Did you have an ancestor that helped take one of the U.S. censuses?
My grandfather, Henry Melville Potter, was an enumerator in his little town of Ashley, Illinois, for the 1910 census. This was his silver badge. I even had the little pocket notebook where he wrote down the census info for his neighbors in the town…… a clearly illegal thing to do but oh so fun to find today. And since the census was handwritten, I have several pages written in his handwriting which is also such fun.
If your (male) ancestor lived in a rural town, is it possible that he was a Census Taker for that town? Have you looked?
Members and Friends of Seattle Genealogical Society,
It has been brought to our attention by Virginia Majewski, President of Washington State Genealogical Society, as well as friends of SGS, Mary Kathryn Kozy, and Cyndi Ingle, that the Washington State Dept of Health is proposing changes to Vital Records access in our state that will adversely effect genealogists. This bill is scheduled for a hearing before the Senate Law and Justice Committee on Thursday, Jan. 31, 2019 at 10 am.
This proposal will : Place restrictions on release of records to the public Place restrictions on who can request certified copies of documents Place restrictions on information included on the documents WASGS has taken the position in bullet points below. It helps clarify what effect the proposed changes might have on you as a genealogist: Vital Records are the backbone of our profession and hobby. Access to these records is essential to our work and embargo periods to records are unnecessarily restrictive. We support keeping all Vital Records open. Access to vital records has not been demonstrated to increase the risk of identity theft. We believe that keeping birth, marriage, divorce and death records open does more to prevent identity theft. Keeping the cause of death on Informational Death Records is essential to genetic and forensic genealogists. We support proposed changes to cover the cost for providing access to Vital Records. Redaction of Social Security numbers on an Informational Copies of Vital Records is supported. You may read the bill in its entirety here: https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5332&year-2019&Initiative=False
Do we need an official Washington State CLAM? Why do we need an official Washington State Clam?
According to a recent bit in my paper (“Washington Legislature in Brief”) our Washington legislators “could declare the razor clam the official Washington state clam, if it can bet back an upstart challenge from the geoduck.”
This is a razor clam. I Googled images of both razor clam and geoduck and didn’t see a whole lot of difference in size or looks.
Yes, it’s a mystery to me why our paid-public-legislators, who have more vital work to do than they will ever have time for, are made to consider such interesting but non-essential stuff.
Way, way back in 2004, The Spokesman Review (and likely newspapers all over the world) ran a story about Shrek the Sheep.
This was a sheep in New Zealand who avoided shearing roundup for five years and when finally found had a coat weighing nearly sixty pounds…… and as you see, his fleece was growing down over his eyes. The story alone was most interesting but the story was by our local religion editor and his point was that “nothing good happens to you in the long run when you stray from the flock.”
Monday, February 11Wenatchee Area Genealogical Society2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. (Local society meetings)Douglas County PUD Auditorium1151 Valley Mall Parkway, East Wenatchee WAGS members and guests are invited to a round table discussion on”Your Research: from ‘the Pits’ to the Mountaintops!” where we will share, first, mistakes we have made; and second, things we did well in our research. Come and profit from others’ experiences! For more information, call 509-782-4046, or visit the WAGS website (www.wags-web.org)
This is an ALERT
to proposed changes to access to Vital Records
in the State of Washington, SB 5332-2019-20.
Currently, Washington is an open records state.
Change has been proposed by the Dept. of Health to restrict access
to Vital Records in our state. DOH is proposing changes based on a
“best practices” in vital records control and recommendations
from the Federal Government, citing privacy concerns and identity
theft. These changes will affect all genealogists!
Here is a brief summary of the proposed
changes:
Placing restrictions on release of records to
the public:
100 years for live birth and fetal death
50 years for death, marriage, divorce,
annulment, legal separation and dissolution of domestic partnerships
Placing restrictions on who certified copies of
Vital Records (birth, death, marriage, and divorce) may be released
to:
Birth Certificates will only be released to
the “subject of the record” (yourself), the subject’s spouse
or domestic partner, child, parent, step-parent, sibling,
grandparent, legal guardian, legal representative or authorized
representative before the 100 year embargo.
Death Certificates will be released to the
decedent’s spouse or domestic partner, child, parent, step-parent,
sibling, grandparent, grandchild, legal guardian immediately prior
to death, legal representative, authorized representative or next of
kin as specified in RCW 11.28.120 before the 50 year embargo.
Certificate of Fetal Death will be released to
a parent, a parent’s legal representative, an authorized
representative, sibling or a grandparent before the 100 year
embargo.
New Provisions:
The State may issue an informational copy to a
vital record to anyone. Informational copies must contain only the
information “allowed by rule”.
Informational death copies will not include
information related to the cause of death and manner of death.
“Authorized representative” will include
genealogists. This will require a notarized letter of permission
from next of kin and personal identification.
