Author Archives: Charles Hansen

GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Thursday Evening E-News

by Charles Hansen

THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Thursday Evening E-News Edition January 24, 2019
Curious about the status of your GFO Membership? We’d love to have you as a GFO Member!
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
BlackProGen Host Speaks to GFO Saturday, Jan. 26
Genealogist and BlackProGen host Nicka Smith. Photo Courtesy Nicka Smith. The Genealogical Forum of Oregon is pleased to welcome BlackProGen host Nicka Smith to its next African American Ancestry Group meeting on Saturday, January 26 from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. She will appear in a remote presentation from her home base of Tennessee, and her topic will be “The Future of African American Genealogy.” Smith is a professional photographer, speaker, and documentarian with more than 20 years of experience as a genealogist. She is the host of BlackProGen Live, a web show focused on people of color genealogy and family history. With rapid digitization of crucial record sets to the explosion of DNA testing, the landscape of African American genealogy and family history research is constantly evolving. Attendees can discover why these advancements are key for all types of genealogy and how they can help break down years-long barriers in personal research efforts. The meeting is free and open to the public at the GFO Library in the basement of the historic Ford Building at S.E. 11th Ave. & Division in Portland.
Golden State Killer Sleuth is Coming to the GFO!
Barbara Rae-Venter. Photo by Brian L. Frank. We have exciting news for this year’s Open House! You have a chance to hear directly from the genetic genealogist who cracked the Golden State Killer case. Barbara Rae-Venter is coming to speak at the GFO during our DNA Days. On Saturday, March 30th, she will talk in the afternoon about DNA genealogy research techniques. On the morning of Sunday, March 31st, she’ll speak about the Golden State Killer case itself. Many thanks to Emily Aulicino for arranging this rare opportunity. Barbara’s sleuthing has been profiled in the New YorkTimes and she was named one of the 10 People Who Mattered most in 2018 by Nature magazine. This will be popular so you must register for these limited seats.
Registration opens on Friday, March 1st at 9:00 a.m., at our website.
GFO Library Remains Free for All Federal Workers
The record setting government shutdown continues, and so does our offer to federal employees who are getting no pay. You are welcome to come and use the GFO Library FREE as long as this shutdown lasts. You may have extra time on your hands; feel free to come tap all the resources the GFO has to offer, including 50,000 holdings and access to subscription databases that would cost you an arm and a leg at home. Please show your government employment I.D. at our reception desk for free admission.
We Love a Success Story
If you know about our Boot Camp for Beginners, you know there are virtually no breaks and only a half hour for lunch at the most. Yet one recent participant managed to parlay that short break into a successful search at the GFO library. Patricia emailed this marvelous note to us: “I decided to do a little research on my 2nd great maternal grandmother. I’ve being focusing on her husband for the last number of months, so I thought I would peek in and see what I could find about her. They were the ones who first immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland. I not only found her baptismal record, which was wonderful, but what we always love to find is bonus information. I now have her parents names! So happy!” You never know what you’ll find tucked away in the GFO’s vast collection!
Fred Meyer/GFO Rewards: A Small Change
We’d like to thank everyone who has registered their Fred Meyer Rewards cards to benefit the Genealogical Forum of Oregon. You generate regular donations without paying any more for groceries. Fred Meyer has made a small change to our account number. If you’d like to do your part, be sure to link your card to Genealogical Forum of Oregon, Account #PB444. Community Rewards is easy to use, The more you shop, the more money the GFO earns!
Library Tours Available in Person … and on Video!
Did you know we offer free group tours of the GFO Library? If you know people who’d like to learn all we have to share, please have them contact tours@gfo.org. Or, if you have 15 free seconds, you can just click over to our YouTube Channel for our Fastest Library Tour Ever! (The personal tour is far better, and your group gets four hours of time to research after the tour!)
This week at GFO …
SATURDAY, January 26th
DNA Advanced Group 9 a.m. – noon
Tim Janzen will speak on merging duplicates in master match list spreadsheets, GEDmatch, and phasing. Each topic will be about 1 hour on each. Jef Treece will do about a half hour on GEDmatch, and Tim will do the other half.
Library Closes Early 12:45 p.m.
(to allow multiple Special Interest Groups)
African American Ancestry Group 12:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
We will enjoy a remote presentation from Nicka Smith, a professional photographer, speaker, and documentarian with more than 20 years of experience as a genealogist. She is the host of BlackProGen Live, a Web show focused on people of color genealogy and family history. She will speak on “The Future of African American Genealogy.” (Full note above.)
British Ancestry Group 1 p.m. – 3 p.m.
At this meeting we will discuss online sources. Tom O’Brian will explain the ins and outs of the FamilySearch website, and we can help with your brick walls. The focus of this group is on researching in the British Isles: England, Wales, Scotland, and Scots-Irish.
SUNDAY, January 27th
Library Work Party 9 a.m. – noon
There’s another work party at the GFO library today for those of you who can come. There’s lots to do and we’d love to have your help. Doors open at 9 and work usually wraps up around noon. Some people come for just an hour or so; others work the full time. You are welcome to do either. Any time you can share is valuable. Hope to see you there.
WEDNESDAY, January 30th
Library Open late to 8 p.m.

