We had a successful general meeting in October with Theron Rogers presentation about Find-A-Grave and his ramblings around the country while riding his Harley and photographing cemeteries. I thank him profusely for making the trip down here from Gainesville Georgia and I hope he enjoyed his stay while here! I understand he even ventured into Bosque Bello and photographed a few gravestones.
Speaking of gravestones, I came across a photograph on Facebook, of all places, of my 5th gr-grandfather’s grave. John Predom travels around Vermont photographing and documenting Revolutionary War Soldiers memorials and places them in an album he keeps on Facebook. The first photograph he placed back in 2019 was of a grave where etched into the stone you can barely make out the name of David Rich. My genealogy tentacles stood up when I scrolled past the photo as I thought, I have a David Rich in Vermont who served in the Revolutionary War! Sure enough, it was my David. A lot of Revolutionary War soldiers served for brief engagements when the enemy neared their home location. That was the way it was for David. He first served as a scout in what was deemed the “Strafford Alarm” of July 1777 where almost the entirety of the inhabitants of Strafford fled the town, pushing their stock to the Connecticut River where they hoped they would find safety around Hanover, New Hampshire. Once there, David and three other men from Strafford accompanied the scouts back into the woods to look for evidence of the enemies encroachment. He also served in the Expedition to Bennington in Sept and Oct 1777 after the decisive Battle of Bennington had already occurred. 700 British and German men were estimated to have been captured, and likely David’s company was sent to Bennington to help reinforce the Fort and guard the prisoners. The 11th of November is Veteran’s Day this year, so don’t forget to honor those who fought for our freedom, or like David, served the Nation in our armed forces in times of War and Peace.
Our upcoming annual meeting features a show-and-tell where we’ll provide any person the opportunity to showcase an heirloom, photograph, scrapbook or other item for display and allow for a brief (3 minutes) presentation. If you wish to share a story or heirloom with us, please let us know in advance by writing to programs@aigensoc.org. This meeting also serves as our Annual Meeting so please plan to attend, we’ll need to vote on a new budget and a slate of candidates for Board positions in 2022, and that requires a quorum of members to be present. If you can not be present at the meeting then please fill out a proxy letting the society know if you approve of both the 2022 budget and the slate of candidates.
Our Beginning Genealogy Course is filling up quickly! We are already at more than 50% of capacity for the room!!!