Whatcom Genealogical Society will meet on Monday, April 8th, at 2 pm at the Bellingham Elks Lodge, 710 Samish Way. Janet O’Connor Camarata will speak on “Basic Genealogy”. Visitors are welcome. Contact: 360-733-8300
Good last-Monday-of-March morning! The snow is mostly gone, the bluebirds are back and I-90 is open for east and west travel. The “mystery” today is how come you dear genealogists reading this post aren’t coming to Spokane to enjoy a day with Sunny Jane Morton.
Sunny is a 100% top notch, gold plated BigWig in the genealogy world today. Click to some of her YouTube videos and you’ll be taught and delighted. She is coming to Spokane on Saturday, April 6th, for an all-day seminar. Click to www.ewgsi.org for more information and to register. She’s offering us four cracker-jack presentations that day.
Tiz an easy 5-hour drive coming west on I-90 and Spokane has plenty of motels available. Come over Friday morning and spend the afternoon in the genealogy section of our downtown Spokane Public Library.
Perhaps what you learn from Sunny Morton will help to solve a mystery in your genealogy. You think?
| THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Thursday Evening E-News Edition March 21, 2019 |
| Curious about the status of your GFO Membership? We’d love to have you as a GFO Member! |
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For more information visit www.gfo.org. Contact us at info@gfo.org or 503-963-1932. Be sure to check the complete GFO CALENDAR. Also, don’t miss the current issue of The Forum Insider |
| GFO’s Annual Open House Begins This Weekend! |
| 9 Days of FREE Classes! Saturday, March 23rd – Sunday, Mar. 31st |
| Class List with Times & Details |
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Have you ever wanted to attend a genealogy conference but couldn’t afford to? Now you can! Please join us at the GFO for its biggest event of the year! Nine days of classes are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. 33 classes are open on a walk-in basis. The 4 presentations requiring registration are completely full. We have a few theme days. Saturday, March 23 kicks off with Irish Day. Wednesday, March 27 is Finding Family Day. Tracking living relatives? Birth parents? This is the day for you. Closing weekend, March 30-31 features DNA Days. Click on the “Class Descriptions” link above, or view our Calendar page for a complete list of subjects and class times so you don’t miss a single moment. We guarantee you’ll learn something new and exciting about the wonderful world of genealogy! |
| 2 Copies of Family Tree Maker in Open House Raffle! |
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Coming to our Open House? Bring a little cash to spare. You could win one of two copies of Family Tree Maker software! Each is valued at $89.95. $1 for 1 ticket. $5 for 6 tickets. Exact change is appreciated! You do not have to be present to win. But be sure to write your name and phone number on the raffle ticket you leave in our box. The drawings will be at the end of the Open House, March 31. |
| Your Open House Surveys Reveal… |
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And some of your comments included . . . ▪ Can’t wait! ▪ Wish I could do genealogy every day. ▪ Lots of choices. Looks well planned. Thanks. ▪ I’m excited to come to the presentations! ▪ Thank
you so much for offering this opportunity for me to expand my knowledge
of a variety of subjects. Along with the chance to meet new people and
perhaps even make a cousin connection, you never know. ▪ It’s the best event of the year! ▪ Thanks for making this happen. Now please take this week’s survey! We’d love to know which Open House classes look the most interesting to you. |
| Take this week’s survey |
| GFO’s March 2019 Super Star Anne Wheeler |
| Anne is a dedicated, regular Sunday volunteer who usually beats everyone else into the library. Among other things she is a pro at locating misplaced books, earning her the name of “Finder of Lost Things.” Amazingly, she has volunteered at the library every Sunday but one for over three years. Anne is always willing to help where needed and even stepped up to serve as Director at Large when asked. She has also served on the Disaster Preparedness and Grants Committees. We are pleased to present her with this honor for her long and distinguished service at the GFO. |
| E-News Coordinator Needed by May 1st!! |
| Our E-News Coordinator is retiring after April 31st this year and we need your help to fill the impending vacancy. ▪ Do you love gathering genealogy news items and distributing them to the world? ▪ Are you tech savvy-ish and above all a stickler for details? ▪ Do you have 1-3 hours you can donate each week to a wonderful cause? ▪ Is finding fun, vintage, and public domain images via google searches your favorite pastime? Training is available from April 1st through April 30th. |
| I want to help! |
| Email news@gfo.org if you have interest in filling this extremely valuable volunteer spot. |
| Book of the Week: Civil War Letters |
| During the Civil War in 1862 and 1963, John Parkurst wrote 55 letters to his wife, Lizzie (Pearson) Parkhurst, in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Archives calls these “one of the most compelling personal accounts of a soldier’s life during the Civil War anywhere.” “I was a little seasick this morning bu am better now. We live on hard crackers and boiled ham & water.” The letters not only relate his experiences, but frequently refer to his children, parents, and their lives. Fair warning: these letters are unvarnished and reveal great prejudice against African Americans. This reprint of the transcribed letters is available for purchase from the GFO Bookstore for $5.00. Contact booksales@gfo.org if you are interested. |
