Good last-Monday-of-March morning! The snow is mostly gone, the bluebirds are back and I-90 is open for east and west travel. The “mystery” today is how come you dear genealogists reading this post aren’t coming to Spokane to enjoy a day with Sunny Jane Morton.
Sunny is a 100% top notch, gold plated BigWig in the genealogy world today. Click to some of her YouTube videos and you’ll be taught and delighted. She is coming to Spokane on Saturday, April 6th, for an all-day seminar. Click to www.ewgsi.org for more information and to register. She’s offering us four cracker-jack presentations that day.
Tiz an easy 5-hour drive coming west on I-90 and Spokane has plenty of motels available. Come over Friday morning and spend the afternoon in the genealogy section of our downtown Spokane Public Library.
Perhaps what you learn from Sunny Morton will help to solve a mystery in your genealogy. You think?
Have you ever wanted to attend a genealogy conference but couldn’t afford to? Now you can! Please join us at the GFO for its biggest event of the year! Nine days of classes are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. 33 classes are open on a walk-in basis. The 4 presentations requiring registration are completely full. We have a few theme days. Saturday, March 23 kicks off with Irish Day. Wednesday, March 27 is Finding Family Day. Tracking living relatives? Birth parents? This is the day for you. Closing weekend, March 30-31 features DNA Days. Click on the “Class Descriptions” link above, or view our Calendar page for a complete list of subjects and class times so you don’t miss a single moment. We guarantee you’ll learn something new and exciting about the wonderful world of genealogy!
2 Copies of Family Tree Maker in Open House Raffle!
Coming to our Open House? Bring a little cash to spare. You could win one of two copies of Family Tree Maker software! Each is valued at $89.95. $1 for 1 ticket. $5 for 6 tickets. Exact change is appreciated! You do not have to be present to win. But be sure to write your name and phone number on the raffle ticket you leave in our box. The drawings will be at the end of the Open House, March 31.
Your Open House Surveys Reveal…
And some of your comments included . . . ▪ Can’t wait! ▪ Wish I could do genealogy every day. ▪ Lots of choices. Looks well planned. Thanks. ▪ I’m excited to come to the presentations! ▪ Thank
you so much for offering this opportunity for me to expand my knowledge
of a variety of subjects. Along with the chance to meet new people and
perhaps even make a cousin connection, you never know. ▪ It’s the best event of the year! ▪ Thanks for making this happen. Now please take this week’s survey! We’d love to know which Open House classes look the most interesting to you.
Anne
is a dedicated, regular Sunday volunteer who usually beats everyone
else into the library. Among other things she is a pro at locating
misplaced books, earning her the name of “Finder of Lost Things.” Amazingly,
she has volunteered at the library every Sunday but one for over three
years. Anne is always willing to help where needed and even stepped up
to serve as Director at Large when asked. She has also served on the
Disaster Preparedness and Grants Committees. We are pleased to present her with this honor for her long and distinguished service at the GFO.
E-News Coordinator Needed by May 1st!!
Our E-News Coordinator is retiring after April 31st this year and we need your help to fill the impending vacancy. ▪ Do you love gathering genealogy news items and distributing them to the world? ▪ Are you tech savvy-ish and above all a stickler for details? ▪ Do you have 1-3 hours you can donate each week to a wonderful cause? ▪ Is finding fun, vintage, and public domain images via google searches your favorite pastime? Training is available from April 1st through April 30th.
Email news@gfo.org if you have interest in filling this extremely valuable volunteer spot.
Book of the Week: Civil War Letters
During
the Civil War in 1862 and 1963, John Parkurst wrote 55 letters to his
wife, Lizzie (Pearson) Parkhurst, in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. The
Massachusetts Archives calls these “one of the most compelling personal
accounts of a soldier’s life during the Civil War anywhere.” “I was a little seasick this morning bu am better now. We live on hard crackers and boiled ham & water.” The letters not only relate his experiences, but frequently refer to his children, parents, and their lives. Fair warning: these letters are unvarnished and reveal great prejudice against African Americans. This reprint of the transcribed letters is available for purchase from the GFO Bookstore for $5.00. Contact booksales@gfo.org if you are interested.
