By LISA PERKINS
TRAVERSE CITY -- Celebrating 30 years since a group of enthusiastic genealogical studies students organized to form the Grand Traverse Genealogical Society, the group continues to encourage members with their own research and to share their knowledge with the community and each other.
"One of the most important things we do is share our resources," said society president, Mary Briggs, at the monthly meeting that acknowledged the group's anniversary last week.
During their three-decade history, the group has made a point of taking on projects that preserve Grand Traverse history and make it accessible to interested researchers.
The society has contributed more than 2,000 genealogy books to the Grand Traverse Area District Library as well as many reels of microfilm, microfiche and CD-ROMs offering Oakwood Cemetery burial records, Grand Traverse and Leelanau county cemetery books and local obituaries.
Almost four years in the making, the society will soon release a CD chronicling research on more than 22,000 names located in the four Traverse City Oakwood cemeteries, dating back to 1861 when Perry Hannah donated 55 acres on Eighth Street.
In addition to headstone readings, data includes research collected from city, church, synagogue, individual and family records, death certificates, transit permits, newspapers, historical societies and online research.
"We were ready to release the CD but recently discovered some headstones from 1876 that hadn't been included. We want to make sure this is as complete as possible," said Kathi Farley, cemetery committee chairperson.
Farley has also been responsible for the Gottlieb Piltz Memorial Marker Project, raising funds to place a marker on the unmarked grave of the marble carver responsible for many of the tombstones and granite monuments in cemeteries throughout the region. Piltz, born in Austria in 1829, was the proprietor of Traverse City Marble Works from 1872 until his death in 1896.
"The marker is ready and we will place it in the spring," said Farley, noting that she has now set her sites on raising funds to mark the family plot of Traverse City's first physician, Dr. David Goodale, who died in 1878.
The Grand Traverse Area Genealogical Society also offers certificates to families who can provide documentation that an ancestor lived in Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska or Leelanau county more than 100 years ago.
Meetings are held at 1 p.m. on the third Thursday of the month, March through November, at the LDS Church, 3746 Veterans Drive. For more information, call Mary Rose at 946-6337, Brenda Moore at 935-0152 or visit www.grandtraverseregion.com/gtags.