Applicants will be required to provide
identification and proof of relationship to obtain certified copies
of vital records.
WSGS has been working with the Records
Preservation and Access Committee of the Federation of Genealogical
Societies, the National Genealogical Society and the International
Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies on this issue.
WSGS has taken the position that:
Vital Records are the backbone of our
profession and hobby. Access to these records is essential to our
work and embargo periods to records are unnecessarily restrictive.
We support keeping all Vital Records open.
Access to vital records has not been demonstrated to increase the
risk of identity theft. We believe that keeping birth, marriage,
divorce and death records open does more to prevent identity theft.
Keeping the cause of death on Informational
Death Records is essential to genetic and forensic genealogists.
We support proposed changes to cover the cost
for providing access to Vital Records.
Redaction of Social Security numbers on an
Informational Copies of Vital Records is supported.
We are asking all of you to please contact your
local Senator, the members of the Senate Law and Justice Committee
and the sponsors of the bill; Sen. Jamie Pederson, Sen. Ann Rivers,
Sen. Claire Wilson, Sen. Maureen Walsh, Sen. Emily Randall, Sen.
Annette Cleveland and Sen. Marko Liias. This bill is scheduled for a
hearing before the Senate Law and Justice Committee on Thursday, Jan.
31, 2019 at 10am. Please submit your comments before Thursday!
Senate Law & Justice Committee: Sen. Jamie Pederson Sen. Manka Dhingra Sen. Mike Padden Sen. Jeff Holy Sen. Patty Kuderer Sen. Jessie Salomon Sen. Lynda Wilson
The Jewish Genealogical Society of Washington State is pleased to present our
February
meeting program
“Breaking Down Brick Walls”
presented by Mary Kathryn Kozy, Genealogical Lecturer
DATE:Monday,February 11, 2019
LDSFactoria Church
Building
4200 124th
Ave SE
Bellevue,WA
98006
(just off I-90 and I-405)
• Doors open at 6:30 p.m., for all to enjoy the extensive JGSWS Library’s genealogical resources,
including FREE access to the FHC computers and genealogical websites!
• Free Wi-Fi available. Come early to network with other attendees!
• Presentation starts promptly at 7:15 p.m.
• Free admission and refreshments
ABOUT OUR PROGRAM:
“Breaking Down Brick Walls”
Everyone
has them: family lines that seem to have defied every effort to push
them back farther in time. (Don’t have a brick wall yet? Just wait. You
probably haven’t been doing family history
long enough!) This presentation will discuss how you might be adding to
that wall yourself, brick by brick, with some common research mistakes.
We will also discuss several simple steps you can take to reevaluate
where you are in the research process. Using
the Genealogical Proof Standard, we will walk through methodologies
that, when applied to your problem, may give you greater insight. Who
knows? Perhaps looking at your genealogical problem with a fresh
perspective will cause that brick wall to come tumbling
down in 2019!
ABOUT OUR SPEAKER
Mary Kathryn Kozy has
been working on her own family history for almost 40 years, since she
first became interested as a young teenager. Over the years she has
researched families in the United States from the Midwest
to the Deep South, and from both Western and Eastern Europe. She
started her own family history website in November 1996 and has
continued developing it. She has served in multiple positions in several
local societies and on the state level. She currently
supports the USGenWeb project, serves as a part-time LDS Family History
missionary, and speaks to many groups in the area. Mary is married, the
mother of three wonderful children, and is now a grandma of three. She
holds bachelor’s degrees from UW in both
Zoology and Information Technology & Systems and has completed two
certificate programs with the National Institute for Genealogical
Studies. She has also completed the ProGen program with an eye toward
certification as a professional genealogist.
Please visit our website at
http://www.jgsws.org/membership.php
to join or to donate to JGSWS to help support
the incredible speakers and workshops we bring to you, to view library
listings, download handouts, or for more information. JGSWS is a
501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization. Membership
dues and donations are tax deductible.
Genealogist and BlackProGen host Nicka Smith. Photo Courtesy Nicka Smith. The Genealogical Forum of Oregon is pleased to welcome BlackProGen host Nicka Smith to its next African American Ancestry Group
meeting on Saturday, January 26 from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. She will appear
in a remote presentation from her home base of Tennessee, and her topic
will be “The Future of African American Genealogy.” Smith
is a professional photographer, speaker, and documentarian with more
than 20 years of experience as a genealogist. She is the host of
BlackProGen Live, a web show focused on people of color genealogy and
family history. With
rapid digitization of crucial record sets to the explosion of DNA
testing, the landscape of African American genealogy and family history
research is constantly evolving. Attendees can discover why these
advancements are key for all types of genealogy and how they can help
break down years-long barriers in personal research efforts. The
meeting is free and open to the public at the GFO Library in the
basement of the historic Ford Building at S.E. 11th Ave. & Division
in Portland.
