Federation Of Genealogical Societies 2017 Conference

by Charles Hansen

BUILDING BRIDGES TO THE PAST
A Conference for the Nation’s Genealogists
FGS 2017 Conference registration is now open!

Join fellow genealogists and family historians for the FGS 2017 National Conference at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania August 30–September 2. Everyone is welcome!

Hosted by the Federation of Genealogical Societies along with local host Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society, FGS 2017 brings you sessions with a wide variety of topics from many of the nation’s top family history experts. Sessions are aimed at strengthening your research skills no matter what your level or area of expertise might be.

 

For registration and information

Tuesday Trivia

by Charles Hansen

Ever been to the Eastern Washington Agricultural Museum in Pomeroy, Garfield County, Washington? Might be worth the effort!

My newspaper here in Spokane, The Spokesman Review, recently had a nice spotlight on this museum. Now to learn more about the museum and it’s focus and collections, click to www.co.garfield.wa.us/museum/home

What I wanted to share with you today were some thoughts from Jay Franks, a board member of the museum. He was saying that he “hopes the museum will help preserve the mostly oral history of what life was life on the region’s early wheat farms before that generation farms out.”

Franks continued, and this is my point: “Interest in the displays is greater among older people who remember using butter churns and sewing clothes by hand at home. As the generations thins out, the people go through faster.” 

Now isn’t this sadly the truth? The older ones remember using “that.” The middle-younger ones remember Grandma using “that.” The youngest ones ask “what is that?”

Learning history takes time whether it be reading or visiting a museum.

TriCity Genealogical Society Hanford History

by Charles Hansen

Please mark this on your calendar as you will want to attend our next program on June 14th which will feature a presentation on “The History of Hanford” and a display of samples from the collection at the History of Hanford Project located at the Washington State University Tri-Cities Campus in Richland.

If you like history, don’t miss this TCGS meeting on 14 Jun 2017
Come to the Tri-City Genealogical Society at the Benton County PUD 7:00 PM — 2721 W 10th Ave — Kennewick WA
Robert Franklin presents an overview of the history of Hanford

 

TCGS Jun 2017 Flyer

Monday’s Mystery

by Charles Hansen

This maybe will seem to you like a weird mystery but thinking about the answer will most certainly tug your heart.  This is a view of the new Veterans’ Cemetery south of Spokane. I took this photo last week.

The shining white tombstones against the green lawn and blue sky….with the American flag in the far distance….. was lovely and quite moving. But what moved me to tears was the thought that all that green lawn will eventually be covered with more and more and more shiny white marker stones. The mystery? How many??? How many more??  Most sobering thought.

And a WSGS cupcake to Pat Manning for correctly identifying the Olympic Peninsula as the subject of last Monday’s myster and that 1954 description. It’s from The Untamed Olympics: The Story of a Peninsula, by Ruby El Hult.  Anne Grimm, Sonji Rutan and Patty Olsen also knew the answer. Good for you all!

Bainbridge Island Genealogical Society (BIGS) June Meeting

by Charles Hansen
  The Bainbridge Island Genealogical Society (BIGS) will meet Friday, June 16, 2017, at the LDS church on Bainbridge Island, 8677 Madison Ave, from 10:00a.m. – 12 noon. Guest speaker, Deanna Egeland Dowell will be speaking on “Finding Social Security, Naturalization, and Homestead Applications.” Free to members, a $5.00 donation is suggested for nonmembers. For more information go to http://www.bigenealogy.org or call 206-780-8009. BIGS is a 501c(3) non-profit organization.
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Thank you!
Sue Elfving
Bainbridge Island Genealogical Society
Director of Publicity and Public Relations

Blog Banner Photo Challenge

by Roxanne Lowe

Summer’s finally here and that means many of us will be on the road, in the air, or on a boat visiting people, places, and things. It also means you’re taking lots of photos. So…we’re sponsoring a Blog Banner Photo Challenge, looking for a few good photographs to highlight in our Blog banner.

The rotating banner will feature a series of photos taken by you, our readers. The latest entries in the Photo Challenge are:

  • Photo by Donna Potter Phillips

    Daffodils at Roozengaarde at the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in April. Photo taken by WSGS Vice President (& Past President of Eastern Washington Genealogical Society) Donna Potter Phillips of Spokane.

  • Fort Vancouver — another photo from Donna.
  • Washaway Beach (Pacific County) — by Roxanne Lowe of McCleary, WSGS Recognition Chair and Web Manager
  • Memorial Day at the Colfax Cemetery (Whitman County) — another photo by Roxanne Lowe

Rules are few:
•Landscapes, landmarks, and scenery photos are preferred. If, however, you have a perfect photo that includes people, please obtain their permission to post the photo.
•Photo must have been taken in Washington State (this is the Washington State Genealogical Society blog, after all!).
•Photo will be cropped to 1100 x 250 pixels, so keep that in mind.
•You may enter as many photos as you want.
•Final decisions on suitable photos will be made by the awesome WSGS Blog Team.
•There’s no prize if your photo is chosen – just the satisfaction that your photo is being showcased on a blog viewed by hundreds of enthusiastic genealogists.
•There’s no firm deadline to submit photos, just keep ‘em coming. We want to rotate lots of photos to keep the blog fresh.

