Kittitas County Gen Society News Flash

by Charles Hansen

KCGS_logo

 

Kittitas Co WA Gen Soc does not have any early August Genealogy meeting

But put Sunday, August 16, at 4 pm, on your calendar for the annual society picnic, hosted again this year by Mary and Lew Christensen.  Final details will be sent later, but it’s a potluck at 60 Moe Rd = corner of Tjossem Rd.

 

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K.C.G.S library will be closed after Wed afternoon August 19, until Tuesday, September 8.  Plans include carpet cleaning with some furniture moved to Suite I temporarily.

Phone Mary C at 925-9104 if you’d like to help renovate our library by moving furniture

 

Information furnished by Tuck Forsyth,  Forsythe@fairpoint.net

 

Gehrke Windmill Garden at Grand Coulee

by Charles Hansen

Emil Albert and Stella Veva Gehrke had lived in the Grand Coulee area since 1958. In 1965 Emil began his unusual occupation of making windmills from scrap metal. The couple traveled some 62,000 miles picking up thrown-away materials to create over 500 windmills, whirligigs, and merry-go-rounds in their yard. Emil died in 1979 and Stella followed in 1980. Some 120 of their many windmills were acquired by the town of Grand Coulee and are displayed at North Dam Park as a memorial to the Gehrkes.

I visited this unique Washington garden last weekend and signed the guest book…. bottom photo…. even the guest book cover is made from an old rusty 8×11 pan. Do  stop whenever your travels take you through Grand Coulee. You will enjoy seeing this, I guarantee.

 

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Bainbridge Island Gen Society News Flash

by Charles Hansen

Bainbridge Island

 

The Bainbridge Island Genealogical Society (BIGS) will meet Friday, August 21, in the Bainbridge Island Public Library Meeting Room from 10:00 AM until noon.  The topic is “Tough and Unusual Cases: How we did it (finally).”  BIGS mentors, Sue Elving and Anna Dupen, will present case studies showing how they solved genealogy problems.  One particular case study involves a Scottish immigrant and a trip to the Supreme Court (1813).  Bring your questions.  Free to members, a $5.00 donation is suggested for nonmembers. For more information go to www.bigenealogy.org, or call 206-842-4978.  BIGS is a 501c(3) non-profit organization.

 

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Thank you!

 

Sylvia H. Nelson

Director of Publicity and Public Relations

Bainbridge Island, Genealogical Society

206-842-4978

Seattle Genealogical Society Tip of the Week

by Charles Hansen

Seattle

 TIP OF THE WEEK – NEW SOCIAL SECURITY INDEX ON ANCESTRY.COM

People just starting their genealogy research, and who know little about their parents or grandparents, are told that if their ancestor was alive after the Social Security system was established in 1935, they should get that person’s Social Security application.  The application should list the person’s parents’ names as well as the person’s place of birth. Since this application was completed by the individual, it should be more accurate than other sources. But ordering these applications can be expensive and time consuming.

Ancestry now has a new database called “U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007”.  The difference between this database and the old Social Security Death Index is that the new database reports the individual’s place of birth and both parents’ names, which is what one wants from the SSN application in the first place.

Of course keep in mind, you won’t find your ancestor in this index if they died before the Social Security Act of 1935 or if they never applied for Social Security.

If you don’t have a subscription to Ancestry, visit the SGS library and use our computers, or try your local community library.

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

SAVE THE DATES Continue reading →

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.