Eastern Washington Genealogical Society January Luncheon

by Charles Hansen

At our January 5 2019 meeting of EWGS we will have three functions.

***We will honor our past presidents who will be with us at the meeting.

***We will install our new 2019 officers including Dolly Webb and those who will serve with her.

***We will experience a live webinar with Diahan Southard entitled: “Three Next Steps for Your DNA Test Results.”

Please arrive at the Fosseen Room at Mukogawa by 11:30 so we can start promptly and complete our full agenda. Thank you!

This all takes place at the Fosseen Room at Mukogawa (4000 W. Randolph Road). We will dine on a soup, sandwich and salad bar for $20.00 which includes tax and gratuity. The Webinar will be visible on two large monitors in the room so they should be easily visible.

There are 2 registration options:  To pay with a credit card go to EWGSI.ORG and click on the upcoming Meetings and Events menu on the left side. The first event on the page is this meeting. The button at the bottom of the event will allow you to pay the $20.00 with a credit card (through PayPal) so it arrives right away. You can send a check to EWGS, PO Box 1826, Spokane, WA 99210-1826 for $20.00 Please make your payment as soon as possible so the correct number of lunches can be provided. December 15th is the cut off date for registration and we will only be able to accommodate 80 people, so please register now so you don’t miss out!

Tuesday Trivia

by Charles Hansen

What is one of Washington’s best known and least liked animals???

SLUGS! They may be nature’s ultimate recycler but to most of us they are icky.

“One of Washington’s best-known molluscs is a slug….a very big slug, to be exact. The honorable banana slug is commonly 4 to 6 inches long and sometimes can reach 10 inches. Slugs are most active at night and in dim, humid conditions because they need the humidity to replenish liquid that is consumed in their prodigious production of slime. Slime is very important to the slug. It provides both traction and lubrication and also protects the slug’s sole.”

(This bit comes from The Washington Almanac, by Andrea Jarvela, 1999.)

According to author Jarvela, “banana slugs can be eaten. Fry them after removing the slime by soaking the slugs in vinegar. They taste just like the more expensive French escargots….”

Have you ever chomped a fried banana slug?????

Monday Mystery

by Charles Hansen

Okay, you travel detectives, where is this? And what is this?

If you travel north on I-5 and take exit 207 (just north of Marysville) you’ll see this relic of the past……………a stump house!

Yes, in days of yore in Washington, when logging was king and giant cedars trees prized above all, the cutting of these woody monsters left huge stumps. These stumps were often hollow in the middle and so all an enterprising settler needed to do was put a roof over the stump and viola! Home sweet home. Kinda. Sorta.

Google the words “stump homes Washington” and then images, and you’ll be amazed at those old images of our pioneer ancestors’ ingenuity.

GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Thursday Evening E-News

by Charles Hansen
Curious about the status of your GFO Membership? We’d love to have you as a GFO Member!
THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Thursday Evening E-News Edition December 6, 2018
For more information visit www.gfo.org, contact us at info@gfo.org, or call our library at 503-963-1932. Be sure to check the complete GFO CALENDAR.
Also, don’t miss the current issue of The Forum Insider
GFO’s Annual Appeal: It’s a Time of Giving!
What do you call a group with no paid staff, the largest genealogy collection in the Pacific Northwest, and a library that’s open daily? You know the answer: Portland’s very own Genealogical Forum of Oregon! Did you also know that member dues cover only 24 percent of our budget? Our rent is going up $1,200 every year. Oh my!
Our database subscriptions now cost almost $5,000 each year. Once a year we ask for your support. Now is that time. During this Annual Appeal we need to raise $25,000.
We’re confident you can help us make it happen. Please make your tax deductible donation to the GFO today.
Give Today
The GFO belongs to the Oregon Cultural Trust. We have a Silver Star rating on GuideStar. Please check with your employer on possible matching donations, especially through Benevity. Thanks for all you do to keep GFO going strong!
Join Library Tour for Hispanic Heritage Resources
Do you have an interest in Hispanic heritage? GFO’s Mexican Ancestry Group invites you to join a tour of the Multnomah County Library’s Hispanic genealogical resources.
The tour begins at 12:30 p.m. on Monday, December 17th at Multnomah County’s Central Library 801 SW 10th Ave. There is paid parking across the street and in the area. PLEASE RSVP by emailing sw@gfo.org.
Don’t Miss It! Free Mac Class for GFO Members next Wednesday
Photos 101 – As genealogists, we do a lot of photo handling. Apple’s free Photos App is a great tool to edit and organize your photos to make them look their best for all archiving purposes. Don’t struggle with tasks like fixing/cropping images from sites like FindAGrave when you can get a solid grasp of the basics in this free class. The Portland Mac Users Group offers this PMUG College class on Wednesday, December 12th, from 6 to 8 p.m. at GFO’s very own library. This class is completely FREE for GFO and PMUG members. $10 for non-members. (Become a GFO member here!) More information is available on the PMUG website.
Boot Camp: No Boots, Tents or Experience Needed!
Join Laurel Smith at the GFO for a day of beginning genealogy on January 8th. There will be sessions about the census, vital records, immigration and naturalization, discussions about genealogy software and database use, organizing your research and more — all geared toward beginners. Bring a sack lunch so the discussion can continue while we eat. GFO members may attend for free, non-members $20. Here’s what attendees are saying: “Boot Camp was rocking, wow do I regret not having it before I started my work . . . such a good teacher . . . a marathon that was time well-spent . . . informative and motivational . . . with humor and positive energy . . . more than exceeded my expectations” Member or not, please let us know if you plan to attend and REGISTER ONLINE by January 3rd. A link to the class notes will be emailed on Saturday, January 5th.
This week at GFO …
SATURDAY, December 8th Writers’ Forum 1 – 3 p.m. We are currently working on Bruce Tarshis’s How to be Your Own Best Editor, chapters 10 and 11. Everyone is welcome, whether you have participated before or not. This is your chance to get started writing or to improve your writing, whether you are writing for yourself or for others. We learn about good writing techniques — write and read what we write to each other. Without exception, everyone who has participated in this group over the last fourteen years writes better than they did when they started.
Purpose: This is a peer group of genealogists, who meet to learn about writing and to share our writing with each other. Peggy Baldwin facilitates this group and can be reached at writers@gfo.org or 503-916-9410. SUNDAY, December 9th Library Work Party 9:00 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, December 12th PMUG – Mac Users’ Class 6 – 8 p.m. Portland Mac Users Group offers its college class at GFO library. The class this time will be about the Photos application, which is included on all current Macintosh systems. Free to GFO and PMUG members. More information available at PMUG’s website.

Banner Photos Identified

by Roxanne Lowe

Have you noticed the Blog banner changes every time you visit? The photos are submitted by readers like you — and Carol Ballard of Olympia. Carol recently sent us three beautiful scenic photos:

  • A wintery shot of Henderson Inlet near Olympia (pictured at right)
  • State ferry on its way to Bremerton
  • Millersylvania State Park near Olympia

We’re always looking for scenic photos of our beautiful state for the rotating photo gallery on the blog banner. It’s easy — just send a Washington State jpg image to wsgsblog@wasgs.org with a description of the photo. The blog masters will take care of the rest!

Friday Serendipity

by Charles Hansen

What do you know about catsup? Or ketchup? Or tomato sauce, as it’s called in some parts of the world?

In New Zealand they call it Tomato Sauce but the bottle and the contents were quite familiar to us and worked dandy fine for dipping french fries.

Bet you didn’t know that (according to Google) our concept of catsup/ketchup comes from a Chinese condiment? The word originally meant fish sauce in a dialect of Fujian province and then people from there immigrated to America they brought their food tastes with them.

Here is a recipe for Tomata (sic) Catsup in 1817:

“Gather a gallon of fine, red and fully ripe tomatas; mash them with one pound of salt; let them rest for three days then press off the juice and to each quart add a quarter pound of anchovies, two ounces of shallots, and an ounce of black pepper; boil up together for half an hour, strain through a sieve and put to it the following spices: quarter ounce of mace, the same of allspice and ginger, half an ounce of nutmeg, a drachm of coriander seed and half a drachm of cochineal; pound all together; let them simmer gently for twenty minutes and strain through a bag; when cold, bottle it,a dding to each bottle a wineglass of brandy. It will keep for seven years.”

