Seattle Genealogical Society Library Team Named Outstanding Team in 2015

Jan13 by Roxanne Lowe

Since 2003, the Washington State Genealogical Society has recognized more than 450 outstanding volunteers and teams, nominated by their local society or genealogical organization for their service and dedication. These volunteers and teams 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 2015 award recipients and learn why they received the 2015 WSGS Outstanding Volunteer and Team Award.

Today we’re introducing the Library Team at the Seattle Genealogical Society (SGS). The team was recognized for its dedicated volunteer efforts to enlarge and improve the society’s library.

SGS Library Team

The team included Dona Bubelis, Daniel P. Harmon, Kathi McGinnes, Charlotte Wixon, and Ann Wright.

Under the expert direction of committee chair Dan Harmon, an impressive team of SGS volunteers was recruited for the new Library Committee. Ms. Ann Wright, assisted primarily by Ms. Charlotte Wixon, took the lead in the herculean task of cataloging the almost endless number of boxes in the backlog of donated books. Ms. Wright oversaw the day-to-day operation of the library, while Ms. Wixon looked after the shelved collection. Ms. Wixon also took the lead in book repair, a skill which the committee acquired through special training.

Ms. Dona Bubelis, who works with library periodicals, coordinated efforts to develop the collection by identifying important new works for acquisition. She was also in charge of eBay sales, a source of funding for the SGS Library Fund.

Ms. Kathi McGinnes played a key role in maintaining the ever-changing collection of genealogical websites available for the use by library patrons, a role which will grow in importance in the months and years ahead.

The members of the SGS Library Team made a real difference in the quality and quantity of the SGS library collection. They richly deserved being recipients of a WSGS Outstanding Team Award.

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.

Genealogical Forum of Oregon Wednesday E-News

Jan7 by Charles Hansen

GenForum

THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM OF OREGON’S Wednesday Evening E-News

6 January 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 last month’s newletter, the Insider, you’re in luck because we saved you a copy at http://www.gfo.org/insider/16-Jan.pdf. Look for the February 2016 Insider coming soon! Check our website for the link on our Newsletter page.

Don’t miss the January Monthly Program!!

Akee

GFO proudly presents Stephen Hanks, author of Akee Tree, Saturday, January 16th, 2pm – 4pm.

Free to the Public

Come spend the afternoon with us as we indulge in a talk by fellow genealogist and author, Stephen Hanks, who spent over 10 years tracing his paternal African American family line. He will be discussing the research behind his most recent book, Akee Tree: A Descendant’s Quest For His Slave Ancestors on the Eskridge Plantations.

The book is written as a narrative, so readers can experience the “thrill of the hunt” and follow along with Hanks’ research methodology to get a peek at the records he discovered in his search for ancestry in the United States as well as Africa.

Digital historical resources for all; all 180,000 of them!

Explore turn-of-the-century New York City apartment floor plans, or see what your ancestors’ Fifth Ave of New York City looked like in 1911.

The New York Public Library announced yesterday that they have released some 180,000 out-of-copyright items from their Digital Collections as high resolution downloads. These resources are free for all to use, no permissions needed as the Library’s confirmed these are all now in the public domain.

January Seminar – “Discover Your House History”

Come hear our very own Connie Lenzen, author, researcher and board-certified genealogist, teach about the histories of houses.

Have you ever wondered who lived in your home or building before you? Have you ever wondered when your house was built, and maybe WHY?? Connie will lead us through the process of researching the history of your house. While her examples will begin from Multomah and Clackamas County, the principles are applicable to any location you might be curious about.

You should really hurry up and register quickly, as this session is limited to 50 attendees! Click here for a registration form.

What’s Happening this Week at the GFO?

Illinois Group – Saturday, January 9th, 9:30am – 11:30am

All interested researchers are welcome to join us. Just drop in and share the workshop when you can and when you’re interested. Meetings include handouts and/or worksheets for each topic we cover. We focus on the state of Illinois, but the research techniques can be used in all states. The group leaders are Kristy Gravlin and Harlene Patterson. For more information call (630) 621-5166 or email hannah@teleport.com.

GFO Book Group – Saturday, January 9th, 11:45am – 12:45pm

Author Harold Hinds will lead the discussion about his book Crafting a Personal Family History. A Guide Plus a Case Study: Three Generations of the Hinds Family in New York’s Adirondack Mountains. Please call the front desk (503-963-1932) to ask if copies are still available at the GFO, as they’re goin’ fast!

Writers’ Forum – Saturday, January 9th, 1pm – 3pm

This is a peer group of genealogists, who meet to learn about writing and to share our writing with each other. Peggy Baldwin facilitates this group and can be reached at peggy.baldwin@family-passages.com or (503) 916-9410.

