Washington Civil War Association Sponsoring a Battle Re-enactment

by Charles Hansen

Dear Members and Guests:
The Washington Civil War Association is sponsoring a Battle Re-enactment and a Camp Re-enactment this coming Saturday and Sunday (August 12th and 13th) at the Columbia Park in Kennewick.
See the enclosed links which gives further information about the scheduled agenda for this weekend as well as a map of the event location.
http://www.wcwa.net/events/  (directions and map)
http://www.wcwa.net/news.html  (schedule of events)
Hopefully, you will be able to take advantage of this annual Civil War Re-enactment.
Sincerely,
Art Kelly

Tuesday Trivia

by Charles Hansen

Last week I posted some trivia about logging in the northeast corner of Washington and the Idaho panhandle. Our beloved WSGS Founding President, Alma Greenwood, contributed this memory:

Hi Donna,
Your description of the logging in North Idaho struck a chord with me. My 90-year old husband grew up in the area you are describing and his uncle had logging camps just like the one you mentioned. The nearest town was Meadow Creek (now a ghost town according to the sign) which was a few miles south of the Canadian border.    Glad you are staying busy and involved. So many of the old timers are not around but some of us keep plugging along. Thanks for all you do for genealogy in Washington State.  Alma

Today’s trivia is much different. Paul Turner, in his The Slice column in our Spokesman Review paper, posed the question about Spokane as a surname. WELL! Clicking to Ancestry, and doing a U.S. census search across all the years, the results were 19,990 persons surnamed Spokane! And 581 lived in Spokane. Most of them were Native Americans but still.

There were 5077 folks surnamed “Seattle.” And 1646 for Wenatchee. Tacoma was 2214 and Kennewick 1412. I was really surprised and it was something I’d never thought about. Thanks, Paul, for turning on a light.

Was your Washington town ever a surname????

Monday Mystery

by Charles Hansen

Today’s fun mystery is “supply the missing words:”

There are 7500 ______ varieties known in the world; relatively few are grown in Washington with these being the most prominent _____, _____, _____, _____, _____, _____, _____, _____, _____.

There are ______ acres of these in Washington yielding _____ tons.

My favorite is ________.

 

Nobody had the correct answer to last week’s mystery of what/where is this beach? It was Rialto Beach, west from Forks. Ever been there???

TriCity Genealogical Society October Seminar

by Charles Hansen

The 2017 TCGS Seminar on October 14 is only about 2 months away, have you registered for the seminar yet?

 

Maybe this will help, there are over 20 silent auction items for the seminar with more to come.  Below is a list of some of the items.

 

 

  1. New York Genealogical & Biographical Society – 2018 membership
  2. National Society of the Sons of Utah Pioneers – 2 year subscription
  3. Sons of the Spanish American Veterans – 2018 membership
  4. Mid-Columbia Symphony – two tickets
  5. Columbia Point Golf Certificate – 2 (18 holes green fees & one cart)
  6. Ten Piece Candle Set
  7. 3 Quilts and 1 wall hanging quilt
  8. Glazed Pottery Terrine
  9. Set of 6 Travel Plates

FREE Nordic Family History Conference

by Charles Hansen

Registration is open for the upcoming week long Nordic Family History Conference hosted by the Family History Library in Salt Lake City on September 11-15, 2017. The conference will be streamed online for free for those who cannot attend in person. The conference will cover a range of topics from Arkiv Digital to Danish tax records. The classes are for beginning and intermediate genealogists interested in learning about records of Nordic localities and the Family History Library collections.

For information on the classes and times click here.

Olympia Genealogical Society Genealogy Cafe

by Charles Hansen

GENEALOGY CAFE  Meet with Olympia Genealogical Society experts for free personal help with your family history research. Thursday August 17 and Saturday August 19 at Olympia Timberland Library, 313 8th Avenue Southeast, from 1-3 pm

Thank-you,  JOYCE OGDEN, PUblicity

=======================================================================
Joyce T. Ogden
jtogden@comcast.net

THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Wednesday Evening E-News

by Charles Hansen

 

THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s
Wednesday Evening
E-News
2 August 2017

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!

GFO Calendar

Also, if you missed your free copy of our monthly Insider for August 2017, you’re in luck because we saved you a copy HERE. NOTE: The Insider issues are now located under the “Learn” > “Our Publications” menu at our new website (still gfo.org).
Curious about the status of your GFO Membership?? We’d love to have you as a GFO Member!
***
1/2 Day Workshop! Avoid genealogical pitfalls…

Tips and Tricks: Finding What Your Need and Making the Most of What You Find

WHEN: Saturday, Aug 5th, 9:30am – noon
WHERE: GFO’s Multi-Purpose Room (map)
WHO: Pam Vestal, professional genealogist and lecturer
WHAT: As they say, borrow from the good, steal from the best! In this half-day workshop, you’ll learn from Pam, who is certainly one of the BEST, how to avoid popular pitfalls in genealogical research.
Click HERE to register now!
***
Join GFO President for a Beginners’ Boot Camp
RSVP Me Now!

Better lace up quick!

August 12th at the GFO from 9:30 to 5:00

Join Laurel Smith for a day of beginning genealogy. There will be classes 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 at the door.

Attendees are encouraged to bring their laptops, but it is not required.
Please let us know if you plan to attend by sending a message to RSVP@gfo.org. The handouts will be emailed in advance.
***
Are YOU a friend of the GFO? Would you like to be??

Okay, so first of all, bet you’re wonderin’ what the heck does “Friends of GFO” even mean?
It’s GFO’s new monthly giving program!

