THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Wednesday Evening E-News

by Charles Hansen

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THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Wednesday Evening E-News 22 June 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, you’re in luck because we saved you a copy at http://www.gfo.org/insider/16-May.pdf.

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Be sure to join us on July 31st at the GFO Library!

Digital

The GFO proudly presents…
Digital Photos: Scanning, Preparing, Organizing, and Sharing & Legacy Family Tree Software
Come join us for this amazing workshop opportunity with Geoffrey Rasmussen on Sunday, July 31, 2016, from 9:30am to 2:00pm.

Learn from the best to organize and share your digital photos by using Google’s new Google Photos! Geoffrey Rasmussen will teach you the best practices for digitizing, preserving and enhancing your photograph collections. He will also give tips on how you can readily access your collections on your computer, smartphone, or tablet.

Click HERE to register before obsolescence takes over the world as we know it.

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FamilySearch Will Be Down This Monday June 27, 2016

by Charles Hansen

FamilySearch Will Be Down This Monday

The FamilySearch website will be undergoing a technical upgrade Monday, June 27th starting at 12 midnight MDT (6am UTC), and may be down for up to 24 hours as they test the system.

The entire FamilySearch system will be down, including the API that RootsMagic uses to interface with it, so during that time you will be unable to:

  1. receive or view WebHints from FamilySearch
  2. access FamilySearch to find matches, share data, or otherwise work with FamilySearch from inside RootsMagic.

This is a major upgrade to the FamilySearch back end, but once complete you should not experience any adverse effects in RootsMagic from the change.  We will, however, be closely monitoring the interaction between RootsMagic and FamilySearch once they have completed the upgrade to make sure there are no issues that creep in.

If you do encounter problems with FamilySearch after they have completed the upgrade, give it a couple of days to “shake out”.  If the issues continue after that please let us know the specific details at support@rootsmagic.com.

Serendipity Day

by Charles Hansen

Thorp Grist Mill, Ellensburg

Shadow Box Memorial

Old B&W Unknown Photo Wants a Home

Mary Ellen’s Story

Thomas MacEntee’s Fairy Grants

 

We zoom east to west and back again on I-90 and sometimes we stop at “Thorpe.” That be the antique/fruit stand just west of Ellensburg. It is, admittedly, a super rest stop. But have you ever taken time to drive the 1.8 miles down the road to see the Thorpe Mill??

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Built between 1880 and 1883, the Thorp Grist Mill “is the only remaining mill in Washington state that made the transition from stone buhr to modern rollers. The mill has been lovingly restored and maintained so that visitors can catch a glimpse of history back to the early days of settlement in the state.” (Quote from their website.) It’s free to go inside and take the guided tour (Wednesday through Friday, 12:00-4:00 and Saturday/Sunday, 11:00-4:00.) Tiz a fascinating historical stop. The website is www.thorp.org.

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Kittitas County Genealogical Society Field Trip

by Charles Hansen

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Kittitas Co Genealogical Soc events:

June 25 Meeting is a field trip 8:50 AM (we depart at 9AM) Sat June 25 from parking lot on Water St in Ellensburg WA, behind our KCGS library. We’re visiting Wanapum Heritage Center, whose prime-mover, for years, has been our KCGS-member Angela Neller.  Their phone is 509-766-3461, if you want to meet us there at Priest Rapids Dam & website

http://www.grantpud.org/community/the-wanapum/wanapum-heritage-center

for directions and explanations.  Bring a brown bag lunch to eat there

 

The society will furnish beverages for lunch—bottled water, lemonade, ice tea. Hope to see you on Saturday.

Awesome Conference

by Roxanne Lowe
Cyndi Ingle, Paula Stuart-Warren, Warren Fisk & D Becker

Cyndi Ingle, Paula Stuart-Warren, Warren Fisk & D Becker

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Paula played to a roomful of enthusiastic genealogists, ready to learn, apply and discover

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Lots of networking and new resources to check out for more than 150 attendees

Can’t express enough superlatives about the 2016 WSGS Conference hosted by the Tacoma-Pierce County GS! Kudos to Chair Warren Fisk, Moderator Cyndi Ingle, TPCGS President D Becker and the rest of the Planning Team — you really outdid yourselves!

And what about Paula Stuart Warren??!! She was professional, engaging, funny, informative…everything you’d wish for in a keynote speaker. At the end of the day, everyone left armed with inspiration and excitement to find that long-lost ancestor or explore a new resource. If you get another chance to hear Paula at a conference or workshop, don’t miss it — she doesn’t disappoint!

