
Heritage Quest Research Library Picnic



Read recently an article by Alexandra Rain in the April 2023 issue of Deseret Magazine and was fascinated by her ideas. I quote from her article:
“The urge to document our lives is not new,” Rain wrote. “Humans have been documenting themselves for as long as we’ve had the ability to do so. The first known “selfie” dates to about 40,000 years ago when a person pressed their hand to a cave wall and sloshed it in red paint. A more modern “selfie” is “Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk,” drawn on paper by Leonardo DaVinci in 1510. Across the millennia, we have painted ourselves, carved likenesses of ourselves and sculpted ourselves.”
“In 1839, a Parisian named Louis DaGuerre invented a technique that would hand self-portraits over to the masses. The daguerreotype captured images on a device that could be carried anywhere. After World War II, 35mm cameras became accessible to ordinary families. A decade later, disposable point-and-shoot camera were the rage. Camera sales grew until 2010 when more than 120-million were sold globally.”
“Camera phone changed the game. There are now an estimated 1.5-billion iPhone owners worldwide (documenting themselves)! We post baby pictures, graduation pictures, wedding pictures and even our meals. (And certainly our gardens, pets and travels!!) “
“So why do we all want to record our own images? Quoting Joe Marotta, a photog and emeritus art professor at the University of Utah, who quoted Louis DaGuerre as saying, “Now my immortality is guaranteed.” Meaning he would be remembered and relevant beyond his time on earth. Marotta said, “The photograph in a sense extends our mortality.”
“Grandmas who did scrapbooks of photos and beg the indulgence of grandchildren to sit and learn, didn’t do it for herself,” wrote Rain,” but for the living so we can remember.”
Continues with Part 2 next………………
![]() |
| SGS NEEDS VOLUNTEERS FOR OUR BOOTH AT THE ENUMCLAW SCOTTISH HIGHLAND GAMES JULY 22-23, 2023 SGS is sharing a booth with the Irish Heritage Club @ the 76th Annual Pacific Northwest Scottish Highland Games & Clan Gathering [ www.SSHGA.org ] to be held @ the Enumclaw Expo Center [ King County Fairgrounds ] on Sat, 22 Jul & Sun, 23 Jul from 8 AM to 5 PM. If you can help by staffing our booth for a few hours, please contact James Ryan at janglinjehu@yahoo.com. If you would like more information on this popular festival, go to: https://sshga.org The 76th Annual Pacific Northwest Scottish Highland Games & Clan Gathering, Enumclaw Expo Center (King County Fairgrounds), Enumclaw, WA 98022 * Friday, July 21, 2023 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm Saturday, July 22, 2023 8:00 am – 8:00 pm & Sunday, July 23, 2023 8:00 am – 5:00 pm * Admission is free to Friday evening’s events |
| Copyright © 2023 Seattle Genealogical Society, All rights reserved. All SGS members have been automatically signed up for this e-letter. Our mailing address is: Seattle Genealogical Society4649 Sunnyside Ave N, Suite 302Seattle, WA98103-6955 |

Tacoma-Pierce County Genealogical Society is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: TPCGS Genealogy Chat Tuesday, July 18th at 7:00 PM Pacific time
Do you have thoughts, ideas, questions, or comments about anything related to genealogy? Then this is for you.
Please plan to attend, share, and expand your knowledge of all thing’s genealogical from the comfort of your own home.
Date & Time: Every month on the Third Tue, from 7:00 PM until 8:30 PM Pacific Time
Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87839130000?pwd=dGdHY2wrZ0d1bDNRTEQ4Uk15OVk0Zz09
Meeting ID: 878 3913 0000
Passcode: 836216
One tap mobile
+12532050468,,87839130000#,,,,*836216# US
+12532158782,,87839130000#,,,,*836216# US (Tacoma)
Dial by your location
+1 253 205 0468 US
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
Meeting ID: 878 3913 0000
Passcode: 836216
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdesX0el3t
Thousand Island Ancestors….. Might You Have One?
A century ago, the Thousand Island area of the St. Lawrence River (some 1864 actually) was the playground of some of America’s richest people. They came and built “cottages” (mansions!) as their summer retreats. Clayton, Jefferson County, New York, was sort of a jumping off point for these well-heeled folks to board their private yachts and sail to their summer “cottage.” Bet you didn’t know that Thousand Island Salad Dressing was first concocted there by the wife of a local fisherman…….. it was for salmon, not salad. But I digress.
We’ve all been told a hundred times to check out the small-little-town libraries, museums and historical societies where our ancestors might have lived. Well, BINGO on Clayton! While on my cruise trip in May, we moored for a day at Clayton. I made a beeline for the Thousand Islands Museum and Clayton Research Library Collection. Yes, the little museum was impressive….. it gets cold enough there that in days gone by there were trotting-horse races held on the ice… but it was the genealogy collection that really impressed me.
There were binders shelved around three sides of the room; two sides held over 300 binders labeled by surnames, families that had lived in the area. And these were fat-stuffed binders with newspaper clippings, obits, letters, all sorts of goodies! Of course I looked at the binder for POTTER and first thing was a spiral-bound booklet titled Potters of New York…. A resource I’d never seen before! Likely a local author’s compilation.
The third side of the room was their local veterans’ memorials, some dating back to the Civil War. On the final side of the room were binders labeled businesses, churches, schools, groups, cemeteries, rivers, etc. The four walls surrounded a 12-foot table with 12 comfy chairs.
So, Lesson #1: do not neglect contacting even small towns for they are always very proud of their history and most always have resources on the folks who made that history. And Lesson #2, if you have a Thousand Island ancestor, contact the Clayton Research Library, 312 James Street, Clayton, NY, 13601, or click to www.timuseum.org or email info@timuseum.org.
How Washington Place Names Came To Be: From The Untamed Olympics, by Ruby El Hult, 1954
(GV= George Vancouver)

