Museum Newsletter - 26 Nov 2008

Friends of the Bullitt County History Museum E-Newsletter
November 26, 2008, (Volume 4, Number 12)

Dear Friends,

Announcements...

>> IMPORTANT. E-Mail Address Changing.

Friends, after many years having my old e-mail address, I am finally upgrading (I hope) to a new one. The old personal address that I have been using for this newsletter will be going away in a couple of months. The new address is DavidStrange[AT]Windstream.net (You know what to do to make that work, don't you. Change [AT] to @.) Please make a note of the change in your address book. My old address will remain active while I transition to the new address, but with good luck, the next newsletter you will receive will be from my new address, so be sure to set that as a safe address on your e-mail, lest your system block future newsletters thinking it to be spam. All of the BullittCountyHistory.org addresses will remain.

>> December Meeting of Genealogical Society is pot-luck dinner at my house...different time and date.

A Bullitt County Genealogical Society tradition is to use its December meeting as a holiday social gathering.

This year, my wife and I will be hosting the social at our house, and you are welcome to come! Be sure to note the change in date and time. This meeting will be held on the second Saturday, December 13. The time changes as well, to 5:00 p.m. It is informal, pot-luck. Please bring a dish or sack of something if you can. No alcohol please. Contact me privately for the address.

To everyone, Happy Holidays!

>>No January meeting.

Because of our Kentucky winters, the Bullitt County Genealogical Society does not meet in January. The next regular meeting will be the third Saturday of February.

>> Old house on Buckman Street at risk.

There is an old two-story frame house on North Buckman Street in Shepherdsville that is being considered for demolition. If you have any info about it, please pass it along to us. Sadly, the old house is now surrounded by commercial and industrial properties, so it is difficult to justify keeping it as is. All other old houses in the area were demolished a few years ago. It is located between Gaston's Furniture store and an auto parts store, with Publishers Printing across the street.

I was told at one time that there was some pretty good family history there (a town doctor or mill owner lived there I think), but I can not remember the story and can't find it yet in our files.

It has been used as a tea house and for offices in the past, but has been empty, I think, for some time now.

We were approached a year or so ago, asking us to buy it as a museum, but the location, cost, and upkeep make that unfeasible.

So the lien holder stopped by the museum this week asking me about the building, wondering what to do.

Let me know what you know about the building, and what you think, and I'll pass it along to him. Perhaps someone would buy it as law offices or something. Otherwise, I'm afraid time is probably running out on that last old house on North Buckman.

>> Added Hours at Museum! Now open later on Thursdays!

I am very happy to announce that the museum has been able to expand its hours of operation. As you might know, the museum can be open only when the courthouse (in which we are housed) is open, which has been 8:00 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. Recently, however, the county sheriff's office started being open until 6:00 p.m. on Thursdays.

We immediately followed suit.

It might not be a big change, but perhaps it will help a bit for those who can't get to the museum earlier in the day.

Many thanks to museum Volunteers Bob Cline and Ed Lee for stepping up and offering to staff the museum those extra hours before I even asked anyone.

By the way, I am so proud of our core of volunteer staff. Because of them, we have always been able to meet a golden rule of mine...to always have the museum open, and to always have a friendly volunteer there ready to help. I think that has been a critical factor in the success of the museum.

>> Bullitt County History to be Spotlighted on Radio.

Here's an exciting, and a bit intimidating, opportunity! I have been invited to be the guest on the Louisville area public radio show "State of Affairs" to talk about Bullitt County and its history. This a great opportunity to get Bullitt County out there in the public eye (or I should say ear) in a positive light. The show is tentatively planned for December 19 at 11:00 a.m. local time, live, with a rerun of the show usually that evening. Check their web site for final schedule.

Plan to listen in if you can! For our Friends that are not in the local area, the show is streamed via internet. Just Google "WFPL Radio Louisville" and you should be able to get to it.

It's a call-in show, so call in! Just please don't hurt me. I'm nervous enough! And hey, I'd love to get a call from some of you readers from around the country supporting our work!

Activity

>> Salt Works Field Trip called off due to weather.

The November meeting of the Bullitt County Genealogical Society was supposed to include a field trip to the remains of an old salt works. To our great disappointment, the weather did not cooperate, so we had to cancel the trip. I don't know when that can be scheduled again, but I'll let you know when it is.

