Judging County Fair 4-H Genealogy Exhibit Notebooks

'

Warrick County brought me notebooks entered by six 4-H members in the Genealogy Project for me to judge for the county fair.  This was last Friday, but I still have about 2 hours to finish evaluating the last ones to judge.  Today Gibson County delivered ten 4-H'ers exhibit notebooks to be judged. The entry for Division 5 in Gibson County looks very nice and has six 3-inch notebooks!  It takes about 30 minutes on average to judge one exhibitor's notebooks... it will take me 4-8 hours to go through the Gibson County exhibits.  But, believe me, judging these exhibits is a labor of love!

I have been judging county exhibits for the last 30 or so years and the Indiana State Fair exhibits for Div. 3 over the last five years.  Having the opportunity to judge at the State Fair is like a super big honor!  I have been involved with 4-H since I was a new first-year member at age 10 about 55 years ago.  It is a great youth organization and I am glad there is a 4-H Genealogy Project.  I served as the Vanderburgh County 4-H Genealogy Project Superintendent for about 25 years.  For the Tri-State Genealogical Society, I serve as the 4-H Coordinator and present awards in four counties in southwest Indiana for 4-H'ers enrolled in the genealogy project.  For the Indiana Society Sons of the American Revolution, I serve as the State Chair of the 4-H Youth Awards.

I can still remember how I felt as a ten-year-old going to the 4-H County Fair for the first time and at age 65 this is always an exciting time of the year!

- Written by JGWest

From the FIRST MATE's PHOTO ALBUM...

'

Indiana State Fair 2010...

Becky & I attended the State Fair as we do most years. We are a 4-H family and I judge state fair exhibits each year for the 4-H Genealogy Project.

One of the attractions each year is the sand sculpture in the Ag Building... this year it is a copy of the State Fair Shutter Train that goes all the way around the fair grounds. It is pulled by a tractor. In the sand sculpture, it is farm animals riding around the fair.

- Photos taken & submitted by JGWest

From the FIRST MATE's PHOTO ALBUM...

This bench was on display at a vendor's booth at the Indiana State Fair last year. I thought it would be nice to show here to kick off the 2010 Fourth of July weekend. Play safely with fireworks, drive safely and do not eat too much! Try to learn one new fact about your family this weekend.

- Photo taken & submitted by JGWest

4-H Genealogy Project

'

I am currently judging 4-H exhibits for area county fairs... something I have done now for almost 30 years and enjoy doing. It is an honor for me to contribute to 4-H Youth by judging the 4-H Genealogy Fair Notebooks for 3-5 local counties each year and for the last 3 years at the Indiana State Fair.

Over 30 years ago, I asked the Tri-State Genealogical Society to sponsor an Achievement Award for the Genealogy Project. The Executive Board agreed to sponsor the award. Edna Kasper was working at a print shop and she helped me to design a very nice 4-H Certificate and we created the TSGS Certificates of Appreciation, as well. Over the years, I have re-designed the 4-H Certificate. Marti Williams, at one point, after Glenda Trapp's death, suggested that we make the Certificate a Memorial to her. So, now we have the Glenda Trapp Memorial Award Certificate for 4-H Youth.

County 4-H Fairs will be popping up all over the tri-state, in fact several are going on right now. I have found links to the dates for county fairs in the three states of IL, IN & KY if you would like to attend one of the local county fairs... many will have genealogy fair exhibits on display. Check them out and let me know what you find. Not all states or even counties have the 4-H genealogy project... each state's projects vary. If your local 4-H program has the genealogy project, see what you can do to help.

Here are those fair lists:
http://www.agr.state.il.us/fair/countyfairssched.php
http://www.four-h.purdue.edu/downloads/new/10%20County%20Fairs.pdf
http://www.kyagr.com/marketing/fair/lclagfairs.htm

- Compiled by JGWest

Indiana State Fair 4-H Genealogy Project Judging

Judging Exhibits at 4-H State Fair

I had the pleasure & honor to judge 4-H Genealogy notebook exhibits yesterday at the Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis, Indiana. this was my second year and it is so neat to see the best exhibits from a large portion of Indiana's 92 counties. Jean and I judged the Division 3 entries. There are five divisions with Division 5 being repeated each year. Division 5 asks for eventually attempting to complete 8 generations of the 4-H members ancestors... which would be 254 individuals plus the 4-H'er for total of 255.


