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.

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Mary Holcomb, soon to be vice-president of EWGS, shared a great blurb with me…….. if you click to www.sos.wa.gov/legacyproject/washington-remembers you will find the stories of Washington’s heroes … including Fred Skiosaki. His story is a terrific read, as are all the stories found on this website. “Washington Remembers….. WWII….Their Sacrifice, Our Freedom.”

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One pearl gleaned from Cyndi Ingle, our EWGS Fall Workshop speaker, was for a little program called Fences.  “Are your desktop icons often scrambled from the positions you put them in?” asked Cyndi. “With this little program, you put “fences” (boxes) around groups of icons on your desktop and they stay put. I did it and so far I’m quite happy with the results……… go see for yourself. Google “stardock fences.” (Stardock is the company originating the program.)

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I’m a member of the St.Clair County (IL) Gen Society and so receive their Quarterly. In the latest edition they reported on a most-cool project. Under the direction of their teacher, local high school students in the German class are translating old German obituaries that were published in the German-speaking area newspaper in 1893. I think that is a terrific idea! Think of the various and many ethnic newspapers in our area…….

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Another Illinois research pearl I gleaned from the above Quarterly was that the Illinois Blue Books, 1900-2006, are digitized and now are available online. State Blue Books are “most than a directory of (state’s) legislative officials, their portraits and biographies, articles about (state’s) farms…………….. they contain departmetntal reports …… conservation, finance, insurance, labor, mines, public health, welfare, safety, education, maps, patriotic organizations and photographs……”  These online Illinois Blue Books can be found on the Illinois Digital Archives website, www.idaillinois.org

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Do you know: How many national parks do we have in Washington?? How many have you visited? Well, there are three: Olympic, North Cascades and Mount Rainier National Parks. And there are many national monuments and state parks. (We are so lucky in that regard!!) Came upon a “List Challenge” with a list of all the national parks in the U.S. (and there are 59) and inviting us to see how many we have visited…. www.listchallenges.com/national-parks-of-the-usa  My score was 30-some, how about you? (The above photo of mine is of Rialto Beach just west of Forks, WA.)

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Do any of your non-genealogy friends bring up to you the seemingly negative Bible verses against genealogy, like Titus 3:9 and 1 Timothy 1:4:  “neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies..”  I’ve done some studying and have come to understand that Jews of that day strove to prove their descent from Abraham thus claiming that they were automatically saved above the Gentiles and were better than the Gentiles. That’s what Paul was warning against; he stressed personal righteousness no matter what your ancestry. Whew!

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Shall end today with a great quote from Ellen Goodman, columnist for the Boston Globe:  “This packrat has learned that what the next generation will value most is not what we owned, but the evidence of who we were and the talks of how we loved. In the end, it’s the family stories that are worth the storage.”