The Clallam County Speaker’s Series will host Sara Cochran, November 11th, starting at 10:00. There is no cost to watch the presentation. .
Her topic will be Shaky Leaf Syndrome: Using Website Generated Hints More Effectively. Indexing, optical character recognition, and computer algorithms make finding obscure records about our families easier than ever! Unfortunately, computers can’t distinguish between people of the same name who lived in different places or at different times. Using real examples, Sara will evaluate hints and attach the keepers to our trees.
Sara is a wonderful speaker, returning by request. She has a certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University and a degree in Library Science. She writes a blog, The Skeleton Whisperer, and specializes in Irish research, methodology, completing applications for USDAR, USD1812, and DUVCW, et al.
The program will be via Zoom. The meeting number and passcode will be available to all by email request: askus@clallamcogs.org or by phoning the Society: 360-417-5000.
Folks are also invited to attend at the Clallam County Research Center at 403 E. 8th Street in Port Angeles, WA. All are requested to register at 9:45. And how can anyone resist a genealogist who refers to themself as “The Skeleton Whisperer!”
More information will be available at our website: www.clallamcogs.org. and at the Research Center in Port Angeles. The Center is open Tuesday through Friday from 10am-4pm, and Saturday noon -4. There is no cost to use our library, computers, or data-bases.
“Wearing a red knit swimsuit with white stockings and slippers, Miss Ruth Harkins was overcome almost to a point of weakness. She had just been announced the 1922 Inland Empire Mermaid Queen in a beauty competition sponsored by Spokane’s evening paper, The Spokane Daily Chronicle.”So began a bit posted in The Splash: Liberty Lake’s Community Newspaper, September 12, 2022, a story by Ross Schneidmiller of the Liberty Lake Historical Society.
“A flurry of excitement began days earlier when the paper announced: “Chronicle Wants To Find Most Beautiful Mermaid.” To find her, the Chronicle conduced a special contest that ran from August 1-16, when a final selection was made at a parade on the shores of Liberty Lake. “The mermaids were to be judged on beauty of face, beauty of figure, grace of figure and bearing and general fitness. ……. meeting at the Davenport Hotel on the 17th of August and the judges selected the finalists from the 117 photos submitted,” the newspaper reported at the time.
“The day of the event began when the 50 finalists were paraded up Monroe Street having left the Chronicle building at 12:30pm, heading for Liberty Lake in a 20-car motorcade….. arriving at the lake, they were given a special dressing area in the large 300-room bathhouse to change into their costumes….. the 50 mermaids appeared before the judges at 1:45pm and the beach parade was staged at 4:00pm when the winners were announced. …. after being presented with five gold coins in front of 4000 spectators, Miss Harkins declared, “It seems like a dream….I’m afraid someone will pinch me and I’ll wake up.” The contestants were then treated to a dinner and a dance in their honor.
** Jim Kershner’s 100 Years Ago Today for 19 August 1922 quoted the Chronicle story as saying “she won $100, a new bathing suit and a 3-pound box of chocolates.”
Tacoma-Pierce County Genealogical Society DNA Special Interest Group Meeting
Tuesday, October 24 beginning at 7:00 pm virtual via Zoom
We will continue studying Genetic Genealogy in Practice by Blaine Bettinger and Debbie Parker Wayne.
This month we will continue discussing Chapter 7: Incorporating DNA Testing in a Family Study..
This book is available from The National Genealogical Society (the publishers, Amazon, or perhaps through your local public library or via Inter-Library Loan.
Check WorldCat to see what libraries may have copies.
Every month on the Fourth Tue beginning at 7:00 PM Pacific Time
Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.
This is no trick — everyone who contributes to the Pioneer Pursuit before October 31, 2023, gets a treat! So far, we have more than 2,600 Pioneers listed in our online index — and we’re hoping for MORE! The index is free and open to the public; just click here.
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The top three individuals that submit genealogies for pioneers who lived in Washington Territory on or before November 11, 1889 will win cash prizes of $150, $100 and $50. EVERY person who submits before October 31 will receive a year’s membership to WSGS.
In addition to individual prizes, local societies will receive cash prizes, too! The three societies with the most submissions (based on the number of members in the society) will receive $300, $200 and $100. EVERY society that participates in Pioneer Pursuit will receive $20.
Pioneer Pursuit Continues After October 31
Just as people continued to come into Washington after statehood, WSGS will continue to amass genealogies of pioneers. We want to document as many people who lived in the territory as we can. So even after October 31, 2023, we’ll accept genealogies.
How to Submit a Pioneer
We’ve made it easy to submit a pioneer. We’ve got instructions, examples, hints and how-to’s on our website here: https://www.wasgs.org/cpage.php?pt=96. If you don’t find what you need, please email us at Info@wasgs.org.
You will learn so much at our November 4th presentation.
