D-OGS Celebrates its 25th Anniversary
On October 7th, 2015, D-OGS celebrated its 25th Anniversary! A great time was had by all, including several charter members like Shirley Mallard, Linda Skinner, Harvey Estes, Holt Anderson and Doris Hodges to name a few. Several members, new and old, spoke about their contributions to D-OGS and about D-OGS' contributions to the genealogical community.
Shirley Mallard spoke about how they did genealogy before computers and the internet and how they shared information with the society as a whole. Think FORMS!Linda Skinner and Holt Anderson spoke about the role that D-OGS played in spearheading the Digitization Project at the North Carolina State Archives in 1999 and trying to secure funding to do so.
Richard Ellington discussed the Computer Interest Group, CemeteryCensus.com which continues to live on through the work of long-time D-OGS member Allen Dew, and the Olde Orange County Family History Days. Richard's talk reminded us about how D-OGS was created in order to serve not only its members, but the community as well.
Cathy Elias spoke about Rob's term as President and about how much fun they had being The Trading Path journal editors.
Carol discussed the role of D-OGS in getting the NC Room built in the new Orange County Public Library despite little support from the Library Manager. She also discussed the importance of interviewing older folks to preserve their memories.
Stewart Dunaway expressed his commitment to making Orange County land, roads, and bridges records available to researchers in the form of illustrated and printed books (and several other counties too).
Ava Nackman discussed the Family History Video Competition that she and Carol judged for high school students. This generated additional interest from librarians who were in attendance.
There were several exhibits and visitors from the North Carolina Collection at the Durham Public Library, Durham Historical Museum, and the Archives. A few members brought in foods that their ancestors used to make and they made available copies of the recipes for folks to take home with them.
We gave away several prizes, cut the cake and ate a TON of food!
A huge thank you to all of the volunteers who helped put this event together and to all who attended to make this such a great event! Also a huge shoutout to our wonderful photographer, Dave McCorkle!