Read ‘Em or Weep in Jefferson County

Mary Roddy

The Jefferson County Genealogical Society (JCGS) is hosting Mary Roddy for their Saturday, October 15, 2016, program. Mary will present “Read ‘Em or Weep.” Her program involves finding free and pay newspaper sites online and will show a method to do a ‘thorough searching in every newspaper every time.’ The public is welcome to this free program, but donations are gratefully accepted.

The program will be Saturday, October 15 at the Tri-Area Community Center, 10 West Valley Road in Chimacum. 9:30-10 a.m. ‘meet & greet’; 10-11:30 includes brief announcements and the presentation. Visit the JCGS website for more information.

Mary Roddy is a Certified Public Accountant who has earned a certificate from the Genealogy and Family History Program at the University of Washington. She is an active member of the Seattle Genealogical Society and speaks frequently to groups in the Seattle area. Her background in accounting has influenced the way she uses spreadsheets and forensic research in her genealogy. Mary is a regular contributor to Your Genealogy Today and Internet Genealogy magazines as well as a webinar presenter with Legacy Family Tree Webinars.

Ancestry Day’s Special Friday Event

Sep24 by Roxanne Lowe

We were welcomed as we entered the museum

In a sold-out precursor of Ancestry Day, the crowd was treated to a half-day of presentations on topics from State Archive and State Library resources to identifying old photos. Besides getting a great opportunity to browse the exhibits at the Washington State History Museum, we heard presentations by:

A sold-out crowd at the Friday presentations

Tracy Rebstock, Southwest Regional Archivist at the State Archives, enlighten us with the “unique” records available online and on-site at the Archives. From old high school yearbooks to logging and cattle brands. Who knew Tracy had such a fascination with criminal records — and passed that on to us!
Mary Kathryn Kozy, professional genealogist extraordinaire, is always a delight — and she didn’t disappoint. Her talk about tracing people through time and space using timelines was excellent and enlightening.
Mary Kathryn Kozy talking about timelines
Lynette Miller and Ed Nolan from the Washington State Historical Society shared the resources and original records available among their collections — all focusing on Washington State — from businesses, personal papers, organizations and more. A particular source of pride is the collection of Northern Pacific Beneficial Hospital records.
Karen Wallace Steely, professional genealogist with The Past Matters, provided an enlightening talk about finding stories in family photographs. Her knowledge opened our eyes in identifying old photos.
Kathryn Devine from the Washington State Library shared numerous newspaper indices, online resources and on-site opportunities to find that unique story about our ancestors. Did you know the State Library has 40,000 reels of newspapers?

What a day! And there’s more! Tomorrow (Saturday, 24 Sep) will feature the “main event” — Ancestry Day, sponsored by Ancestry. If you’re reading this blog post before 8:00 a.m. Saturday morning, get yourself to the Greater Tacoma Convention Center and register at the door for a plethora of classes, door prizes, networking, vendors and more! Only $35 — a real bargain!

Copyright Laws Q&A

Sep22 by Roxanne Lowe

Copyright laws are confusing to most of us. It makes sense that you can’t copy pages from a book or article to share with your research buddies, copy and paste an online article or post photos to Facebook or your blog. But did you know copyright law also applies to your old family photos, family stories your cousin writes, newspaper articles you share, books you use at the library, online articles you come across, lectures you listen to at conferences, and more?

After a short email asking Family Tree Magazine editor Diane Haddad if we could share Sharon DeBartolo Carmack’s informative article “Copyright for Genealogist” (FamilyTreeMagazine blog, 12 Aug 2016), here it is. It’s definitely worth the read.

Rich Discovery in Cemetery of Paupers and Penniless

Sep20 by Roxanne Lowe

Funeral director Bill Habermann from Tacoma doesn’t believe in bury and forget. In particular, he wants those who died anonymously to be remembered in the afterlife — if not by friends and relatives, at least by the written record.