FRIDAY, March 22nd Beginning Genealogy 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
This class session is sold out. SATURDAY, March 23rd OPEN HOUSE – Discover Your Irish Roots 10 a.m. – 3:20 p.m. See the full detailed class list here. SUNDAY, March 24th OPEN HOUSE – Beginning Genealogy 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. This class session is sold out. MONDAY, March 25th OPEN HOUSE – Legalities, Pennsylvania, & Online Resources 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. See the full detailed class list here. TUESDAY, March 26th OPEN HOUSE – Evernote, Religious Radicals, Ancestry.com, & Online Family Trees 10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. See the full detailed class list here. WEDNESDAY, March 27th OPEN HOUSE – Family Connections & Biological Connections 10 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. See the full detailed class list here. THURSDAY, March 28th OPEN HOUSE – Multnomah County Library Resources, Write It Up, Trip Planning, & Software Advice 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. See the full detailed class list here. FRIDAY, March 29th OPEN HOUSE – Citing Sources, Mexican Ancestry, & Ohio River Area Research 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. See the full detailed class list here. SATURDAY & SUNDAY, March 30th & 31st OPEN HOUSE – DNA Focus Days! 9 a.m. – 4:45 p.m. See the full detailed class list here. Two sessions with guest speaker Barbara Rae-Venter are sold out. All others are open on walk-in basis. Please also be sure to check our Open House website.
The Yakima Valley Genealogical Society is presenting its annual Spring
Seminar, Saturday, April 6, 9-3:45 PM at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church at
7809 Tieton Drive in Yakima. Peggy Clemens Lauritzen, a nationally known
genealogist and writer for Reminisce Magazine will be the speaker. Her
topics are Apprentices, Indentured Servants and Redemptioners: White
Servitude in America, Researching the Lives of Our Foremothers,
Migration To and Through Virginia and The Scots- Irish in America. Lunch
and snacks are included. Registration before April 2 for YVGS Members
is $40.00 YVGS Non-Members $45.00, On-Site Registration 8:30 AM – 9:00
AM $45.00. No refund of registration fee after April 2. Registration
forms and information are available at the YVGS website.
Ah, the fifth and final sweet bite of my Chocolate Saga to share with you.
After the beans are dried and roasted, they are ground to a paste and sugar is added. For milk chocolate, that is added. In that learning place, I studied this poster:
Did you learn something new about your likely-favorite sweet??
The Yakima Valley Genealogical Society is presenting its annual Spring Seminar, Saturday, April 6, 9-3:45 PM at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church at 7809 Tieton Drive in Yakima. Peggy Clemens Lauritzen, a nationally known genealogist and writer for Reminisce Magazine will be the speaker. Her topics are Apprentices, Indentured Servants and Redemptioners: White Servitude in America, Researching the Lives of Our Foremothers, Migration To and Through Virginia and The Scots- Irish in America. Lunch and snacks are included. Registration before April 2 for YVGS Members is $40.00 YVGS Non-Members $45.00, On-Site Registration 8:30 AM – 9:00 AM $45.00. No refund of registration fee after April 2. Registration forms and information are available at the YVGS website.
Mystery solved! At least for me. My mother used to explain to me that in days of yore, crawling babies were dressed in long dresses so that the bottom of the dress could be put under the bed post to keep baby safe while mother was outside fetching wood or hanging laundry. Made sense to me.
A post by Lisa Louise Cooke, penned by Allison DePrey Singleton, gives a parallel explanation. Initially, babies were swaddled, meaning they were wrapped tightly in cloth from head to toe so their arms and legs would stay straight. Once out of swaddling, parents dressed their children in long skirts to prevent their crawling about, which was considered “barbaric and unnatural.”
Really? Love Lisa Louise Cooke’s blog and podcasts…. so full of good information and wonderful tidbits of history.