Library Work Party – Sunday, January 11th, 9am – noon

There’s another work party at the GFO library today for those of you who can come. There’s lots to do and we’d love to have your help. Doors open at 9 a.m. and work usually wraps up around noon. Some people come for just an hour or so and you’re welcome to do the same. Any time you can share is valuable. Hope to see you there.

Announcement, announcement – Class hours have changed!
Don’t let the printed version of the January Insider fool you. There have been some changes.

Firstly, the “Photoshop Elements” classes for this month have been postponed until February. Keep an eye out for more updates soon!

Secondly, our “Learn & Chat” sessions with Connie Lenzen, held on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month, will now be held the same days as our “DNA Q&A” classes with Lisa McCullough. So come spend the day, we dare you! Start with Connie’s class from 10 a.m. to noon, and move right into Lisa’s class from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., and feel free to pop on upstairs for a snack in between.

Susan Boatright Named Outstanding Volunteer in 2015

Jan7 by Roxanne Lowe

Since 2003, the Washington State Genealogical Society has recognized more than 450 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 2015 award recipients and learn why they received the 2015 WSGS Outstanding Volunteer and Team Award.

Today we’re introducing Susan Breshears Boatright of Yakima, Washington, who was nominated by the Yakima Valley Genealogical Society. She was recognized for her enthusiastic commitment to educate and share with others.

Since retiring from a gratifying teaching career, Susan has been involved in genealogy. She appreciates the academic research and learning involved, as well as participation with YVGS’s many active volunteers.

Susan Breshears Boatright

Susan served her second term as recording secretary at YVGS in 2015. In addition, she hosted a twice-monthly writing group at the society library where she encouraged members to write about their life experiences or family members with the goal of passing these memories and discoveries on to their families. Nothing gives her more satisfaction than helping a “newbie” make connections with previously unknown family members.

Susan promotes genealogy and YVGS at every turn and is an appreciated volunteer. Those qualities illustrate that she richly deserved being a recipient of a WSGS Outstanding Volunteer Award.

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.

Bainbridge Island Genealogical Society Monthly Meeting

Jan7 by Charles Hansen

Bainbridge Island

January 5, 2016

The Bainbridge Island Genealogical Society (BIGS) will meet Friday, January 15, in the Bainbridge Island Public Library Meeting Room from 10:00 AM until noon. This will be a meeting for brainstorming to develop our New Year’s Resolution for Genealogy. We will be collaborating to come up with new ideas to use to enhance and advance our research. This is a very good time to visit if you are interested in becoming a member. Come and be inspired! Free to members, a $5.00 donation is suggested for nonmembers. For more information go to http://www.bigenealogy.org, or call 206-842-4978. BIGS is a 501c(3) non-profit organization.

Thank you!

Sylvia H. Nelson

Director, Publicity and Public Relations

Bainbridge Island Genealogical Society

www.bigenealogy.org

206-842-4978

How to Post to the Blog

Jan5 by Roxanne Lowe

Do you want to broadcast information about your local society, workshop, genealogical tip, or a research query? Just post to the WSGS Blog! You can reach hundreds of genealogists from around the state. Just email a Word document, text file, PDF or graphic to WSGSBlog@wasgs.org and the blog masters will do the rest.

We’re always looking to publicize local events and workshops, feature stories, updates from your society, and other genealogical information that might be of interest to our many subscribers.

We hope to hear from you soon! And don’t forget to encourage your Society members to subscribe to the Blog for the most up-to-date information from around the state.

You may manage your subscription options from your profile.

Seattle Genealogical Society Tip of the Week

Jan1 by Charles Hansen

Seattle

Tip of the Week – Improve Your Google Search Results

As promised in the last edition here are some examples on using “*” as well as the “site:” operator.

The “*” is known as a wild card in searching. Use “*” to match one or more words in a phrase (enclosed in quotes). For example, “Google * my life” tells Google to find pages containing a phrase that starts with “Google” followed by one or more words, followed by “my life”. Phrases that fit the bill include : “Google changed by life”, “Google is my life” and “Google helps me with my life”. Can you see yourself using this when you’re not sure of the exact title of a book, or the entire adage you are trying to recall, or someone’s full name?

The operator called “site:” is used to when you only want results from certain sites or domains. Likewise with the “–site:”, you can exclude a particular site or domain. Some examples, “James Brown” site:ancestry.com or “James Brown” site:familysearch.org tells Google find me all the James Brown pages in Ancestry.com or all the James Brown pages in Familysearch.org, respectively. Likewise, “James Brown” –site:Youtube.com says find me all pages for James Brown, but ignore any at Youtube.com

Don’t worry about memorizing the syntax for every operator or punctuation we’ve discussed because you can also use the Advanced Search page to create these searches. If you search often, try adding advanced search to your favorites: https://www.google.com/advanced_search

Seattle Genealogical Society E-News

Jan1 by Charles Hansen

Seattle

CHECK OUT THE RECENT ACQUISTIONS SHELF

The money earned from seminar book sales and raffles, as well as library book sales and e-bay sales all go into the Library Fund and this is used for acquisition of new material for the SGS Library. We’ve acquired some really good reference materials that have made their way to the new acquisitions shelf. Come by and check out what’s *New*.

