Saturday, February 16, 2002

(revised Sunday Feb 17)

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Berne Heritage Days will be held Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day 2002 weekend, and plans are progressing very well. Our HQ will be the Senior Citizen's Hall on Helderberg Trail about a mile west of Berne. We are looking forward to meeting many of the project members of this site, fellow researchers and local residents.

Costs: There will be no pre-registration fee, but a modest fee will be assessed at registration to cover our very low administrative costs and perhaps entertainment if we can't get it donated.

Food: Please let us know if you plan to attend so we can make arrangements for food. The women in the various local church and firemen organizations will be preparing our meals as fundraisers for their organizations. We will be eating family style at the church halls and a local firehouse.

Transportation: No transportation is available. If this would make it impossible for you to attend, let us know, and we will try to find someone you can ride with while in the area.

Accommodations: You will be on your own for accommodations, but we are assembling a list of possible places that can be contacted through the Internet or the old fashioned way. It will be posted when complete.

Listed here is the current program and proposed activities.

If you think you might be interested in participating in this Berne Heritage Days celebration please complete our survey to assist us in planning this event so it will be an enjoyable time for everyone.

Berne Heritage Days Survey Form

Military Records

Dave Stott, Terry Shoultes and Glen Swartz have taken on the task of assembling the many military records of Berne residents. In recent weeks Glen Swartz has sent us so much information we have had a hard time keeping up with him. Please take a look at our Military Records section for the new information we have received and check back often, we may catch up with Glen's submissions soon.

Berne Genealogy

If you check our webstats at the bottom of this newsletter you will notice a significant increase in our visitors since November. The primary reason for this increase is the posting of the Berne Genealogy information from Ralph and Harold Miller. What we have been able to provide on this site is something we feel is unique in the world of genealogy. A family tree for an entire town. Ralph Miller has been working on this information for over ten years and his brother Harold is currently maintaining it. He sends updates to us every other week from feedback and corrections submitted from our many visitors. This is an exciting and popular area on our website and will continue to grow as more and more people contribute their own information.

Website Updates

The test version of the new Berne History website is currently available at http://bht.itsallwright.com for anyone wishing to play with a developing site and provide feedback. This site now offers surname search capabilities against our cemetery, census and baptism records. The location of this site is temporary and will only be used only until I move the finished site to our current address on the Internet. Be aware though, this site is under development and is not yet complete so you may experience broken links and other unusual behavior.

If you have any ideas or thoughts about ways to improve the site please send them to the webmasters.

There is a new mailing list for

Berne at RootsWeb.com

You can subscribe to the list in mail mode by sending a message to:

NY-ALBANY-BERNE-L request@rootsweb.com

that contains the word

subscribe

and nothing else.

If you prefer digest mode, send the command instead to:

NY-ALBANY-BERNE-Drequest@rootsweb.com.

From the Guest Book

Excellent job on this project!!!! The Miller brothers should be very proud of themselves. It is refreshing to see people taking interest in the GREAT town of BERNE. There are alot of interesting families with their roots in Berne and the Conklin famliy is proud to be one of them. My parents, Robert and Esther Conklin, lived most of their lives in this town, and a majority of my family still lives there, and we all enjoy it. I am excited about learning more about the town of Berne and it's history. Thank you to the Miller's and all the people working on this project.

This is a WONDERFUL site and a great help to me in my research on the Reinhart Family. I appreciate the hard-work of everyone involved in this project. Your kind efforts have helped me fill in many gaps in my Reinhart tree in which I link back to George Freidrick Reinhart. Thanks again! Carol Clemens

I was so happy when I got my computer and the found your site! I have been at the project by regular mail on and off since the 1970's. I had the great good fortune to write to Howard McConville in Schenectady at the Historical Society, and discovered he was a branching relative of mine. He had much of a Mrs.Hurst's work. A couple of wonderful women were helping me a couple of years ago, but I think they have passed. I have had some trouble even when I identify "my" Henry Brunk by date of birth and wife's name. People keep wanting to talk to me about a Henry Brunk who married a Rebekka Fowler, and who I believe is "my" Henry's uncle. Mine was married to Anna Elizabeth Herron Brunk, and they left NY to go to Linn Co., Iowa in the late 1860's. You have a great, great resource!!!!