Seattle Genealogical Society Upcoming Events

by Charles Hansen

Seattle

SGS CALENDAR OF EVENTS

All programs are at the SGS Library at 6200 Sand Point Way unless otherwise indicated. Please Check the SGS Web Site for additions, changes, and corrections. Programs may be postponed.

Sunday, August 2, 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm
PROGRAM MEETING: “USING “FIND A GRAVE” FOR GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH.” 
“Find A Grave” is a resource for finding the final disposition of family, friends, and famous people as a virtual cemetery experience.  “Find a Grave” memorials may contain rich content including pictures, biographies and more specific information. Speaker: Karen Sipe.

Sunday, August 16, 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm
PROGRAM MEETING: “LOVE, COURTSHIP, SEX & MARRIAGE”
Until Eve – It was a man’s world.  Without women, there would be no genealogy; but their status has changed throughout history, and this has had a profound effect on the records we use for research.  We’ll explore the surprising customs and practices of our ancestors, and the place of women in society over time. Speaker: Jean A. Roth

Saturday, August 22, 1:30 pm  – 4:00 pm
ETHNIC WORKSHOP: “BREAKING THROUGH THE WALL OF SLAVERY: AN INTRODUCTION to AFRICAN-AMERICAN GENEALOGY” Speaker:  Janice Lovelace, SGS Vice-President

Sunday, August 23, 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm
BRICK WALL PROBLEM SOLVING 
Join SGS members for a problem-solving session.  This is an open forum format.

Sunday August 30, 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm
PROGRAM MEETING: “USING FIRE INSURANCE MAPS”
These maps, including the famous Sandborn Maps, were originally created in the years following the Civil War and used for assessing fire insurance liability in urban areas in the United States. They are a highly useful resource for historical and genealogical research.   Speaker: Jill Morelli

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Dwight Radford & All Things Irish Research

by Charles Hansen

I have been privileged to have known and to have worked with Dwight Radford for about 20 years. I know him to be a thoroughly competent professional researcher in all areas of Irish research. He recently put up his website… if you have Irish research needs, you could do no better than to contact Dwight.      Donna

Dwight Radford is a full time professional genealogist residing in the Salt Lake City area. His interests lie in Ireland and Ireland immigration research problems. He has a blog site and a facebook page: www.thejourneyhomegenealogy. Another interest of his is researching the intermixing of the Irish immigrants with the local populations of all races where ever they settled.

Dwight is the co-author of A Genealogist’s Guide to Discovering Your Irish Ancestors (Betterway Books: Cincinnati, Ohio, 2001, 2012) and was co-editor of the journal The Irish at Home and Abroad (1993-1999).  He has published many Irish-related articles in North American genealogical journals.

He will be speaking on “Researching Your Irish Ancestors” on August 11th at the Ohio History Connection in Columbus:
www.ohiohistory.org/learn/archives-library/archiveslibrary-services/genealogy-workshops

Dwight recently completed a video, on his website, describing Irish research and its quirks. This was accomplished with the help of participants of the Salt Lake Christmas Tour and participants of the Kelowna &  District Genealogy Society in British Columbia.

Dwight has been to Ireland and Northern Ireland many times to work in the archives and to document the ancestral home sites for clients.

He can be reached at dwightradford@msn.com

Blog Banner Photos Coming In

by Roxanne Lowe

Have you noticed the different photos in our Blog banner each time you visit? They’re the first batch of photos submitted by Blog readers in our “Blog Banner Photo Challenge” (see the 08 Jul 2015 Blog post for details).

  • Steamboat Rock near Banks Lake. Photo taken by Donna Potter Phillips, Spokane
  • Spokane Falls – Charles Hansen, Spokane
  • Block 72 of the Evergreen Cemetery in Everett (Does anyone know Russian???) – Larry Taylor, Arlington
  • Wild Horses Monument near Vantage – Charles Hansen, Spokane
  • Whitestone Rock in Lake Roosevelt – Donna Potter Phillips, Spokane
  • Snoqualmie Falls – Donna Potter Phillips, Spokane

Where’s YOUR photo? There’s still plenty of time to submit your photo (jpg only, please) to WSGSBlog@wasgs.org. Read more about the Blog Banner Photo Challenge here. If you’ve still got questions, email the blog team at WSGSBlog@wasgs.org.

