| THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Thursday Evening E-News Edition April 16, 2020 |
| Memberships will be extended one month beyond the date of our reopening. Thank you to all who have renewed already, especially those who included a donation with your renewal. We are so grateful for your loyalty and support. |
| 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. |
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| GFO Interest Groups Go Virtual |
| These times have made it essential for all of us to adapt to self distancing and finding a new normal as far as interacting with family, friends, colleagues, and others in our orbit. Nowhere is this more apparent than in our media as we watch many of our newspeople, favorite performers, and a host of others reach out and connect to the wider world via electronic platforms. The GFO is no different, and while we work to inform you about a wide array of available resources, we are proud to provide resources to support and showcase our Special Interest Groups (SIG’s) as they transition to virtual meetings and webinars in order to provide the community with a continuing connection to their genealogical specialties. Below, in this issue, we have supplied details for two meetings this Saturday, April 18, along with registration information, for both the Genealogical Problem Solvers as well as the African American Interest Group. Next week, we will feature registration details on these additional upcoming meetings: |
 Saturday, April 25 from 10:00 – 11:30 a.m., the Advanced DNA Group will be hosting a GoToMeeting Webinar, entitled, “Triangulation for atDNA – Three is Not a Crowd.” To see if this meeting might be useful for you, you can read the handout for the meeting, here. For additional info, contact Emily Aulicino at dna@gfo.org |
 The Family Tree Maker – Beginners Group, will hold its first virtual meeting on Sunday, April 26 at 1:00 p.m. If you’d like to sign up to attend, please request the meeting link from Laurel Smith at FTM@gfo.org. If you are interested in a particular topic or have expertise to share, reach out to the appropriate SIG and explore the possibilities. By working together, we can stay connected and help each other through these challenging times. |
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| GFO E-News Now Available in PDF Format |
 How often have you considered sharing a copy of your weekly GFO E-News? We would like to make it easier for you to do just that. Take a look on the bottom of the banner of this newsletter. There is now a link which will enable you to access an easy to read copy of each week’s GFO E-News in PDF format. You can use it to archive a copy for your personal files, or you can share our content and send the link to your friends, to your colleagues, share it to your organization’s newsletter, or to your personal blog. |
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 GFO member Sheila has asked us to identify the parents of her 2nd great grandfather, Austin Baldwin, born 1810, in either Canada or New York. Ordinarily, border crossing records would help us sort out the family, but prior to April 1908, people were able to move freely across the U.S. border to Canada and back, and typically no record of immigration exists. Join the Genealogical Problem Solvers at our virtual meeting on Saturday, April 18, 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. as the GPS team sorts out the Baldwin family as they moved from the East Coast to Iowa and on to the Pacific Northwest. To obtain the link to join the meeting, contact Katy Daly at gps@gfo.org. |
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 Join the African American SIG online this Saturday, April 18 at 12:00 p.m. as group member Sherylita Mason shares methods that have enabled her to break down brick walls. She will explain how she used autosomal DNA to identify living and recent family connections and include traditional genealogy research, going back as far as a 3rd-great-grandfather. She hopes her methods can also help you in your research. Please use the button below to register for: DNA: Connecting the Present and Past (GFO AA SIG) on Apr 18, 2020 12:00 PM PDT. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. If you have any questions, contact african_american@gfo.org |
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| Yes, We Take PayPal |
 A very kind GFO member wrote to us last week wondering if we accept donations via PayPal. Yes! Thank you! We are so grateful for any support you can lend. While our website is set up to accept donations via credit card, if you prefer to use PayPal, just log into your PayPal account and select “Send Money,” then send it to payments@gfo.org.(Please be sure to use .org, not .com.) Be sure to enter a note to let us know that you are making a donation. Or, you can always follow the tried and true method by giving online with a credit card. Either way, we thank you for your ongoing support! |
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 Feeling overwhelmed? Perhaps you’ve considered hiring a professional genealogist to help. Legacy Tree has a team of pros (including the GFO’s own Kate Eakman) available, and they’ve made a special offer to help you and the GFO at the same time. Click the button below to get $50 off and the GFO will receive a 10% bonus. |
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| Election: GFO Members Please Vote! |
 We have an official ballot now for this year’s GFO Board election. Vince Patton is running for re-election as president. Alexa Waddle is running for secretary. Joyce Grant-Worley seeks re-election as a Director at Large. And Geoff Smith has offered to serve again on our Endowment Committee. While voting on a GFO election may not seem like a top priority right now, our bylaws require that the election be held. We are attempting to follow our bylaws despite the difficult circumstances. Only active GFO members are eligible to vote. The Forum Insider for April included (page 5) online voting instructions. The deadline is Monday, May 4 at 5 p.m. |
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| Hall of Fame Nominations Sought |
 You have two weeks left to send us your GFO Hall of Fame Nominations! Any GFO member may nominate another member by May 1. Nominees must have a well-documented history of service, leadership, and accomplishment in more than one facet of the GFO, over a long period of time.Please include: * Name, list of services, activities, positions, and accomplishments; * A narrative describing the nature of their work in terms of its importance to the success of the GFO; * A short biography. Please send to secretary@gfo.org by May 1. The board will decide if any merit selection. Winners are awarded in June and receive a free Life Membership and their name on our Hall of Fame plaque. |
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| What’s New in Online Digital Resources |
