The general education meeting of TPCGS was held at the University Place Library on May 13, 2025. There were seven members and two guests present. The virtual and in-person meeting was recorded from 6:15 to 7:30pm. The recording will be available on the TPCGS website. 
There were two announcements:
Tim Ward, TPCGS president, reminded us of the Family History Center Tour on May 24. He asked those planning on attending to email him at president@tpcgs.org
Jane Irish Nelson, Webmaster and Seminar Chair, invited all to a free Genealogy Social and Resource Sharing to be held at the Tacoma Library, Moore branch, on Saturday June 7, 2025. She also asked for an email to info@tpcgs.org in order to plan for supplies.

Liz Osborn, VP/Programs, rose to introduce our speaker, Kathleen Veasey or the Elizabeth Forey  Chapter, DAR who presented “Reaching Back,” describing her Stroop-Stroope Family Research. 

Kathy’s research began in the mid-1970’s. She and her older sister, a librarian, spent hours reading microfilm. They sent many letters with a stamped return envelope across the country to people with the different spellings of Stroop asking for specific (or any) information. They composed a quarterly newsletter connecting all the gained contacts. After 10 years, they had enough information to print and publish three family history books. Eventually, Kathy learned how to search the web.  
Kathy made many contacts through the years and, along with continuing to gather family
information, she started maintaining a giant collection of descendants of her third great grandfather's enslaved persons. She considers herself very fortunate to have discovered in his will all 21 names. More recently, she expanded the research of enslaved persons to include all black families in Pierce County, starting with the 1870 census and following those lines back to 1850. 
After Kathy’s presentation, Nancy Brakke, TPCGS member and DAR colleague of Kathy shared one of Kathy’s projects. While walking the old Gig Harbor Cemetery, Kathy had discovered five unmarked graves of Civil War veterans. Kathy did the research of three of the veterans and showed us the three binders. She and the DAR chapter contacted the appropriate federal agency, who provided grave stones for the three named veterans. The chapter held a special ceremony placing the markers. Kathy also shared the three bound Stroope Family Genealogy books and invited TPCGS members to contact her, if they wanted a further look.

Respectfully submitted,

Patricia Gwin, Secretary