Friday, February 19, 2010

A Tribute to Marsha Hoffman Rising CG, FASG

I received this via email from Sandra Luebking, editor of the Federation of Genealogical Societies FORUM Magazine:

>The Federation of Genealogical Societies (www.fgs.org), the National Archives, and the genealogical community have started a project to digitize the War of 1812 pension files--a fitting beginning to the bicentennial commemoration of this important war.

Marsha Hoffman Rising, CG, FASG, died 17 February 2010. A Certified Genealogist, Marsha was a Past President (2002-04) and Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists and a contributing editor to The American Genealogist. She was a Trustee of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (2001-03). She was a charter member and the first President of the Genealogical Speakers Guild. Marsha was also a past board member of the National Genealogical Society and a Past President of the Federation of Genealogical Societies.

During her tenure with FGS, Marsha strongly supported the preservation of the War of 1812 pension documents. When informed of the 2010 pension digitization project and the Tribute in her honor, she was delighted. She remarked on how helpful the pensions had been when she was compiling her book, Opening the Ozarks. First Families of Southwest Missouri (4 volumes published by American Society of Genealogists). The information contained within the pension and bounty land files helped her add much family detail and identify places of origin for the settlers.

Friends and colleagues have established this special category of contributions to the War of 1812 Preserve the Pensions Fund, titled A Tribute to Marsha Hoffman Rising. Donations received in Marsha’s name will go towards making these records available online for interested researchers. A donation of $25 will digitize 50 images-- a donation of $500 will digitize 1,000 images. Mail to: FGS, 1812 Fund – Rising Tribute, P.O. Box 200940, Austin, TX 78720-0940.

The names of donors will appear in FORUM Magazine and notification will be sent to Marsha’s family.

I heartily support this effort to honor Marsha and to digitize the War of 1812 Pension documents. They are certainly one set of documents that need to be digitized so that future genealogists can access them for their genealogy and family history gems.

I did not have the pleasure to meet Marsha, but I've heard many genealogists sing her praises. I think that it is wonderful that the profession can honor her in this way.

1 comment:

Patti Hobbs said...

This is a wonderful way to remember Marsha. I did not get to know her very well, but she was very generous to me for which I will always be grateful.