 Since we are unable at this time to process new books and new digital content for the GFO Library, we will be temporarily suspending our “What’s New” weekly feature. In this time of physical distancing and responsible sheltering in place, we will instead share online resources so that you can reach out and connect as well as continue to learn and build on your genealogy skills from home. |
 Here is a good site to save in your bookmarks. Tami and Conference Keeper is constantly updating her list of virtual genealogy events.Many of them are free. |
 Legacy Tree Genealogists has some great suggestions on their page, “When Life Gives You Lemons: Genealogy Activities for Coronavirus Quarantine.” They have some creative ideas and have even supplied a fun genealogy bingo card with suggestions to help spark your genealogy creativity. |
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| Survey Results: Recent Discoveries |
| We asked to hear about any exciting genealogical discoveries you’ve made during this “stay at home” time. A few people replied, and their responses have been edited for brevity. • I found a new cousin on Facebook who added information to what I know. • I finally found what happened to the daughter of a 2nd great-grandfather from his first marriage and consequently a bunch of half 1st and 2nd cousins. |
 • I always wanted recipes from my relatives. Yesterday, I found 3 from my maternal grandmother (d.1953) that were published in a fundraising cookbook. They were submitted by her sister in 1914 and 1920. Can’t wait to try them.• I learned my husband’s great aunt died from the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918 at the tender age of 9. No current family member knew about this. It’s ironic I learned this during our COVID-19 pandemic. • I am cleaning up on lots of research and entering all the newfound stuff into RootsMagic and MyHeritage. • My grandmother’s best friend in the new world was someone we called Auntie Jean Kingston. My grandmother had said they came over together on the boat. I’d found the ship manifest listing grandma but no one with the first name of Jean. I found the B.C., Canada, marriage records to find her maiden name. Sure enough, she was on the ship with an unusual last name and Jane as her first name, not Jean. Not that surprising, since Grandma had surprised me when I found she has christened Jane but called Jean by her family. In all her documents, since coming to Canada, she was Jean, I don’t know if my dad or uncle even knew her original name. • More than a year ago I contacted most of my 23 cousins with an offer to share the family history I had. Almost nobody replied. Then, just after Christmas 2019, a cousin called. We met and shared lots of information. She must have clout with the family. Now, everybody is reaching out to me. Couldn’t have happened at a better time! |
 • I am working on school records in Columbia and Washington Counties, Oregon. The U.S. federal census records often record if a person (child) was attending school during that year and/or if they were teaching. The school records are from 1871 to 1889. It is interesting to look back in time at a community and how it evolved. Such records may be buried at local repositories.• I discovered through DNA, a cousin from a line of family that we did not know existed. I found that my great-grandmother had married a second time and had several (previously unknown) children. Because of DNA I was able to find him, and in turn, he was able to find his father’s birth certificate which had our common grandmother on it. I then shared a picture of our common 2x great-grandmother with him. • My grandmother came to Argyle, Illinois, with her family when she was 3 years old. I found that almost all the residents of the village (in the late 1800s) had come from the Argyll/Campbelltown area of Scotland. I also found a website by the Ralston family who had posted a link to an entire book about the village! It was amazing to see information about the village when my great-grandmother, her siblings, and her parents were living there – and they were mentioned as well! • I found that James A Brady died of tuberculosis. The family thought he and his wife died in the Spanish Flu pandemic. • I discovered the maiden name of the wife of one of my husband’s ancestors on Ancestry when I viewed the death certificate of their son. • I stumbled across the Find A Grave memorial for my great-granduncle. He died in southern Oregon but was buried here in Portland—and the person who created the fabulous, fact-filled memorial is someone I know at the GFO! Thanks Jan! |
| New Survey: How Else Can We Stay Connected? |
 We’re all in this together. And we can help each other get through it. GFO is providing the resources for you to connect with the Special Interest Groups, we send you the weekly eNews, and we’re brainstorming other ways to help our members stay connected. We’re looking for feedback and for other ideas that we may not have considered. Please, take our survey now. |
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| The Week Ahead: The GFO Research Library is closed, and all on-site groups, classes, and work parties are canceled. Saturday, April 18 Genealogy Problem Solvers 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. Join us online for a virtual meeting as we tackle the brick wall surrounding Austin Baldwin. See article above and contact gps@gfo.org to obtain a link to join the meeting. African American Group 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. Webinar led by Sherylita Mason: DNA: Connecting the Present and Past.. Registration Required. See details and link to registration in article above. Questions may be sent to african_american@gfo.org. |
GFO’s Library Committee had a virtual meeting that cheered everyone up. Library Chair Laurel Smith said it felt very healing to finally see and talk with each other again. I couldn’t agree more. The GFO will have some more virtual special interest group meetings and you’ll get advance notice of them here. I hope you’ll take part and find them as valuable as I have.. We got a bit of good financial news in the last week. Ancestry and Fold3 have agreed to suspend our pricey contracts for as long as the library is closed. They’ll extend our subscription by an equivalent number of months. If you’re a member, 
We might as well make the best of being stuck at home. What a great time to learn new genealogy skills! (Some of you already have. Please see the survey results below.) The genealogy conference website 
Wondering how you can support preserving our history while stuck at home? Here’s any easy way that doesn’t cost you any extra. Please register your Fred Meyer Rewards Card to link it with the Genealogical Forum of Oregon.
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I learned some tricks for searching for the women in my lines from a webinar from the 
Most of us are stuck at home, and most of those we’ve heard from tell us they are doing more genealogy than normal. We can all use a little inspiration, so, this week, we’d like you to tell us about a discovery you’ve made recently. Please share via our survey.
