Author Archives: Charles Hansen

Seattle Genealogical Society Announcements and Calendar

by Charles Hansen

Seattle

LISA CHAN, VOLUNTEER OF THE FALL QUARTER

The Board of Directors has chosen Lisa Chan as SGS Volunteer of the Fall Quarter. Her contributions as the first technology director, and currently as chair of the technology committee, have hugely benefited the society. Lisa introduced us to Google Apps for Non-Profits, a suite of applications and cloud storage provided at no cost to the society.  SGS files have been moved from hardcopy or storage on individual computers to a common SGS Drive where they can seamlessly be accessed by all board officers.  She has made many SGS Library IT improvements including internal networking and patron computer upgrades. Plus she has been overhauling the SGS website which is so vital to our community outreach efforts.

On the first and third Tuesday of each month from 12:30-3:00 pm, Lisa offers her popular “Technology Tuesday” with discussions on technology, genealogical software, genetic research, internet resources and much more. Be sure to check the eNews! or the SGS website calendars for the webinars Lisa occasionally presents at the SGS library.

Lisa’s interest in genealogy began in 2014 after an autosomal DNA test from 23andMe led her to research the hundreds of matches received. She interviewed her maternal grandmother and learned about her maternal grandfather’s family in southern Illinois, discovering fifth great grandparents buried there, as well as third great grandparents from Ostfriesland, Germany. Relations are still living in the Illinois community the family had helped to settle. Her grandmother entrusted her with records passed down in the family, and Lisa has solved a good number of the “brick walls” going back seventy or more years in family members’ research. Last summer about ten family members met in Illinois  near the burial area of shared ancestors Alexander Rhodes (1787) and Elizabeth Poteet (1790).  With the help of autosomal DNA analysis Lisa was able to discover her biological father and found that she had both a living half brother and paternal grandmother, as well as many newly found cousins. Her interests in family history led her to join SGS, though her first ancestors in our area were second great grandparents who moved here in the 1940s. Lisa reports that these genealogical discoveries she has made over the last two years have been immeasurably enriching.

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Bainbridge Island Gen Society Newsflash

by Charles Hansen

bainbridge-island

 

November 28, 2016

The Bainbridge Island Genealogical Society (BIGS) will meet Friday, December 16, at the LDS church on Bainbridge Island, 8677 Madison Avenue, from 10:00 AM until 12 noon, for our annual “Holiday Show and Tell” gathering of members sharing ancestral tales, treasures, and research aids (e.g., pictures, letters, bibles, trinkets, etc) and/or tell about a discovery, progress, a breakthrough or other highlight of the year.  After a brief sharing, there will be an opportunity to walk around to see each other’s treasures, to visit, and to share a holiday treat.  This is a very good time to visit if you are interested in becoming a member.  For more information go to www.bigenealogy.org, or call 206-842-4978.  BIGS is a 501c(3) non-profit organization.

 

Thank you!

Sylvia H. Nelson

Director of Publicity and Public Relations

Serendipity Day

by Charles Hansen

*** Legacy Family Tree Webinars: Great Idea & Value

*** Grandpa’s Moustache cup

*** Funny names in YOUR family tree?

*** Researching UK Vital Records Getting Easier

*** More Washington Trivia

 

Online learning, or personal-to-you-at-home learning, is a great thing. Legacy Family Tree Webinars fill this bill entirely. And they’re having a Black Friday sale!  With membership, you get all the new webinars as well as having access to the webinar archives.  I signed up and have mentally committed myself to viewing these webinars and increasing my research knowledge. How about you? 

