Ralph Seefeld for Outstanding Support, Management and
Leadership
Over the
years Ralph has singlehandedly done more to preserve Island County
records than any other person we know. He initiated a survey of all
Island County cemeteries and practically completed the work on his own.
He later compiled his findings into a book which he graciously allowed
our society to sell as a fundraising project. He transcribed the Island
County portion of several territorial and state censuses and arranged
to place them on the Washington State Digital Archives so they would be
available to researchers all over the world. One of Ralph's biggest
projects is the collection of obituaries for past and present residents
of Island County. Toward that end he scoured through old newspapers any
place he could find them in order to obtain as many obituaries and
death notices as possible. As in many places, newspapers on the island
came and went through the years, making the task all the more
difficult. Ralph stuck with it until he had gone through every
available newspaper. In addition, he continued to add recent obituaries
to his collection which now resides in 50 three-inch binders. Ralph
didn't stop with obituaries and death notices. As he went through the
old newspapers he also collected birth, marriage, divorce and
naturalization announcements along the way. He then compiled them into
files which he again submitted to the Washington State Digital
Archives. This year Ralph has handed off his obituary and cemetery
books to others and his shoes will be hard to fill. He is leaving an
amazing legacy of information. We are all able to develop our own
ancestral histories because of people like Ralph, who take it upon
themselves to be guardians of historical records.
Maureen (Messinger) MacDonald for Outstanding Efforts
in the Area of Preservation of Records of Genealogical Value
During
our 2009-2010 year she voluntarily took on both the field trip and
education director positions. As field trip director she actively
encouraged and recruited members to join our field trips as well as
assisted members with their research while at the location. As the
director for education she taught our intermediate education class,
researching, organizing and presenting information and handouts on
specific topics, often ones suggested by attendees. As an outgrowth of
this group Maureen took it upon herself to work one on one with anyone
who requested assistance with their research, helping them set goals
then assisting them to advance their research toward that goal. When
our society started up groups focusing on research in specific
geographic areas, Maureen immediately volunteered to lead the New
England group which meets monthly and has a large following. She has
also volunteered to chair groups for the Midwest and Pacific NW states.
Maureen recently changed from a PC to a Macintosh computer consequently
changing to new genealogy software as well. She immediately organized a
Reunion software user group to help other members with their Reunion
software questions/issues. Maureen has distinguished herself as one of
our most knowledgeable, tireless and valuable members.
2009
Mary Sue Kriefall for Outstanding Support, Management
and Leadership
Shortly
after Mary Sue joined our society, she took on the position of field
trip director in mid year when the position suddenly became vacant. Her
natural organizational talents were quickly apparent and since then she
has served as our Vice President and President. In these two positions
she has worked to streamline our board meetings; overseen the review,
integration and eventual rewrite of our by-laws and standing rules; and
completed the acquisition and publication of job guidelines for every
board and committee position. Under her leadership she has shifted the
focus of our advertising from that of a "monthly meeting" to one of a
"speaker presentation" in order to attract more people. The results
speak for themselves as we have increased our membership by 15 people
just this year alone. She was also instrumental in updating our member
survey, and as a result we now have a basic computer class, a Legacy
user group, and about eight state or country focus groups. It's clear
to all of us that she is a very talented leader and a great asset to
our society.
2008
Harriet DeWolfe for Exceptional and Consistent Support
Harriet
DeWolfe is recognized for her outstanding support, management and
leadership of the Genealogical Society of South Whidbey Island. She was
the Society's second president and served before that as treasurer. She
was program director four years, raising the level of the society's
programs to an extraordinarily high level and improving the speaker
communication process. As the seminar chairperson for three seminars
she distinguished herself and her committee. Harriet researched
nationally-known genealogical speakers and their potential topics.
Because of her efforts the society has enjoyed inspiring seminars with
superb speakers. Outstanding in her organizational capabilities, she
followed the seminars to the end by creating and collecting feedback
surveys for future seminars. Harriet can always be counted on as a
voice of reason if a subject becomes contentious. She has a wonderful
way of getting to the heart of matters and expressing a common sense
approach for resolution. She is an exceptional asset for the
Genealogical Society of South Whidbey Island and is greatly appreciated.