TIP OF THE WEEK – NOTICE FOR FTDNA CUSTOMERS
Listening to angry customers, FTDNA has provided a separate option
so one can now opt out of the new Law Enforcement Matching (LEM), but
still maintain matching with DNA Relatives. If you care to adjust your
Matching Preferences, visit the Privacy & Sharing section within
Account Settings as shown in the steps below:
1. Log in to your FTDNA account 2. Use the dropdown arrow in the upper right, to the right of name, to open the menu there and choose Account Settings 3. On the Account Settings page, open the Privacy & Sharing tab
4. Cursor down to the Law Enforcement Matching (LEM) section and slide
the marker from the right (where it’s blue) to the left (where it will
turn grey)
If you manage multiple accounts, you’ll have to log
into each account individually and repeat steps 1-4. Judy G Russell,
the Legal Genealogist, wrote an insightful blog on the Law Enforcement
Matching issue and what it might mean to you, as well as any other kits
you administer. It’s dated March 13th. If interested, you can read it
here:
BEYOND THE STACKS
by Sue Jensen, Director of the SGS Library
A
Library is filled with books. A Genealogical Library is filled with
books about genealogy. Seattle Genealogical Society Library is filled
with books and many other pieces of information about families and their
ancestors and descendants.
Families
are the reason we “do genealogy” to find out more about the ones that
came before us. Seattle Genealogical Society has received some exciting
and important collections of family research over the Ninety-Six years
it has been in existence. We have also received public records of
Seattle and Washington based organizations and we have been actively
preserving this information for our patrons. At first there were
handwritten copies, then typewritten, then typed and saved on a computer
disk, and now, DIGITIZATION!
Dictionary.com defines Digitization:
To convert data into an electronic form that is readable and can be
manipulated by a computer. This is what our very capable volunteers are
doing with the family research, public records and other data that is
donated to our Society. We have a great team of volunteers that go
through every piece of paper, pedigree chart, letter and note from a
family collection. They, the Archive Committee, then turn their work
over to The Digital Power Team consisting primarily of Ann Wright and
Jess Ramey. These two volunteers then turn the family collection and
other data in the form of paper into digital data by scanning, indexing,
and organizing it so that it will be available to be used on the
computers in our Library.
Currently
we have approximately 138,000 pieces of paper (including cards, lists,
letters, documents, inventories, family collections) scanned, indexed
and either available, or soon to be available, in the Library. There are
countless volunteer hours put into the scanning and indexing. Not
including the hours spent preparing for and getting them indexed;
uploading the data to the computers and cataloging them into the
Library’s catalog.
Here is a list of the items that have been done so far:
45,000 George Kent cards
20,000 VFW cards (indexed)
120 Wright’s Crematorium pages (indexed)
200 Seattle School District pages(indexed)
250 Washington Territory Land Records pages (in work)
countless cemetery pages (indexed)
2,000 family collection pages (in work or on shelf)
The Seattle Genealogical Society and Library has been able to do all of this digitization thanks to the Ron Cross Estate for funding the equipment for the Ron Cross Memorial Scanning Lab.
Come visit us and see what you can find about your family in our digital collection.
“USING NARA SEATTLE COLLECTIONS”
April’s
Second Saturday Speaker Series presenter will be Trish Hackett Nicola.
She’ll discuss the collections at NARA, housed directly across the
street from the SGS Library.
The
National Archives at Seattle holds original records specific to Alaska,
Idaho, Oregon and Washington State. Its collections include maps and
drawings, historical documents, agency files and photographs from every
era.
See samples of U.S. District Court records for criminal, civil and
admiralty case files; Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Forest Service,
Bureau of Prisons, Bureau of Land Management and the Chinese Exclusion
Act files. Get an update on the Alaska Records Digitization Project.
Learn how to access the finding aids to help you get the most out of
your research at National Archives at Seattle.
