DGS announces their Annual Awards
by Tony Hanson
The Award of Merit
The Award of Merit is presented annually to a DGS member who has consistently contributed time, talent, expertise, and abilities to the Society over a period of years. This member’s dedication and hard work in the name of the society usually goes way above the norm: Their contributions stand out.
Sharon Bowles has been a dedicated DGS volunteer for more than a decade. Since joining DGS in 2012, she has served in various leadership positions, including Secretary (2016-2017), Director of Marketing (2018-2022), Vice President (2023-2025), and she has agreed to step into the Seminar Administrator position in the 2025-2026 board. In 2024 she was recognized as the Volunteer of the Year by our society and by the Texas State Genealogical Society.
When unexpected board vacancies have arisen, Sharon has graciously and selflessly stepped in to create marketing and publicity materials, identify speakers for our Seminars and General Meetings, and has played a vital role in making sure that our recent seminars have gone off without a hitch. She is a tireless and multi-talented leader whose ability to pivot quickly has enabled DGS to provide stellar service to its members and to the greater genealogy community.
I should note that Sharon volunteered to serve on the Awards Nomination Committee this year. If she looks a little confused right now it is because the committee did not let her know that she had been nominated and let her think that the award was going to be presented to someone else.
Congratulations Sharon!
The Heritage Preservation
The Heritage Preservation award is presented annually to an individual, group, or organization in recognition of contributions to preserve, conserve, house, or collect family history. Past recipients in this category cover many varying types of genealogical and historical preservation endeavors.
This year’s recipient is Tom White in recognition of his efforts to identify deceased military service members who are buried at Oakland Cemetery. Tom has attracted a group of dedicated volunteers who are working with him to ensure that the graves of military veterans are located, documented and properly identified.
In cases where the grave already has a visible marker signifying military service, Tom ensures that the Oakland Cemetery Records, Dallas Genealogical Society database and FindAGrave records correctly document the veteran’s service.
When the records indicate that a marker has been placed but it is no longer visible Tom will probe and dig in an attempt to locate the marker. In cases where one is discovered, Tom will uncover it, clean it, set a new base and re-set the stone.
In cases where no marker has been provided, Tom and his team do the research necessary to submit a marker application to the Veterans Administration. Once the marker has been delivered (to Tom’s house) he transports it to the cemetery and places it on the grave. As part of their research, they attempt to identify living relatives of the veteran and invite them to attend a ceremony performed at the time the marker is set in place.
Tom has an important role helping the Dallas Genealogical Society record accurate information for other burials as well. He is often called on to clean and photograph markers that are unreadable and to dig up and reset un-visible markers identified by our researchers.
Tom currently serves as the Treasurer of the Oakland Cemetery Lot Owners Association. A fundamental requirement of membership in this organization is owning a plot at the cemetery. Tom fulfilled this requirement by purchasing a lot in the cemetery’s Pet Cemetery.
Who knew that Oakland had a pet cemetery?
Tom knows. He has photographed all of the plots in this area of the cemetery and made them available on Facebook. Our own Barbara Ware (who, incidentally, nominated Tom for this award) is working with Tom to enter information about the pet burials (each of which has its own internment card in the cemetery records) into the DGS Cemetery Database.
Congratulations to Tom White!
The Volunteer of the Year award
The Volunteer of the Year award is presented annually to a member who has generously volunteered time, expertise, talents, and abilities to the Society during the previous year to the extent to make that member stand out and draw attention.
The picture of this year’s recipient should appear next to the definition of “Volunteer” in the dictionary. Kim Edge has served effectively as our Director of Membership since September 2022 (and I am happy to report that she has agreed to return to that role on the 2025-2025 board).
She has served on the Awards Committee, several Nominating Committees, and has been a member of the Technology Team at almost every Seminar and General Meeting held since she joined the board.
She has been the face of the DGS at numerous local and library events, staffed the Virtual Exhibitors booth at the Texas State annual conference in 2023 and again in 2024, spearheaded our participation as an exhibitor at this year’s North Texas Irish Festival (and staffed our table). She helped plan and organized our June 2024 DNA workshop and managed our September 2024 North Texas Giving Day event here at the library.
She spent a lot of time performing research at the Dallas City Archives and ruining a pair of shoes tramping through mud while doing some on-site reconnaissance in our effort to ensure the preservation of the Horton Cemetery.
In other preservation work, Kim practically moved into DPL while she spent many months researching Dallas residential records, to help protect 1920’s era Lakewood homes designed by Clifford D Hutsell from becoming victims of the “tear-down” trend. She also attended many City Council meetings in this preservation campaign.
Sharon Bowles, one of the people who nominated her for this award, had this to say: “She amazes me with her consistently unflappable, even attitude, even when obstacles are put in our way. She has been a huge help to me in my role as VP these last two years, serving on the Seminar Selection Committee, as well as every aspect of making the seminars happen. Some of her recent seminar exploits include handling the catering order and helping with the registration desk after our Seminar Administrator had to step down mid-year and taking our Irish guests on a much-appreciated Big D field trip. She is a friendly and calming presence for all who work with her. We are so lucky to have her in ‘the family.’”
The Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck Distinguished Service Award
The Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck Distinguished Service Award is presented to an individual for outstanding contributions to the genealogical community on a national level.
This year’s recipient is Cyndi Ingle.
Cyndi is best known as the creator and innovator behind the award-winning and globally recognized CyndisList.com. It has helped millions of visitors worldwide and has been featured in the media and diverse publications, including ABC News, NBC News, the BBC, National Public Radio, Time Magazine, and Newsweek, and many others.
Cyndi has authored numerous articles, three books and has coordinated courses for the Genealogical Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP) and the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG). She has lectured for GRIP, SLIG, GENTECH, Brigham Young University, the Federation of Genealogical Societies, the National Genealogical Society, the American Library Association, and numerous state and local genealogical societies and libraries in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and on the high seas.
She has served in several capacities for local, national, and professional genealogical organizations including the board of directors for the National Genealogical Society.
This award comes with a $250 donation by the society to a non-profit organization chosen by the recipient. Cyndi has asked that the donation be made to the Birdie Monk Holsclaw Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research Scholarship fund.
DGS President’s Special Award
One of the few perks I get as President is the privilege of being able to recognize individuals by presenting them with the DGS President’s Special Award. This year I would like to present this award to Michelle Dwyer Cohen.
We have been fortunate to have Michelle serving, in the words of one newsletter committee member, “as editor, article originator, electronic guru and chairperson for the monthly newsletter. She is hard working and patient and finds time from her very very busy schedule to create 10 newsletters each year.“
During that time our newsletter has twice placed 2nd in the Texas State Genealogical Society’s Partner Society Newsletter category, and our blog (which is composed almost entirely of newsletter articles) placed 1st in their “Blogs by a Society” category in 2024.
We all panicked a bit when she announced that she was moving to Washington state in 2021, and we panicked even more when she became the Executive Director of the Association of Professional Genealogists in 2022, but she continued her role on our newsletter through it all, until resignation which became effective this month.
This award doesn’t come with a check, but it does come with an immense about of gratitude for all that you have contributed to our society.
Thank you Michelle!