The notebook I am judging in above photo is one of three notebooks. This notebook contained the generation charts, family group sheets & additional information sheets. The two other notebooks stacked in front of me contain required photo copies of birth, marriage & death records, along with some photos and other documents to support the research completed by the 4-H'er. There are military, educational, occupational & church records included in addition to obituaries and other newspaper articles & photos of US Federal Census sheets and War Draft records. These exhibits are incredible compilations of research done by these kids and their family. This ends up being a family project including aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, grandparents & others. TSGS has had many of these notebooks from the Vanderburgh County 4-H Fairs on display at our Christmas events over the last 25+ years.

Above is a photo of several of us working on judging these notebooks... Becky West is to my right with the two ladies across from me at the table (judging Division 4 exhibits). The young lady standing at the file box is in charge of the Genealogy Project for the State Fair... behind her and only barely visible are three Division 5 (Advanced) judges. Not shown (further to my right) were four more ladies judging divisions 1 & 2.

Becky came along to keep company for the 3.5 hour trip from Evansville to Indy. I needed to be there at 9 AM their time (8:00 Evansville time). Allowing an extra half hour for a break and maybe delays in driving, I always leave 4 hours before arrival time. We had to leave at 4 AM Evansville time. We got up at 2:30 AM to get ready (and for me to get enough coffee into my body). We got to the registration table at 8:40 their time. I also entered two poster exhibits that were not sent by the County 4-H Office the day before. We took about a 45 minute break eating at the Farm Bureau Building (great lunch!). And then right back into judging... we were all done about 5 PM (Indy time) - this was essentially an 8 hour day. It was a lot of work... but is also fun, interesting and educational for us judges. One of the other judges & I may have a distant family relationship that we will be checking. We got home a little before 9 PM - a very long, but worthwhile day!

- Submitted by JGWest

NAVIGATING ALONG the RIVER - Research Tips

ENGINEER'S Report - Tech Info

Have you ever found what looked like a possible great site from another site? So, in great anticipation you click on the link and get that unwanted "HTTP 404 Not Found" error page! Now, what... you really wanted to see this page! Well here is one way to, hopefully, find your site!

This was an email pointing out that the Grayson County, KYGenWeb page had a bad link to "Millerstown and It's People" with my email response. After reading my hint, try it yourself!

From Patsy Andrews:

We have just discovered your site and found the link to “Millerstown and It’s People” has been broken. We are very interested in the Hornback, McCrady, Wooten & Logsden families of Millerstown. Is there another way to view this information?
Patsy Andrews
The site I’m referring to is : http://www.kygenweb.org/grayson/graysonlinks/index.html

************************
This is my response:
Patsy, this link has apparently changed to http://www.mcclure-landis.com/millerstown/index.html Thanks for including the URL to the page where you found this bad link. Believe it or not 99% of people do not even list what general web site the bad link came from, not even the bad link!

This is the bad link: http://www.golocal.com/misc/genealogy/millerstown/index.html When I find a bad link, I first add or delete the "l" in "htm(l)" that is often where the error is found. If not, then I delete the html file name (in this case, "index.html") to see if I can get to the site page one-level back. Since that did not work, I removed "millerstown" and got an instant redirect to: http://www.mcclure-landis.com/ which had a new link to "Millerstown and It's People." If you have never done this before, try it out yourself... go back to the bad link, and work your way back. Sometimes people change servers and this may not work, but sometimes they will have a auto-redirect or a "Site has moved, click here" statement.

I gave you the new link and a hint to, hopefully, find the correct link when one has changed and gives you that dreaded "HTTP 404 Not Found" error. This query from you, prompted my TSGS Cruiser Blog article for today...check it out (second link below) ~ I give you credit for the idea to explain this Internet trick I learned from others on the Internet 12 years or so ago!