Legacy Family Tree Webinars – Yearly Membership

Price: $49.95 $34.95 annually

1 year unlimited access to our recorded webinars at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com. Also includes access to the instructors’ handouts, chat logs from live webinars, and 1 year of 5% off anything in the store (must be logged in at checkout), and a chance for a bonus subscribers-only door prize during each live webinar.
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cup
Do you have a cup that looks sorta like this? Know what it is? It’s a moustache cup!  From Wikipedia:  The moustache cup (or mustache cup) is a drinking cup with a semicircular ledge inside. The ledge has a half moon-shaped opening to allow the passage of liquids and serves as a guard to keep moustaches dry. It is generally acknowledged to have been invented in the 1860s by British potter Harvey Adams (born 1835).  These cups were specifically constructed so men could drink from them without wetting their perfectly groomed moustaches. 
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What were those momma’s thinking? I keep coming across really (to me) bizarre first names for yesterday’s children. How about Barzilla? Ambrosia? The Family Tree Magazine , Jul-Aug 2015, had an article on this topic and listed these names:  Petronella, Quixana, Hyacinthe Flower (for a boy!), Kunagunda, Hatevil, Cincinnatus and Orange. Those are not Bible names!
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A recent blurb-update from NGS (National Genealogical Society) shouted that the GRO (General Records Office) in England now has FOR FREE and online indexes to all their birth and death records that have been already been digitized. The index is accessible via the GOV.UK website.   Once at the website, this question pops up:  “What would you like to do?” You then choose what you want: Search the GRO Indexes, Place an Order, Find out about GRO services, contact GRO, or Find out about researching my family history. Is this is a genealogical need for you, do check it out.
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Who does not know that the headquarters of Microsoft Corporation is in Redmond (north of Seattle)? That the Gov. Albert D. Rosellini Bridge at Evergreen Point is the longest floating bridge in the world? The bridge connects Seattle and Medina across Lake Washington.  That Washington is the birthplace of both Jimi Hendrix (Seattle) and Bing Crosby (Tacoma)?
May I post a contest question to YOU: Bet you know that Seattle is the biggest city in Washington but what is the teeniest incorporated town???  Email me at Donna243@gmail.com. 

Olympia Genealogical Society Meeting

by Charles Hansen

ogsnameogslogog

WRITING YOUR MEMOIRS will be presented by Delores Nelson at the December meeting of Olympia Genealogical Society. Join us on Thursday December 8 at 7 pm at Thurston County Courthouse, Building 1, Room 152.

Thank you,   JOYCE OGDEN, publicity

=======================================================================                                                                  Joyce T. Ogden             jtogden@comcast.net

THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Wednesday Evening E-News

by Charles Hansen

GFO1

THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Wednesday Evening E-News Early Edition 23 November 2016

For more information visit www.gfo.org, contact us at info@gfo.org, or call our library at 503-963-1932. We love hearing from you!

For a complete GFO CALENDAR go to www.gfo.org/calendar.htm.

Also, if you missed your free copy of our monthly Insider for November 2016, you’re in luck because we saved you a copy at http://www.gfo.org/insider/16-Nov.pdf.

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We cordially wish you a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

thanksgiving

Our Holiday Hours This Week… A gentle reminder that the GFO Library will be closed from 1pm today, Wednesday, November 23rd, until 9:30am on Friday, November 25th. Just think of all the fun turkey-filled stories we’ll have to swap!

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Serendipity Day

by Charles Hansen

** Identical Twins Question

** Ode to Moses Lake

** Queries: Would you pay for a query placed here? 

 

From the “Ask Marilyn” in the Sunday Parade magazine:  “If identical twins marry identical twins and each couple has children, are the children genetic cousins or siblings?” Her answer: “They are genetic siblings. If their DNA were examined, you couldn’t even tell which child was born to which set of parents. Not that any of the kids would look alike. They would look just as different from each other as any other siblings.” Any twins marry twins in your family tree?

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Found this in the Big Bend Register, Vol. 25, 2004, “Ode to Moses Lake,” penned in 1908:

There has been a wild commotion on Moses Lake’s green shore

A big dam has been constructed that will all the water store.

Upon its blue and sunlit waters you’ll hear the whistle of a boat

From the chuck, chuck of a gas launch to the steamboat’s deep toned note

It has lain long years as idle water dancing in the sun

God put it here for usefulness; man has now the work begun

Where the sly coyote and rabbit roamed at will so wild and free

Man has planned to make a city and a hummer it will be

It surmounts a grassy hilltop; pick the place you like the best

Where the sun rises at morning or where the boats land on the west

Streams of water will be flowing through the sagebrush and the sand

Big red apples will be growing; the finest fruit of the land

Then we’ll give to great Wenatchee the closest race of her life

And if you don’t just believe it see this land and bring your wife

Railroad lines will soon be running north and south and east and west

And the steamboats will be sailing on the blue lake’s rolling crest

And when other people tell you how their land is just a snap

Just brace up, be sure and answer Moses Lake is on the map!