Friday Serendipity

by Charles Hansen

Want a really big heads’ up? Here it be:

SUNNY JANE MORTON IS COMING TO SPOKANE
NEXT APRIL 6th for EWGS Spring Seminar

And who is Sunny Jane McClellan Morton, you rightfully ask?

Sunny Jane Morton is an internationally-known, award-winning writer, editor and speaker for the multibillion-dollar genealogy industry. She is a Contributing Editor at Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems Podcast, with more than 2.5 million downloads worldwide, and a Contributing Editor at Family Tree Magazine, the U.S.’ premiere publication for genealogy hobbyists. A popular speaker at events across the country (including RootsTech), Sunny is especially known for expertise in tracing U.S. ancestors, particularly in church records; her unique comparisons of the industry’s largest websites; and inspiring presentations on how to reconstruct and tell meaningful stories from the past. Sunny is the author of Story of My Life: A Workbook for Preserving Your Legacy, Genealogy Giants: Comparing the 4 Major Websites and the forthcoming How to Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records (working title), co-authored with Harold Henderson, CG. She is the Co-Editor of Ohio Genealogy News and winner of the prestigious NGS Newsletter Competition (2017) and writing awards from the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors. She holds degrees in history and humanities from Brigham Young University.

Stay tuned to www.EWSGI.org for more information. That’s the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society in Spokane. 

SCRIBE-ing Report

by Charles Hansen

Reporting in again with a progress report on my SCRIBE-ing fun.

I’m proud to announce that I was number 142 on the list…. meaning that 141 folks had indexed more names than me. But you see I’ve risen up to number 84! So “only” 83 folks have done more indexing than me. I likely will never catch up with (WSGS Past President) Stephen Baylor or Charles Hansen but that’s okay. I’m SCRIBE-ing and that’s the point.

SCRIBE is the indexing opportunity afforded by the Washington State Archives. Google it to get yourself set up to contribute and you too will soon have happy news to report!

Eastern Washington Genealogical Society Meeting

by Charles Hansen

Saturday, February 2 Black History Month  (EWGS Meetings) 12:30 pm to 3:00 pmSpokane Public Library Auditorium – Downtown Spokane – Main Floor Black History Month 2019 Poetry – Genealogy – History Join Spokane poet Stephen Pitters as he reads poetry, discusses genealogy, and shares his personal experiences as the first black student to live on an all-white campus in Louisiana.   Pitters hosts the Spokane Open Poetry Program on KYRS-Thin Air Community Radio. He has published five volumes of poetry, with a sixth arriving in February or March.

Wednesday Nostalgia

by Charles Hansen

Ever used the website www.zillow.com? This is a realty website for those selling and for those buying a house. But what’s so fun about this website is that you can type in the address of the house where you lived as a child. Here is my house on 311 Great Jones Street, Fairfield, California, as it looks today:

And to my happy eyes, it doesn’t look very much different from when I lived here in 1949 to 1950. In the back, my dad built for me a little playhouse and put the numbers “312” on it. Guess that’s long gone.

Go look for a photo of your childhood home…… if you can remember the address.

Tuesday Trivia

by Charles Hansen

If you live in Eastern Washington, then you know about DUST. We over here in the eastern 2/3 of the EVERGREEN state realize that we cannot be the world’s biggest wheat-to-bread-and-pasta growing area of the world without having DUST. But we do not have to like it.

Stefanie Pettit is a regular columnist for The Spokesman Review in Spokane. A recent article of hers was addressing the subject of spring cleaning. She wrote “Truth be told, I’m not such a fanatic housecleaner in any season. I’ve made my accommodation with dust. It does have to live somewhere, so I don’t mind if a bit of it chooses to rake residence on my coffee table from time to time.”

It was her “it has to live somewhere” that granted me peace and a reprieve from my self-imposed War on Dust.

**Thanks to sheknows.com for the so-appropriate image.

Monday Mystery

by Charles Hansen

Back in 1918 Rose Kempf was murdered at her home in Readan, west of Spokane on Christmas day. The Spokane newspaper of the day ran tidbits on the story for days and clear into January 1919. Seems one William Delaney gave some strychnine-laced candy and then carefully tossed the rest of the box into the stove when Rose noticed that “the candy tasted bitter.” Seems that Rose had a suitor, Karl Reiniger, who was soon to come home from the Navy to marry her and jealous William just couldn’t handle it. While the case was closed and never proven, circumstantial evidence surely pointed to Delaney. Think of all the mysterious deaths of the past when, without forensics, the real reasons were never discovered.

She lies sleeping in the Reardan Cemetery; rest in peace, Rose.

Kittitas County Genealogical Society February Meeting

by Charles Hansen

“How to Use Family Search” will be the topic presented at the February 4th  meeting of the Kittitas County Genealogical Society (KCGS).  Chris Fowler will be the presenter at the 7 pm meeting held at the society’s Library at 413 N. Main in Ellensburg.  Some of us have never used Family Search, so Chris will give us some of the basics, plus update us on what is new.  Guests are welcome to attend this presentation.

In addition, KCGS is proud to announce that their new website at www.kcgswa.org is now up and running.  We have become another of the websites developed by EasyNetSites.com and proudly join with other WA State genealogical sites connected with EasyNetSites.

David L. Storla

Storla98926@charter.net

KCGS Treasurer and Webmaster