About the Friends
Friends Executive Board 2013
Linda Woodward Geiger, President
Vickie Evans, 1st Vice-President
Emma Davis Hamilton, 2nd Vice-President
Helen A. Lissimore, Secretary
Arden Williams, Treasurer
George Jacobs, Immediate Past President
FNAS is a volunteer service organization dedicated to serving the research needs of the southeastern population of the United States as well as the preservation activities of the National Archives and Records Administration, Southeast Region, located in Morrow, near Atlanta. This region covers the eight states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Members of FNAS make a great team of amateur and professional genealogists and family historians working together to preserve regional, state, local and family history and pursue genealogical interests related to research, study, and preservation.
We use our special contacts with state and local history societies, archives, libraries, schools, colleges and educators, as well as genealogical groups, to inform them about how the Archives and its special holdings are valuable resources for research. We also support, with publicity, logistics, and our own presence, the outreach programs and commemorative celebrations conducted by the Archives.
We also publish a quarterly newsletter called "The Civil History," which not only describes current activities of the Friends, but also has valuable articles on the unique holdings of the Archives, and how they might be used for research. This publication is sent not only to Friends, but also to nearly 100 state and local libraries, genealogical societies and state archives in the Southeast to spread the word on the Archives' research opportunities. Finally, we maintain a website - www.FriendsNAS.org - where we have current information about the Friends and activities at the Archives on-line. It also contains several searchable data bases valuable to researchers at the Archives.
We encourage and facilitate Friends and other volunteers to undertake specific projects for the Archives. These projects typically involve document preservation and indexing. We occasionally hold work parties to help with high priority projects. Some examples of projects we have recently been occupied with include: (1) alphabetizing Federal District Court for Florida naturalization records; (2) preserving and indexing prisoner files from the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary; and (3) refoldering and reboxing Federal District Court for Tennessee criminal files. We recently have been asked to assist archival staff with indexing the names of individuals in Farmer's Home Administration records.
We also support the Archives by using our dues and donations to purchase microform records, research aids (including indexes and CD ROMS), and equipment to assist patrons and archivists.
The Friends organization is incorporated under the laws of the State of Georgia. In addition, it is recognized by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization, so all contributions to it are fully deductible. We hold an annual meeting, usually in January. We warmly welcome new members at any time.