| This week at GFO … |
| FRIDAY, March 22nd Beginning Genealogy 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. This class session is sold out. SATURDAY, March 23rd OPEN HOUSE – Discover Your Irish Roots 10 a.m. – 3:20 p.m. See the full detailed class list here. SUNDAY, March 24th OPEN HOUSE – Beginning Genealogy 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. This class session is sold out. MONDAY, March 25th OPEN HOUSE – Legalities, Pennsylvania, & Online Resources 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. See the full detailed class list here. TUESDAY, March 26th OPEN HOUSE – Evernote, Religious Radicals, Ancestry.com, & Online Family Trees 10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. See the full detailed class list here. WEDNESDAY, March 27th OPEN HOUSE – Family Connections & Biological Connections 10 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. See the full detailed class list here. THURSDAY, March 28th OPEN HOUSE – Multnomah County Library Resources, Write It Up, Trip Planning, & Software Advice 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. See the full detailed class list here. FRIDAY, March 29th OPEN HOUSE – Citing Sources, Mexican Ancestry, & Ohio River Area Research 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. See the full detailed class list here. SATURDAY & SUNDAY, March 30th & 31st OPEN HOUSE – DNA Focus Days! 9 a.m. – 4:45 p.m. See the full detailed class list here. Two sessions with guest speaker Barbara Rae-Venter are sold out. All others are open on walk-in basis. Please also be sure to check our Open House website. |
The Yakima Valley Genealogical Society is presenting its annual Spring Seminar, Saturday, April 6, 9-3:45 PM at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church at 7809 Tieton Drive in Yakima. Peggy Clemens Lauritzen, a nationally known genealogist and writer for Reminisce Magazine will be the speaker. Her topics are Apprentices, Indentured Servants and Redemptioners: White Servitude in America, Researching the Lives of Our Foremothers, Migration To and Through Virginia and The Scots- Irish in America. Lunch and snacks are included. Registration before April 2 for YVGS Members is $40.00 YVGS Non-Members $45.00, On-Site Registration 8:30 AM – 9:00 AM $45.00. No refund of registration fee after April 2. Registration forms and information are available at the YVGS website.
Ah, the fifth and final sweet bite of my Chocolate Saga to share with you.
After the beans are dried and roasted, they are ground to a paste and sugar is added. For milk chocolate, that is added. In that learning place, I studied this poster:
Did you learn something new about your likely-favorite sweet??
Just over a week ago WSGS received some lost photos, the list can be found here
Here is a scan of three of the photos
The Yakima Valley Genealogical Society is presenting its annual Spring Seminar, Saturday, April 6, 9-3:45 PM at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church at 7809 Tieton Drive in Yakima. Peggy Clemens Lauritzen, a nationally known genealogist and writer for Reminisce Magazine will be the speaker. Her topics are Apprentices, Indentured Servants and Redemptioners: White Servitude in America, Researching the Lives of Our Foremothers, Migration To and Through Virginia and The Scots- Irish in America. Lunch and snacks are included. Registration before April 2 for YVGS Members is $40.00 YVGS Non-Members $45.00, On-Site Registration 8:30 AM – 9:00 AM $45.00. No refund of registration fee after April 2. Registration forms and information are available at the YVGS website.
Mystery solved! At least for me. My mother used to explain to me that in days of yore, crawling babies were dressed in long dresses so that the bottom of the dress could be put under the bed post to keep baby safe while mother was outside fetching wood or hanging laundry. Made sense to me.
A post by Lisa Louise Cooke, penned by Allison DePrey Singleton, gives a parallel explanation. Initially, babies were swaddled, meaning they were wrapped tightly in cloth from head to toe so their arms and legs would stay straight. Once out of swaddling, parents dressed their children in long skirts to prevent their crawling about, which was considered “barbaric and unnatural.”
Really? Love Lisa Louise Cooke’s blog and podcasts…. so full of good information and wonderful tidbits of history.
TIP OF THE WEEK – NOTICE FOR FTDNA CUSTOMERS Listening to angry customers, FTDNA has provided a separate option so one can now opt out of the new Law Enforcement Matching (LEM), but still maintain matching with DNA Relatives. If you care to adjust your Matching Preferences, visit the Privacy & Sharing section within Account Settings as shown in the steps below:
1. Log in to your FTDNA account
2. Use the dropdown arrow in the upper right, to the right of name, to open the menu there and choose Account Settings
3. On the Account Settings page, open the Privacy & Sharing tab
4. Cursor down to the Law Enforcement Matching (LEM) section and slide
the marker from the right (where it’s blue) to the left (where it will
turn grey)
If you manage multiple accounts, you’ll have to log into each account individually and repeat steps 1-4. Judy G Russell, the Legal Genealogist, wrote an insightful blog on the Law Enforcement Matching issue and what it might mean to you, as well as any other kits you administer. It’s dated March 13th. If interested, you can read it here:
A good start by FTDNA