*New* The Maine Historical and Genealogical Recorder

Nine volumes in three. A repository of genealogical data on Maine unequaled by any other work on the subject, The Maine Historical and Genealogical Recorder is back in print in a handy three-volume edition. The work consists of a multitude of articles covering every conceivable facet of Maine genealogy, with special emphasis on town and church records, biographies, family histories, and cemetery inscriptions. Typical contents include articles on religious and ethnic settlements; early pioneers; army musters; land grants and claims; births, marriages, and deaths; historical sketches; wills; censuses; and town histories. Each of the nine volumes is separately indexed, the names alone numbering nearly 15,000 altogether.

*New* North Carolina Historical and Genealogical Register

This short-lived periodical contains the best collection of genealogical source records for the Old Albemarle region of North Carolina. Chief among its contents are abstracts of land grants, court records, conveyances, births, deaths, marriages, wills, petitions, military records, licenses, and oaths. The abstracts derive from records from present-day counties of the Old Albemarle region: Beaufort, Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Halifax, Hyde, Martin, Northampton, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Tyrrell, and Washington and the Virginia counties of Surry and Isle of Wight. Continue reading →

Kittatas County Gen Society News Flash

Dec31 by Charles Hansen

KCGS_logo

Kittitas Co. Genealogical Soc. Meeting, Monday Jan 4^th 2016 at 7 pm, AT 413 N Main, Ellensburg (our library)

Program “A Walk Among the Ancestors” by Ellensburg’s Bill Bowden. Two of his lines, Bowden and Buckler were in Newfoundland (1/2 way from New York to Greenland)—long before it became part of Canada. Some of his archival techniques show us how to succeed with our easier problems. Canadians now say “NewFOUNDLand” not USA-talk “NEWfundlund”

Please bring 15 dollars for dues (20 family); paying by check would help a lot, since Tuck can’t write out cash receipts fast enough.

Already paid 2016 dues: Alexander, Bakke, Burrows, Clayton, Large & Schneider.

The Lewis County Genealogical Society Irish Seminar

Dec31 by Charles Hansen

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The Lewis County Genealogical Society presents…
Researching Your Irish and Scots-Irish Ancestors

Ulster Historical Foundation, Belfast, Northern Ireland,
Featuring Fintan Mullan & Gillian Hunt
Monday, March 14, 2016, 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Bethel Assembly of God Church
132 Kirkland Road, Chehalis, Washington 98532

.
Want to discover
your Irish and Scots-Irish Ancestors?

Fintan

Gillian

Many people believe that researching Irish ancestors is impossible because of the destruction of the Public Record Office in 1922. While many records were destroyed, others survived and have come online in recent years.

Join experts Fintan Mullan and Gillian Hunt from the Ulster Historical Foundation to learn how to get the most out of Irish resources and records, gain strategies for breaking down brick walls, and grasp important historical context that may help fill in gaps in your research. Whether you are just beginning your Irish research or have been at it for years, you won’t want to miss this workshop!

With sixty years’ experience of serving Irish people everywhere, let the Ulster Historical Foundation help you discover your family’s story.
Although the Foundation is based in Northern Ireland, the information presented will be of interest no matter where in Ireland your ancestors came from.
Presented by
The Lewis County Genealogical Society
PO Box 782, Chehalis, WA 98532-0782

Complete information: www.walcgs.org
Society Email: wa.lcgs@hotmail.com
Conference Chair: Patricia Olsen, patricia1944a@gmail.com

TriCity Genealogical Society January Meeting

Dec30 by Charles Hansen

TriCity Genealogical Society January Meeting
January 13, 2016 at 7:00 pm at Charbonneau

The TriCity Genealogical Society welcomes you to our first meeting at Charbonneau on
January 13, 2016.
Our meeting will begin at 7:00 pm. After a short business meeting, we will be educated and
entertained by Civil War Army Surgeon Mike Inman. Reenactor Inman was not physically
present at the battle of Wilson’s Creek but he is often called upon to provide information
he has accumulated from years of studying the Civil War from the viewpoint of a Surgeon.
He plans to help you ponder important questions like, “Why didn’t they cover this in
school?” and “Why does Hollywood not portray this aspect of the Civil War?” in his
question and answer interaction with the audience. Plan on hearing about the details,
looking at the statistics, and touching actual instruments that were used during this time
in history.

TriCity1
For more information email Susan Davis Faulkner at denmother4@hotmail.com or visit the
TriCity Genealogical Society Facebook page at www.facebook.com/TriCityGenealogicalSociety