What Do YOU Want For Christmas??

by Charles Hansen

Moorshead Magazines, publishers of three terrific genealogy-helpful magazines, is offering WSGS members a wonderful opportunity…wouldn’t you enjoy a subscription to one of these magazines as a gift from your kids rather than a sweater, a tie or a box of candy???

Ed Zapletal and Rick Cree and I have been friends for years and when I approached them with this idea, they gave a resounding “thumbs up.”

And here is the great news! For each subscription to any one of these magazines, Ed and Rick will issue a $3 “rebate” check back to WSGS. What could be better than such a win-win??

Here’s what you must do: Click to www.internet-genealogy.com or www.yourgenealogytoday.com  and sign up for a specially discounted $20 subscription (6 issues, one year, each magazine). Rick cautioned me that “it is imperative that they indicate the code WSGS. This will have to be put in the area where we ask for their ID number (the actual wording on the box is: if available, please include your subscription ID number when renewing your subscription)…”  And yes, you can pay by credit card.

So plan to enjoy your special Christmas gift and know that while you are enriching your mind, you’re helping to fund the educational projects of WSGS.

Tri-City Genealogical Society December Meeting

by Charles Hansen

Hello TCGS Members and Guests:

Would you like to highlight and display something about your ancestral history?

Would you like to display a collection that you inherited from one of your ancestors?

Would you like to display an heirloom, antique or vintage item that was handed down from your ancestors?

Would you like to display a personal hobby or a collection you had from the past or currently engaged in?

 

If so, this is what our December 13th meeting will be all about. We want you to share with us via photographs, documents and a display of family anitques/heirlooms and hobbies and collections. Hobbies and collections of the past are very much part of your ancestral legacy, but your personal past/current hobbies and collections will also become a family legacy to your descendants.

Please consider what you would like to bring to this meeting to display. This will be fun to get to know more about you or your ancestors.

Also, we are asking each of you to bring either homemade or store bought Christmas cookies, candies, fudge, muffins, or breads (banana, zucchini, apple, pumpkin, etc.) to share with one another.

If you have any questions about what to bring, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you for supporting TCGS.

Art Kelly

 

 

https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar_details.php?webinar_id=586

    Wednesday, November 15, 2017

 

Wednesday Nostalgia

by Charles Hansen

Who remembers these little tin containers? Did you use one as a child?

According to Wikipedia:  Log Cabin Syrup is a brand of pre-packaged syrups owned by Pinnacle Foods. Log Cabin Syrup was introduced in 1887. Grocer Patrick James Towle (1835-1912), who lived in the village of Forest Lake, Minnesota, initially formulated it.

I goofed. This was priced at $10 in Apple Annie’s in Cashmere and when I looked at eBay they sell for up to $25. Amazing. And empty sans syrup too!

Tuesday Trivia

by Charles Hansen

I have a whole stadium full of New England ancestors  and I’d bet that many of you do too. Reading a book titled, Sightseeking: Clues to the Landscape History of New England, by Christopher J. Lenney, 2003, I learned about  what he called The China Syndrome.

Between about 1787 and 1849, in New England, there were many  towns with exotic names such as China, Poland, Denmark, Palermo, Belgrade, Rome, Corinth, Alexandria and Brunswick (“to flatter the House of Hanover”). Lenney quotes Wilbur Zelinsky as stating that he believed that these exotic names for towns showed “the extroverted buoyancy and expansiveness of spirit that many observers identify today as American.”

Lenney states that “the general flowering of exotic names in the early republic” shows that “the United States was a new nation that had lately assumed its station among the powers of the earth; perhaps in token of this, the names of its towns began to scintillate with the brilliance of the firmament in which it was the newest star.”

Thinking about this, it wasn’t only a New England phenomena ….. think Frankfort, Cairo, London, etc. Interesting trivia, don’t you think?

Monday Mystery

by Charles Hansen

Congrats to Patty Olsen for knowing that that porcelain “thing” last week was something “to hold silverware at buffet teas.” Lovely heirloom but kinda useless these days.

Today’s mystery is a real mystery to me too. Found this among my grandfather’s thing but haven’t been able to learn what kind of tool it was and what it was used for. It’s about the length of a hand, a steel “hook” in a leather case with strap. Any guesses?

Tri-City Genealogical Society Tip of the Week

by Charles Hansen

With the end of the year comes opportunities to gather together generations of family.  Why not take advantage of that to share with your living family the people who came before them?  Remember to keep your ideas simple and brief to not overwhelm family members with too much information.  Pick out little pieces of interesting information to share and don’t explain distant relationships in detail because most won’t be able to follow you…

Sunday Special: Free Books

by Charles Hansen

I have two books-of-interest-to-Washington-research that I’d be happy to give away (for postage) to whomever wants them.

First is Railroads, Reclamation and the River, A History of Pasco, by Walter A. Oberst, 1978. If you have ancestors who lived in the early days in the Pasco area, you’ll enjoy reading this book and viewing the many photos.

Other is There Were Giants, by Maurice Helland, 1980. This is the biography of James Harvey Wilbur, who was born in 1811 in New York, married in 1831 to Lucretia Ann Stevens, had a daughter who married but left no descendants.  James came to the Northwest and did Methodist missionary work until the end of his days. Very interesting read.

Be happy to send these books to you for $5 postage each (or for both if you want both). Let me know. Donna243@gmail.com

FLASH! Ancestry for half price! Offer only for 2 days!

by Charles Hansen

This came to me via Lisa Louise Cooke’s blog…………
SAVE 50% on Ancestry.com Subscriptions*
FLASH SALE! This Veteran’s Day, new subscribers can get 50% off Ancestry.com subscriptions! You can choose 1 month or 6 months, and pick from their three different levels so you get the package that’s right for you.
HURRY! This sale is only good for 2 DAYS!
November 10 – 11, 2017

Friday Serendipity

by Charles Hansen

**** Reading a fantastic book: FamilyTrees: A History of Genealogy in America, by Francois Weil, 2013. Weil starts at the very beginning of America and explains why folks were interested in knowing their backgrounds and family history. (I’ll give more bits from this book in the future.) Page 204:  “Market growth (of the genealogy industry) since the 1970s has taken place in two phases. Before the growth of the Internet came the commercial effects of the new interest in genealogy, symbolized by the success of Roots, and of technological change in the preservation, reproductions and transfer of information.”  At a conference in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1982, a session on using computers in genealogy was included. “Computers are becoming quite common in genealogical research,” it was declared.   Did you realize that Ancestry.com (1983) predates FamilySearch.org (1999)??? When did you begin using a computer for your genealogy???  My first computer, in about 1991, was a Kaypro 10 and I was so excited to have it! With it’s green letters on a black screen!