Club Notes

The Cheyenne County Genealogical Society is an organization focusing on helping those interested in collecting and preserving family history information. The monthly meetings include guest presenters with helpful information on how to access information from various sources such as government records, internet sites, land records, cemetery records and tombstones, newspaper obituaries, birth, marriage and death notices and many other places. Genealogy is one of the most popular and fastest growing hobbies in the United States.

The local chapter maintains a library of resource material which is available to members. This library includes an up to date listing of all obituaries published in the Sidney Telegraph with an index which makes it easy to locate the correct information.

Several years ago our chapter indexed all known cemeteries and grave sites in Cheyenne County. This index is available in the chapter’s library.

Our current project is to photograph graves in Cheyenne County for inclusion on the internet site Find A Grave. This ambitious and time consuming project will require many hours of volunteer time as well as a considerable financial outlay. We have found that some of the tombstones are being obliterated by time and weather. Others are being overgrown by grass. There are many small cemeteries and grave sites throughout the county that are not always well maintained. It is important to preserve information on these deceased people.

We invite anyone interested in this fascinating hobby or who may be willing to help with the chapter projects to attend our meetings on the third Thursday of each month. Meetings are held in the Virginia Smith meeting room at the public library at 2:00. For more information, call 254-2325 or 254-5769.

– Submitted by Bertha Mueller, secretary