[Genealogy-SIG] GENEALOGY NEWS 20070314

[jotaito]

 GENEALOGY NEWS 20070314 


1.  The next meeting of the DMA Genealogy SIG will be 5 April 2007 at 119 Valley St. in the DMA conference room.  The meeting will begin at 7 PM.

2.  We had a couple of new faces at the table at the March meeting:  Ms Lillian Rudolph and Mr. Jason Herbert.  It is always great to see new faces at the meetings.

3.  Last meeting I proposed an idea for a potential cooperative program with Wright State University's Anatomical Gift Program.  The program proposed is basically to help them set up an on-line Family History/Genealogical Presentation in appreciation for those families whose members have donated their bodies to science as an anatomical gift.  My concern is to design something that will allow the families to post something about the person (like the obituaries in the newspapers) and, at the same time, lock-in basic factual information about the person to further allow meaningful historical and genealogical research.  

4.  Leading up to the March meeting, I contacted WSU's Anatomical Gift Program Director, Dr. Frank Nagy to explore the matter and was very pleased to find a very favorably disposed reaction.  Aside from genealogical interest, I did not further identify myself.  However, it seems he is also a genealogist and agrees with me that information is being lost in the area of anatomical gifts.  He did not discourage help in this area; to the contrary, he encouraged it.

5.  Since the March SIG meeting, I have been conducting a small survey of medical schools to see what they offer families in terms of memorials for anatomical gifts and found that they are all about the same:  a memorial service (usually once a year with names of donors individually recognized and prominent), an inscription on a memorial plaque or brick or stone, and a leather-bound book in remembrance of that person placed in the medical library.  I have found no high technology on-line sites of the type that I am suggesting.  This is in contrast to the video and audio enhanced grave markers more recently made available to cemeteries.  

6.  Just today I have received a note from Dr. Nagy following up on our initial contact.  Unfortunately, I will be out of town for a while.  However, he is looking forward to a meeting with me as soon as I return.  He feels that there is something that can be done here.  I want to explore that possibility too.

7.  I had inputs from several DMA Board Members prior to the March meeting and I want to thank them for all their suggestions.  It appears to me that we have the opportunity to make a contribution to the community here and I want to pursue this opportunity with WSU to see if we cannot come up with a plan that might be picked-up by other medical schools across the country.  If we do it right, the WSU plan could set the standard for schools all over the country, maybe even the world.  And, like the many other projects supported by the DMA, we want to act as a promoter/instigator, to provide the "seed" of an idea and work toward helping WSU bring it forth to its fullest potential.

8.  Members and attendees were introduced to the concept at the March meeting and encouraged to give this idea some thought.  I hope we get some good feedback at the April meeting.  I will be out of town and unavailable for the April meeting, so I am hoping that Darlene Sye, my Assistant Chairwoman, can run the meeting (call me Darlene, where ever you are!).   
 
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jotaito