 

Opportunity for some of us??

by Charles Hansen

This is legit….. click to www.PCAACA.org and view their very nice website………………

 

CALL FOR PAPERS Interested scholars are invited to submit papers for the 2016 Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Annual Conference in Seattle, Washington, March 21-25, 2016

Special Topics Area, Genealogy. Academics studying and writing on American popular culture might examine genealogy within the context of television and literary disciplines, library and archival disciplines, American and public history disciplines, museum studies, or folklore.

Possible themes for papers/panels include but are not restricted to:  DNA in genealogy  Comparison of different genealogy television programs  Comparison of US genealogy television programs with British or Canadian programs  Study of the motivations for researching family history  Religious aspect of family history (e.g., LDS church)  The monetary impact of the business of genealogy  Redefining genealogy: from elitist pursuit to the Roots phenomenon  Fiction or non-fiction: when genealogists write the family story  Genealogy in mystery novels  The fate of the FitzRoys and Royal Bastards if DNA had been discovered in 1100 AD  Serendipity in genealogy  Comparing “traditional” research methods with “Internet Genealogy”  Ethnic studies in genealogy  Ephemera as family history evidence  Victorian obituaries and death stories  The relationship between genealogy and history or law or medicine

Please submit a 100 to 250 word abstract on your proposed topic to the PCA website as described here: http://pcaaca.org/national-conference/proposing-a-presentation-at-theconference/.

Potential participants do not need to be members to submit proposals; however, membership in PCA/ACA and registration for the conference are required in order to present. Please send all inquiries to: Bruce E. Drushel, Ph.D. VP Programming & Area Chairs, PCA/ACA drushebe@miamioh.edu

Innovative Grant Awards Announced

by Roxanne Lowe

WSGS President Mikal McKinnon has announced the local society projects that received Innovative Grants at last month’s state conference. The Innovative Grant Program, awarding financial awards up to $100, was created to support the inventive and creative efforts of WSGS-member societies and organizations. The successfully funded projects, which include matching funds from the local society, are:

  • Chelan Valley Genealogical Society – Purchase of a computer, solely for genealogical research, at the Chelan Public Library. The computer will have access to Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org.
  • Northeast Washington Genealogical Society – Removal of trees that are endangering the safety of people and protection of grave markers at the Evergreen Cemetery, a local cemetery near Colville. Until NWGS began caring for this long-neglected cemetery, vandalism and lack of care had left its mark on many of the headstones and gravesites. Today, the cemetery looks like an old, but loved, pioneer cemetery.
  • Skagit Valley Genealogical Society – Purchase of a new laptop computer to be used for society presentations and transcription of documents from the Northwest Regional Archives in Bellingham.
  • Tri-City Genealogical Society – Funds will support the society’s “Archived Records Contest” which encourages individuals to share records they have obtained by various means other than just downloading an image from the Internet. Click here for more about the Archived Records Contest.
  • Wenatchee Area Genealogical Society – Specialized computer software to enable more than one volunteer to enter data related to local obituaries, cemetery records, World War I records and more. The software purchase will enable WAGS members to add to their extensive genealogical holdings of more than 394,000 records and 90 databases.

Announcements for the 2016 grant cycle will be posted on the Blog in Spring 2016. For more information about the Innovative Grant Program, contact Roxanne Lowe, WSGS Recognition Chair.