Strait of Juan de Fuca – 1592, Portuguese captain/sailor first to sail into the Sound
Heceta Head – 1862, Bruno Heceta, Capt. of Spanish ship/exploration
Destruction Island – 1775, Spanish men went ashore for wood/water were killed
Mt. Olympus – for Greek god, Capt. John Meares, 1788
Port Discovery – Capt. George Vancouver, 1790
Dungeness Spit – Capt. GV, 1792, rem’d him of Dungeness on English Channel
Port Angeles – “Puerto de Neuestra Senorade Los Angeles” 1791 by Francisco de Eliza…. Officially changed 1862
Port Townsend – Capt. GV, 1792, “in honor of noble marquis of that name”
Mt Rainier – Capt. GV, for his old friend Capt. Peter Rainier
Hood Canal – Capt. GV, “Right Honorable Lord Hood” —- GV, thinking of his homeland, “named many places for friends and English noblemen of his acquaintance.”
Puget Sound – Lt. Peter Puget, with GV, 1792 by Capt. GV
Gray’s Harbor – Capt. Robert Gray, first to sail into Columbia River, 1792
Port Gamble – Wilkes Expedition, 1841, unsure if John or Robert Gamble, 1868 after founding of Pope/Talbot mill 1853
Renton – Capt. Wm Renton, pioneer of Seattle area, 1875
Camano Island –1847, in honor of Francisco de Eliza, 1790
O’Leary Creek, flows into Gray’s Harbor—1850, Irishman Wm O’Leary
Lake Crescent – 1890, crescent-shape
Crescent Beach – 1892, town laid out as deep water lumber shipping port; razed 1920s as part of coast defense system
Lake Sutherland – John Sutherland, 1865, Canadian fur trapper
Ebey – Col. Isaac N. Ebey, first permanent resident Whidbey Island, 1851
Seattle – Chief Sealth
Kingston – 1853, originally Apple Tree Cove
Mt Baker – 1792, Joseph Baker sailed with Capt. GV
Winthrop – Theodore Winthrop, 1853, traveling journalist
Denney – Arthur Denney, representative for WA Terr
Lauridsen – G.M. Lauridsen. Danish world traveler, bought lots in Port Angeles
Elliott Bay – Prof D B. Elliott, 1898, from Chicago Field Museum to study
Everett – John Everett, came with fur trappers, 1890
LaPush – French, la bouche, the mouth so said but WRONG
Fidalgo – Salvador Fidalgo early sailor 1790s
Forks – 1912, laid out by early homesteaders
McCleary – Henry McCleary, 1898
I gleaned these bits/answers from Ruth’s book; I did not fact-check them with Google. Begs a good point: do we swallow so-called facts without checking their veracity???

More than 1,500 Washington Pioneers have been documented in our Pioneer Pursuit Contest. Thank you to all who have submitted genealogies, but we’re looking for more! It is estimated there were nearly 350,000 people living here in 1889, and thousands more who came and went before 1889.
As an incentive for submitting (and having approved) a genealogy of a Pioneer and his/her descendants, you will earn a prize. Yes, everyone earns a prize:
Remember, you don’t have to be related to a Pioneer — just pick someone. Here is a list of places to start.
We want to document every man, woman and child living in Washington Territory on or before Nov. 11, 1889. YOU can help us do that! For more information, visit the Pioneer Pursuit web page or email us at Info@wasgs.org.

