Seattle Genealogical Society Tip of the Week Family Search Communities

by Charles Hansen

TIP OF THE WEEK –
COMMUNITIES AT FAMILYSEARCH
SGS had a full house for the Spring Virtual Seminar with guest speaker Dr Fritz Juengling. One tip offered at this seminar was about a resource at FamilySearch.org  you may not be aware of – online FamilySearch Community Research Groups – where like minded people can ask or answer research questions and share resources. You can join any of dozens of different research groups. Join a group to get help yourself, or to share your expertise with others. Groups cover geographical areas, as well as areas of interest. Example group include the likes of Georgia, Germany, Greece, Genetic Genealogy, Adoption, African American Genealogy Research, First Nations of North America, Family Bibles, just to name a few. 

Need help with your research? Once you join a group you can: 

  • ask questions
  • upload documents and get help with translation
  • participate in discussions
  • learn about upcoming webinars
  • discover new resources

Or join a group to offer your help to others by: 

  • answering questions
  • translating documents
  • sharing new resources

Get involved and make these groups more valuable for everyone! Like FamilySearch itself, these community research groups are available to you absolutely free of charge. Start here to find a group that interests you:
https://community.familysearch.org/

MyHeritage One of a Kind Offer

by Charles Hansen

I’m excited to share a one-of-a-kind offer from MyHeritage for the month of June, something I think your readers and followers will be very interested to hear!

Starting tomorrow, June 1, each day of the month a different and significant historical record collection will be available for free!

The collections we have chosen for this offer were handpicked for their value for family historians and include collections that are exclusive to MyHeritage. Among them are the Sweden Household Examination Books, 1840–1947, 1940 Denmark Census, and U.S. City Directories. Altogether, we’ll be providing free access to more than 2 billion historical records throughout June!



All the collections are available on www.myheritage.com/research, and you can find the full schedule for the free collections, including direct links, on our blog.

This just might be the chance your readers and followers have been waiting for, and we are pleased to offer this as part of our effort to provide people with more opportunities and resources to further their genealogy research while at home.

