The companion bill to the Senate Bill 5332 on closing vital records is House Bill # 1550. The house has had the first reading of that bill and it does not have a scheduled date for public hearing. If you hit on comments and fill in your address it will bring up your representative and you can send him a comment on the bill.
Health Care and Wellness Committee members. I did not find their E-Mails, Sorry
Cody, Eileen (D) Chair 303 John L. O’Brien Building (360) 786-7978
Macri, Nicole (D) V Chair311 John L. O’Brien Building (360) 786-7826
Schmick, Joe (R)Minority Member 426B Legislative Building (360) 786-7844
Caldier, Michelle(R)AsstMinority Member122H Legislative Building(360) 786-7802
Chambers, Kelly (R) 426 John L. O’Brien Building (360) 786-7948
Davis, Lauren (D) 369 John L. O’Brien Building (360) 786-7910
DeBolt, Richard (R) 425A Legislative Building (360) 786-7896
Harris, Paul (R) 426A Legislative Building (360) 786-7976
Jinkins, Laurie (D) 320 John L. O’Brien Building (360) 786-7930
Maycumber, Jacquelin (R)425B Legislative Building (360) 786-7908
Riccelli, Marcus (D) 434A Legislative Building (360) 786-7888
Robinson, June (D) 332 John L. O’Brien Building (360) 786-7864
Stonier, Monica Jurado(D)331 John L. O’Brien Building (360) 786-7872
Thai, My-Linh (D) 424 John L. O’Brien Building (360) 786-7926
Tharinger, Steve (D) 314 John L. O’Brien Building (360) 786-7904
Perhaps this will be a “mystery solved” post for you all. Have you, like me, seen small stones places atop of tombstones or other grave markers? Know why that is and how the custom began? Apparently it’s an ancient Jewish tradition to put a small stone on a grave as a token of remembrance. Case in point, the grave of Oskar Schindler in Jerusalem:
When you next visit a cemetery and observe small stones on graves, or think to leave one yourself on the marker for a loved one, remember why this is. And perhaps remember Oskar.
What do Saxe Gotha Neighbors, North Carolina Wills, Lithuanian Jewish Communities, and Mayflower Source Records have in common? They’re all among 21 of our recent acquisitions. Our
library committee regularly evaluates donated books, books available
for trade, and those we might wish to purchase to enhance certain areas
of our collection. Be sure to check out our “New Books” shelves to see the latest additions to the GFO Library.
GFO Stars: Endowment Committee
Marti Dell, Anita Lustenberger, Doug Henne, and Marty Krauter (left to right) Our newest GFO Stars are Marti Dell, Anita Lustenberger, Doug Henne, and Marty Krauter. All of the members of GFO’s Endowment Committee have served multiple terms. As part of their service, the Endowment Committee has done a wonderful job of managing GFO’s assets and growing the investments. For your many years of service and your continued stewardship, we thank you!
Seminar: Genetic Genealogy in Practice
Our
friends at the Olympia Genealogical Society invite you to their 2019
Spring Seminar featuring genetic genealogist Blaine Bettinger. The seminar will be held on Saturday, March 30 in Olympia, Washington.Topics include: * Using Autosomal DNA for 18th and 19th Century Mysteries * Using Third Party Tools to Analyze Your Autosomal DNA * The Danger of Distant Matches * Mapping Your Chromosomes Using DNA Painter For more information go to the Olympia Genealogical Society website at https://olygensoc.org.
Only Surviving Arabic Slave Narrative in U.S. Digitized by Library of Congress
We
know that a handful of slaves in the 1800s wrote autobiographies of
their experience. Only one was written in Arabic in the U.S. and is
known to survive to this day. According to Smithsonian Magazine, that Arabic memoir of a slave sold in Charleston, South Carolina, is now fully digitized and available at the Library of Congress. “Omar
Ibn Said was leading a prosperous life in West Africa at the turn of
the 19th century, devoting himself to scholarly pursuits and the study
of Islam, when he was captured, carted across the globe, and sold as a
slave in Charleston, South Carolina.” After being in America for 50 years, Said died in 1864, one year before slavery was legally abolished. “To
have [the manuscript] preserved at the Library of Congress and made
available to everyday people and researchers across the world will make
this collection an irreplaceable tool for research on Africa in the 18th
and 19th centuries,” says Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, one that
she predicts will further “shed light on the history of American
slavery.”
