Recapping the 2018 Annual Awards
The 2018 Awards Banquet was held on December 8, 2018 in O’Hara Hall at the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library.
This year’s event, which had 59 attendees, was dedicated to the memory of Lloyd Bockstruck who passed away earlier this year.
Lloyd had a significant amount of influence on our society, on this library and within the national genealogical community.
Lloyd began working for the Genealogy section of the Dallas Public Library in 1973. He became the director in 1979 and worked there until his retirement in 2009, a span of 36 years.
Under his leadership, the genealogy collection at the library grew to 50,000 books by 1988 and passed the 100,000-book threshold in 2006 (thanks in large part to this society, and many of the individuals sitting in this room today). Included in that collection are 10 genealogical reference monographs authored by Lloyd as well a compilation of his weekly genealogical columns that were published in the Dallas Morning News between 1991 and 1996.
Lloyd also established himself as a highly respected genealogical authority who spoke frequently at local, regional and national conferences. He was named a Fellow by the Texas State Genealogical Society and the National Genealogical Society, who also presented him with their Award of Merit and their Filby Prize for Genealogical Librarianship. He was also named as an Outstanding Alumnus by the Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research and received many, many other honors over the course of his career.
Lloyd was closely affiliated with our Society. He served almost continuously as the Library Liaison to the Board of Directors from 1980 until his retirement. During his employment at the library our society was responsible for more than $650,000 in donations to the Genealogy Section, and Lloyd was instrumental in directing how those funds were utilized by the library.
The fact that Family Search has sent a high-quality digital scanner and volunteers (Blair and Leni Moncur, who are our guests today) to digitize many of those books is a fitting tribute to Lloyd and the collection that he so lovingly curated.
At the time of his death a memorial fund was established in his honor. An appropriate use of those funds has been identified by Stephanie Bennett, the current manger of the Genealogy Section at the library, who wrote this:
“Prior to his passing this year, Lloyd used to be a judge for the annual National Genealogical Society Book Award. Every year, he would visit our library after the competition was over and donate his copies of the books nominated for this award. He would painstakingly designate a person to be honored or memorialized for each book, and when I was the genealogy librarian on staff, I got the opportunity to sit with him and take notes while he did so. He continued to make this donation even when he was getting very weak. This is one of my fondest memories of Lloyd, and while I did not get the honor of formally working with him, I loved that he continued to work on adding books to the collection that he so carefully built, even in his retirement. We hope to continue his legacy by continuing to add the same books that he would add to the collection as if he was still here with us.”
In addition, the Board of Directors has agreed to establish a Scholarship fund in Lloyd’s honor. Employees of the Genealogy section of the library will be able to receive up to $1500 each year to cover costs associated with attending either the Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research or the Texas Institute of Genealogy Research.
This fund will be administered by the Friends of the Dallas Public library. Mary Wilonsky, the Director of the Friends of the Dallas Public library,accepted a check in the amount of $7500 to fund the first 5 years of the scholarship.
Renee Jackson Smith Award
This year’s recipient is Ken Johnston.
Ken is a professional artist who has consistently donated his talents and time to produce professional promotional materials for DGS seminars. This includes not only the brochures, but also the artwork that goes into our seminar flyers, into the postcards that are used to advertise our seminars, as well as all of the art for our social media outlets. The materials are unique and themed and truly raise the professional image of the Dallas Genealogical Society. His work is exceptional as is his generosity.
We are honored to be able to recognize Ken’s work by awarding him a scholarship to each of the three 2019 seminars.
Award of Merit
This year's recipient, Gloria Goodwin, has a lengthy history of willingly dedicating her time, talent and expertise to the Dallas Genealogical Society. She is one of DGS's unsung heroes.
She has served on the Board in several capacities and for a number of years has been the Director of Membership. At every regular DGS meeting she greets everyone with they sign in and signs up new members. Her responsibility at all special lectures is to plan for and organize the registration table, having name tags for all registrants and having check-off lists of those who attend as well as supervising her helpers at that table. She has this down to a science.
When the post of Mail Administrator became vacant, she took over that responsibility as well. This entails picking up the mail from our P.O. box and distributing it to the proper departments. She has also written several helpful newsletter articles for our e-newsletter.
All of the above more than qualifies Gloria for the Award of Merit for 2018.
Volunteer of the Year
This year’s recipient has established herself as a vibrant and prominent leader within our society.
She was instrumental in the planning and execution of the highly successful Jack and Jill genealogy event held last January that introduced young researchers and their parents to the exciting field of family research.
She was responsible for managing several aspects of our past three seminars and is currently involved in the planning for our upcoming 2019 and 2020 seminars.
Visitors to the 2018 Texas State Genealogical Society conference and the Genealogy Expo held by the Frisco public library were greeted at our display table by her beaming smile and walked away with a fist full of literature about our society and its events.
And genealogists who stopped by our Family History Research Assistance table at this year’s Genealogy Network of Texas event also benefited from her friendliness, knowledge and advice.
We have all benefited from her dedication as our Director of Education. Her selection of outstanding speakers this year has been guided by the results of the membership survey she conducted and analyzed soon after taking office, and all of our members have had the opportunity to read about those meetings in the numerous articles she has written for our newsletter.
Those of you who have attended just about any event held by the society this year have seen her hard at work, pitching in to do whatever needs to be done.
Congratulations to this year’s volunteer of the year, Lisa Ross.