Enjoy and stay safe, Daniel Horowitz
Genealogy Expert

MyHeritage (USA) Inc.,
2975 Executive Parkway,
Lehi, Utah

FGS Unsung Heroes Program

by Charles Hansen
We want to share some exciting news for societies from our friends at the Genealogy Guys Podcast and Vivid-Pix, one of the FGS partners… The Genealogy Guys and Vivid-Pix Announce
Society Grants Program and New Unsung Heroes Program Nominees The Genealogy Guys Podcast, the world’s oldest genealogy podcast, and Vivid-Pix, makers of the acclaimed RESTORE photo and document image improvement software, announce a new Unsung Heroes Program and a call for nominations for Unsung Heroes Awards. The partners created the Unsung Heroes Awards in 2019 to encourage, acknowledge and celebrate members of the genealogy community who lead the way in digitizing, indexing, and transcribing photos and documents, for use by researchers around the globe. They have added a brand-new Unsung Heroes Societies Grant Program for societies to obtain a scanner and high-quality software to make digitization projects a reality. They have also adjusted the Unsung Heroes Awards Program eligible nominees and the contents of the prize package. Unsung Heroes Societies Grant Program This program will award grants to two societies each year to facilitate their digitizing, indexing, and transcribing photographs and documents. The grantees will each receive a high-quality scanner, a backup and online storage software package, and two copies of Vivid-Pix RESTORE software to improve the legibility of documents, the color/contrast of photographs, and to add image tags and other important information to the image metadata. The grant package is valued at $500. Applications must describe the intended use of the grant. Multiple applications may be submitted by a single society/chapter but grantees are limited to one grant per society. The grant application form is available at the Aha! Seminars, Inc., website at https://ahaseminars.com/cpage.php?pt=24. The due date for the first grant is by midnight EDT on August 1, 2020, and should be sent to genealogyguys@gmail.com. Successful grantees will be announced separately at different times of the year by The Genealogy Guys Podcast and Vivid-Pix via press release, social media, and the partners’ websites. The first grant recipient society will be announced during the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference, September 2-5, 2020. The next grant due date will be announced later in 2020. Unsung Heroes Awards Program The Unsung Heroes Awards Program continues to recognize individuals, societies, and libraries for their work in digitizing, indexing, and transcribing photographs and documents and making that work accessible to the genealogical community. All nominations are to be submitted using the nomination form at the Aha! Seminars, Inc., website at https://ahaseminars.com/cpage.php?pt=24. Self-nominations are welcome and encouraged. The due date for the next set of nominations is midnight EDT on August 1, 2020, and should be sent to genealogyguys@gmail.com. Award winners will receive a commemorative certificate, a customized mug that can include an image of their choice, and a copy of Vivid-Pix RESTORE software. Individual winners will also receive a one-year subscription to Genealogy Guys Learn, the online subscription education program. Winners will be announced by The Genealogy Guys Podcast and Vivid-Pix via press release, social media, and on the partners’ websites. Winners for the next round of category nominations will be announced during the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference, September 2-5, 2020. Nominations of non-winners will be retained for consideration for future awards.  Instructions for Submissions Full details of the programs are available at the Aha! Seminars, Inc., website at https://ahaseminars.com/cpage.php?pt=24. The grant application form and the award nomination form are available there in PDF format for download. If you have any questions, please email genealogyguys@gmail.com or aha@ahaseminars.com.  Contacts:  George G. Morgan   The Genealogy Guys Podcast                   http://genealogyguys.com/ genealogyguys@gmail.com  (813) 220-6274   Rick Voight Vivid-Pix https://vivid-pix.com/ rick.voight@vivid-pix.com  (404) 664-9897  
http://fgs.z2systems.com/np/clients/fgs/unsubscribeEmail.jsp?type=16&emailId=4f25386cdfa1c60d67cb85f9f281bf634m433234f2&userId=7uFsyMYKVC9vr3%2BbI2KOmT%2FhqXwm67EE

GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Thursday E-News E

by Charles Hansen
THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Thursday Evening E-News Edition May 28, 2020
Thank you to all who have renewed their membership, especially those who included a donation with your renewal.
We are so grateful for your loyalty and support.
Renew Now
Curious about the status of your GFO Membership? We’d love to have you as a GFO Member! gfo.org | 503-963-1932 | info@gfo.org Be sure to check the complete GFO CALENDAR.
Also, don’t miss the current issue of The Forum Insider Want to share an easy-to-read version of this E-News? Click here.

Eastern Washington Genealogical Society September Meeting

by Charles Hansen

The June 2020 meeting of EWGS has been cancelled.

“The September 12th meeting for EWGS will feature the 400th Anniversary of the Mayflower. Jerri McCoy will be our speaker. The Program committee “zoomed” on Monday and thought it would be nice to recognize the society members that have Mayflower ancestors. Depending on how many Mayflower Descendants we have, the member might give a brief talk about who, where and how they are connected to this ancestor. Please contact me, Juanita McBride by August 15th at Juanita.m.mcbride@gmail.com.”

“SAVE THE DATE! – Blaine Bettinger will be our featured speaker for our all-day seminar on March 6th 2021. More details to come!”

MyHeritage Knowledge Base

by Charles Hansen

As a company dedicated to family history, we at MyHeritage greatly appreciate what you do. We believe that information about genealogy should be easily accessible to anyone who wants it.

That’s why we created the MyHeritage Knowledge Base: a dedicated educational website chock-full of quality articles, webinars, and how-to videos on a wide range of topics relating to genealogy and DNA. Available in 10 languages, the site is updated every week with new content. The Knowledge Base is completely free to access and no registration is required.