What you Missed 2016 Washington State Genealogical Society Conference

by Charles Hansen

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The drive to Tacoma was going good till we got to Cle Elum and three lanes of traffic merged to one lane at about 5 miles an hour, but that was just a preview of the I-5 rush hour traffic. Glad we only had to go 12 miles on I-5 before we turned off. Went sight seeing at Ocean Shores Friday morning, and got caught in another slow down by Fort Lewis on way back to the WSGS board meeting. Greeted with Happy Birthday at the board meeting when I arrived 15 minutes late. Friday night was a get acquainted meeting with Cyndi Ingals and Paula Stuart-Warren which was great and probably more fun than any get acquainted meeting I have been to.

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Saturday was the actual conference and it was pretty full, many happy genealogists eager to learn. The raffle tickets sold well (but I did not win anything).

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Had to get a good photo of the raffle ticket seller.

The first two topics were Your Anytime Library: Success In the Virtual Stocks; and Railroad Records and Railroad History: Methods for Tracking. Then Lunch:

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My Chicken Caesar and my sisters Cobb salads.

After lunch I had an awful time keeping awake, but Paula ‘s subjects were Untrod Ground: Sources you May not Have Encountered and Controlling Chaos: Organizing Your Genealogical Materials. Then the raffle prizes and they had a lot of wonderful prizes.

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Don’t you just love it when they are lining up everyone for the photos?

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Well all the WSGS officers that were at the conference except two, one left early and one getting us ready for this photo (my fellow blogger Roxanne).

Those of us that were staying till Sunday were invited to a no host dinner with the Tacoma Genealogical Society volunteers and Paula Stuart-Warren where we discussed genealogy while having a nice quiet dinner.

It’s Showtime!

by Roxanne Lowe
Sweet time!

Sweet time!

Paula Stuart-Warren, WSGS VP Donna Potter Phillips and Cyndi Ingle

Paula Stuart-Warren, WSGS VP Donna Potter Phillips and Cyndi Ingle

WSGS Conference Meet and Greet

WSGS Conference Meet and Greet

The WSGS Conference, hosted by the Tacoma-Pierce County Genealogical Society, begins in less than an hour. If you’re on the fence about coming, just jump in your favorite mode of transportation and get to the La Quinta Inn, 1425 East 27th Street, Tacoma. Walk-in registration is available now!! Program starts at 9:00.

Last night about 50 of us enjoyed a couple hours (and yummy desserts!) in a Meet and Greet with Paula Stuart-Warren and Cyndi Ingle. Great relaxed way to learn more about these amazing leaders in genealogy. Check out Paula’s blog and Cyndi’s List!!

TriCity Genealogical Society at River of Fire Festival July 4th

by Charles Hansen

The Daughters of the American Revolution, the Sons of the American Revolution, and the TriCity Genealogical Society are joining together for a day of fun in the sun at the park. This will happen at the River of Fire Festival in the Columbia Park in Kennewick on the 4th of July. This combined group is very excited about the activities that they have planned to share with the public. Please read the attached description and share it with your public. We would also like to extend this as a personal invitation for you to join us. There will be something for everyone during this wonderful reason to celebrate.

 

If you want more information about the Patriotic Heritage Booth please don’t hesitate to contact me personally at 509-554-1050 or reply to this email.

RiverOfFireWPic

 

~Susan Davis Faulkner

Meet Your Blog Team

by Roxanne Lowe

Have you ever wondered who’s behind the scenes of the WSGS Blog? The terrific trio of Charles Hansen, Roxanne Lowe and Donna Potter Phillips work together to bring you interesting articles, news and tidbits about genealogy and family history in Washington State and the Pacific Northwest. All three of them are at the WSGS Conference in Tacoma tomorrow (18 Jun 2016), so look for news and photos about what’s happening there.

Roxanne Lowe, Charles Hansen & Donna Potter Phillips

WSGS Blog Team: Roxanne Lowe, Charles Hansen & Donna Potter Phillips

In the coming months, you’ll learn more about Charles, Roxanne and Donna, as well as the rest of the WSGS Board in a bi-weekly feature called “Meet the Board.”

In the meantime, if you’re looking to publicize your local event or workshop, have a feature story or update about your society, or other genealogical information that might be of interest to our many subscribers, just email a Word document, text file, PDF or graphic to WSGSBlog@wasgs.org and Charles, Roxanne and/or Donna will do the rest. The blog is a great way to reach hundreds of genealogists from around the state and beyond.