My Year in a Nutshell

Every year, I complete a report that captures many of the duties I perform as Scipio Historian. I want to share my 2011 report with you today.

YEARLY REPORT of Town Historian, Scipio 2011

This year I completed my eighth as Town Historian. The duties I performed included but were not limited to the following items:

I attended Cayuga County Historian’s meetings when they were offered and otherwise shared information with other local historians by letter and e-mail.
I responded to inquiries and requests for information of a historic or genealogic nature directed to me on: Mullally, Akin, Gould, Story, Chamberlain, Ensenore, Lawler, Peckham, Seeley, Doyle, Edgbert, Percy, Root, Batten and Fordyce among others.
I accepted and inventoried donations to our historical holdings.
I maintained and updated our scrapbooks.
I submitted a brief article for our town newsletter to inform our residents and increase local interest in our history.
I obtained and organized copies of historical writings about our town and made them available for our residents and visitors.
I kept a supply of business cards at the Town Hall so residents could have a means to contact me by mail, phone or Internet, and added the blog URL.
I wrote articles for the Citizen newspaper and the Genoa-King Ferry Tribune about Scipio history.
I maintained contact with the APHNYS to access information and share ideas.
I transcribed some otherwise unavailable vital records for Scipio provided through the County Historian’s office.
I continue to work with the Town Clerk, other municipal Historians and our residents to identify people places and other things about Scipio.
I continued a BLOG for Scipio at http://scipiocenterny.blogspot.com to encourage younger residents to participate in their Town’s history in a medium they understand, and for others to communicate electronically with questions, etc. That blog has had over 15,000 hits since inception in October of 2007, with 5,000 occurring in the past calendar year and has generated many e-mail inquiries and much interest and information about Scipio and her early residents.
I continued to add material to my file cabinet drawer at the Town Hall.
I met with various residents at various locations to discuss our history, accept donations of historical significance, and to gain new insight on our past.
I continued work on a family file system to cross reference early family surnames, to make sharing and look up more productive.
I obtained the results of a Cayuga Community College American History class project on the individuals buried in Scipio cemeteries and made them available.
I continued to compile information on our Civil War veterans in celebration of the Civil War Sesquicentennial.
I continued to research Scipio’s connection to the USCT and other Civil War information.
I accepted historical gifts from the public and provided archival quality storage if needed.
I delivered a bus tour of Civil War venues in Cayuga and Seneca Counties. This tour was held in August of 2011 as part of the National Conference of the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War (DUVCW).
As always, it is a pleasure to serve the Town of Scipio as her Historian.

Sandie Stoker Gilliland, Town of Scipio Historian
January 18, 2012