Back in June, while attending the WSGS conference in Ellensburg, I took advantage of the Open House offered to attendees to the Kittitas County Genealogical Society. It was grand! The staff welcoming us that evening were gracious, provided refreshments and research help…. and I copied some obits from their card file, hooray!
Here is the door to their space inside a delightful old red brick downtown building:
President Diane Huckaby was in charge of the evening:
Jody Alfiere and Roger Newman hard at work on a warm sunny day in Shelton.
The Mason County Genealogical Society (MCGS) has for the last two summers been working on a project at the Shelton Memorial Park comparing the cemetery database to the tombstone information, passing along corrections to the cemetery personnel to double check. Another part of the project has been to unearth old temporary cement markers that are now several inches under the grass, and taking photographs of the tombstones. In the future, these photos will be attached to the database information for that person.
MOUNT VERNON — The Skagit Valley Genealogical Society (SVGS) is seeking the community’s help in locating an orphaned photograph album’s loving family. The photograph album (see sample photographs below) contains personal family pictures circa the 1860s. Recently, the album was discarded and left in a box of used books donated to the Burlington Public Library. The reference librarian discovered the antique leather bound album and in-turn donated it to the Skagit Valley Genealogical Society, knowing that SVGS would value its contents and endeavor to find the best care-taker for the album.
“There are many reasons why this treasured family heirloom was originally discarded. Perhaps the owner is now deceased and left no surviving heirs? Perhaps an inheriting family member could care less about family history? That part of the mystery may never be resolved. What is important now to SVGS, as family historians, is that such a valuable source of family history be re-united with a family member that truly will cherish it, not for its potential monetary value on eBay, but as a prized family heirloom to pass along to future generations. As hard it is for genealogist to imagine, not everyone is interested in family history. Believe it or not, old photographs and antiques are often viewed as just burdensome “old things.” But, fortunately there is a growing counter-trend cross the country. More and more genealogy societies and individual family historians are volunteering to help relocate abandoned or unwanted family heirlooms so they are reunited with appreciative and caring family members,” said Margie Wilson, SVGS Genealogy Librarian.
The names captioned with the photographs include: Grandpa Robert Scott, Grandmother Marinda Scott, Grandpa James Dulin (no photograph), Grandmother Almira Dulin (no photograph), Two un-named Union Army Soldiers with full beards, Laura Dulin-Shipp, Kate Dulin-Hoefer, Maria Louisa Dulin-Zuggler, Scott Dulin, Dennis James Dulin, Cousin Allie Dulin, Uncle Edgar Scott, Uncle Franklin Scott, Aunty Mary Scott, Uncle Newton Scott, Cousin Edgar Scott, Aunt Emma Scott-Preston, Uncle Eleazer Dulin, Aunt Elizabeth Dulin-Condron, Aunt Eliza Scott-Poage, Grandson of Marinda Scott, Mother – Lydia Maria Scott-Dulin, Uncle Alfred Dulin, Cousin Grace Poage (no photograph), Cousin Edna Schwartz, Frank Hubert Shipp, Uncle Lucian’s Children, Nellie McKinney, Eralza Bennett – Maria Scott’s cousin, son of Eveline Earl Bennett, Erastus Bennett, Maria Scott’s cousin, Charles Dewey, Aunt Rosetta Scott-McKinstry, Uncle Lucian Scott, Uncle Alfred Scott, Uncle Newton Scott and wife Amy, Uncle Lucian Scott, Aunt Emma Scott-Preston, Aunt Clara Dulin Schwartz. Photographer studios mentioned are S.D. Loveridge’s Photographic Rooms Newton, Iowa; Brandt Studios, Avoca, Iowa; E. Slade Photographer, Avoca, Iowa; W.H. Scribner Photographer, Newton, Iowa;
If you recognize any of the individuals, either by name or from the sample photographs please contact genealogy0715@gmail.com or leave a message on SVGS’ blog: skagitvalleygenealogy.org. If you wish to look at the photo album in person please email Margie Wilson at rootsproject@frontier.com to make possible arrangements. The potential recipients of the album will be interviewed by SVGS board members to ascertain that the new owner’s intentions are to be the long-term family custodians of this beautiful antique family heirloom and not to sell it or abandon this orphaned relic of family history once again.
Sample photographs from the album:
Two un-named Union Army Soldiers, possibly Dulin family members.