Do any women in your old family photos wear hats? The Minnesota Historical Society has archived 717 hat styles that could help you figure out when the picture was taken. Hat tip to genealogy blogger Gail Dever for writing about this. You can read her full story here. Dever notes, “The hats range from straw hats worn in the 1860s to pink pussy hats women wore during women’s marches in 2017.” The society doesn’t have a page set up to find just hats, but they did provide this link with filters that will take you to a display of this hat collection.
SATURDAY, February 2nd Virginia Group 10 a.m. – noon From Institutes to Webinars: Genealogy Education Join
us for a discussion of educational opportunities to enhance your
genealogical experience. We all know that genealogy is much more than
adding names and dates to a list, but organizing, interpreting, and
analyzing the information we find can be a challenge. There are
educational opportunities to enhance any level of experience, and in all
price ranges, including no cost. We’ll explore many of those
opportunities, and have people available who have taken advantage of
many of them to answer any question you might have. For more information see our blog: “Virginia Roots and Vines” Questions? Email the facilitators, Judi Scott and Carol Surrency, at Virginia@gfo.org. German Group 1 – 3 p.m. Speaker: Emily Aulicino Topic: How she was able to trace her ancestors back to the 1500s. Index: A. German 16 states: #2 Bavaria B. Valentine’s Day German recipes C. Online heritage books / Ortsfamilienbücher D. Update on the 2020 census E. Conferences, etc. SUNDAY, February 3rd Manuscripts Work Party 9 a.m. – noon Explore
our manuscript, personal papers, and Bible collection while we
organize, scan, and create finding aids. Drop by at the time that works
for you. Questions? Send a note to manuscripts@gfo.org. MONDAY, February 4th Free First Monday! 9:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. Come
visit our research library each first Monday of every month and splurge
on all GFO’s wonderful resources for FREE. Explore our online databases
like Fold3, Ancestry World Library Edition, Newspapers.com, and many
more. Our analog and microfilm collections total over 50,000 items.
Don’t miss out! WEDNESDAY, February 6th Learn & Chat 10 a.m. – noon At
Learn & Chat some of the learning comes from speakers with
particular expertise, but most of it comes from the sharing of
experiences and knowledge of attendees who have developed methods that
work for them. And if you have been doing genealogy for any length time,
you have likely experienced the wonderful moments of exhilaration, the
successes that you then share with others and that drive you to continue
researching. Unfortunately, those times can be few and far between.
Join us to talk about your genealogy questions and help provide support
to others. Facilitated by Jeanne Quan and Sandy Alto. DNA Q&A 1 – 3 p.m. Lisa
McCullough will be available to help answer your DNA questions, whether
you are new and just getting started or have more involved questions.
Questions? Send a note to the group’s leader at dna_qa@gfo.org.
Contact for this release: Judy Tough
360-385-3065 or tough@olympus.net
FOR RELEASE: February,
2019
FAN Club
Are you a member of a FAN Club? The FAN
Club (Friends, Associates and Neighbors) was
coined by Elizabeth Shown Mills as a way to search those who
‘clustered’ around your ancestor. Learning more about an
ancestor’s FAN Club is a great way to discover new information
about your direct ancestry, as these people are often listed together
in deeds, wills, newspaper articles, church records and more.
The public is invited to attend this
FREE presentation at the Jefferson County Genealogical Society (JCGS)
on Saturday, February 16, 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. at the Tri Area
Community Center, 10 W. Valley Rd, Chimacum. Donations are welcomed
and appreciated.
Our presenter,
Diane Young, is a member of JCGS, has a B.A. and M.S. in Business.
She taught at the college and university levels for over 30 years.
She has been working on her own Swedish and Czech ancestry and her
husband’s Scottish ancestry for over 40 years.
4Culture has renewed our Sustained Support Grant for the next two years. 4Culture is a tax-exempt public development authority (PDA) run by King County. Sustained Support grants assist with the day-to-day needs of arts, heritage, and preservation organizations such as Seattle Genealogical Society. A portion of the lodging tax revenues collected in King County provides all of the funding for the grants.
IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR SGS MEMBERS The SGS Board has recently reviewed the Bylaws and found a need for some updating. Bylaw changes require a vote of the membership. Below is a link to the proposed changes – we will be asking the membership for a vote on these changes sometime before the next election period. Please take a moment and look them over and stay tuned for more information regarding your vote!