To have lived a life but died as an unknown is close to having never existed at all. Read why the 79-year-old Habermann, an easygoing, gray-haired former grade school teacher, found himself climbing over a fence one day into an old, closed graveyard and taking pictures of the headstones.

For the entire story, click here.

Online Pre-registration for Ancestry Day Ends Friday

Sep19 by Roxanne Lowe

Online pre-registration for this weekend’s “Ancestry Day” closes at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 23. The event is Saturday, Sept. 24 from 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. at the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center in Tacoma. If you can’t pre-register online, you can still attend by purchasing a ticket at the door on Saturday. Events for Friday are sold out.

Both novice and experienced genealogists are welcome at this event which is sponsored by Ancestry, Washington State Archives, Washington State Library, Legacy Washington, the Washington State Historical Society, Washington State Historical Records Advisory Board and National Historic Publications & Records Commission. Crista Cowan, better known as The Barefoot Genealogist, and Anna Swayne will be the presenters on Saturday.

Meet the Board: Mikal McKinnon

Aug31 by Roxanne Lowe

Do you know who’s running the show at the Washington State Genealogical Society? Did you know we have an Executive Committee, six standing committee chairs and three appointed non-elected officers? Who are all these people? In the coming months, we’ll introduce them to you, so you can say “hi” the next time you see them.

In the first of our new “Meet the Board” series, we’re fittingly introducing you to President Mikal A. McKinnon from Richland, Washington. Mike, as we all know him, has been the WSGS President since 01 Jan 2013. His second term ends 31 Dec 2016.

Mikal, age 3 in 1944

WSGS President Mikal McKinnon

Mike and his wife Janet (who you’ll meet later in the Meet the Board series) are the parents of five children: four sons and a daughter. They’re also the loving grandparents of 13. Mike and Janet met at Utah State University and have been married more than 50 years.

Mikal was born in Salt Lake City to Archivald Graham McKinnon and wife Julia Wahlstrom, both natives of the Beehive State. Mikal was named after his mother’s supervisor in nurses training Mrs. Mikals.

Mikal’s interest in genealogy began as a teenager when his father had him type family stories while learning to touch type on a typewriter. Today, Mikal has searched family lines from Pennsylvania and New Jersey to across the pond in Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales and Sweden. Most often using FamilySearch.org, Mikal once found land records containing a reference to a will that pushed the end of one family line back three generations — an exciting find!

December 1964

Prior to becoming WSGS President, Mikal served as the Region 5 Representative for two terms. He has been the Tri- City Genealogical Society‘s president, as well as the Richland Family History Center‘s Assistant Director and librarian. Mikal has served in many Latter Day Saints (LDS) Church leadership positions over the years, in addition to 50+ years in Boy Scouting. Currently he and Janet are serving in a volunteer position with Family Search supporting LDS Church leaders in western Washington State.

What does Mikal do when he’s not doing genealogy? He’s interested in lapidary, cutting and polishing rocks to make decorative items.

More trivia about Mikal:

His favorite color is blue.
His favorite dessert is apple pie.
He said the single word that describes best is “quiet.”

Now you know a little more about one of the WSGS Board members. The next time you see Mikal, say hello and thank him for his service to the WSGS.

Publicize (and Find) Upcoming Events

Aug30 by Roxanne Lowe

Want to spread the word about your society’s program, workshop, seminar or training class? Or are you looking for a training opportunity? The WSGS website and blog are great ways to publicize and find local (including nearby states and British Columbia) events.

It’s easy to have events posted on the WSGS Events Page and Blog. Just send an email to webmanager@wasgs.org (website) and WSGSBlog@wasgs.org (blog) with the details (who, what, where & when) and/or a flyer. As if by magic, information about the event will be posted in both places for all to see.

New WSGS Treasurer Named

Aug28 by Roxanne Lowe

Sue Semenza Ericksen has been appointed by WSGS President Mikal McKinnon to take over the state society’s treasurer’s duties. Sue replaces Kathy Bowen who moved out of the state to be closer to family.