Tacoma Pierce County Genealogical Society Book Club Meeting
Saturday, July 15 at 4:00 pm via Zoom
Please join us as we discuss a fictional genealogical book, The Marriage Certificate by Stephen Molyneus.
More information at:
Amazon: The Marriage Certificate
We will also choose future books.
Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81999213610?pwd=Qkk2WFZTZ2Rzdzc1Z0szN1AzdEZCUT09
Meeting ID: 819 9921 3610
Passcode: 479394
One tap mobile
+12532050468,,81999213610#,,,,*479394# US
+12532158782,,81999213610#,,,,*479394# US (Tacoma)
Dial by your location
+1 253 205 0468 US
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
Meeting ID: 819 9921 3610
Passcode: 479394
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/keibNHDdyf


On July 21, 2023 BIGS Presents
At 10AM, Friday, July 21, 2023,
A Zoom Virtual Event,
Janice Lovelace will present:
Becoming Washington:
Who Came to the Northwest and Why.
What conditions existed for your ancestors to leave their home and make a journey to
a new place? What conditions existed to encourage settlement in the Americas,
especially the Pacific Northwest? This presentation focuses primarily on the push and
pull factors for voluntary immigration in the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. What
laws applied to immigration and what documents can genealogists find?
Janice Lovelace is a genealogical researcher, educator, author, and lecturer, with over
thirty years of experience. She completed the Genealogy and Family History
certificate at the University of Washington in 2012, the certificate program in
genealogy at Boston University in 2013, and ProGen in 2014. A frequent speaker, Dr.
Lovelace also an instructor at the Midwest African American Genealogical Institute
(MAAGI). A retired college faculty member, Dr. Lovelace authored the National
Genealogical Society’s online continuing education course African American Roots: A
Historical Perspective.
So, please go to our website, bigenealogy.orgto pick up your Zoom link beginning on July 20th, the day before the presentation.
Everyone Welcome! No membership necessary.

As we celebrate American Independence on July 4th annually, our Canadians celebrate their independence on July 1st. Why?
July 1, 1867: The British North America Act (today known as the Constitution Act, 1867) created Canada. On June 20, 1868: Governor General Lord Monck signs a proclamation that requests all of Her Majesty Queen Victoria’s subjects across Canada to celebrate the occasion on July 1.How much do we know about our Canadian neighbors? See how you do on this 20-question quiz……. answers way at the bottom!
Canadian Trivia
1. 1. Name the territories and provinces that comprise Canada?
2. 2. Which Canadian province is officially bi-lingual?
3. 3. What are the two national sports of Canada?
4. 4. How many points are on the Maple Leaf on the flag?
5. 5. The first YMCA in Canada was opened in what city?
6. 6. Which Great Lake does not share a border with Canada?
7. 7. When is Canada Day celebrated? (Formerly Dominion Day.)
8. 8. Which spreadable good was invented by a Canadian pharmacist?
9. 9. In some Canadian provinces, doctors can give a prescription to do what?
10. In 1995, Quaker Oats gave this away in their cereal boxes.
11. PEI residents are known by this starchy nickname?
12. Which territory or province is largest?
13. Curling was invented in what country?
14. Who is the immediate past Prime Minister of Canada?
15. Who is the current P.M.?
16. “Double-double with timbits” in Canada means what?
17. Seal flippers are a delicacy in Newfoundland, yes or no?
18. What natural phenomenon in 2021 in British Columbia caused a massive marine die out?
19. Which Canadian city staged an elaborate ruse that Nazis were invading in 1942?
20. Who is the most famous Canadian folk singer?
ANSWERS:
1. Ontario, Northwest Territories, Newfoundland/Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Yukon
2. New Brunswick
3. Hockey and LaCrosse
4. Eleven
5. Montreal
6. Michigan
7. July 1st
8. Peanut butter, 1884
9. Park passes (to get outdoors!)
10. Hockey card
11. “Spudheads,” for potatoes
12. Nunavut
13. Scotland
14. Harper
15. Trudeau
16. Coffee (2sugars/2creams) and donut holes (in Tim Horton’s)
17. Yes
18. Heat wave
19. Winnipeg
20. Leonard Cohen (and you guessed Gordon Lightfoot, right?)
This was a game played on board the Pearl Mist by a Canadian entertainer who said he used Google to compile the list….. “so blame Google for any mistakes!”