John G. West,
President, Tri-State Genealogical Society (TSGS)
Treasurer, Ohio Valley Chapter Indiana Society Sons of the American Revolution (OVC INSSAR)
State Historian, Indiana Society Sons of the American Revolution (INSSAR)
State Fair 4-H Judge, Indiana State Fair (4-H Genealogy Project)

----------
Tri-State Genealogical Society (TSGS) - http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~intsgs/index.html
TSGS Cruiser Blog - http://tsgsblog.blogspot.com/
Ohio Valley Chapter INSSAR - http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inovcsar/

Patsy Andrews prompted this article to be written as submitted by JGWest

“TSGS 4-H Genealogy Project Award”

(click on photos to enlarge)

Last night Becky & I went to Boonville, Indiana to present the TSGS “Glenda K. Trapp Memorial Award” (photo above – click on photos to enlarge) at the Warrick County 4-H Achievement Banquet. The county has a committee that selects winners in a lot of different categories based on their 4-H participation and other activities in the community, school and other organizations.


In the above photo I am presenting the award certificate to this year's winner, Tyler Kroeger. She happen to be the Division 2 County Champion last year and received a Special Merit Award for her notebook exhibit at the Indiana State Fair. I judged her exhibit on the county level and thought it was excellent. I judged Division 3 exhibits at the State Fair and was pleased to see how well she had done at the state.


The above photo is a posed photo after the banquet to get a nice keepsake photo for our regular TSGS web page and for her (and her mother) to keep. TSGS has been presenting this award to several southwest Indiana county 4-H members over the last 25 years. I encouraged TSGS to provide this award and I have served as the TSGS 4-H Coordinator ever since... a job that I enjoy and feel it is an honor to get to meet and recognize these outstanding 4-H members.


This last photo is for another award that I present to 4-H members from the Indiana Society Sons of the American Revolution. I serve as the State Chair of the 4-H Youth Awards Committee. This young lady, Jean Ann Scarafia, won the SAR Outstanding Citizenship Award Pin. I am wearing the SAR member's badge on the neck ribbon and on my tie I am also wearing my “I Love Genealogy” pin and to even things out I wore my Indiana State Fair Judge Pin. - Compiled by JGWest

Photos taken by: Certificate - JGWest, Award Presentation - Dale Downey, TSGS Award Winner - Tyler's brother, SAR Award Winner - Tom Neeley.

"Judging 4-H Genealogy Fair Exhibit Notebooks"

I got a letter from the State 4-H Office at Purdue yesterday appointing me a State Fair 4-H Genealogy Judge which reminded me that 2008 was a good year since I judged for the first time for the State Fair! Despite having my appendix removed, 2008 was not so bad... I went to a y-DNA West family reunion in Nashville meeting a lot of my DNA-proven cousins. But, I guess the highlight was judging at the Stat Fair. 4-H has been a big part of my life since I was 9 years old and that was over 50 years ago. I served for 25 years as the Vanderburgh 4-H Genealogy Project Superintendent and have judged the project in area County Fairs for over 20 years. So, getting to judge at the State Fair is a "big deal." The project requires the 4-H member to properly document their work and follow standard genealogical procedures. In the top left photo I am judging at the Indiana State Fair; and, yes, all those notebooks for Division 3 in the shelves behind me were for 2 judges (over 50 county champion exhibits). The next photo down (centered) was taken at the Vanderburgh County 4-H Fair. When I was the Project Superintendent, I did not normally judge any of the projects, this year was also my first year to judge in my home county. In the background you see Connie Conrad, TSGS Treasurer judging notebooks, too. The notebook I am judging went to the State Fair and was in the top 5 exhibits to be the State Fair Champion of all the Genealogy Notebook Exhibits. The last photo to the right is of me at home judging surrounding county fair exhibits. I have been judging county exhibits beginning with Warrick County about 24 years ago. - Submitted by JGWest