OUR SPRING SEMINAR
Mark your calendar for the SGS Spring Seminar, “Next Steps for Your DNA Test Results”, featuring Diahan Southard. Saturday, May 18th, 9am-4pm. Registration begins April 1st (no fooling ) VITAL RECORDS BILL UPDATE
Senate
Bill 5332 – 2019 -20, proposing changes to Vital Records access in
Washington, has passed the Senate and moved to the House. It is
scheduled for public hearing in the House Committee on Health Care &
Wellness at 9:00 AM on March 22 (subject to change). Contact your
legislator with comments or concerns. Bill information can be found at
this url:
https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5332&Year=2019&initiative=
SAVE THE DATEUlster Historical Foundation, USA Lecture Tour 2019 Lake City Center, 1916 N Lakewood Dr, Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814 Wednesday, March 20, 2019, 1:00pm-8:30pm Enjoy this all day Irish & Scots-Irish Research Seminar with presenters Finton Mullan and Gillian Hunt from the Ulster Historical Foundation, Belfast. Register by February 20th for the early bird price of $35. It will be $50 after that.
For more information on the USA lecture tour, or the Spokane area Coeur d’Alene, ID stop in particular, visit their website: https://www.ancestryireland.com/lecture-tour-2019/IRISH WEEK! MARCH 9 – 23, 2019 SEATTLE, WA
You don’t need to be Irish to join in the fun. The main events will be the weekend of March 16-17 at Seattle Center. For a full list of activities and venues, see the brochure link below. Don’t forget the seminar on Irish genealogy, “Beyond the Basics in Irish Genealogy”, on March 23.
Beyond the Basics in Irish Genealogy, Fairview Christian School, 844 NE 78th St, Seattle, WA 98115 Saturday, March 23, 9:00 am – 5:00pm
Finishing Irish Week, don’t miss this Irish genealogy workshop with regional specialists Steven W Morrison and Jean A Roth. Organized by the Irish Heritage Club of Seattle. Click forMore information and registration.
The ABCs of DNA Genealogy,
With Janet O’Conor Camarata,
Mercer Island Library,
4400 88th Ave SE,
Mercer Island, WA
Thursday, March 28, 7-8 pm
Genealogist
Janet O’Conor Camarata provides tips and tools for selecting and
interpreting DNA results from a variety of health and ancestry DNA
providers, like Ancestry, FamilyTreeDNA, 23andMe and more. Designed for
the non-technical, genealogy oriented audience. Please register. Sponsored by the Friends of the Mercer Island Library, in partnership with Mercer Island Historical Society.
Olympia Genealogical Society,
Beyond the Basics: Genetic Genealogy In Practice
Olympia, WA
Saturday, March 30, 8:30am-3:30pm
Seminar presented by Blaine Bettinger, the Genetic Genealogist. Additional information and registration at :
https://olygensoc.org/cpage.php?pt=4
Jewish Genealogical Society of Washington State,
“Breaking Down Brick Walls” with Mary Kathryn Kozy,
LDS Factoria Church Building,
4200 124th Ave SE
Bellevue, WA 98006
Monday, April 8, 2019
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Come early to network with other attendees.
Presentation starts promptly at 7:15 p.m. Free WIFI, admission, and
refreshmentsSGS CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Unless
otherwise indicated all programs will be at the SGS Library, 6200 Sand
Point Way NE, Seattle. Check the SGS Web Site for additions, changes,
and corrections. Programs may be canceled or postponed because of
inclement weather.
MARCHSaturday, March 30, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm, DNA SIG , this group meets quarterly at Wedgwood Presbyterian Church, 8008 35th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98115, co-chaired by Cary Bright & Herb McDaniel. For more info contact SGSDNASIG@gmail.com
APRIL
Saturday, April 6, 10:15 am – 12:15 pm, Family Tree Interest Group, Lou Daly is leader of this special interest group exploring all the features of the tool Family Tree on FamilySearch.org Come learn about the proposed changes coming to Family Search and Family Tree.
Sunday, April 7, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm, DNA Workshop, with Cary Bright. Q&A first hour, while focus second hour in on Genome Mate Pro.
Saturday, April 13, 1:00 pm-3:00 pm, Second Saturday Speakers Series – “Using the Collections of NARA Seattle” with Trish Hackett Nicola
Sunday, April 14, 1:00 pm-3:00 pm, Scandinavian Special Interest Group, with Karen Knudson
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