Announcements & Requests Lynn Eller, President of the EFA

1. EFA Nominating Committee: Lowell Eller, Chairman, (4410 Harborwood Dr., Salem, VA 24153), Kathryn Owen (Rt. 4, Bx 328, Cleburne TX 76032,) and Vance Eller, (550 Fox Hollow Lane, Salisbury, NC 28146-9000) are appointed. to perform the usual functions of this committee. Nominations should be sent to the Committee Chairman. Current officers and members of the Board are asked to inform me by March 1, 1995, if they wish to be considered for another term. The recommendations of the Committee will appear in the May issue and final elections will be made at Conf '95 in Asheville.

2. A 1993 Auditor's Report, Financial Report for 1994, and Proposed Budget for 1995, appears in this issue. Questions or suggestion about these reports from the membership will be in order. On behalf of the EF 1\ thanks are extended to Roger and Nancy Eller for their efficient services. The Board has full confidence that EF A funds are properly managed by Secretary-Treasurer Nancy.

3. Attention is called to Art. IV- (By-Laws) Dues and Membership, 3. Donor members are those who contribute $35.00 annually. 4. Sustaining Members are those who contribute $100.00 annually. Five members are now sustaining members. The Board directed this be publicized and members who can afford to do so urged to join one of these groups. Funds from this source will be placed in a line-item reserve fund to insure that The Eller Chronicles can be sustained at its present level without raising the annual membership fee.

4. A new Registration Form with changes in cost for children under 12 years of age is enclosed. Those who may have already paid a higher rate for children will receive a refund. Please don't neglect to send in your registration form and reserve your room(s) as soon as possible. Indications are that this Conference will be the largest held so far. Different groups are arranging to bring bus loads to Asheville. Don't miss the fun.

5. The tentative program of events for the Conference in this issue is still subject to change (questions or suggestions solicited).

6. Persons wishing to see the Biltmore House and Gardens on Saturday afternoon of the Asheville Conference are asked to notify me. The total cost will be at least $35.00 per person. If as many as 20 are interested a bus will be available. If fewer than 20 are interested efforts will be made to find other means of transportation. Tickets will be available at the Registration Desk. .

7. Members with craft items to contribute to the Craft Fair are urged to contact Lucy Eller P.O. Box 638, Skiatook, OK, as soon as possible.

8. The Eller Band of Texas and Arkansas will perform at Conf '95. Other Eller musicians and performers are urged to lend their talents. To properly celebrate our Appalachian ancestor's music, gospel quartettes, pickers, singers and dancers are needed. There are other Eller performers out there. We invite them to make plans to attend and keep John Eller, P.O. Box 638, Skiatook, OK, inofrmed. Don't forget to send John your favorite hymns and other songs for a group sing-a-Iong.

9. Members are urged to help spread the word about the 1995 Conference, especially to non-members who do not receive the Chronicles.

10. The 1990 reprints of 1. W. Hook's 1925 book sold very quickly before all orders could be filled. Several members have expressed interest in a copy of the book. The possibility of another reprinting is being considered. To assess the level of interest from the members, please drop me a card if you are interested in purchasing a copy if new reprints become available. (Lynn Eller, 42nd 28th St., N.W., Atlanta 30309.

From the Editors

Publicity: The Eller Family Association and Eller Chronicles will be listed in future editions of ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ASSOCIATIONS SERIES, published by Gale Research, Inc., 835 Penobscot Bldg., Detroit, MI48226-4094.

Back issues of The Eller Chronicles have been provided for review in future edition of Genealogical Periodical Annual Index: Key to the Genealogical Literature (GP AI), published by Heritage Books, Inc., 1540-E Pointer Ridge PI., Bowie, MD 20717.

Newspaper notices for Conference are being prepared for release to papers servmg communities where several Eller families are listed. Suggestions invited.

We continue the plan begun last year to publish Special Editions of the Chronicles. We are grateful to Alfred D. Eller of South Dakota for submitting the extensive genealogy of the Joshua Nubo Eller family of South Dakota of the immigrant Henry Eller line.