2007 - none
2006
Ralph Seefeld for Records Preservation
About five years ago Washington's Secretary of State's
office initiated a vital records website with information on births,
deaths, census records, etc. Early on, Ralph furnished Island County
census transcriptions for their site. Meanwhile, after years of
collecting vital records from Island County newspapers for the
Genealogical Society of South Whidbey Island, he had been contemplating
how best to make that information available for genealogists. Recently
Ralph contacted the Secretary of State's office offering these lists
for their use. They accepted, and since then he has been reformatting
and editing these large computer databases to make them suitable for
their use. This project will be a great benefit to genealogists
worldwide.
President Laura Roetcisonder presents Ralph Seefeld
with his award as Doreen Johnson looks on.
Doreen Johnson for Exceptional and Consistent Support
Doreen Johnson is a mainstay of the Genealogical Society
of South Whidbey Island. Whenever and wherever a need arises, she is
there, volunteering to help. She has taught the monthly education
classes for the society and community education classes for both adults
and children. She is editor, feature writer including a series on
"treasured items" of members, photographer and printer of the society's
monthly newsletter. She set up and "debugged" the online delivery
system for the newsletter. She almost single-handedly managed the
publicity for the 2004 and 2006 seminars and worked on other past
seminar committees. When the society set up a "travel basket" of raffle
items, she helped decide what to purchase, designed and printed up
tickets, and organized members to sell the tickets. She also videotapes
the monthly speakers for absent members and for use in the library,
which she currently manages on a temporary basis. Doreen took on the
surname card file from the society's archivist, converted the file into
a database so it can be sorted and printed in any number of ways, and
produced a report by state, showing which member was researching where.
She constructed a chart to show all of that and a "thermometer"
indicating who had turned in their ancestors. She also serves on the
society's board as Director of Publications and Archivist. Whatever
Doreen does, she does well. She truly exemplifies exceptional and
consistent support."
President Laura Roetcisonder presents Doreen Johnson
with the award.
2005
Ralph Seefeld for Records Preservation
Ralph
Seefeld distinguished himself in support of the Genealogical Society of
South Whidbey Island and other research through his efforts to preserve
important genealogical data. With the help of other society members,
Ralph surveyed all of the cemeteries in Island County (both Whidbey
Island and Camano Island). The resulte were then posted on the web and
published in book form which is available to the public. Ralph also
transcribed several territorial and state censuses of Island County
from the 19th century. These were posted on the web and submitted to
the Secretary of State's office for posting on their website. Ralph's
ongoing project is the collection and printing of obituaries of Island
County. To date there are 40 two-inch binders of obituaries. Copies
have been shared with the Island County Historical Society. While going
through newspapers, Ralph has also been collecting information on
births, marriages, divorces and naturalizations.
Diana Wagner for Exceptional and Consistent Support
Diana
received her award in the category of "exceptional and consistent
support of the goals and operation of a Society" for her help with
establishing a long-term loan arrangement to house our book collection
with the LDS books. She, with Myrna Lidell from the LDS, cataloged and
classified our collection according to author and title with all other
library identification information included. They also used zip codes
or the first three letters of a country's name on the spine. These
books were moved in 2003 to the LDS Family History Center. Diana then
made a list of all of our books, and in 2004 it was added to our
website by Richard Guenther.
2004 - none
2003
Ralph Seefeld for Records Preservation
With the help of other society members, Ralph surveyed
all of the cemeteries in Island County which consists of both Whidbey
Island and Camano Island in Puget Sound. This in itself was a
monumental and time-consuming task. The results were then posted on the
web and published in book form which is available to the public. Ralph
also transcribed several territorial and state censuses of Island
County from the 19th century. These results were posted on the web and
submitted to the Secretary of State's office for posting on their
website. An ongoing project is the collection and printing of
obituaries of Island County. To date there are 32 two-inch binders of
obituaries. These have been shared with the Island County Historical
Society for copying. While going through newspapers, Ralph has also
been collecting information on births, marriages, divorces and
naturalizations.
Ann Wright for Exceptional and Consistent Support
From the
very beginning of Ann joining our organization in 1997, she has chaired
committees to help change our Genealogy Club status to the nonprofit
Society status and to develop the Society Bylaws and Standing Rules.
Over the years, she has served as president, vice president, field trip
director, education director and is currently our treasurer. Ann has
chaired and volunteered countless hours for numerous fundraising
projects from rummage sales to a cookbook. She was instrumental in
creating many ongoing fundraisers such as our door prize at our monthly
meetings. She presented monthly beginning genealogy education programs
to our society members and held an evening class for the public at a
local school. Besides all this, she also found time to work on the
Cemetery Book Committee with Ralph Seefeld and others.
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