The Rochester Genealogical Society began in 1938 but we didn't have a newsletter until 1980. The name Hear Ye Hear Ye was originally used in single page mailings to members announcing programs. The name got transferred to the newsletter when it began in the fall of 1980.

Hear Ye Hear Ye at first was only 2 issues per year (10 pages each issue). Starting with Volume 6 it became 3 issues per year. It wasn't until Volume 19 that Hear Ye Hear Ye became a quarterly.

There have been only a few editors of Hear Ye Hear Ye through the years. The original editor was Jack Wilson. The original masthead was drawn by him on his drafting board and even the current format looks similar to his original design. Jack resigned at the end of Volume 5 and the editing of Hear Ye was taken up by Robert Hesselberth and James Roome. They continued until Vol. 12, number 2. Judy Markham and Jim Paprocki became the editors with Volume 12, Number 3. Judy and Jim resigned after the Volume 16, Number 2 issue. Volume 16, Number 3 says the position of editor is "vacant" but that issue was actually produced by Ed Gaulin. Jim Paprocki was again persuaded to become editor with the beginning of Volume 17 and remained so until Volume 19, Number 2. Richard Halsey was the editor of Hear Ye Hear Ye for the 10 years from Volume 19, Number 3 to Volume 29, Number 2. Nancy Merzke became the editor of the Hear Ye beginning with Volume 29, Number 3 (Fall 2008).

Issues	Editors
Vol 1, No 1 Fall 1975 to Vol 5, No 2 Spring 1979	Bob Holroyd
Vol 1, No 1 Spring 1980 to Vol 5, No 2 Fall 1984	Jack Wilson
Vol 6, No 1 Winter 1985 to Vol 12, No 2 Spring 1991	Robert Hesselberth James Roome
Vol 12, No 3 Fall 1991 to Vol 16, No 2 Spring 1995	Judy Markham Jim Paprocki
Vol 16, No 3 Fall 1995	Ed Gaulin
Vol 17, No 1 Winter 1996 to Vol 19, No 2 Summer 1998	Jim Paprocki
Vol 19, No 3 Fall 1998 to Vol 29, No 2 Summer 2008	Richard Halsey
Vol 29, No 3 Fall 2008 to present	Nancy Merzke

The original intent was to put scanned images of old issues on-line but that proved to produce file sizes that were just too large. Instead the old issues were scanned using an optical character recognition (OCR) program. These files look very similar to the original documents except for the addition of colored text and background.

It is important to note that some of the people refered to in the old issues have since passed on. Also in our very mobile society most postal and email addresses have since changed.