The ISGS 2021 Honors & Awards winners were announced during the Annual Meeting on October 17th. Below are this year's honorees- Congratulations to All!
Community Service Award- This award may be given to an individual, company, or institution for service or contributions to genealogy. Nominations may be made by local genealogical or historical societies.
- Translated Latin Catholic Church baptisms, marriages, and burials from the Diocese of Belleville images online at FamilySearch. Also translated records from the Shrine of St. Joseph in St. Louis, MO. The Catholic records from IL focus on Clinton County (13 churches), St. Clair (31 churches), and Washington (6 churches).
- Translated Lutheran and United Church of Christ Church records from Washington County, IL and St. Louis, MO from German. Four churches from IL and 2 in St. Louis have been translated.
- Has contributed monument transcriptions of about 150 cemetery inventories in Clinton and Washington, IL.
- Currently working on translating the Catholic parish registers in Monroe County, IL.
- Ms. Dettleff has volunteered to translate these records for more than a decade and ensures that her work be viewed freely and is easily accessible to researchers.
Roger Matile of Oswego, IL nominated by the Oswegoland Heritage Association
- Volunteer director at the Little White School Museum since 1994. Coordinated first organization of the museum’s collections, wrote the museum’s collections policies and procedures, and created the museum’s archives and artifacts cataloging database.
- Volunteers 50 hours per month at the museum cataloging and accessioning donation of artifacts, archival materials, and photographs. Assists researchers of all types in using the museum’s collections.
- In 2017, led the complete renovation of the Little White School Museum’s gallery including writing the content for exhibit labels and scripts for video presentations as part of the museum’s core exhibit.
- Elected to Oswegoland Heritage Association’s first board of directors in 1976. Served as president for two years and continues to serve on the board of directors.
- Creator of the “History on the Fox” blog. Edits the Oswegoland Heritage Association’s newsletter, “The Bell Tower.” Contributes to the Association’s “Occasional Papers in Local History” series.
- Designed, edited, and co-wrote 150 Years Along the Fox: The History of Oswego Township, Illinois. Authored By Trace and Trail: the Stagecoach Era in Northern Illinois and Oswego Township, a photographic history.
Special Recognition Award- This award may be given to an individual for the promotion of genealogy in general or for having been a major influence toward the success of the nominating organization. Nominations may be made by local societies.
Anita Boyd of Winfield, IL nominated by Candace Marx, ISGS President on behalf of the ISGS Board
- Anita has managed ISGS’ webinar programming for several years, and was the friendly and engaging voice our webinar attendees would hear, welcoming them to the program, introducing the speaker, and presenting questions after the lecture.
- Anita was there each month when we hosted our monthly webinar series, working behind the scenes to ensure the programs ran as smoothly as possible. Listeners would not even suspect the amount of multi-tasking that is required by Anita to run each webinar, yet she always made it seem effortless.
- After the Covid pandemic hit, ISGS realized how crucial online programming would become in reaching out to our home-bound members- and that our Associate Members had the same need to reach their membership as well. ISGS began collaborating with our Associate Members, creating a Webinar Assistance program by offering the use of our GoToMeeting platform. This project allowed our member societies to continue hosting their monthly meeting programming virtually, and Anita was critical to making it work. Anita helped create a slideshow presentation for each webinar, featuring each Associate Member society’s benefits and their contact information. She walked the Associate members through the GoToMeeting process and invited them to participate in the presentation- on top of her usual webinar preparation and hosting duties.
- Laura and Anita worked closely together to plan and run the ISGS webinar programming- and more recently, the Webinar Assistance program. Laura was often Anita’s “second banana” behind the scenes, helping to answer attendee questions and troubleshooting technical issues.
- Laura has created and collaborated on several excellent educational projects to benefit our ISGS members. The “Good To Know” series is a slideshow series that walks members through the process of visiting an IRAD or the Illinois State Archives. The series informs viewers of logistics such as parking availability and accessibility, what the repository allows in its research rooms, and locations of outlets, offices, and even coffee/vending machines! The “Good To Know” series is a unique and fun way to prepare out-of-town researchers for a successful repository visit.
- Laura organized a virtual educational programming series for members in the spring of 2021, featuring monthly special interest groups, “Talk Tuesdays” (one-time presentations on different research topics) and “Follow-up Fridays” (featuring a Q&A with a lecturer who presented a topic from our previous educational webinar series). The programs featured a great variety of topics, and engaged our members during a time where many were still unable to attend events in person.
Michael Andrews, nominated by the ISGS Honors & Awards Committee.
Created and teaches a Roots Humanities class at Prospect High School in Mt. Prospect, IL. This class has introduced high school students to genealogy, and encourages students to spend a semester understanding the story of their roots. Students build a portfolio of research, have an activity journal, and create a documentary. Class topics include: basic principles of genealogical research; historical migration and push/pull factors; preliminary research; conducting genealogical research; overcoming the language barrier; DNA genealogy; principles of storytelling; and video production and presentation.
Youth Award- Students are eligible for this award for a genealogical project. Nominations may be made on the suggestion of a teacher, advisor, or local society.
The following four students attended Michael Andrew’s genealogy class at Prospect High School. Each student had to research their family and create a video documentary as part of their classwork.
● Ashlyn Gadson
● Isobel Lebeau
● Chase Michaels
● Jacquelyn Vierneisel
ISGS Volunteer Awards
After attending a writer’s workshop in the fall, Dea offered to begin a Beginner Writer’s Special Interest Group. She prepared a lengthy and detailed PowerPoint for the attendees. Each meeting covered a different aspect of writing from idea generation, formatting, adding photos and publishing a finished project. After the conclusion of the scheduled meetings, Dea has continued to share ideas and inspiration to the group members with the purpose of encouraging them to continue their writing.
Merydith Brostoff
Merydith quickly offered to moderate a Special Interest Group for fellow ISGS members. The Challenging Record Set Special Interest Group focuses on research issues with particularly difficult record sets, such as medical records. Merydith spends time after meetings seeking clues to help the group members. During meetings, everyone shares tips which Merydith compiles into a resource list. It has turned into a wonderful opportunity to get support and help with all types of research challenges.
Jacquie Schattner
After publishing several books using different platforms, Jacquie was happy to put together a Special Interest Group focusing on how to publish a completed writing project. In four meetings, Jacquie shared her tips on writing from formatting, font selection, inclusion of images and how to build your support crew. She reviewed different publication platforms, sharing pros and cons of each.
Volkel Hall of Fame- Presented during odd-numbered years posthumously in the name of a person who has contributed generous services toward the field of genealogy in an exemplary way for ten or more years.
Elmer Dickson (1931-2018), nominated by the Fox Valley Genealogical Society.
- Created Kendall County IL GenWeb website
- Devoted years researching history and genealogy of families in Kendall County.
- Compiled over 50 history and genealogy books which are available at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Reading Room in County Histories.
Elmer's award was presented to his brother, Fred Dickson, at the Kendall County Historical Society's Lyon Farm, on Wednesday October 13th. ISGS President Candace Marx, and FVGS President Gail Ryan presented the award inside the Elmer Dickson Memorial Library. They were invited by KCHS Director Lisa Wolancevich, and also present were Farm Chairmain, Jack Jenkins; Beverly Casey from the Millington Historical Society, and KCHS Board member Johanna Byram. Keep an eye out for pictures in an upcoming ISGS newsletter!
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