Heritage Preservation
The Heritage Preservation Award is presented annually to an individual, group, or organization in recognition of their contributions to preserve, conserve, house, or collect family history. The accomplishments we have chosen for recognition this year are a text-book example of such an effort.
One objective listed in the DGS Mission Statement is to collect, preserve, copy, and index information relating to Dallas County and its early history. The 2018 Heritage Preservation Award recognizes a remarkable team effort for a multi-year project that accomplishes this mission. This project began before 2009 when the Dallas Public Library received a collection of funeral home records that provide invaluable genealogical and historical information for the Dallas African American community. The first phase of the project involved organizing the records, filing them in archival folders and boxes and storing them on the 8th Floor History and Genealogy Section of the Dallas Public Library. The DGS 2009 Preservation Award recognized this effort.
Phase two of the project and the work we honor here today began in 2010. Volunteers began indexing these records to ensure researchers would have access to the details contained within those folders. A volunteer created a Microsoft Access database, and between 2010 and 2016, Ora Penn and other volunteers worked on a single laptop to enter information from each burial record. In 2014, R. L. Canady developed an information sheet used to extract information from the records, allowing for additional volunteer participation. The indexing project picked up speed as the initial project team expanded to eight participants. And indeed, during several meetings of this group, volunteers from the general membership helped with the data extraction work.
Then in May 2016, Tony Hanson created an online database housed on the DGS server which allows public searches of the indexed records. The team completed the data entry in May 2018, and reviewed and corrected inconsistencies in the database through the summer and fall. The McGowen Funeral Home records database is operational, searchable and contains over 5,500 records. Today we recognize the African American Genealogical Interest Group and the individual volunteers who completed the McGowan Funeral Home Project, Phase II – Indexing.
Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck Distinguished Service Award
This is the DGS award presented to an individual for outstanding contributions in the field of genealogy. They are professional researchers, teachers, lecturers, authors, and librarians. They excel in the pursuit of family history in their communities, their states, and on a national level.
This award was presented for the first time in 1994 to the late Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck. That first DGS Award’s Committee felt so strongly about all the outstanding and valuable contributions Lloyd had made to the Society, and indeed the entire field of genealogy, that they determined the award would thereafter be known as the Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck Distinguished Service Award.
In the past twenty-four years, this award has gone to a lot of truly well-known and deserving professionals. It was not unusual to seek out the Lloyd stamp of approval on the yearly recipients. I would like to think he would be very happy with this year’s choice.
I have known the 2018 recipient for well over thirty years. When I first met him in the mid-1980s, he was a skinny, dark-haired young whipper snapper who wore bow ties and natty sports coats with patches on the elbows. At that time, he was a Library Associate in the Genealogy Section of the Library. As a matter of fact, I have him to thank for my own job here at DPL.
He hung around DPL for about ten years honing his genealogical skills. Today he is a well-known and respected Forensic Genealogist working for probate attorneys, trust departments of banks, the U.S. Immigration Service, and energy companies.
Additionally, he specializes in southern research and solving brick-wall problems for clients.
He is well-known locally, statewide, and on the national level as a genealogical speaker and teacher. He has served on the faculty of the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogical Research and the Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research and serves as the Director of the Texas Institute of Genealogical Research sponsored by the Texas State Genealogical Society.
His most recent publication is Research in Texas for the National Genealogical Society’s Research in the States series.
It is with great pleasure that I present the 2018 Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck Distinguished Service Award to my friend, colleague, and sometimes partner in crime, Kelvin L. Meyers.
President’s Special Award
I am recognizing a member of this society who's commitment is unparalleled. He has a passion and energy that simply is inspiring every single day. You mix this with a strong sense of humor and you have somebody that is truly special and wonderful. His thought, leadership and execution is visible across the society. He's there to create, guide, roll up his sleeves when necessary to accomplish the task, whatever that task is.
This recognition goes beyond his long , exceptional experience. He has been there to help push, drive, and make sure that we, and the society, are successful. I have so many thanks and praise for this leader, mentor and friend, Tony Hanson.
Dallas Public Library
In 2012 our Society was the beneficiary from the estate of two former members. In May, we received a $40,500 bequest from C Maxine Morrison, and in October we received an additional $5,000 bequest from Pamela R. Holman. We have been waiting to find a suitable use for those funds, and this year we found one.
The glass walls that were erected to create the room where the book scanner provided by Family Search that is being used by Blair and Leni were installed earlier this year. This project was conceived by Gayla Bush prior to her retirement from the library, and the Dallas Genealogical Society provided the funds required for its construction (just over $16,000). So while we cannot present the library with a key to their new room we are pleased to publicly announce this gift here today.
In addition, we have been discussing the desirability of obtaining some additional equipment to be placed in that room. The 8th floor (and other parts of the library) have a large backlog of materials that they would love to digitize so the images can be made available to the public.
We are pleased to announce that a purchase order for an i2S CopiBook scanner, identical to the one currently on loan from Family Search, was placed by the Dallas Genealogical Society in early December (at a cost of $35,500): delivery before the end of the year is anticipated.
In addition to the digitization the library will be performing, we anticipate using this scanner to digitize materials we own, to conduct “scan your family heirloom” events in cooperation with the library for the public and making the scanner available for digitization projects for genealogical societies in the greater Dallas region.
These gifts, possible in large part to the generous donations made by Maxine and Pamela, demonstrate our ongoing commitment to support the Genealogy Section of the library.
Jo Giudice, the Director of the Dallas Public Library, accepted these gifts on behalf of the library