Photographs captions left page: Uncle Lucian Scott; right page: Aunt Emma Scott-Preston
Photograph caption left page: Grandpa Robert Scott; Right page: Grandmother Marinda Scott
*** CONTACT THE SOCIETY TO SEE THESE (AND MORE) PICTURES.
At our WSGS Board Retreat, 25 May 2015, I did an interview with Richard Kyle regarding the new additions to the YVGS library. Here are the points of that interview.
Richard was the Resource Specialist for the Yakima Family History Library from 1987 until 2008, when he resigned. A large part of his job was to keep track of and index the massive collection of film and fiche that was housed in the library. In 2012 he joined the Yakima Valley Genealogical Society and currently serves as a librarian several times a week and also co-chairs several workshops every month. He reported this important update to me at the WSGS Board Meeting on Friday, 25 April 2015.
The building that houses the Yakima Family History Library is in the process of being converted to another use. Because of this, the library was given a two week notice that they had to vacate to building. In 2013, due to the efforts of Richard and Pat Bundy (vice-president of the YVGS) the YVGS became an affiliate of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, allowing them to order and keep microfilm and fiche from that library. This, along with the fact that several times over the last few years the YVGS had informed the Family History Library that they had more than enough room to take over the collection for them if necessary, set the stage for the transfer of their film and fiche holdings to the YVGS library.
The LDS church in Yakima will re-open a family history library in one of the church buildings sometime later in the year. However, it will only contain a few computors, the bound books they had and two readers. The bulk of the collection was transferred to the YVGS library.
On Friday, April 25, 2015, a commercial moving company delivered ten microfilm cabinets (with their contents packed into moving boxes) and ten microfiche cabinets to the YVGS library building along with several microfilm and microfiche readers. An inventory is in the process of being completed so a complete list of transferred items can be sent to Salt Lake City. This is a permanent transfer and these new holdings will remain in the YVGS library indefinitely.
Quoting Richard, “This is the equivalent of 18,000 bound volumes on the shelf if the collection were converted to books. A large percentage of these records are original records. To get an idea of the actual size of this collection, when it was housed at the FHL in Yakima the indexes to the collection were on roughly 1,000 type written pages of titles.” The collection that will be retained is in the process of being reduced in size by pulling out all of the microfilms of the United States census and returning them to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. This will still leave the Yakima library with all of the fiche and roughly 6,500 rolls of microfilm. The collection should be fully cataloged and the online index atwww.yvgs.net updated by the end of June. The collection will not be co-mingled with already extensive collection of the YVGS library, but will be kept separate and apart.
The Yakima Valley Genealogical Society is proud to now know that their library is one of the largest genealogy libraries (both in physical size and in collection numbers) in the Pacific Northwest and invites you to come for a research visit anytime.
Visit their website for more information: www.yvgs.net and then Library.
Susan Faulker, Education Chair for TCGS, shares this update:
Trailhead Now Open at Richland Family History Center
In Richard Allen’s presentation that he gave April 8 and titled “A Treasure Trove of Family History Information” he provided a wonderful analogy. He explained that genealogists’ Treasure Troves are articles and documents that provide them with information about their ancestors. In true pirate fashion Richard explained that in order to locate a treasure a treasure-map is necessary. Genealogists can use the Family History Library Catalog athttps://familysearch.org/catalog-search as their treasure map. This treasure map will actually guide researchers to treasures located at the Richland Family History Center. There are over 10,000 treasures located at the Richland Family History Center and they will soon all be listed in the catalog.
Richard also explained that changes would be coming soon to the Richland Family History Center. One of the changes that he announced is that a Conversation Area would be made available to help facilitate conversations between researchers and library assistants. Within a week of Richard’s announcement the Conversation Area was completed.
Sandra Meacham Floberg shared, “Although I knew about the passports required for traveling through ‘Indian Territory’ in the South and Southeast in the early 1800s, I had no idea RFHC had a book documenting those passports!” Now these Indian Territory passports and many more treasures can be located at the Richland Family History Center. If you need assistance, start at the trailhead which is also known as the Conversation Area.
Other changes coming to the Richland Family History Center include a computer lab, complete with a teaching station and twelve hands-on computers for classroom attendees. Watch for announcements about this computer lab activity and additional upgrades coming to your local Family History Center.