In April 1974, six women from the local DAR Chapter met in Fort Collins to discuss the formation of a genealogy society. In May, Articles of Incorporation were formulated and the Larimer County Genealogical Society was born. The society consisted of twenty-two charter members.
Download Newspaper Article on Our Society’s 1974 Origination
Download Our First Annual Report
Download Our Current Annual Report
Select the left arrow in upper left corner of your browser to return to this page after viewing either document.
Purpose
Our Society’s members are united by a driving passion for genealogy, a desire to learn, and to share their knowledge with others, thus our mission statement is simple: Research – Learning – Fellowship! Our society is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, and our major goals are:
- promote an interest in genealogy and family history.
- encourage and instruct our members in genealogical research methods including careful documentation and the maintenance of quality genealogical standards.
- locate, preserve and index public and private genealogical records and make such records available.
- assist and support any genealogical library in Colorado which is open to the public.
Meetings
Board meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month except July and December at the Council Tree Library (on Harmony at Ziegler in the Council Tree Shopping Center) in Fort Collins. We alternate Board meetings with selected committee chairs attending during odd months and all committee chairs attending on even months. We review old and new business items at each Board meeting using basic parliamentary procedures. All society members are welcome to attend any Board meeting.
General meetings are on the third Thursday of the month, January through November. All meetings have an informative or entertaining program except the annual business meeting in January, when we have either a video of our past yeat highlights or a genealogy related video. Our monthly programs include a knowledgeable speaker (many are Certified Genealogists or PhDs) on a varity of genealogy or family history subjects. Meetings are held at the Community Room in the Poudre River Public Library District – Harmony Library, 4616 South Shields at Harmony Road., Fort Collins. Our meetings are open to the public and visitors are cordially welcome.
Education and Outreach
In keeping with our mission the Society is very active in Outreach and Education. Over our long history, we have promoted hundreds of classes, workshops and presentations that taught everything from basic genealogy to advanced, tips and tricks, research techniques and genealogy resources. As times progressed those topics expanded to include DNA, digitizing photographs, internet research and genealogy software.
Our soceity does annual presentations for the senior community at the Senior Centers, Aspen Club in Fort Collns or Seasons Club in Loveland, besides at several senior living communities.
Our society hosts a very successful Family Tree Maker Users Group for the popular genealogy program Family Tree Maker. This group is going into its eighth year and evolved from the earlier Computer Interest Group which started in 1992.
In 2005, we hosted a Girl Scout Genealogy merit badge program (pictured above). It was so successful that we repeat it annually. Girl Scout Troops from Fort Collins and Loveland participate in the all day workshop.
Projects
As with many Genealogical Societies, the Larimer County Genealogical Society has been very involved in indexing local records and cemeteries. To date, we have indexed eight local cemeteries, Larimer County Marriage Records from 1858 to 1950, Divorce Applications from 1825 to 1950, early Land Records, and the 1885 Colorado State Census. All of these have been published and several are now online.
Two current projects involve researching the Timnath and Estes Park cemeteries. Although not always factual, obituaries are great “clue givers” in genealogy research. It is our hope that these obituaries will be an important resource for those doing long distance research.
Our society produces a local TV genealogy program, Genealogy Quest, for our local FCPAN (cable channel 97) in Fort Collins. You can watch the latest Genealogy Quest TV program or many video programs by selecting the Genealogy Quest TV Series or Videos in the Popular Webpages menu in the left panel on our home page. In addition, genealogists can purchase the Genealogy Quest DVDs as shown in the lower left panel on our home page.
Fun
All work and no play makes for a dull genealogist! Picnics, annual pot lucks and Christmas parties have kept us going over the years. Meetings are not just for business and education but are a time to socialize and trade stories, make new friends and enjoy the great hospitality. Please see our photo gallery for great examples of our society!
If you are from the region, we invite you to stop by one of our meetings and see what we’re about. At the very least you’ll get to eat some great treats!
Library Partners
Our society has two wonderful genealogy partners: Poudre River Library District and Loveland Public Library. Select either of the above library logos to proceed to their genealogy websites. Thanks to these two great partners in supporting our society and the genealogy community!
Our Website
Please take a moment to explore our website, which has over 65 webpages of articles, classes, general information, newsletters, and videos. We have over 120 webpages dedicated to local databases and we’re adding more every year! Be sure to check our sitemap (located at the very bottom) to see all webpages. We’re a very active society and do updates practically every week on our website.
Past Presidents
- Laura Simpson……………1974-76
- Martha Conger……………1976-77
- Sharyn Smith……………..1977-78
- Kathy Williamson…………1978-80
- Lottie Vandergaw…………1980-82
- Glen Van Saun……………1982-84
- Velma Shephard………….1984-85
- Karl Manke………………..1985-86
- Evelyn Haynes……………1986-87
- Donna Wheeler…………..1988-90
- Ruby Davies………………1990-94
- Kevin Mielbeck……………1995-98
- Ceil Damschroder………..1999-2002
- Ty Curtis………………….2003-04
- Kenneth Goldsberry……..2004-08
Proud Member
We are a proud member of the Colorado Council of Genealgical Societies. We attend quarterly meetings to learn and share information with other Colorado genealogical societies. For more information, please select the CCGS logo below.
