Annual Meeting

The annual meeting of the Fellowship of Brethren Genealogists is open to all who wish to attend. The meeting is held during the Annual Conference of the Church of the Brethren. It begins with a short business session and an election for a Vice-President, who will succeed the President the following year. The remainder of the scheduled meeting time is given to a presentation on a genealogical subject by a guest speaker.

This year's meeting will be on Saturday the 12th of July 2008 at 1:00 p.m. and will be held in the Dominion Room of the Marriott Hotel in Richmond Virginia.

Informal meetings among Fellowship members and interested church and family historians take place at the Fellowship's exhibit booth throughout the week in the Annual Conference exhibit hall.

The 2008 Church of the Brethren Annual Conference exhibit hall will be open in Richmond Virginia from Saturday 12 July 2008 through Tuesday evening 15 July 2008.

Following is a selective review of some annual meetings followed by a list of the dates and locations of all the Fellowship's annual meetings extending to those future scheduled.

2007 FOBG Meeting

The annual meeting for 2007 was scheduled for 1:00 to 3:00pm Saturday 30 June 2007 in the Cleveland Convention Center. Twenty interested individuals were in attendance. Ron McAdams introduced our new President Becky Young Hoatland, who then chaired the meeting. Bert McAdams gave the financial report which was accepted. Thomas Liby was elected Vice-President. After the business meeting A. Wayne Webb presented an article on Burial Records of Elder Joseph Myer, discussed his proposed Brethren Newspaper Initiative to solicit funds to digitize old periodicals, and offered for sale his republication of the History of the Church of the Brethren Southern Ohio District. Numerous small group conversations filled the remainder of the time.
[No photo was taken of the 2007 business meeting.]

The Fellowship did not have an exhibit booth at the Cleveland Conference due to financial reasons.

2006 FOBG Meeting

The Fellowship's 2006 meeting was held on Saturday afternoon July 1st,  in the Marriott Hotel, Iowa Ballroom, Salon C prior to the start of the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference.  A notably large group came to hear the speaker Jane Davis talk about the Brethren in Missouri 1795 - 1865. However, the first order of business was an announcement from Paul Roth, pastor of the Linville Creek Church of the Brethren near Broadway VA, concerning the historic home and ten acre farm of Elder John Kline, a significant Civil War period church leader.  The current Mennonite owners are wishing to sell now and are giving the Brethren first right of refusal on the property. Developers are wanting the property to build townhouses, which if happens, all the historic structures would be destroyed. Interested people must act quickly to purchase the farm and save this precious rich heritage from demolition.

In other business, Bert McAdams gave the Fellowship's financial report and Dwayne Wrightsman announced the slate of candidates, which was approved by those attending. Continuing as President is Dwayne Wrightsman, continuing as Vice-President is Becky Allen, and Bert McAdams was elected for a two year term to the new position of treasurer.

The Fellowship of Brethren Genealogists again maintained an exhibit booth at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines during the 220th Annual Conference of the Church of the Brethren from July 1st through July 5th, 2006.

2005 FOBG Meeting

The Fellowship's 2005 meeting was held on Saturday afternoon July 2nd,  in the Peoria Illinois Holiday Inn City Centre prior to the start of the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference.  Ron McAdams, the Membership Services Coordinator, gave a financial report and Wayne Webb, the journal editor, and Dwayne Wrightsman, the speaker, were introduced.  Dwayne Wrightsman gave a very informative presentation on his working paper, "Related Brethren Families   Botetourt County, Virginia   1799."  He discussed its subtitle "Family Relations Among the 42 German Baptists of Botetourt County Whose Names Appeared on the 13 December 1799 Petition to the Virginia Legislature Seeking Exemption from Fines for not Attending Muster."  His well-researched study listed the families in this Brethren community and indicated the various interpretations of the signatures on this historical document, of which a copy was included.

To fill vacancies, Dwayne Wrightsman was elected President of the Fellowship of  Brethren Genealogists and Becky Allen was elected Vice-President.

The Fellowship of Brethren Genealogists was again represented in the Exhibit Hall of the Peoria Convention Center, site of the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference. The FOBG exhibit booth was open throughout the Conference from July 2 - 6, 2005.