I believe your members will find the website helpful, and would like to suggest sharing the link with them alongside some examples of content they may enjoy. Here are a couple of suggestions:

How to Get the Most Out of Your Family Site: An article describing how to fully harness the potential of your free family site on MyHeritage. Learn to personalize the site, add photos, invite family members to collaborate, and more.

Hidden Content Treasures You Might Have Missed at MyHeritage: An eye-opening webinar with our Director of Content Operations introducing you to some of the lesser-known — but extremely valuable — record collections on MyHeritage.

Integrating Old Photos Into Your Family History Research: A webinar on the importance of photos in genealogy research. Learn how to analyze photos, upload them to a personal MyHeritage website, and tag the people you’ll want to stay connected to on MyHeritage.

Feel free to share these links and descriptions with your members, or to peruse the site to find the content that’s perfect for them. Just remember to share only the link to the article and a short description — that way your members can click through and explore the content as well as the rest of the site if they wish. We’d also appreciate it if you could keep us posted when you share the content.

I hope you and your members find the Knowledge Base a helpful and enlightening resource.

Wishing you the best of health!  Daniel Horowitz
Genealogy Expert

MyHeritage (USA) Inc.,
2975 Executive Parkway,
Lehi, Utah

GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Thursday E-News

by Charles Hansen
THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Thursday Evening E-News Edition May 21, 2020
Thank you to all who have renewed their membership, especially those who included a donation with your renewal.
We are so grateful for your loyalty and support.
Renew Now
Curious about the status of your GFO Membership? We’d love to have you as a GFO Member! gfo.org | 503-963-1932 | info@gfo.org Be sure to check the complete GFO CALENDAR.
Also, don’t miss the current issue of The Forum Insider Want to share an easy-to-read version of this E-News? Click here.

MyHeritage Free Military Records

by Charles Hansen

In honor of Memorial Day, we’re offering free access to all military records on MyHeritage from May 20–26, 2020. 

Search all military records on MyHeritage 

Many of us may have a relative or ancestor who served in the military. We invite you to pay tribute to these heroes and honor their legacy by learning more about them through military records. 

The MyHeritage collection consists of 57 million records and includes draft, enlistment, and service records, pension records, and other military documents from North America and around the world, dating back to the American Revolutionary War in the late 18th century. 

Please use and share this video.

2020-05-20 14_41_22-Memorial Day 2020 - YouTube

We’re also hosting 2 Facebook Live events about military records in the coming days: 

Searching Military Records on MyHeritage

Tune in TODAY, May 20 at 1 P.M. EDT as Thomas MacEntee shares how to leverage MyHeritage’s vast collection of military records to learn more about your family history. 

Breaking Through Brick Walls with Military Records

On May 24 at 1 P.M EDT, join Kate Eakman, senior researcher at Legacy Family Tree, who will show you how to use military records to break through brick walls in your genealogy research. 

Make sure you follow us on Facebook to tune in live. You can also watch the recorded sessions later on, and check out the full list of our online events in May and June.

Please let your audiences know so they too can take advantage of these important genealogical resources. 
You can read more about the free military records on our blog.     Daniel Horowitz
Genealogy Expert