Barbara Rae-Venter. Photo by Brian L. Frank. We have exciting news for this year’s Open House! You have a chance to hear directly from the genetic genealogist who cracked the Golden State Killer case. Barbara Rae-Venter is coming to speak at the GFO during our DNA Days. On Saturday, March 30th, she will talk in the afternoon about DNA genealogy research techniques. On the morning of Sunday, March 31st, she’ll speak about the Golden State Killer case itself. Many thanks to Emily Aulicino for arranging this rare opportunity. Barbara’s sleuthing has been profiled in the New YorkTimes and she was named one of the 10 People Who Mattered most in 2018 by Nature magazine. This will be popular so you must register for these limited seats. Registration opens on Friday, March 1st at 9:00 a.m., at our website.
GFO Library Remains Free for All Federal Workers
The record setting government shutdown continues, and so does our offer to federal employees who are getting no pay. You are welcome to come and use the GFO Library FREE as long as this shutdown lasts. You
may have extra time on your hands; feel free to come tap all the
resources the GFO has to offer, including 50,000 holdings and access to
subscription databases that would cost you an arm and a leg at home. Please show your government employment I.D. at our reception desk for free admission.
We Love a Success Story
If
you know about our Boot Camp for Beginners, you know there are
virtually no breaks and only a half hour for lunch at the most. Yet one
recent participant managed to parlay that short break into a successful
search at the GFO library. Patricia emailed this marvelous note to us: “I
decided to do a little research on my 2nd great maternal grandmother.
I’ve being focusing on her husband for the last number of months, so I
thought I would peek in and see what I could find about her. They were
the ones who first immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland. I not only found
her baptismal record, which was wonderful, but what we always love to
find is bonus information. I now have her parents names! So happy!” You never know what you’ll find tucked away in the GFO’s vast collection!
Fred Meyer/GFO Rewards: A Small Change
We’d
like to thank everyone who has registered their Fred Meyer Rewards
cards to benefit the Genealogical Forum of Oregon. You generate regular
donations without paying any more for groceries. Fred
Meyer has made a small change to our account number. If you’d like to
do your part, be sure to link your card to Genealogical Forum of Oregon,
Account #PB444. Community Rewards is easy to use, The more you shop, the more money the GFO earns!
Library Tours Available in Person … and on Video!
Did
you know we offer free group tours of the GFO Library? If you know
people who’d like to learn all we have to share, please have them
contact tours@gfo.org. Or, if you have 15 free seconds, you can just click over to our YouTube Channel for our Fastest Library Tour Ever! (The personal tour is far better, and your group gets four hours of time to research after the tour!)
SATURDAY, January 26th DNA Advanced Group 9 a.m. – noon Tim Janzen will speak on merging duplicates in master match list spreadsheets, GEDmatch, and phasing. Each topic will be about 1 hour on each. Jef Treece will do about a half hour on GEDmatch, and Tim will do the other half. Library Closes Early 12:45 p.m. (to allow multiple Special Interest Groups) African American Ancestry Group 12:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. We will enjoy a remote presentation from Nicka Smith, a professional photographer, speaker, and documentarian with more than 20 years of experience as a genealogist. She is the host of BlackProGen Live, a Web show focused on people of color genealogy and family history. She will speak on “The Future of African American Genealogy.” (Full note above.) British Ancestry Group 1 p.m. – 3 p.m. At this meeting we will discuss online sources. Tom O’Brian will explain the ins and outs of the FamilySearch website, and we can help with your brick walls. The focus of this group is on researching in the British Isles: England, Wales, Scotland, and Scots-Irish. SUNDAY, January 27th Library Work Party 9 a.m. – noon There’s another work party at the GFO library today for those of you who can come. There’s lots to do and we’d love to have your help. Doors open at 9 and work usually wraps up around noon. Some people come for just an hour or so; others work the full time. You are welcome to do either. Any time you can share is valuable. Hope to see you there. WEDNESDAY, January 30th Library Open late to 8 p.m.
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.EWSGI.org for more information. That’s the Eastern
Washington Genealogical Society in Spokane.
Reporting in again with a progress report on my SCRIBE-ing fun.
I’m proud to announce that I was number 142 on the list…. meaning that 141 folks had indexed more names than me. But you see I’ve risen up to number 84! So “only” 83 folks have done more indexing than me. I likely will never catch up with (WSGS Past President) Stephen Baylor or Charles Hansen but that’s okay. I’m SCRIBE-ing and that’s the point.
SCRIBE is the indexing opportunity afforded by the Washington State Archives. Google it to get yourself set up to contribute and you too will soon have happy news to report!
You are free to copy articles to any non-commercial web site or message board or printed publication you wish. Don’t bother to ask permission, just do it.