1999 FOBG Meeting

The 1999 meeting was held in Milwaukee Wisconsin at 2:30 Saturday afternoon July 3rd in "Lakeshore B" at the Hyatt Regency. Ronald Hollinger, as President of the Fellowship, chaired the meeting. Ron McAdams gave the treasurer's report and discussed the Membership Directory. It was agreed that the directory will now reflect the 1982 directory format: the front section will include the researchers' name, address, and E-mail address along with a right column listing the surnames submitted by individual researchers; then, the back section will be the comprehensive alphabetical listing of surnames and the code identifying the researchers listed in the first section. It will be a surname index including the researched surnames of all past and current members of the Fellowship. The next directory will be published in December 2000, the fourth quarter of each even year, and will be mailed with the Winter issue of Brethren Roots.

Ken Shaffer reported on the progress of the Gospel Messenger Obit Index saying that it never was in a database, but was originally intended as an in-house document using a word processing (WP 5.1) format. The 3700 pages still will comprise less that 20 percent of a CD. So, the CD will also include a RTF format, ascii, and/or WordPerfect 8.1 format.

Thomas Liby noted his lack of progress on the cemetery survey as part of the FOBG Homepage. The consensus of the meeting is that he should be free to transcribe cemetery records published in back issues of the Fellowship of Brethren Genealogists NEWSLETTER and upload copies to the internet as part of this project.

Discussion of the time for next year's meeting considered the changed schedule for the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference running from Saturday evening to Wednesday noon. It will be announced here, on the mailing list, and in Brethren Roots when a decision is made.
To be presented at next year's annual business meeting of the Fellowship will be a proposed Constitution and By-Laws. Two items pertaining to it were agreed upon by the meeting: a Life Membership (with the "Comp" - complimentary, and regular annual membership) will be available; and if the FOBG would dissolve, any remaining assets would go to the Brethren Historical Library and Archives.

Ronald Hollinger, the president of the Fellowship, brought his personal genealogical library for the exhibit booth for interested visitors to peruse throughout the week in the Annual Conference exhibit hall (Midwest Express Center).

1998 FOBG Meeting

Ronald Hollinger, the Fellowship of Brethren Genealogists president, chaired the meeting in the huge Orlando convention center at 12:30 Friday 3 July 1998.

The 1998 Annual Conference was at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida (home of DisneyWorld). The exhibit booth for the week provided materials for those interested in genealogy and Brethren history. Adjacent to the Fellowship's booth, again this year, was the popular Brethren Encyclopedia exhibit.

1997 FOBG Meeting

The 1997 Annual Conference was in Long Beach, California (with Disneyland nearby). Exhibit booth assignments placed the Fellowship's book adjacent to that of the Brethren Encyclopedia, Inc.
Lorraine Frantz Edwards brought her massive materials on the Frantz genealogy and shared conversation with visitors to the booth throughout the week.
[No photo of the annual business meeting is available.]

25 June 1965   Ocean Grove NJ
24 June 1966   Louisville KY
22 June 1967   Eugene OR
28 June 1968   Ocean Grove NJ
27 June 1969   Louisville KY
26 June 1970   Lincoln NE
25 June 1971   St Petersburg FL
30 June 1972   Cincinnati OH
27 June 1973   Fresno CA
26 June 1974   Roanoke VA
26 June 1975   Dayton OH
01 July 1976   Wichita KS
25 June 1977   Richmond VA
21 June 1979   Indianapolis IN
05 July 1980   Seattle WA
25 June 1981   Indianapolis IN
21 July 1982   Wichita KS
29 June 1983   Baltimore MD
28 June 1984   Carbondale IL
04 July 1985   Phoenix AZ
27 June 1986   Norfolk VA
02 July 1987   Cincinnati OH
29 June 1988   St Louis MO
09 July 1989   Orlando FL
06 July 1990   Milwaukee WI
04 July 1991   Portland OR
02 July 1992   Richmond VA
24 June 1993   Indianapolis IN
20 June 1994   Wichita KS
29 June 1995   Charlotte NC
04 July 1996   Cincinnati OH
04 July 1997   Long Beach CA
03 July 1998   Orlando FL
02 July 1999   Milwaukee WI 
17 July 2000   Kansas City MO
30 June 2001   Baltimore MD
29 June 2002   Louisville KY
05 July 2003   Boise ID
03 July 2004   Charleston WV
02 July 2005   Peoria IL
01 July 2006   Des Moines IA
30 June 2007   Cleveland OH
12 July 2008   Richmond VA
26 June 2009   San Diego CA  -- revised date
03 July 2010   Pittsburgh, PA
02 July 2011   Grand Rapids, MI
07 July 2012   St. Louis, MO

Version 3.72   Revised on Tuesday 22 April 2008 © 1998 - 2008