SGS MEMBERSHIP MEETING SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 2019 12:30 PM The SGS Spring Membership Meeting will be Saturday, March 9th at 12:30 PM, right before the 2nd Saturday Speaker Series presentation.
We will once again review the proposed changes to the Society’s ByLaws and also discuss the slate of nominees for the Board of Directors in 2019-2020.
Names of nominees being accepted. If you have a suggest contact nominations@seattlegenealogicalsociety.org
CALL FOR SGS BOOTH VOLUNTEERS FOR MARCH 16 & 17 Volunteers are needed to staff the SGS Booth, pass out brochures, and answer questions at the Irish Week Festival at Seattle Center Armory on Saturday, March 16 & Sunday, March 17. Each volunteer will be scheduled for a 2 hour stint in the booth. If you can help on either day, please contact Jean Roth at 206 782-2629 or jeanaroth@juno.com
While you are down there, you’ll have time to enjoy some of the cultural exhibits and the Irish dancing. This festival is fun for the entire family and a great way to spend St Patrick’s Day. SAVE THE DATE FREE JAPANESE GENEALOGY SEMINAR with Linda Harms Okazaki February 2-3, 2019 Seattle Public Library, 1000 4th Ave, Seattle, WA SGS is proud to sponsor one of the first seminars in the region to assist those interested in learning how to research Japanese-Americans heritage. While the program is free, registration is required. Hurry, sign up now.
Entry level family historians are encouraged to attend Saturday’s all-day program “Exploring Our Nikkei Genealogy” geared toward novice researchers.
Intermediate and advanced level researchers are encouraged to attend Sunday morning’s program “Japanese American Research for Genealogists”.
Strategies for Breaking Down Brick Walls, With Mary Kozy, Jewish Genealogical Society of Washington State, LDS Factoria Church Building 4200 124th Ave SE Bellevue, WA 98006 Monday, February 11, 7:15 pm Doors open at 6:30 pm for all to enjoy the extensive JGSWS library’s genealogical resources. Free Wi-Fi, admission, and refreshments. Come early to network with other attendees. Presentation starts promptly at 7:15 pm. Beyond the Basics in Irish Genealogy, Fairview Christian School, 844 NE 78th St, Seattle, WA 98115 Saturday, March 23, 10:00 am
An all day seminar with speakers Steven Morrison and Jean A Roth. Information and registration will be through the Irish Heritage Club of Seattle website :
http://irishclub.org/irish-week/
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.
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.
FEBRUARYSaturday, February 2, 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
Sunday, February 3, 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, February 9, 1:00 pm-3:00 pm, Second Saturday Speakers Series – “Using Manuscripts and Family Records for Genealogical Proof” with Steven Morrison
Saturday, February 16, 10:15 am – 12:15 pm, Irish SIG, Jean Roth, leader
Saturday, February 16, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm, German SIG, Jean Roth, leader
MARCHSaturday, March 2, 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
Sunday, March 3, 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, March 9, 10:15 am – 12:15 pm, (FTM) FAMILY TREE Maker Users Group,
co-leaders Reiley Kidd & Jess Ramey, meets on the 2nd Saturday of
every odd month (Jan 2019, Mar 2019, May 2019). Family Tree Maker is the
genealogy software long associated with Ancestry.com
Saturday, March 9, 12:30 pm-1:00 pm, Seattle Genealogical Society Membership Meeting, important meeting – discuss proposed bylaw changes and board nominees
Saturday, March 9, 1:00 pm-3:00 pm, Second Saturday Speakers Series – “Finding Your Female Ancestors” with Lisa Oberg
Saturday, 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
TIP OF THE WEEK –NOW WITH CLOSED CAPTIONING Legacy
Family Tree Webinars has announced they will add the option of closed
captioning to all their new webinars going forward. Also, the most
popular 50 webinars on their platform, as well as the
MyHeritage-specific webinars, have been captioned.
Geoff
Rasmussen, founder and host of Legacy Family Tree Webinars says,
“Captioning is an excellent way to make online education more
accessible, and is also a benefit to non-native English speakers who
struggle with spoken English, but have an easier time with written
English”.
Beginning this year, they also have plans to host
webinars in non-English languages, as well as translate English closed
captions into select foreign languages.