To submit your photo, please email the image (jpg only, please); what, where, when, and by whom the photo was taken to WSGSBlog@wasgs.org.

Got questions? Email the blog team at WSGSBlog@wasgs.org.

TriCity Genealogical Society October DNA Seminar

by Charles Hansen


Registration for the 2017 TCGS seminar with Diahan Southard begins Thursday, June 1, see the attached PDF file for more information about the seminar.

Seating will be limited so get your registration in to reserve a seat.

There are still plenty of openings for one-on-one sessions with Diahan, go to www.yourDNAguide.com/tcgs to sign up for the sessions.

She is also offering her regular personal consultation package at a reduced rate, $84 vice $99.

You can schedule a time to meet with her in the weeks following the conference and she will give you:
•45 minutes of online guidance using Go To Meeting.
•We meet together online and I take you through your test results, answering all of your questions and providing in depth guidance.
•I will record our session and provide that to you as a video file, as well as a PDF one page summary of our time together.

If you have any questions, you can contact me at this email address.

John F Covey

2017 TCGS Seminar Chairperson

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Eastside Genealogical Society June Meeting

by Charles Hansen

The Eastside Genealogical Society will meet on Thursday, June 8, 2017 in the Bellevue Regional Library (Room 1), 1111 – 110th Ave NE, Bellevue, WA 98004 at 7 pm, with doors opening at 6:30 pm for networking.

 

Topic: “The Struggles of the Suffragettes” – Tames Alan is an actress, historian, and instructor, who has combined her skills to create an educational program for people of all ages. In this lecture, she appears in the authentic clothing of a suffragette and talks about the struggle of American women to gain the right to vote.

 

Also see our website for FREE genealogical help and other Special Interest Group meetings. Visitors are always welcome at all meetings. www.eastsidegenealogicalsociety.com or https://eastsidegenealogicalsociety.com/

 

Puget Sound Genealogical Society June Meeting

by Charles Hansen

Puget Sound Genealogical Society
Tuesday June 6 2017 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
at Kitsap Regional Library, 1301 Sylvan Way, Bremerton
I’ve Had My DNA Tested – Now What?
with Mary Kathryn Kozy
DNA testing has really come to the fore as a way of helping
break through brick walls in genealogical Research. Mary will
briefly review what DNA testing is and what it can (and can’t)
tell you. More specifically , she will be discussing autosomal
DNA and the tools available online from the testing companies,
as well as third-party entities, to help you interpret your results.
Registration is required: call Genealogical Center (360)475-9172
Thanks Jackie Horton, Publicity Chairperson

Serendipity Friday

by Charles Hansen

*** Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)

*** Have you shared your family recipe with FamilySearch?

*** Mayonnaise?

*** Merging duplicates on FamilySearch

You have, with the clicking of a mouse, an enormous library of books right at your fingertips and I’ll bet you didn’t realize it. The Digital Public Library of America (http://DP.LA) is a free, national digital library that provides acces to millions of materials from libraries, archives and museums across the U.S. Are you looking (perhaps without success?) for a letter, yearbook, military record, family bible, certain photograph or a certain map? It just well may be included in the DPLA holdings. And it’s FREE!

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Besides collecting the names-dates-places of our family history, FamilySearch is collecting our family stories, memories (written, audio,video) and recipes! At RootsTech last February, at one of the opening sessions, a recipe card was placed on each of the 5000 chairs inviting each of us to share a favorite family recipe….. and to share the story of that recipe. Wanna participate? Click to www.familysearch.org/recipes.

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What’s a BLT sandwich without mayo?  Do you know when this condiment was invented? According to Wikipedia, the anecdotal history of mayo is this:  “One of the most common places named as the origin of mayonnaise is the town of Mahón in Menorca, Spain, where it was then taken to France after Armand de Vignerot du Plessis‘s victory over the British at the city’s port in 1756. According to this version, the sauce was originally known as salsa mayonesa in Spanish and maonesa (later maionesa) in Catalan (as it is still known in Menorca), later becoming mayonnaise as it was popularized by the French.”

Ever wanted to make your own mayonnaise? Dorothy Dean, the homemaker’s guru in Spokane between 1935-1985, shared the secret: “1 egg, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp dry mustard, 4-6 tsp lemon juice, 1 c. salad oil. Place all in blender and blend until smooth and thick. Store in refrigerator.”  Don’t know about you, but sounds like too much work to me.

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Just because FamilySearch has given so very much to the genealogical community at large, asking nothing in return except that we all share our family trees, doing so has caused heartburn for some. One of the “problems” that FamilySearch asks us to deal with is the problem of duplicates. Ron Tanner, who works for FamilySearch, explained this problem to us at Roots Tech. “Think of ten kids having 10 kids, so there are potentially 110 people who can or might enter information on Grandma. See why merging is to important??”  To the computer, Catharine, Catherine, Katharine and Katherine are all totally separate names but to you and me they are not. We know that all could equally refer to our Grandma, right?

Please do consider uploading your GEDCOM to FamilySearch (folks at any Family History Center will assist) and plan to take the necessary time to manage/compare potential duplicates.  (I started with 1744 and I’m down to 1243! If I can, you can!)