Clark County Genealogical Society In the News

by Charles Hansen

 

Local genealogical society wins state award

By The Columbian

Published: June 27, 2018, 5:55 AM

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Edgewood Park — The Clark County Genealogical Society was awarded the 2018 Outstanding Project Award at the Washington State Genealogical Society’s annual meeting.

The society earned the award for their project, “Vancouver Tax Ledger Project,” which included digitizing, transcribing and indexing original tax ledgers for the city of Vancouver for the years 1886 and 1891.

“Clark County Genealogical Society’s commitment to preserve the 1886 and 1891 tax ledgers is especially valuable considering genealogy researchers might be able to use that information as a substitute for the 1890 federal census which was destroyed by fire in Washington, D.C. in 1921,” Virginia Majewski, president of the state society, said in a release from the Clark County group.

Clark County Genealogical Society is a volunteer-run nonprofit society founded in 1972. It is dedicated to pursuing the collection, preservation and education of genealogically relevant material.

Tuesday Trivia

by Charles Hansen

Got a good one today for you………. ready for a great big belly laugh??

Hubby and I spotted this in downtown Auckland, New Zealand, in a recessed-shop-front-door on local business. In case you cannot read it, here’s help:

“If you do pee here it is safe to assume that you have no concept of literacy or common decency.  P.S. If you do happen to understand “big city talk words” and are close enough to read this, then Congrats! You just made the Baby Dick Cam Wall of Fame!”

Are you laughing? Big time laughing??

Monday Mystery

by Charles Hansen

SUCH a sad, sad story appeared in the Spokane newspaper back on 22 March 1905:  “Unknown Man Found In River.”

“The body of a man, as yet unidentified, was found in the north channel of the Spokane River, near the Centennial Mill, about 9 o’clock yesterday morning by an employee of the mill who reported the matter to the police.

“Considerable difficulty was experienced in getting the body out of the river, as the place where it had caught against some driftwood is in the swiftest current of the river and the bottom is very treacherous.

Alexander Turnbull, the undertaker who was called by Coroner Witter to take charge of the body, hired a man to wade out into the river and bring in the body.

The man was apparently about 50 years of age and was five feet nine inches tall. The body was in a bad state of decomposition. Absolutely no means of identification could be found on the body. It was buried yesterday afternoon in Fairmount Cemetery.”

What are YOUR thoughts as you read this? Are you missing a male ancestor born about 1855 who went missing in 1905 in Spokane? What about today…… with DNA testing and dental records, don’t you suppose they could have identified the man today??  

Such a sad, sad mystery story.

GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Thursday Evening E-News

by Charles Hansen
GFO Logo Halo 2 Large

THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s

Thursday Evening

E-News, Edition

21 June 2018

For more information visit www.gfo.org, contact us at info@gfo.org, or call our library at 503-963-1932. We love hearing from you!

For a complete GFO CALENDAR click here.

Also, if you missed your free copy of our monthly Insider for May 2018, you’re in luck because we saved you a copy HERE. Simply scroll down at THIS page and click on the Insider 2018 May issue.

Curious about the status of your GFO Membership? We’d love to have you as a GFO Member!
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Family Tree Maker Group Requests Expert in Citations
Family Tree Maker SIG 2

The Family Tree Maker Users’ Group would like to find a person to come talk to them about using “Citations and Source” templates within the Family Tree Maker application. The group has been using MacKiev’s 2017 edition of Family Treemaker.

They’re hoping to have this content explored at either their August, September, or November meetings.

Interested? Email Joyce at FTM@gfo.org.
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Continue reading →

Friday Serendipity

by Charles Hansen

Crista Cowan is The Barefoot Genealogist, and does the FABULOUS Ancestry YouTube videos…. and she does one every single Wednesday. The first week of the month she does “What’s New At Ancestry.” Even if you cannot watch Crista live each week, her videos are posted on YouTube and anybody can go watch at anytime. Cool!

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Surname story:  Last week I drove the 80 miles north to visit with the Northeast Washington Gene Society in Colville.  A new member to the group was introduced, Mary YANN. She related that the surname was Swiss and was originally spelled JANN, pronounced “yawn.” She explained that when her grandfather was in grade school, the teacher insisted that a surname must be spelled as pronounced! Hence, Jann became Yann. Would that happen today? Fat chance!

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My grandson, Austin, graduated with his B.A. degree in Port Angeles and, sadly, we could not attend in person.  BUT the college had a live feed to the ceremony and Austin let me know and I got to watch the entire thing! And of course saw him walk up to get his certificate. Almost (almost) as good as being there. Do most colleges do this these days? Great for far-away grandparents. 

Update on Grays Harbor Gen Soc Research Library

by Roxanne Lowe

The GHGS Research Library was housed in the Aberdeen Armory Building, built in 1922. Photo by Bonnie Johannes.

Members of the Grays Harbor Genealogical Society are slowly coming to grips with the fiery loss of their research library. The library was housed in the Aberdeen Armory which also included the Aberdeen Museum of History, Coastal Community Action Program and the Aberdeen Senior Center. The June 9 fire gutted the first and second floors of the building. Amazingly (and thankfully) some of the Aberdeen Museum’s photographs, documents and artifacts were rescued from the basement which was filled with four feet of water. The fire is still under investigation and may be for at least a couple more weeks.

While there is nothing left of the research library, short-term storage has been secured as the society begins to rebuild its holdings and collections. A plea for financial help and Grays Harbor County (and its predecessor Chehalis County) research materials has been sent from GHGS President Gary Parfitt. Financial donations or gift cards (Staples, Amazon, Costco, etc.) are most easily used to avoid duplication, over-supply and will be used when society members can begin researching again.

In addition to financial help, the society is asking for Grays Harbor-related research materials to restore their collections. Suggestions include Polk Directories, telephone books, obituaries, funeral records, identified photographs or family histories (with ties to Grays Harbor or Chehalis Counties). Anyone with materials to donate or reproduce can contact Gary Parfitt at gjparfitt@msn.com.

Financial donations can be sent to the society’s Research Library Go Fund Me page or directly to the Grays Harbor Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 916, Aberdeen, WA 98520.

Wednesday Nostalgia

by Charles Hansen

One more tidbit about World War I. While on that trip to Vancouver, and at that WWI museum exhibit, I met author Diane Green-Hartley and bought her book, “Lillie’s Jasper: The 1930 Pilgrimage of a Gold Star Mother.”

For openers, did you realize that after WWI many of the bereaved mothers formed into chapters of Gold Star Mothers and between May 1930 and August 1933 a total of 6,654 of these mothers traveled to Europe at U.S. government expense, to visit the graves of their sons or daughters who died in the war. Diane’s book is the journal kept by her great-grandmother, Lillie Green, when she made this trip to visit the grave of her son Jasper (who had died in 1918).

This was a very moving read; I recommend it to you. The book is available at Amazon.