Folks can easily sign up via GFO’s website to give as little as $10 a month in recurring monthly donations to support GFO’s operations. These days, that’s about the cost of a sandwich or a morning pastry and a cup o’ joe. And that annual donation of $120 could pay for just over half of GFO’s yearly bulk mail permit, or about 15% of GFO’s yearly telephone bill. These kinds of operating expenses would be covered by these Friends donations.
Why?

Because, while GFO does a great deal with few resources – thanks in large part to a devoted group of volunteers, no paid staff and our generous donors – GFO can find it hard to make ends meet. Some months GFO operates in the red, and the unpredictable cash flow can cause some anxiety! Did you know that membership dues cover only about 26% of GFO’s annual budget expenses? Or, that GFO’s expenses have risen about 10% year-over-year? Having a steady source of some additional income to help smooth out dips and shorten dry spells will help GFO to remain strong and viable into the future.

Won’t you please join the Friends of GFO today? Simply go to: www.gfo.org/support-us/donate/give-now.html and click on the Friends of GFO link to safely and securely register.
And, as always, thank you very much for your generous support!
***
Fall Seminar Pricing Corrections, with our apologies!

Paper vs Digital?

We recently noticed the paper & printable PDF flyer registration forms, along with those recently sent out in our Insider publication, have the incorrect prices listed for the Sunday Workshop (October 15th) part of this fall’s seminar event.
Please NOTE: Any paper registrations already processed or postmarked by today’s date will be honored at the prices listed on the forms.

The correct prices are listed on our website HERE as follows:
▪ Early Registration (by September 16th) for Members = $25.00
▪ Early Registration (by September 16th) for Non-Members = $30.00
▪ Registration (after September 16th) for Members = $30.00
▪ Registration (after September 16th) for Non-Members = $35.00
Thank you for all your understanding and for jumping on the early sign-up!
***
This Week at the GFO…

SATURDAY, AUGUST 5th

Half-Day Workshop: Tips & Tricks 9:30am – noon

With so much information available to us today, it can be hard to know how to find what we’re looking for, or how to take full advantage of it after we’ve found it. Discover an assortment of techniques that can help you search the internet more successfully, extract those useful genealogical nuggets from your documents, and evaluate your evidence. We’ll explore tools for locating overlooked records, understanding codes in documents, recovering missing websites, finding evidence of name changes, and much more.

Genealogy is a great treasure hunt, but sometimes the clues are easy to misunderstand, or to miss altogether. We’€™ll look at eight pitfalls that can get us into trouble, and discuss strategies for dodging these traps so they won’€™t keep you from reaching your goals. Presenter: Pam Vestal. Register HERE!

German Interest Group 1 – 3pm

Speakers: Carole Linneman and Nanci Remington
Topic: Traveling to Germany to visit ancestral hometowns. Carole and Nanci will talk about their recent trip to Germany with Family Tree Tours – a company focused on genealogy travel. They will share what they did to prepare for the trip, talk about the support from the tour operators and show photos of their wonderful home town visits.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 6th

Manuscripts Work Party 9am – noon

Explore our manuscript, personal papers, and Bible collection while we organize, scan and create finding aids. Drop at the time that works for you between 9am and noon on the first Sunday of every month. Questions? Email us at manuscripts@gfo.org.
MONDAY, AUGUST 7th

Free First Monday!! 9:30am – 5pm

Don’t forget to tell everyone you know, and we mean EVERYONE! Every single first Monday of every single month (alright, alright…except holidays) the GFO Library is FREE to non-members. Come out to see what we’ve got in both our analog collections and to take advantage of our online database subscriptions, like HistoryGeo, Library World Edition of Ancestry.com, and Newspapers.com to name just a few.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8th

Photoshop Elements 1:30 – 2:30pm

Change of date: The Photoshop Elements Special Interest Group is changing our meeting day. By popular demand, beginning in August we will move from the 2nd Wednesday to the 2nd Tuesday of the month. The time of 1:30 pm will remain the same.

For our August meeting we will review some methods of repairing old photos including how to remove a person or object from a picture. We will also learn how to place that person or object into another picture.

If you are new to this group, don’t worry! We’ll get you up to speed as we review beginning steps to help you get started. This and all our Special Interest Groups are FREE to the public!

Skagit Valley Genealogical Society Meeting

by Charles Hansen

You Took the  DNA Test…The “Now What” for Genealogists

On Saturday, September 9, from 1:00-3:00pm, the Skagit Valley Genealogical Society presents a special science based program. Join retired scientist, educator, internationally acclaimed lecturer and genealogist, Barbara Johnson, for a discussion on how to use DNA testing for ethnicity to improve your family history research, and make connections with your DNA matched contemporaries. Bring your questions about those “Huh!?” and surprise ethnicity discoveries and Barbara will help you find answers. This program is free to the public and will be held at the Burlington Senior Community Center, 1011 Greenleaf Ave., Burlington, WA. For more info. about SVGS and a schedule of upcoming monthly educational programs visit: skagitvalleygenealogy.org or email: genealogy0715@gmail.com.

Friday Serendipity

by Charles Hansen

Bet you belong to another genealogical society besides the Washington State Genealogical Society, right? Is your society thriving or struggling……….. maybe yes in one area and no in another? The Federation of Genealogical Societies (www.fgs.org) has announced the launch of their Society Management webinar series which began on July 20, 2017. This series of free events will bring a much-needed aspect to the array of learning opportunities currently provided in the genealogical community; focusing solely on the leadership and management of non-profit societies. The August webinar will feature David Rencher, CG, presenting on the best practices…and challenges…surrounding the nominating committee. They are schedule the third Thursday of every month, 7:00pm CDT, so set your course for August 17th. ???? Unless your society does not need help with a nominating committee???

Today’s Serendipity Humor: