Serendipity Day

*** Kudos to WSGS Past President Steve Baylor

*** Should Washington Split Into TWO States?

*** Astoria’s Beginnings: Trees

*** Chehalis Town Name

Dear Archives Volunteers,

The holidays are here and I want to take the opportunity to thank all of you volunteers for your massive contributions to the Archives’ mission. Our ultimate goal is to make all of our information freely accessible to the public, and that would not be possible without you. While the records are already free, they are not as accessible as they can be, but we’re getting there. As you may already know, we have digitally indexed nearly 200 million records. That’s a huge success! There are still hundreds of millions more records to go, and there isn’t another group of volunteers we would rather have.

I would like everyone to congratulate Stephen Baylor, the December Volunteer of the Month. Stephen has indexed over 65,000 records in SCRIBE this year, leading the pack. Thank you, Stephen!

Continue reading →

SCGS Announces Free Webinar Schedule

Dec16 by Roxanne Lowe

The Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS) has announced its highly acclaimed Jamboree Extension Series Webinar schedule for 2017.

The webinars offer a wide range of topics to build skills, whether you’re a beginner or professional genealogist.

All live broadcasts of the webinars are free and are offered the first Saturday of each month (10:00 a.m.) and third Wednesday (6:00 p.m.). You can attend on your computer, tablet or smart phone.

For more information and registration, visit the SCGS webinar series website.

Northeast Washington Genealogical Society meeting

Dec16 by Charles Hansen

The next Northeast Washington Genealogical Society meetings are on Wednesday, January 11, 2017. The morning Computer Interest Group (CIG) will meet in the basement meeting room of the LDS Church on Juniper Street in Colville at 10:30 AM. Entry is located at the back of the building. The building is located one block east of the South Main Restaurant on Hwy 395.

For all you lovers of Pinterest this month’s CIG presentation is for you. Even if you aren’t a Pinterest lover you just might want to join us and see what all the excitement is about and how it relates to your genealogy research. Karen Struve, Vice-President of NeWGS will be sharing some useful tips to help you expand and share your genealogy through Pinterest.

We will take a lunch break at noon and then meet again in the LDS Lower Meeting Room at 1:30 p.m.

For our afternoon session our members and guests are encouraged to share special discoveries and successes they experienced recently. This will be an informal “round-table” format.

Perhaps you have something to share that would help another researcher break through their “brick wall”. This can be anything from a book you recommend to your experience obtaining hard to find documentation. Perhaps you have recently discovered a long sought burial location for your ancestor. The more we share the more we learn.

All visitors are welcome. You do not need to be a member to attend the Northeast Washington Genealogical Society’s meetings.

Seattle Genealogical Society Tip of the Week

Dec15 by Charles Hansen

TIP OF THE WEEK – Courthouse Research, Trial Run

Never been to a county courthouse to do research? Think it may be in your future? Why not practice in your local county seat? Even if your ancestors and their county courthouse are quite distant from where you live, your experience and knowledge of your local courthouse and the whole research process will make you more comfortable and efficient when it comes time to making that trip to the courthouse of your ancestor’s home county.

Interview the archivist (big city), talk to the Recorder (small town), or the Tax Assessor. In your particular locale, their titles may differ from these. Find out who posted the earliest probate packet (recorder) or ask where the tax records are for 1939. Then go look at them! Happy hunting.

Seattle Genealogical Society News

Dec15 by Charles Hansen

INTERESTED IN BECOMING A
BOARD CERTIFIED GENEALOGIST?

Jill Morelli, a recent submitter of her portfolio for BCG certification, has agreed to share her insights about the submission process. Although she won’t know the results for several months, Jill found that preparing her BCG submission was a terrific learning process and she’d like to share this knowledge. She anticipates maybe six, 1-hour sessions, that will be more discussion than presentation. Because so many of the likely attendees work or have other obligations, she would like to run it as a Google Hangout, which limits the number of attendees to 10.

If you are interested, contact Jill at jkmorelli@gmail.com. Sessions will probably start the end of January. SGS members will be given first priority up until the date of January 15. Exact dates and times for the sessions will be determined by consensus of the attendees.

It’s the Annual Deep-Cleaning of the SGS Library
Thursday, December 29 at 10:00 A.M.
COME JOIN THE FUN!

It’s that time of year again; we need to give the library its annual deep-cleaning. If you can help, please call Nancy Haugen, SGS Director of Operations at 206-633-1999. Even if you have just a couple of hours to give, we would be so grateful. Coffee and pastries to start. Hope to see you then.

Continue reading →

THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Wednesday Evening E-News

Dec15 by Charles Hansen

THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Wednesday Evening E-News 14 December 2016

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 go to www.gfo.org/calendar.htm.

Also, if you missed your free copy of our monthly Insider for November 2016, you’re in luck because we saved you a copy at http://www.gfo.org/insider/16-Nov.pdf.

***

Please trudge carefully out there!

Just a friendly public service reminder to please please call before coming in to the library if there is snow or ice in the area. Even if schools are open, some of our Research Assistants, despite their other multi-faceted talents and superpowers, can’t get out even if the east side has thawed.
Call us at 503-963-1932 to double-check the GFO Library is open!

Continue reading →

Genealogy Forum of Oregon Special Weather Announcement

Dec15 by Charles Hansen

Special Weather Announcement
from the GFO for
15 December 2016

We’re in for some possible snow and ice on the roads today, Thurs, Dec 15th, and again throughout the weekend.
Just a friendly public service reminder to please please call before coming to the library if there is snow or ice in the area. Even if schools are open, some of our Research Assistants may still not be able to safely get to the library to throw open the doors that you love. While we humbly apologize for any inconvenience, we also beg that you be safe yourself!
Call us at 503-963-1932 to double-check whether the weather has not allowed the GFO Library to open!

Ginny Majewski Elected WSGS President

Dec15 by Roxanne Lowe

Virginia “Ginny” Majewski

Virginia “Ginny” Majewski from Sequim has been elected President of the Washington State Genealogical Society for the 2017 – 2018 term. Currently, Ginny is WSGS Secretary and also President of the Clallam County Genealogical Society. She replaces Mikal McKinnon from Richland who presided over the society for two terms, 2013 – 2017.

In other election news, Karin Coppernoll from Monroe and Opal Myhres from Yakima were elected Secretary and Region 5 Representative (Kittitas, Klickitat, and Yakima counties), respectively.

For more information about Ginny and Karin, read the 01 Dec 2017 blog post.

Lewis County’s Ulster Workshop Team Awarded 2016 Outstanding Team Award

Dec14 by Roxanne Lowe

Since 2003, the Washington State Genealogical Society has recognized almost 500 outstanding volunteers and teams, nominated by their local society or genealogical organization for their service and dedication. These volunteers are the backbone of their local society, giving their time and expertise, to the organization and the field of genealogy. In the coming months, you will be introduced to each of the 2016 award recipients and learn why they received a 2016 WSGS Outstanding Volunteer and Team Award.

Ulster Workshop Team

Today we’re introducing the Ulster Workshop Team who was nominated by the Lewis County Genealogical Society (LCGS). Team members included Leslee Dunlap, Leslie Parnell, Patricia Olsen, Joann Hulse, Sam McReynolds, Margie Lloyd, and Pam Hopwood.

Braving significant financial risk by the small society, the workshop team took on the herculean task of hosting the Ulster Historical Foundation on one of only 12 stops on its 2016 North American tour. Members of the team worked countless hours advertising the event, coordinating with the host facility, arranging door prizes and making decorations for the event. As a result of their efforts, nearly 100 enthusiastic attendees enjoyed a day of learning and discovery.

The group did an outstanding job of advertising, organizing, and executing the workshop. As a result, they are richly deserving of being named a 2016 Outstanding Volunteer Team by the Washington State Genealogical Society.

For more information on the WSGS Outstanding Volunteer Award program, visit the Recognition page of the WSGS website or contact Roxanne Lowe, Recognition Chair, at Roxanne@thekeeffes.com.

German Interest Group of Eastside Genealogical Society Meeting

Dec12 by Charles Hansen

The German Interest Group of The Eastside Genealogical Society will meet on Friday, January 6, 2017, from 1 to 3 pm in the Relief Society Room of the LDS Church at 10675 NE 20^thSt, Bellevue, WA 98004 with doors opening at 12:45 pm for networking. For more information, kindly visit our website at https://egsgermangroup.wordpress.com/ . Visitors are always welcome at our meetings.

Topic: “Finding the German Village of Birth for Grietje (Wienenga) Bode”

Jill Morelli will share how she learned the name of the German village where Grietje was born in 1850. Ostfriesland is located in the extreme northwest corner of Germany and its isolation resulted in many differences of culture and customs from the more typically studied Palatine and Bavaria sections of the country. Come hear about this little known area of Germany, it’s relationship with The Netherlands, the people’s emigration patterns, and the cultural norms they brought to Midwest America. If you are Ostfriesen–even better!

Speaker: Jill Morelli is a professional genealogist who lives in the Pacific Northwest and lectures across the country specializing in methodology, 19th century Midwest and her Scandinavian and Northern German ancestors. She belongs to numerous societies, is currently President of Seattle Genealogical Society and shares her enthusiasm for her passion with whoever will listen. You can find her at http://genealogycertification.wordpress.com where she blogs about the lessons she has learned while being “on the clock” and her journey to become a certified genealogist.