Legacy Family Tree
Webinars makes each new live webinar, and its recording, free to watch
for the first 7 days. With a paid subscription, you get additional
benefits, plus access to the library of past webinars, containing over
1,000 hours of quality genealogy education.
To try out the
newly implemented Closed Caption option, just click on the blue CC icon
displayed in the right hand, bottom corner of the screen of the
webinar.
First I want to thank everyone that had responded to the blog post last week that told of the proposed bill from the Washington State Health Department to close Washington state birth records for 100 years, and death, marriage and divorce records for 50 years. January 31st was the public hearing in the Washington State Senate Law and Justice Committee, here is the link to the bill number 5332 It also has a schedule for the next round which is the executive meeting for the committee where they can decide to amend the, kill the bill or pass it on to the full senate for a vote. The link above gives the times of the next hearing and a link to where you can watch the hearing either on TVW a on a Washington cable tv or the link to the live streaming of the hearing.
If
you want to contact the members of the committee and let them know how
crucial access to these records (and their indexes) are to us as
genealogists, you can write them here:
The main reason the Health Department gave for locking up the records is identity theft, which has been proven does not happen from vital records being open. In the hearing five people spoke in favor of the bill since they would receive $3 more for each certified birth and death certificate they issued and all five said that they were loosing money issuing those certificates at $20 and so the extra $3 would be very welcome. Washington State Genealogical Society spoke on leaving the records open and if closed to make sure the informational copies of death certificates will have the cause of death. The health department said many people had asked that the cause of death not be shown on informational copies. The health department also said they were going to keep the indexes open and continue to send copies to the state archives to post online. Last person to testify was a lobbyist for the newspapers and he said that they usually did not use death certificates for cause of deaths that they would cover in a newspaper. If they covered a death they went right to the coroner or medical examiner for the cause of death. He also said if the cause of death was from cancer or some other hereditary disease that the cause of death should be on informational copies.
Notice not one person testifying said anything about how this proposed bill is needed to stop identity theft or how it is supposed to stop identity theft that comes from other sources.
The original blog post had 798 page views from I think every state in the United States, and 425 cities. One from Dublin Ireland and Melbourne Australia. We had 604 referrals from Facebook. On January 29th we had 313 page views on this one blog post. More than we usually get in a whole week on all our blog posts.
If you didn’t catch it last week, here it is again:
SUNNY JANE MORTON IS COMING
TO SPOKANE
NEXT APRIL 6th for EWGS Spring Seminar
And who is Sunny Jane McClellan Morton, you rightfully ask?
Sunny Jane Morton is an internationally-known, award-winning writer, editor
and speaker for the multibillion-dollar genealogy industry. She is a
Contributing Editor at Lisa Louise
Cooke’s Genealogy Gems Podcast, with more than 2.5 million downloads
worldwide, and a Contributing Editor at Family Tree Magazine, the U.S.’
premiere publication for genealogy hobbyists. A popular speaker at events
across the country (including RootsTech), Sunny is especially known for expertise in tracing U.S. ancestors,
particularly in church records; her unique comparisons of the industry’s
largest websites; and inspiring presentations on how to reconstruct and tell
meaningful stories from the past. Sunny is the author of Story
of My Life: A Workbook for Preserving Your Legacy, Genealogy
Giants: Comparing the 4 Major Websites and the forthcoming How
to Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records (working title),
co-authored with Harold Henderson, CG. She is the Co-Editor of Ohio Genealogy
News and winner of the prestigious NGS Newsletter Competition (2017) and
writing awards from the International Society of Family History Writers and
Editors. She holds degrees in history and humanities from Brigham Young
University.
Stay tuned to www.EWGSI.org for more information. That’s the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society in Spokane.
WHATCOM GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY TO CELEBRATE 50th ANNIVERSARY! Whatcom
Genealogical Society will celebrate its 50th Anniversary on Monday,
Feb. 11th from 2 – 4 pm at the Bellingham Elks Lodge, 710 Samish Way,
Bellingham, WA. Our speaker will be Jeff Jewell, Photo Archivist at the
Whatcom Museum. Visitors welcome! For information: 360-733-8300.
Looks like TVW has scheduled the hearing at 10 am Thursday the 31st of January for those that have cable TV. They will also stream it here
Now they have scheduled an executive session for February 7th which may change also. Click here for details
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