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Jean Huot
Smoorenburg moved to
Houston, Texas in 1973 from Massachusetts and to Conroe, Texas in 1977 when I married
Anthony Smoorenburg.
I've lived in Montgomery County ever since. Our two children were born in
Montgomery County Texas and all of our grandchildren have been born in Texas
- seven in Montgomery County. For more information about the Smoorenburg
Family around the world, visit
Them Smoorenburg's
and The
SMOoRENBURGS both private family sites on Facebook.
So over the past years, I've developed strong ties to Montgomery County and
cannot imagine living anywhere else.
Jean & Anthony Smoorenburg
I research primarily in Ontario and Quebec, Canada, The Netherlands, and New
England. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts and former teacher, I was
the past genealogy
HAL-PC SIG
(Special Interest Group) Leader at
Houston Area
League of PC Users in Houston Texas and have been Deputy Editor of
HAL-PC Magazine from 1991– 2
2004. I am a former
member of MCG&HS where I received
their Hall of Fame Award in 2005. I am a member of the
Heritage Museum
of Montgomery County,
Houston Genealogical
forum and
Margaret Montgomery Chapter NSDAR. In
December 2019, Jane Keppler and I received the
William Harley Gandy Distinguished Service Award
for the preservation and advancement of the history of Montgomery County
Texas
from the Montgomery County Historical Commission. Unfortunately, Jane was
unable to attend but I accepted the award on her behalf.
As of 2023, I am
Second Vice-President of Conroe Community
Cemetery Restoration project.
Visit CCCRP on Facebook
for our progress in cleaning and restoration of Conroe Community
Cemetery. Two other members of CCCRP, Jon Edens, and John
Meredith, received the William Harley Gandy Distinguished Service Award
in 2020 for
their work on Conroe Community Cemetery. For CCCRP, I wrote a narrative
about Laura McNeese Henderson who is interred in Conroe Community Cemetery
and the original narrative resides in the vertical files in the Genealogy
and History Room and on the CCCRP website .
Hall of Fame Award 2005
L-R: Robin Montgomery, Barbara Franz, Jean Smoorenburg, & Gladys May.
Receiving the William Harley Gandy Distinguished
Service in award 2019
L-R:
Larry L Foerster, Chairman of Montgomery County Historical
Commission, Jean Smoorenburg, and
County Judge Mark Keough
From Bluebonnet News November 10, 2020
Montgomery County Historical Commission Chair Larry Foerster,
John Meredith, Jon Eden in the front. Behind them is the Commissioners
Court; Precinct 4 Commissioner James Metts, Precinct 3 Commissioner James
Noack, Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough, Precinct 1 Commissioner Mike
Meador and Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley.
Jon Edens and John Meredith, who have devoted their time and energy into
restoring the Conroe Community Cemetery, were presented with the William
Harley Gandy Distinguished Service Award.
To
learn more about Texas and Montgomery County History, I did the genealogy
research for my stepdaughter to obtain an Early Settlers Certificate from
MCG&HS and to become a member of the
Daughters of the
Republic of Texas
(DRT) for her ancestor, Hugh Davlin.
As you can see, I'm truly addicted...
I taught
genealogy classes at Lone Star College - Montgomery for
ALL (Academy for Lifelong Learning):
Beginning Genealogy, Genealogy in the 21st Century, Intro to Researching Across
the Pond after 1850, and Genealogy Software along with
Phyllis Stehm. After ten years of volunteering as Instructors for the ALL program, Phyllis and I were named
ALL Instructors for the year 2010 at their open house held August 20, 2010. After 15 years in the ALL Program, Phyllis and I
decided to retire from teaching in the ALL Program at the end of 2015.
ALL Instructors of the Year - 2010
Because of the need we saw while teaching our
ALL classes, in October 2007 Phyllis
and I began
MCG-IRG (Montgomery County Genealogists'-Internet
Research Group) to help others learn to effectively search on the
Internet. "IRG", by the way, is the exclamation you make when you can't find something on the Internet!
Although Phyllis Stehm retired from IRG in June 2022, MCG-IRG
meets the first Friday of the month from 9:15 am - Noon at the
George & Cynthia Woods Mitchell
Library in The Woodlands. On December 1. 2023, I decided it was
time to retire too from MCG-IRG. Below Phyllis and I holding our cookie
saying Goodbye.
Saying goodbye to MCG-IRG on December 1, 2023
On 2008 I became
a volunteer for FindaGrave.
In
2013, I began teaching a class in DNA in the ALL Program and as an outgrowth
have begun a DNA Discussion
Group that meets at the
Main Library in
the Genealogy and History Room on the 3rd Thursday of the month (except
July). Our first meeting was April 17, 2014.
I joined
TXGenWeb
on October 2, 2004. It's been a great pleasure to be Jane Keppler's
Assistant Coordinator on the Montgomery County website since then and help others with their
genealogy research. Jane has allowed me free reign to do the maintenance and
updates on the Montgomery County site. So I've learned so much in the last
twenty years about
Montgomery County Texas forefathers and records along the way.
I am a current member and am on the
Board of Conroe Community Cemetery Restoration project (CCCRP) in Conroe
Texas. Follow our restoration efforts on our website
https://cccrp.org/ or on Facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/cccrp.
If you have any records or
articles of interest for the Montgomery County web site or wish to volunteer, please email us with the details.
We're always looking for new information and volunteers to help!
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