German Group of Eastside Genealogical Society will meet on Friday, November 6, 2015 in the Bellevue LDS Church, 10675 NE 20th St, Bellevue, WA 98004 at 1 to 3 pm.
Topic: Genealogy Speaker, Janet O’Conor Camarata, will be presenting “Google Tools Beyond Basic Search”. These tools will assist in researching your ancestors. Visitors are always welcome.
Dorothy Pretare
EGS Publicity Chairperson
EVERGREEN CEMETERY PROJECT Annual Report to the Northeast Washington Genealogical Society October 2015
The Evergreen Cemetery was adopted by NeWGS in the late 1980’s as a project. The cemetery having been neglected for some time, caused native brush to invade a large part of the property and some grave markers were vandalized. NeWGS members and local residents continue the work to beautify the grounds and honor the over 600 interments of local pioneers and their families.
Activity Report: • In March, the north perimeter fence was cleaned of brush, stripped of old fencing and new wire strung tightly. • Maurice Williamson, Forest Management Consultant, met with Gordy & Karen Struve, Susan Dechant and Lora Rose to offer his evaluation of the tree health and status in the cemetery. His knowledge and abilities were of benefit in long term planning of the trees; an integral component of the grounds.
• Spring clean-up work, in anticipation of Memorial Day, began with the LDS youth groups aiding our members in removal of pine cones & some needles, dead branches and debris. Adult supervisors of this group and our members used weed whackers to trim around markers, trees and monuments in preparation for mowing. Brookover Bros. Lawn Service was hired to mow the cemetery grounds.
• A small work group removed 7 trees from the crowded southwest corner of the cemetery to provide more light for viewing burial locations. Further work will be done this fall or early spring.
• A rummage sale at the Struve house produced a generous increase in cemetery funds by $1138. 39. • Gordy Struve and Lora Rose continued efforts to honor those interred at Evergreen on our NeWGS website. Grave marker photos, pictures and obituaries were added as well as biographical information. Documentation used for our research was added to our NeWGS databases and the beginning of an “Evergreen Cemetery” tree was added to Ancestry.com to collaborate with others in correctly identifying family relationships and biographical data.
• Cement grave markers are being produced by Lora Rose to identify those known burials that are heretofore unmarked. Grave sites clearly identifiable but of unknown remains are also marked with cement/granite markers.
• A $100 grant from the Washington State Genealogical Society was applied for and received to help fund the removal of a large, dead pine tree on the east side of the cemetery.
• NeWGS featured Evergreen Cemetery at the Northeast Washington Fair in late August. Unfortunately, fires in the area limited attendance. Credit for much of the above mentioned work goes to dedicated NeWGS members. Thank you all for offering your time, energy and often personal equipment and money to keeping the restoration and maintenance of Evergreen cemetery a reality.
Here are WSGS Board members Patty Olsen and Roger Newman posing with Dr. Tom Jones, speaker at the recent Seattle Genealogical Society seminar.
Patty reports that it was a great day, a great seminar, for the 160 or so folks who attended. The venue was the Nordic Heritage Museum, which is interesting in itself.
All you need do is Google “Dr. Tom Jones genealogy” and you’ll have links to all the good things that Dr. Jones has and continues to do for genealogy.
I’m sorry for myself and all who were not able to attend this great learning day. Thanks, SGS, for hosting such a great presenter.
Good morning,
The fair will be streamed live online through YouTube on October 21 and 22. You can find the links for each day’s sessions here: http://1.usa.gov/1MNjKkW
—
TIP OF WEEK – SWEDISH RECORDS
Member Jill Morelli has discovered some well done videos on reading Swedish Records presented by Geoff Morris on the home page of his web site “The Swedish Genealogy Guide” . Start at http://swedishgenealogyguide.com/ and then click on “Learning Center” for a list of the 9 videos currently available for you to watch.
“LITTLE GEMS” IN THE SGS LIBRARY
Mr. James Lowe sailed from New York City, aboard the ship Ohio, on January 10,1852, with “1,000 passengers on board.” He was bound for California, no doubt certain he would make his fortune in the promised land. On his journey, he notes that he paid $10 to hire a mule to take him across the Isthmus of Panama and saw “Parrits Monkeys Alegators”. Sailing north, he was thirsty and hungry with “nothing for supper” and “three spoons of rice for breakfast.” He landed in San Francisco on May 15, 1852. Fortunately for historians and genealogists, Mr. Lowe kept a diary of his journey, which includes names of his fellow passengers sailing up the California coast aboard the Brig Margaret. Take a look at this remarkable document in the SGS library.
National Archives 2015 Virtual Genealogy Fair October 21 and 22
You might want to check out the National Archives Virtual Genealogy Fair. It will be a live broadcast via YouTube so you can ask the genealogy experts questions at the end of their talks. Speakers will include experts from National Archives locations across the nation.
Lectures will feature tips and techniques for using Federal records at the National Archives for genealogy research. These lectures are designed for experienced genealogists and novices. Recorded sessions will remain available online after the event. More info at : https://www.archives.gov/calendar/genealogy-fair/
MAC Computer Interest Group Announces Changes
Future Meetings of the MAC I.G. to be held Every Other Month
(December 9, February 10, April 13, & June 8) Continue reading
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.”
******************************
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.)
*********************************
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…….
********************
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
*********************
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.)
*******************
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!
**************************
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.”
Find A Grave is having a volunteer Saturday where they are hoping to get 1 million new graves photographed, for more information go here
(http://www.ancestry.com/cs/find-a-grave-community-day?o_xid=57458&o_lid=57458&o_sch=Social)
The October meeting for NeWGS is coming up fast …. this Wednesday, October 14th, 2015. The morning Computer Interest Group (CIG) will meet in the basement meeting room of the LDS Church on Juniper Street in Colville at 10:30 AM. Sue Richart, a long-time member of NeWGS, will give us a “tour” of the newly updated New England Historic Genealogical Society website. If you think they only have New England records you will be pleasantly surprised at the diversity and range of records now available. Be sure to download the handout posted in our Members section under Secure Downloads, Computer Meeting Handouts, titled “NEHGS American Ancestors Website” (look for the “New” files at the bottom of the list).
Jim Johnson, Director of the Heritage Quest Research Library, and his wonderful crew (including wife, Patty) pulled off another fantastically successful AutumnQuest last Saturday, October 10th. Here is Jim teaching us all about using the Flip-Pal product………
Three WSGS Board members attended: Patty Olsen, Roger Newman and Donna Potter Phillips. The rest of you missed a grand day.
Speakers for the day were (L to R) Janice Lovelace, Janet O’Conor Camarata, Donna, and Jill Morelli. (We’re wearing the pin-in flowers from our speakers’ thank you gifts.) The theme for the day was Finding Women’s Records and each speaker addressed a different aspect of that topic…. much of which was new to the audience.
Years ago, WSGS coined the phrase, “You won’t know if you don’t go.” The nearly 100 folks in attendance last Saturday know for sure a day-full of genealogical information that they didn’t know before. Hope next time the audience includes you.