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The WSGS Board is considering some simple fund raising ideas; we must fund our project and educational grants, of course.

 Would you pay $5.00 for a Pacific Northwest query placed on this blog????  Your query would remain “forever” in the blog archives and would instantly reach hundreds of eyes. Think about the possibilities!

Please email and let me know:  Donna243@gmail.com.  

Skagit Valley Genealogical Society’s “O Canada! Heritage Weekend” for April 21-23, 2017.

by Charles Hansen

PRESS RELEASE

TO:        All Media

FROM:    Skagit Valley Genealogical Society (SVGS), PO Box 715, Conway, WA 98238
Email: genealogy0715@gmail.com / Website: skagitvalleygenealogy.org
Contact: Margie Wilson, SVGS Vice-President; (360) 757-6224 /                         rootsproject@frontier.com

DATE:        November 21, 2017

RE:        O Canada! Heritage Weekend presented by SVGS

Release at Will No Later than January 2, 2017

Skagit Valley Genealogical Society presents
O Canada! Heritage Weekend and Genealogy Seminar

BURLINGTON, Washington, USA – In honor of Canada’s 150th Anniversary of Confederation the Skagit Valley Genealogical Society (SVGS) is organizing a special Heritage Weekend, “O Canada!” for genealogists from both sides of the border. O Canada! Heritage Weekend begins with an anniversary celebration and opening reception on Friday, April 21, 2017 at 7:00pm, Burlington Senior Center, 1011 Greenleaf Ave., Burlington, WA, U.S.A.  Internationally respected historian, author, lecturer and genealogist, Dave Obee of Victoria, British Columbia will present: “Between Friends: Cousins Across the Border.”

On Saturday, April 22, 8am-4:30pm at the First United Methodist Church, 1607 E. Division St., Mount Vernon, WA, SVGS gets to the heart of the weekend – O’ Canada! Genealogy Seminar. The theme of the seminar is Canadian and U.S. immigration patterns and paths and the extensive challenges researchers face in tracing their ancestors across the border. Guest genealogy instructors are professional genealogist, Mary Kathryn Kozy, discussing U.S. immigration topics, such as naturalization records, and research strategies using time lines.  For the Canadian perspective, author/historian and genealogist, Dave Obee, will examine the Canadian immigration experience and historical influences affecting our ancestors.

Topping off this heritage weekend will be a guided living history tour of historic downtown Burlington. The tour begins Sunday, April 23, at 10am at the Burlington Visitors’ Information Center, 520 E. Fairhaven, Burlington. Local genealogist, and living history storyteller, Margie Wilson, in character as Burlington’s first school teacher, Clara Garl-Morrison, will conduct the history tour. Tour participants are advised to wear comfortable walking shoes, dress for the weather, and be prepared to walk approximately one-half mile, on and off sidewalks, crossing streets and railroad tracks numerous times. Rain will move the tour inside the visitors’ center for a history summary of the tour.

For details, and registration for this heritage weekend activities and the genealogy seminar, visit the SVGS website: skagitvalleygenealogy.org. For a mail-in registration form contact: 360-424-4608 or genealogy0715@gmail.com.

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THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Wednesday Evening E-News

by Charles Hansen

GFO1

THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Wednesday Evening E-News 16 November 2016

For more information visit www.gfo.org, contact us at info@gfo.org, or call our library at 503-963-1932. We love hearing from you!

For a complete GFO CALENDAR go to www.gfo.org/calendar.htm.

Also, if you missed your free copy of our monthly Insider for November 2016, you’re in luck because we saved you a copy at http://www.gfo.org/insider/16-Nov.pdf.

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gentalk

Are you ready for GFO’s November GenTalk THIS Saturday?
WHERE? At the GFO Library
WHEN? Sat., Nov. 19th, 2pm
HOW? Just come, silly! It’s FREE!!

Always wondered whether your ancestors might have Native American roots? Not sure how to find out??

Come on out on Saturday, November 19th, to hear Kate Eakman’s talk on how to understand information about your Native American ancestors through census records!

Find out more HERE today!!

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