>> Harned Geneology.

Volunteers Ed Lee and Bob Cline have generated a binder of genealogical information on the Harned family. That work has been added to our museum collection.

>>Booth at Nichols Festival.

The museum hosted a booth November 8 at the Nichols Elementary School fall festival. The school festival there serves as a community festival and we had several volunteers there to let people know about Bullitt County history and about our museum.

>>Lincoln Exhibit leaves December 1.

Our "Museums to Go" exhibit on Abraham Lincoln leaves us December 1st. Many thanks to the Kentucky Historical Society for the loan.

>> Judy Crepps takes on obit responsibilities

Since about 1980, Doris Owen and a few others, have faithfully clipped local obituaries from the papers, pasted them on note cards, and filed them for reference. When the museum opened in 2004, those files were given to our research room. Over time, those files (now filling several drawers) have become one more important resource for genealogical researchers at the museum.

I recently reported that Doris was needing to retire from that long, faithful duty. Well, Judy Crepps has stepped up and offered to take on that responsibility. She said it should work well for her, because she has to stay at her home most of the time, and this is something she can do there.

That's the volunteer spirit I love!

Many thanks to Doris Owen for her many years of dedicated service to Bullitt County history and genealogy. Doris, we miss you around here!

And by the way, thanks as well to Barbara Bailey, who has been pasting and filing the obits for the last few years, and continues to do so.

For Your Information...

>>Ever need help trying to place a date to an old photo? Well with at www.forensicgenealogy.info/shadows.html you might even be able to determine the time of day. Thanks to Ancestry Magazine for this source.

Finally...A Time of Thanksgiving

As I write this newsletter, tomorrow will be Thanksgiving Holiday.

Today, I am particularly thankful for our core of fantastic, devoted Museum Staff Volunteers.

Volunteers.

• People who could easily be doing many other things, but have chosen to spend their valuable time and efforts for us, with us, without charge at the museum.
• Though few in number, their presence is felt in our museum every day. Without them the Museum could not be the success or the service that it is.
• Daniel Buxton, for example, who normally covers the museum office every Monday morning, called me one day to say he would have to be off the next Monday. Many people would not think a thing of that, especially after having already devoted so much free time, but I think Daniel actually felt guilty about it, and called back later offering to come in that Wednesday to make up for it, so I wouldn't have to.
• When the opportunity came up to have the museum open later hours on Thursdays, I was hesitating to mention it because I didn't want to ask any more time of the volunteers. But Bob Cline and Ed Lee spoke up and offered to make it happen. They rearranged their volunteer schedules so that, between them, they cover the last half of Tuesdays and most of Thursdays until closing.
• And I have hardly had to think about Fridays at all. Since the museum opened, Genealogical Society President Barbara Bailey, often with husband Ken Bailey, has covered the entire day without question. If she can not make it, she arranges, herself, for someone to fill in.
• New staff Volunteer Michael Eddington started with us recently, and, despite recent family losses and difficulty with transportation, makes it in every Monday from 11:00 to close, studying and reading to learn what he can so he can be of more help to visitors.
• Judy Richardson, who covers the museum on Wednesdays from ten to close every week, is our energetic and resourceful worker. Not only does she cover the museum, but she is constantly looking for work to do for us, such as doing extra research, or typing up cemetery committee files.
• And all of this work is on top of the museum and genealogy work these Volunteers do outside the museum, such as the cemetery documentation and restoration field work, public library research work, and countless other projects.
• And all this does not even mention the many other good people that don't staff the museum but are always on hand doing good work on other projects or as we need them.
• And. And. And. And. There is so much more that could be said.

We can certainly use more like all these good people. I can't imagine (actually, I am afraid I can) being without them.

These good Friends and Volunteers not only make my life as Director a whole lot easier, they make it possible. Indeed, this group of devoted and knowledgeable people should make us all confident that our museum is now in capable hands for the future, whatever might come.

I am certainly, and most humbly, very thankful this holiday season for Volunteers like these.

And thank you Dear Reader.

Thank you for being a Friend of Bullitt County History.

David Strange
Bullitt County History Museum
Executive Director
Museum Phone: 502-921-0161
David.Strange@BullittCountyHistory.org
BullittCountyHistory.org