Saturday, November 4 Researching Swedish Records by Pam Duce 12:30 pm to 3:00 pm Shadle Library in person and on Zoom Sweden has extensive records dating back centuries that are available at no cost. Records not only include birth, marriage, and death but also yearly household records, moving records, estate records, military records, and more.In this overview of Swedish research, we will discuss overcoming perceived barriers, learning opportunities, and accessing records. Even if you don’t have Swedish ancestors, some of these techniques may help you with other foreign language research. Bring a friend and explore what is possible in Swedish Research.Be sure to print your handouts before you arrive.The handouts and the Zoom link will be available the day prior to the presentation on the EWGSi.org website.
Free Table:
Besides books, I have about a dozen cd’s of records for Family Tree Maker.
As always, please take any useful genealogy items home with you and feel free to bring items you no longer use…someone may find treasure in them. Jeanne Coe
Start your Christmas Shopping Early!
We will once again be taking part in the Toys 4 Tots/Gold Star Mother’s Campaign.
“The Silver Books primary purpose is for Mayflower descendant lineage verification. They also provide a map for you, researchers, and writers to study their lives and to better tell their stories.” (from their website, www.themayflowersociety.org)
Whether or not you wish to join the Mayflower Society, if you perhaps have a Mayflower ancestor, you might be wanting to know more about him/her and their descendants…….. so, perhaps, to connect your tree to theirs. The Silver Books are the go-to-starting-place for this research. The “bad news” is that there are only three ways that you can access these books: (1) a library, like the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City; (2) purchase; (3) become a member and access them via the website.
**The red bar at the bottom (which got cut off) leads to a 10-page PDF file:
THE REFERENCE GUIDE TO THE GSMD SILVER BOOK SERIES Revised 1 September 2021 1 The Silver Book Project, originally known as the Five Generations Project, traces the descendants of the Mayflower pilgrims. The project aims to provide clear, well documented lineages of the ship’s passengers through the 7th and 8th generations. Each family has a volume* and many consists of multi-part sets. This guide explains how the books are organized. MF[#] refers to the title Mayflower Families and the volume number.
Some Mayflower Ancestor books have more than one part and, I understand, more compilations are in the works……….
P.S. If you are an Ancestry member, this website offers many AmericanAncestors.org databases that may help you trace your Mayflower ancestry. Do check it out.
If you are (as I am!) a fan of the TV Star Trek spinoff show Deep Space 9, then you recognize Quark, the Ferengi barkeeper on that station. Ever wonder where the script writers find these crazy terms? WELL, ferengi is a old recognized word meaning foreigner. Cool, eh?
Here’s a quote from Valorie Zimmerman, VP of the Washington State Genealogical Society, referencing the recent awards’ announcement: “It’s so good to see so many genealogical societies swimming together!” We agree, Val.
One innovative airline seems to have captured a unique clientele…. for an incredibly hefty price, they will fly your pet in comfort to your destination. Apparently they noticed that there has been a steady rise in the number of people traveling with their pets and have not been happy with the restrictions placed on these special passengers. Really?
Do you know where the longest bridge is in Washington? Constructed in 1966, the 21,474 foot long behemoth was built to connect Astoria, Oregon, to Megler, Washington. It was build so people could cross the Columbia River at its mouth quicker and safer.
Aristotle called the hand the “tool of tools; Kant, “the visible part of the brain.” The earliest works of art was handprints on the walls of caves. Throughout history hand gestures have symbolized the range of human experience: power, tenderness, creativity,, conflict and even bravo. Without hands, civilization would be inconceivable. So the discovery in 2011 of the bones of a dozen right hands at a site were the ancient Egyptian city of Avaris once stood, was particularly unsettling. To skip to the end of the story, the ritual seems to have become standard practice in Egypt, with soldiers returning from combat and presenting the dismembered right hands of defeated foes to their pharaoh or military commander. (Want to read more? The story was in the newspaper; New York Times, Franz Lidz, photo by Julia Gresky.)
Would you have guessed that they’re still finding unexploded shells on the Gettysburg battlefield? Yep, according to a bit in the May/June 2023 Archaeology Magainze, a U.S. Army ordnance disposal team was summoned to Gettysburg when a 160-year-old live artillery shell was uncovered during archaeologizl work. The 7-inch long unexploded round was found two feet below the surface near a rocky outcrop known as the Little Round Top. Unbelievable, no?
Topic: German Guilds and their Records: A possibility for filling gaps when church records are missing
In this lecture, we learn about the history, structure, and purpose of guilds. Then, we look at some of the many record types that guilds created and how they can be of use to the researcher, especially when church records are missing and how these records can fill those gaps. Some discussion of occupations will also be given.
Presenter: Fritz Juengling, Ph.D., AG®
Doctor Juengling received his Master’s and Doctorate in Germanic Philology with minors in both English and Linguistics from the University of Minnesota. He is an Accredited Genealogist® for Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden through ICAPGen, and certified by the Verband deutschsprachiger Berufsgenealogen. He is a German, Dutch, and Scandinavian Research Consultant at the FamilySearch Library.
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