Committee records, 2009
Resolution of the Committee of The Sackett Family Association held on 26 February 2009
It was resolved that Tom Smith, Sandy Berry, and Jean Carpenter be appointed to a Nominating Committee as defined in the Constitution to hold office until otherwise determined.
Results of the Committee elections held in April 2009
The Committee approved on 2 May 2009 an announcement of the results of the elections held in April.
Voting in this year's election of members to TSFA Committee closed on 30 April. The election was uncontested, there being a full quota of 12 candidates for the 12 seats. Election of these candidates has been endorsed by the votes in favor of 36 members of the Association. There were no votes against.
The following members were elected to serve for the terms stated:
- Class of 2010 (to serve for one year)
- Thomas Smith
- Glenna Hertzler
- John Sackett
- Darlene Sackett
- Class of 2011 (to serve for two years)
- Jean Carpenter
- Debbie Barbee
- Sandy Berry
- Kari Roehl
- Class of 2012 (to serve for three years.)
- Chris Sackett
- Michelle Marolis
- Patti Hobbs
- Kathryn James
Resolution of the Committee of The Sackett Family Association approved on 27 May 2009
It was resolved that the following be elected to serve as officers of the Committee for the ensuing year: Tom Smith, president; Michelle Marolis, vice president; Chris Sackett, secretary; and Sandy Berry, registrar.
Resolution of the Committee of The Sackett Family Association approved on 7 June 2009
It was resolved that Sandy Berry be appointed Administrator of the Sackett mailing list and TSFA mailing list. It was also resolved that appointments of the following post holders be continued: Tom Smith, DNA Administrator; Chris Sackett, webmaster; Thurmon King, historian; and Liesa Robarge, newsletter editor. It was further resolved that Kari Roehl be appointed assistant historian.
Resolution of the Committee of The Sackett Family Association approved on 31 October 2009
It was resolved that Kathryn James be appointed Convenor of the 2010 Reunion.
Resolution of the Committee of The Sackett Family Association approved on 16 November 2009
It was resolved that Michelle Marolis be elected to serve as Acting President of the Association for the time being while Tom Smith continues to undergo treatment for illness.
Resolution of the Committee of The Sackett Family Association approved on 9 December 2009
It was resolved that Don Hertzler be appointed DNA Administrator on a temporary basis while Tom Smith recuperates from illness.
Historian's Report for 2009
The following report from TSFA historian Thurmon King was submitted on 30 December 2009.
It has been almost two years since the last Sackett Historian's report Last year the Historian's report was lost in the discussions leading up to the vote for changes in the TSFA Constitution, followed by electing the members of the governing Committee.
In February, 2008; Kari Roehl began assisting by doing some of the work on the "Sackett History and Genealogy" website donated by John Lisle. And for most of the year, when she had some free time she worked on compiling some of the information in the Sackett database. As the economy began to go down hill Kari had other things more pressing to deal with. So she sent me the copy of the database and I merged the two copies into one.
For most of 2009 Kari has assisted by using the resources available to her, and her abilities, to do lookups to fill in some of the gaps we have in some of the Sackett lines. She also worked at finding names for some of the nameless spouses.
Most of my work has been working with contacts that have come through visitors to the website.
One of the contacts, Alvin Oglesby, has been supplying me with a wealth of information for Sacketts who lived at one time or another in Illinois. Since Alvin first contacted me in July 2008, concerning his ancestor, Charles Wesley Sackett, he has sent me over 212 messages with additions, and corrections for the database. Alvin has also been active in creating memorials on findagrave.com for Sacketts and Sackett descendants. Some of the information he gives in the memorials along with headstone pictures is helping to make Find a Grave a valuable research resource.
This past summer, I approached Chris Sackett about having a copy of the Sackett database on the website he hosts for TSFA. After all, the database was originally created to assist in the project of updating Weygant's book. Then, when TSFA was organized, it became the Sackett database for TSFA.
In the process of importing my Legacy database into The Master Genealogist and the Second Site software; we discovered that there were several little problems that had to be solved before the task was accomplished. With Chris' site and the site hosted by John Lisle both indexed by Google, contacts from visitors to the sites have increased.
I have received a large number of compliments and notes of appreciation for the information posted on both sites. Especially from those who have found their family connection through the increasing volume of information found on Chris' site, or the information in the database. Many of those contacts have submitted information for their lines to be added to the database. As a result, information from contacts and research, the number of individuals in the database has grown from 30,186 in Feb., 2008 to 33,937. That is a gain of 3,084 individuals.
As, stated before, much of the work on the database in the past two years has been adding support information in the notes for the individuals and filling in dates and locations for the different events in their lives. That is the raw data the Chris mentions in his introduction to the database. Although I put the raw data in chronological order, I do not try to put it into narrative form. Because, it takes me "forever" to write an essay. My thinking is that I will supply the raw data and others can use it to write their own biographical sketches. Also, there is always the possibility that new information will be found that makes it necessary to do a rewrite.
I also include conflicting information. I started doing this after I received notes informing me of information that I had, but had considered it to be incorrect and did not include it in the notes. By including the conflicting information visitors to the websites can see what we have found and make their judgement as to which information is correct. Or, as one recent visitor did, send information that shows that an "alternative" date listed in the notes was actually the correct date.
Perhaps this would be a good time to mention something that has been on my mind for some time now. This coming July will mark my 80th birthday. Although I don't have any health problems at this time, at this age things can change quickly. Therefore, I believe the time is approaching that someone should be thinking about volunteering to maintain the Sackett database.
I was told that because of all that I have done over the past 10 years, I may have set the bar so high that we might have a problem finding someone to maintain the database. However, maintaining the database would not necessarily involve doing all that I have been doing.
The primary responsibility in maintaining the database would be to receive and enter information submitted by other researchers. This would involve being on the mailing list to receive messages from visitiors to both sites where the database is hosted. This includes the "Comments" and "Suggested Change" messages from the site hosted by John Lisle and information posted on the SACKETT mailing list and request sources to document any changes. Anything beyond that, would be optional.
Because of the fact that I love doing research, I have gone beyond maintaining the database and sought to find as much Sackett and Sackett descendant information as I can find. And, because I love to attempt to solve genealogical mysteries, I have worked with other researchers as they were/are searching for the Sackett ancestor for their family line. Finding someone who has a passion for doing this will probably be more difficult than finding someone to maintain the database. However, the SACKETT mailing list has served very well in this capacity with several researchers sharing in the quest.
Looking forward to new discoveries in 2010.
Thurmon King
Sackett Historian for TSFA