Seattle Genealogical Society Tip of the Week

by Charles Hansen

Seattle

 

TIP OF THE WEEK – THE LEGAL GENEALOGIST’s BLOG

The Legal Genealogist is Judy Russell, a well-known genealogical speaker, educator, writer and lawyer.  She was the featured speaker for our Spring Seminar in 2013.

Ms. Russell writes a daily column, The Legal Genealogist, that is almost always informative and educational, and is usually amusing or interesting, on some topic or event of genealogical interest. These columns are brief and entertaining, and they are free.  While the common theme for most of her columns is some legal issue, there’s much more to them – they illustrate how to research problems, how to source or document your research, and reveal new approaches to problem solving.

To receive these articles by email, just sign up at http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/ by clicking on Subscribe By Email on the right margin of this web page.

If you’re unsure, and would like to sample several of her recent columns first, go to her home page at http://www.legalgenealogist.com/.

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Seattle Genealogical Society News and Meetings

by Charles Hansen

Seattle

WHO WILL LEAD SGS IN 2016??
In this, the fourth installment about the unprecedented number of Board vacancies that SGS will be facing in the coming year, we highlight the position of President.

The SGS President is in essence the Captain of the ship. More than any other officer or director, the President charts the course of the society. He or she is the face and the official spokesperson for the Society. and sets the agenda for the Board of Directors. The President provides leadership and guidance to each member of the Board, and ensures that each fulfills their responsibilities.

The SGS President is also akin to the conductor of an orchestra, an all-volunteer orchestra, coaching, leading and directing individuals of varied backgrounds, personalities and abilities to work together harmoniously toward common goals.

Marilyn Rose, our current president, is in her third and final term; our Bylaws prevent her from continuing on in this position. Many members may not know this, but in 2013 the SGS Nominating Committee could not find a candidate to run for President. Fortunately for SGS, a few members wrote in Marilyn’s name, after one long-time friend asked for her permission. She met the requirement that the president must have previously served in a Board position. In the past, Marilyn had been the Director of Education, Secretary and Vice President and had been President from 2005-2006. She accepted the call. Thus a crisis was narrowly avoided three years ago.

We are approaching a similar but much worse crisis now, with the potential for multiple vacancies on the Board. It is hard to imagine how SGS could continue in the future, if we’re unable to recruit and elect a capable president, and fill the other Board positions as well. Our goal is to have a full slate of candidates by early March 2016 at the latest.

These are challenging times, and we need your help. If you’d like to be considered for this or any other Board position, or would like to suggest the names of someone else, please contact the Nominating Committee at SGSNominate@gmail.com.

Another Interesting Publication Found In Our Library

Do you have a “ghostly” address for one of your ancestors? You know, a place that doesn’t show up on current maps or a town that was completely abandoned.

That was a problem tackled by the Alberta (Canada) Genealogical Society. Discover how they approached this problem as reported in their publication, Relatively Speaking, 1983, Vol. II, No. 3, p. 22.  Come by.  You can find this publication in the Canada Section of the SGS Library. Continue reading →

Bainbridge Island Genealogical Society Meeting

by Charles Hansen

Bainbridge Island
For Immediate Release

The Bainbridge Island Genealogical Society (BIGS) will meet Friday, November 20, in the Bainbridge Island Public Library Meeting Room from 10:00 AM until noon.  The topic is, “Telling Our Family Stories” – BIGS members will share how they are researching their families, and why they decided to share their research.  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

PR and Public Relations Director

Bainbridge Island Genealogical Society

Genealogical Forum of Oregon 2016 Save The Dates

by Charles Hansen

GenForum

 

 

Some Dates to Remember for 2016!

January 31st – House History Workshop with Connie Lenzen

March 12th –  Fintan Mullan and Gillian Hunt from the Ulster Historical Foundation will be presenting a program on Irish Genealogy.

March 13th – Our guests from Ireland will present a workshop on Irish research.

April 9th through 17th –  The GFO’s Annual Open House with days full of free classes for all.

Genealogical Forum of Oregon Upcoming Meetings

by Charles Hansen

GenForum

THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM OF OREGON’S

Wednesday Evening E-News

28 October 2015

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/15-Nov.pdf.

YD@W…What’s Happening to My Donation Money?

Your Donations At Work (YD@W)

Scanner
This week, we’re featuring the following accessibility and preservation tools that were made possible by your donations and ongoing support: •Microfilm and Microfiche Scanner! Finally. A way to not only search through and view the GFO’s massive microfilm and microfiche collections (see our Oregon Donation Land Claims, for example), but to save scanned copies of the records. Thanks to the generosity of our members and others, we were able to purchase this wonderful tool. Come give it a spin! But please beware, the GFO cannot be held responsible for any addictive or compulsory microfilm researching you may experience as a result.
•Flatbed Patron’s Scanner! What a wonderful way to scan and share some of those family photos and letters that you know are not being seen or even remembered among the dusts of your attic. The flatbed scanner is located in the Research Area, and is free for members and guests to scan and save and/or email copies of their personal family history treasures. For more information about preserving family photos and manuscripts, the GFO encourages you to visit  the Library of Congress and the National Archives websites on these topics! Continue reading →

Making Grave Markers & Memorials

by Charles Hansen

(To get the whole story, you really must read clear to the end.)

A GENEALOGIST IN A CEMETERY  By Lora Rose, member of the Northeast Washington Genealogcial Society, Colville, WA.

So what’s the difference between a genealogist in a cemetery and a cemetery caretaker?  This doesn’t come with a punchline.  The answer is Family History Stories and Pedigrees.

My husband was introduced to his Rose family second cousins in 2007 as a result of my research. Turns out the Rose family had come to western Oregon in 1856 with a small group of family members. It was a merging of two individuals whose spouses died and a new marriage created – his, hers and soon to be ours.  The Rose family farm near Lebanon, Oregon sets on the Santiam River and was honored as a 100 year farm in August 1976.  A surviving member still lives there.

Continue reading →

How to Post to the Blog

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

Serendipity Day — 24 October 2015

by Charles Hansen

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Why do fall sunsets seem more colorful than at any other time?????

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There has been lots of wuzz-wuzzing (my father’s words!!) about whether or not the Family History Library in Salt Lake City will keep the “real” books on their shelves after each one is digitized. Should they or shouldn’t they? James Tanner, who is eminently qualified to address this topic, in a post in his GenealogyStar blog on 1 October 2015, explained a new concept (at least to me):The Digital Divide.

This particular problem, called the Digital Divide, is the divide between genealogists who use the Internet and those who do not. Tanner, in his post, thought it would be a good thing to have all the FHL books free and available online. But after his post, he received some thoughtful comments. “Not all of the potential genealogists have access to the Internet or their access was so slow as to make the (book downloading process) impractical.”

Tanner gives several scenarios and summarizes:  “So, we have, hypothetically speaking, a class of people who have no Internet access. In addition… we have a class of people who have no physical access to the FHL or any of the branch libraries around the world. Guess what? It absolutely makes no difference to them as to whether or not the books are in paper or in digital format.”

He finishes his post by pointing out any and all of the problems connected with this peculiar condition termed the Digital Divide (and they can be many) have nothing to do with digitizing books at the FHL. “In law, raising the issue of the Digital Divide as a reason why there is something wrong with the Library’s digitization of paper books and then removing them from the shelves, would be called a “red herring,” that is, irrelevant to the issues.”

I urge you to click to http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2015/10/genealogy-and-digital-divide.html and ready this entire post for yourself. While you’re there, sign up (via email) to receive all James Tanner’s thoughtful posts.

Continue reading →