A Special Lecture by Dr. Ronald Eller (In the News Section). This is the first time we have published on subjects other than family history or genealogy. We think it is fitting to share this story for four reasons: First, the subject is Southern Appalachia, the place where Conf '95 will be held, and the ancestral home for many Ellers who trace their roots back to North Carolina. Second, your editors have known Ron for several years and can vouch for his credentials and dedicated services to the Appalachian region and its peoples which includes a host of Ellers and their descendants. He is the p.reeminent authority and scholar on Appalachian economic history with published boo~Imblished articles to his credit. He is widely sought as a speaker by many regional and national groups. He is quoted in newspaper articles and often on National Television. Third, he was the first person to make Juanita and me aware of the 1. W. Hook books which played a dominant role in arousing our interest in genealogy and family history. Fourth, he is an Eller- enough said!

The two most famous houses in Asheville, N.C. (See "In the News Section"). Radisson Hotel, headquarters for Conf. '95 is located beside the Thomas Wolfe House. See the Conf program for plans to arrange a bus tour to the Biltmore House. If you have never seen the Biltmore House you should not leave Asheville without seeing it.

A tip for Researchers: An editorial in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly (82:4: Dec. 1994) by the Millses addresses the problem bf deternlifiirlg the birth year trom census records because of variations between birthday and date of the cenusus. They say:

"1850-80. The official census date used during this period was 1 June, and census takers were to record ages as of that date. The typical deduction if an individual appears in the 1850 census as aged 39, let us say is to substract 39 trom 1850 and conclude that the person was "born in 1811." Forget the simple math; is is likely to be wrong. There's a 58 % that the ancestor was born in 1810, rather than 1811. In order to be 39 on 1 June 1850, your individual had to be born between 2 June 1810 and 1 June 1811. That's seven possible months in 1810 and only five in 1811.

"1820-1830: The pitfall here is a change in official census date that affects the age category of most enumerated people born during th summer in a year ending with O. The applied date in 1820 was the first Monday in August. The applied date in 1830 (through 1880, as noted above) was 1 June. Thus, a person whose birthday was 4 July 1810 would have been counted in 1820 among those aged 10-19, because he or she would have had that tenth birthday before the official census date in 1820. However, in 1830 the official date fell before that person's birthday. He or she would have been 19 on 1 June and would, once again, be tallied in the 10-19 category.

A New Dimension for Genealogists: Your Family's Health History: An Introduction was published by The National Genealogical Society Quarterly. (Special Issue 82:2, June, 1994.) Medical geneticists have used genealogy for a very long time to trace inherited family diseases believed to have a genetic basis. The most active work prior to 1939 was the Eugenics Record Office (ERO) maintained at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island under the direction of Charles Benedict Davenport (1866-1944). Davenport was a respected pioneer human geneticist. The purpose of the ERO was to study human genetics and use the knowledge to reduce heritable problems in the human species. The program came under heavy criticism when some advocated sterilization of certain handicapped individuals. This led the Carnegie Institution to stop funds in 1939. The work proceeded modestly until Davenports death in 1944.

. The ERO left behind mountains of data ("18 tons including 40,000 family pedigrees of varying value") pertaining to the inheritance of certain diseases within a single family lineage. Much of this work came from application of genealogy to genetics. Also, the group perfected the process of pedigree analysis a basic tool in human genetic. In 1948, the records were transferred to the Dight Institute at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. This institute, financed by a legacy from its founder, Charles Fremont Dight, M.D., continued to study human genetics with an emphasis on research and counseling. "Genetic counseling, II a respected program in medical training about which much is heard today, was pioneered there. "From 1941 to 1991, the institute was one of few major centers of human genetics. With the discovery of DNA (the basic substance of genes) and the remarkable progress made in biochemistry and molecular biology in the past forty years, human genetics is the hottest topic on all fronts of current genetic and medical research.