A “drachm” is 1/8 of an ounce; cochineal was for red color and came from a certain seashell.

Makes me wonder: what is the list of ingredients for modern-day ketchup or catsup??? No brandy, I’d guess.

 

Wednesday Nostalgia

by Charles Hansen

What’s better than German Chocolate Cake? Nothing much, eh? Did you know it did not originate in Germany?? Nope, not a “German food.”

“German chocolate” was developed by an English/American baker, Samuel German, in 1852. The Baker’s Chocolate Company used Samuel German’s creation of a dark baking chocolate to ultimately develop a recipe for a chocolate-coconut cake. On 3 Jun 1957, a recipe for “German’s Chocolate Cake appeared as the “Recipe of the Day” in The Dallas Morning News. It was created by Mrs. George Clay, a homemaker from Dallas.”

General Foods, which owned the Baker’s brand at the time, took notice and distributed the cake recipe to other newspapers and sales of Baker’s Chocolate are said to have skyrocketed. The possessive form (German’s) was dropped in subsequent publications forming the “German Chocolate Cake” identity and giving the false impression of a German origin.”

(Thanks to both Wikipedia and Der Ahnenforscher, newsletter of the German Genealogy Group (www.TheGGG.org) ……. to which you might want to subscribe iffen you have German roots and not just a love of German Chocolate Cake.0

 

 

2019 International German Genealogy Conference

by Charles Hansen

 

6 months to go … 6 gifts to choose from

The 6th of December is celebrated as St. Nicholas Day in many parts of German-speaking Europe. The real Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of children, sailors, students, teachers, and merchants. Since he delivers gifts to children on his feast day, Dec. 6, the saint is often confused with Santa Claus, who came about much later.
While Nicholas doesn’t use reindeer, he does travel with a companion known by different names. Be warned that this is no jolly elf. One alias, Krampus, actually enjoys scaring the children!

So how did we get from St. Nicholas to Santa Claus? Thank Martin Luther, who, in his effort to give Protestants their own Christmas traditions, introduced an angel-like Christ Child (Christkindl) who brought gifts. This religious figure was later replaced by der Weihnachtsmann (Father Christmas) a.k.a. Santa Claus.

Whether you’re shopping for St. Nicholas Day or Christmas, check out these gifts for those attending the International German Genealogy Conference in Sacramento next June.
You could wrap up a tour of San Francisco, the Wine/Gold Country or Lake Tahoe for the non-family researcher accompanying you to the conference.
Or, if you’ve been extra good in doing your research, treat yourself to one (or more) of the free Genealogical and Historic Walking tours in downtown Sacramento.
Krampus with the children. Postcard circa 1920.
Shop for others
Shop for yourself
REGISTER NOW. Take advantage now of the early bird registration rates, which end Jan. 15. With limited seating available, it’s best not to hesitate. If the conference is full, your registration will go on a wait list.
BOOK A ROOM. The conference hotel, The Hyatt Regency, now has limited availability. But you can get a conference rate at the Marriott Residence Inn, just two blocks from the conference hotel.

Tuesday Trivia

by Charles Hansen

Did you realize there are 17 different species of penguins in the world? Not counting whatever species Opus belonged to.

We’ve been watching Planet Earth, the Frozen Planet series, and have become quite enamored with these black-and-white flightless birds. Asking Grandma Google for more information, I was introduced to a wonderful website, www.penguinworld.com . There I found descriptions and super photos of all different 17 species and a map of locations where they are found.

They live in Antartica primarily, but South America, New Zealand and the bottom of Africa. Those places may seem widely separated but looking at a map with Antarctica in the center those others places are just “inches” away in reality.

Hope you’ll click to that website and have a fun learning experience for yourself.

And how many flightless birds are there? You’d never be able to list them all and neither would I: 70 is the number!