Sue’s presence in WSGS is long-standing. She is Immediate Past President and previously served as membership chair, web manager and Region 5 representative. In addition to her WSGS dedication, Sue is an active member of the Yakima Valley Genealogical Society, currently serving as its vice president and web manager.

A routine audit was conducted on the WSGS finances and all was in order. A big thank-you to Sue for stepping into this important position.

NW Genealogy Conference — Day 3

Aug21 by Roxanne Lowe

Blaine Bettinger explaining the latest developments in genetic genealogy.

The last day of the 2016 Northwest Genealogy Conference brought us Blaine Bettinger, intellectual property attorney by day and genetic genealogist by night. His first session was “Genetic Genealogy Year in Review.” So many changes, improvements, adjustments and announcements in the ever-changing field of genetic genealogy. No wonder I have a hard time keeping up with what to do with the results I have from all those kits I’ve paid for! It was so helpful to know what was happening — and what might be happening soon. His other sessions for the day were “Using Third-Party Tools to Analyze Your DNA” (oh…so that’s what I need to do with all that confusing data!) and “Using Autosomal DNA to Solve Family Mysteries.”

I only had time to take one workshop on Saturday (then off to a family reunion). Used the opportunity to listen to Jim Johnson from Heritage Quest Research Library share “Five Steps to Finding your Ancestors Who Passed Through Canada.” His one-hour lecture proved to me that you can always learn something (or many things) new in classes like this. Will be looking for the Murphy’s and Ryan’s in some of the new places Jim shared.

Some of the many volunteers from the Stillaguamish Valley GS.

The conference attendees also got the opportunity to thank the Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society for their hard work, sponsoring this conference. More than 40 members work year-round to give us a first-rate learning experience.

Patty Olson and Donna Potter Phillips welcoming visitors to the WSGS table.

In no time, it was time to close up the Washington State Genealogical Society‘s vendor booth where we talked to everyone who came by about the WSGS and signed up almost 70 new members. It was also time to say good-bye to old and new friends with promises of seeing them next year: August 16 – 19, 2017!! I’ll be there. Will you?

NW Genealogy Conference — Day 2

Aug19 by Roxanne Lowe

Lisa Louise Cooke zooming around the earth (with Google Earth)

More than 300 of us arrived bright and early (or maybe it was just early…) at the Byrnes Performing Arts Center in Arlington, rearing to go for Day 2 of the Northwest Genealogy Conference. But the hard-working members of the Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society, sponsors of this third annual conference, had been there long before us, making sure everything was ready.

It didn’t take long for us to “Blast to the Past with Google Earth” with the amazing Lisa Louise Cooke as our expert navigator. We held onto our seats as we zoomed from historical maps superimposed over today’s terrain to identifying old unidentified family photos using Google Earth (really!). The tips and “gems” just kept coming — the sky was truly the limit!

Today was “Dress Like Your Ancestor Day” — so creative!

As if the Google Earth for Genealogy program wasn’t enough, Lisa also pumped us full of resources, ideas, strategies and tips during her “Google Tools and Procedures for Solving Family History Mysteries” and “Future Technology and Genealogy.” The only thing she couldn’t provide was time to do all the exciting opportunities she shared. Maybe that’s why I’m still on the computer and it’s after 11 p.m.!

The day also forced me to choose two hour-long workshops from the 14 offered today. (Side note: 40 different workshops were offered at the conference — and I had to choose only 6 — an almost impossible task!) I decided I needed the focus and motivation to get organized, so I attended “Solve Genealogy Problems by Creating a Timeline” with Beth Foulk and “Building a Research Plan” with Janice Lovelace. Two great classes with step-by-step (easy) plans, tools and resources to organize myself. I’m feeling positive about my future success.

The day closed with a banquet at the Glen Eagle Country Club where we were treated to Blaine Bettinger, tomorrow’s keynote presenter on DNA and genetic genealogy, giving us a peek at the “Science Fiction Future of Genetic Genealogy.”

Washington State Genealogical Society Blog

Author Archives: Roxanne Lowe