Then EFA member Ed Eller of Dalton, GA. received a call from the University of Minnesota. One of their researchers had learned of Ed's genealogical work with the Ellers of Towns County, Georgia and called him on January 17. That evening a very excited Ed Eller called former biology professor, Gerald Eller and he got excited. The researcher had traced a mutant gene through genealogical techniques to families in Towns County and the Ellers were part of the group of interest. He has much genealogical information that Ed does not have and vice-versa, so an exchange has been agreed upon. Who knows what may come of all this?

Reminders for Submitters of material to the Chronicles. It is very helpful when material is sent camera-ready to the Chronicles. This means it must be legible for photographing type with a new ribbon is best. Leave at least one inch right hand margin this to facilitate binding into a volume for each year. Also, do not leave empty spaces; it costs the EF A as much to print a page half full as one completely filled with printing. Submitters are fully responsible for the accurracy of the information submitted; neither the Eller Family Association nor the Editors of the Chronicles can accept responsibility for verifYing through research the accurracy of data submitted for publication. The Editors do reserve the right to ask for documentation and to question the accuracy of material.

J. W. Hook: His comments in his 1925 book, James Hook and Virginia Eller about the Eller family of Germany led many people to incorrect assumptions, one being that there was but a single Eller family of Germany. Another was that the Eller name originally was Elner (this was true for a single family line which happened to be of the nobility and the only Eller nobility known in Germany). We see Hook's comments repeated again in the Special Edition on Descendants of Joshua Nubo Eller in this issue. Also, we find a Paul Eller listed as the parent of "five Eller brothers." The authors of this genealogy are deceased and Alfred Eller, who found the manuscript and prepared it for publication, has no idea where they found the name of Paul Eller. We dealt with this problem by adding some footnotes to the manuscript pointing out to readers the major points that are in conflict with what is now known by The Eller Family Association.

Recent visits: Your editors enjoyed a nice visit with Harvey Eller, Coordinator of the EF A Comp.ter-user Group, his wife Lois and lovely daughter Marcia, on Wednesday after Christmas. Harvey confirmed my earlier opinion about his expertise in the use of the computer. He had my computer doing things I know not what. He and other computer coordinators will be heard from at the Asheville conference. The following week John and Lucy Eller from Skiatook, OK, took to the road again and stopped by on their way to Edgewater, Florida for the next three months. We discussed plans for the conference and had a pleasant visit. Florida Ellers had better watch out - John is on your trail- get your $15.00 ready for joining the EFA.

Beginning with this issue; queries will be given special attention. This is prompted, in part, by the responses to our query in the last issue about Rev. John F. Eller - ;We received three separate replies each containing valuable information. With its computer data bases and more members active in research, the EF A has the capacity to be more helpful to those seeking lost relatives. For the Conference a special list of queries will be nn~n::lrp.ci for distribution and some time will be taken at the general session to allow attendees to identify themselves and otfer their own queries. Also, all queries in the future will be mailed upon receipt to the Coordinators of the Eller data bases. Deadline for receiving queries for the special conference list is July 10, 1995.

Moses W. and Nancy Minerva Roten Eller. Seek info. on descendants of Moses W. and Nancy Minerva Roten Eller. My cousin, Dr. Danny Miller, and I are working on a book on the Roten Family and would like to include this family in our work. I will be happy to exchange information on the parents, etc. of Nancy Minerva Roten Eller. Lovetta Miller Schweers, 425 Pinehurst Ave., Salisbury, MD, 21801-6114

Eller Baptist Ministers. The list of Ellers who became ministers gets longer and longer. See the news paper clips about North Carolina Eller Baptist ministers from the Baptist Archives at Wake Forest University. We hope these clips with queries will bring as much information as the one in the last issue on the Rev. John F. Eller.(Eds). (See pp. 8 - 9)

Seeking information about the Rev. John Eller and his wife, Rebecca Howell Eller in the enclosed photo. John was b either 1871 or 1873, d 1946. Photo taken mid to late 1930's. Descendants of this family still reside in Chillhowie, Virginia. Rev. Eller, was a pastor of a Baptist Church, in Clifton, N.C., where my bro. Robert Miller still resides. Lovetta Miller Schweers, 425 Pinehurst Ave., Salisbury, MD, 21801-6114. (See Photo Below)