MyHeritage (USA) Inc.,
2975 Executive Parkway,
Lehi, Utah

Out of the Archives

by Charles Hansen
Asian Pacific American heritage photo challenge This is a photo of a Japanese drill team during a performance at Expo ’70, the Osaka World’s Fair.
Tell us the connection between the fair and Washington state. The more information you can give, the better.		Health care workers challenge results Our little tribute to health care workers is a 1930s picture of Valley View Hospital in Colville.
The building was repurposed a number of times to facilitate a variety of health care services between the 1960s and ’80s until it was eventually demolished.
Send us your guess!See last month’s challenge
Hudson’s Bay Company sent Hawaiians to work in Washington Territory
by Dr. Jewell Lorenz-Dunn, Olympia Branch Researcher
The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) posts in Oregon Territory, Washington Territory, Alaska, and Canada provided animal furs, salmon, and lumber to go east for trade.
Fort Steilacoom was established in the Puget Sound area as a military post on the company’s property in August of 1849. Fort Vancouver was originally a Hudson’s Bay post, established early, in 1824 or 1825, and operated under several other titles. Fort Vancouver was transitioned to military barracks around 1849, and the company transferred out of the fort around 1860.
The Hudson’s Bay Company was predominately made up of French employees with Native American wives until 1829, when the Hudson’s Bay Company added a port stop in Hawaii (called the Sandwich Islands by Americans at the time). This created HBC jobs for many Hawaiians that enabled them to find their way to the Pacific Northwest.
It’s estimated there were anywhere from 50 to 400 Hawaiians employed by Hudson’s Bay Company between 1829 and 1861, but no exact numbers can be verified. Many of the Hawaiian employees… keep reading 
Archives provided research materials for Mount St. Helens book
May 18 marked 40 years since the infamous Mount St. Helens eruption that shocked the world. The disaster was the most devastating volcanic eruption in U.S. history.


New York author Cheryl J. Fish visited the Washington State Archives to do research about the events that surrounded and followed the catastrophe. Fish used her research findings to write “Crater & Tower,” a book of poetry about Mount St. Helens and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The book is now available for sale at most major online book retailers.
State Archives gives out special awards to History Day students
National History Day is a program that encourages students in grades 6-12 to learn how to be an historian. In Washington, the program is headed up by the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, in partnership with the Washington State Historical Society and the State Archives, as well as other supporting organizations.
Virtual judging took place from April 16 to May 1.
Every year the Archives gives out the Washington State Archives History Awards. The special awards are for History Day projects that demonstrated exceptional use of archival research.
The 2020 recipients of the Washington State Archives History Awards are:
JUNIOR DIVISION
Kaitlin Medina and Andrew Hegewald
“Seattle’s Hooverville: Where Nothing Created Something”
Teacher: John Zingale, Vancouver iTech Preparatory


SENIOR DIVISION
Haley Van Meurs, Liana Moldavanu, and Isabelle Garrard
“The Fight Against Segregated Seattle: How the Seattle Open Housing Campaign
Broke Barriers of Inequality”
Teachers: Alan Plummer and Corey Martin, Inglemoor High School
JUNIOR DIVISION Kaitlin Medina and Andrew Hegewald “Seattle’s Hooverville: Where Nothing Created Something” Teacher: John Zingale, Vancouver iTech Preparatory
SENIOR DIVISION Haley Van Meurs, Liana Moldavanu, and Isabelle Garrard “The Fight Against Segregated Seattle: How the Seattle Open Housing Campaign Broke Barriers of Inequality” Teachers: Alan Plummer and Corey Martin, Inglemoor High School
Ruralite MagazineOSOS remains closed to publicWho said that?
State Archives Central Regional Branch Intern Jordan Hughes gives a glimpse into the past with a look at the Kittitas edition of Ruralite Magazine. The publication was regionally distributed to rural areas all over the Western United States. It started in 1954 with “a spirit of public service and forward-looking sensibility.”
Read Hughes’ full article here.		 With consideration for the safety of the public and our staff, all branches and facilities of the Office of the Secretary of State remain closed to the public until at least May 31, in an effort to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
During the closure, the State Archives still allows state and local government agency staff to research records on an emergency basis only.
Go here for more information.		 “Success is empty if you arrive at the finish line alone. The best reward is to get there surrounded by winners.”
Who said that?
Hint: The man in the photo above has nothing to do with this quote.
Last month’s quote is from Governor Arthur Langlie.
Out of the Archives, May 2020 banner photo: Model of the Washington State Pavilion. General Subjects Photograph Collection, 1845-2010, c. 1968.
Visit the Digital ArchivesVolunteer with Scribe