Tip of the Week

by Charles Hansen

At the recent WSGS conference David Rencher said that Family Search was adding about a million new names, and I can not remember if that was a day or a week, but still it is a lot of new names to research, and to come back often to see if the name you are researching is there now. He also said he gets reports telling him what new data is being added, but how does the average genealogist find out what is being added? The answer is blogs! I know several of the blogs I read using Feedly list the updated list almost weekly. I will just list three here, the first one is a Washington resident Leland Meitzler in his GenaelogyBlog . The second is Randy Seaver with his GeneaMusings Blog. Randy also lists the new or updated lists on Ancestry. The last one is Renee Zamora, and she lists a lot of happenings at Family Search, like the call for 100,000 volunteers to index records  or to beta test the new Family Search Home Page

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fred Pflugrath Receives President’s Award for Outstanding Achievement

by Roxanne Lowe
Lynda Pheasant accepts Fred's President's Award from Roxanne Lowe and Mike McKinnon

WAGS President Lynda Pheasant accepts Fred Pflugrath’s President’s Award from Roxanne Lowe and Mike McKinnon

Fred Pflugrath was named the first recipient of the WSGS President’ Award for Outstanding Achievement at the WSGS Conference in Ellensburg last month. He was nominated by the Wenatchee Area Genealogical Society (WAGS).

Over the last dozen years, Fred has single-handedly identified, researched, and documented information about almost 2,500 Civil War veterans from all over Eastern Washington. Much of his research is available in 35 notebooks in the WAGS library with an index available online. Additionally, he has taken the extra step to submit the information to the National Grave Registration Project (part of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, SUVCW).

Fred has connected families with their Civil War ancestors, arranged for headstones and markers, and orchestrated dedication and memorial ceremonies. He has willingly shared information, resources and expertise with anyone wanting information, including those outside Chelan and Douglas counties.

As if that isn’t enough, Fred also gives tours of local cemeteries and has been the WAGS newsletter editor.

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Tip of the Week Seattle Genealogical Society

by Charles Hansen

TIP OF THE WEEK – ALL CATHOLIC PARISH REGISTER MICROFILMS OF IRELAND AVAILABLE ON-LINE FOR FREE!

The entire collection of Catholic parish register microfilms held by the National Library of Ireland is now available online, and for free.  With this database, people with Irish Catholic ancestors will be to trace their roots back to the 1740’s on a dedicated website free of charge.  Over 370,000 digital images of the microfilm reels will be available for download.
These parish register records are considered the single most important source of information on Irish family history prior to the 1901 Census.
The documents, primarily baptismal and marriage records, date from the 1740s to the 1880s and encompass 1,086 parishes throughout Ireland.
For more information, visit www.nli.ie. For more on the launch follow the hashtag #ancestorsonline or follow @NLIreland on Twitter.
To use this site, one must know the parish or diocese where their ancestor lived.  It is not possible to search the site for a particular individual or surname.
The site includes a great, interactive map of the counties and dioceses of Ireland.

BONUS TIP OF THE WEEK – KING COUNTY PROBATE COURT RECORDS COMING ON-LINE AT FAMILYSEARCH.ORG

One of the many new databases coming online at Familysearch.org is “Washington, King County Probate Records, 1851-1927.”  This database consists of images of probate records, arranged and filmed in chronological order; currently it contains nearly 34,000 images of probate records from 1861-1893, with the expectation of more records being added as they are digitized and uploaded.
The URL for this database is: https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1878788

Seattle Genealogical Society Announcements and Meetings

by Charles Hansen

PARKING CHANGES AT SGS

Street parking in front of the SGS Library is often difficult, due to the limited spaces there and the use of those spaces by residents who live in the apartments above the library.
In an effort to improve parking for our patrons, particularly those with limited mobility, in April the Board authorized (and the landlord supported) our application to the City for installation of two two-hour time-limited parking places in front of our entrance.  The signs have now been placed.
Anyone with a handicapped placard or license plate can park in these spaces as long as they wish, without receiving a parking ticket.  Our hope is that the restricted places will make using the library easier for our members who need to park close to the building.  And others can use these spaces, when they are available, particularly for short visits or for dropping things off at the Library.
CONGRATULATIONS TO KAREN PORTZER!

Seattle Metro’s RapidRide buses and stations have a new poem every day of the year through November 2015 as part of the Poetry on Buses public art program.  The poem to be highlighted on July 30, 2015, is entitled “Irish Morn” by SGS member Karen Portzer.  This is the second year that one of Karen’s poems was selected.
If you’d like to read her poem, or any of the other poems in this series, visit http://poetryonbuses.org/collection/.

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