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.”  

Reason? I’ll be the least among four speakers at Heritage Quest Research Library’s OctoberFest on Saturday, October 10th. As it’s a 6-hour drive from Spokane, I’ll be heading over on Friday.

If you live near Sumner, and are not signed up for this exciting day, I don’t think it’s too late. Click to www.hqrl.com for information.

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Hubby and I attended a wonderful presentation last evening from the Spokane Chapter of the American Archaeology Association. Dr. Robert Neyland told us all about the H.L. Hunley, the Confederate submarine that sank the U.S.S. Housatonic and then sank herself.

Dr. Neyland related how Hunley had been found and recovered (in 2000) and was now undergoing restoration (which will take another 8 years!). Read all about it at www.hunley.org.  The most fascinating part was when he explained the recovery of the eight crew members…their bones and artifacts. At the above website they have posted photos of the cranial-face-feature reconstructions of all eight men. After all the forensic work was done, these veterans were buried under the Confederate flag in a Charleston, SC, cemetery and several descendants attended the event.

If you think you, or somebody you know, might be a descendant of a sailor aboard the H.S. Hunley, do some Googling and you’ll find plenty of exciting information on this particular brave ancestor.

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Did you know:  The membership of every organization is made up of four types of bones:

1.  Wish Bones  —  These “bones” sit around and wish every one else would do the work.

2.  Jaw Bones  —  These “bones” do all the tal king but little of the work.

3.  Knuckle Bones  —  These “bones” knock everything that everybody else tries to do.

4.  Back Bones  —  These “bones” are the ones who get under the load and do all the work.

Which kind of “bone” are you????

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Above the entrance to the University of Colorado Library is this carved phrase:  “He who knows only his own genealogy remains always a child.”   Isn’t that an interesting homile to be carved over the door of a university library?

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Just discovered a new-to-me website that will help in the finding of local or still-alive people. Give it a try at www.blackbookonline.com.  The home page describes this as “the free public records search site.”

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Another way-cool website that my brother shared with me is this….. Google this phrase:  “22 Maps and Charts that will surprise you.”  Posted by Ezra Klein on 11 Mar 2015, he explains:  “A good visualization helps you see what the data is telling you. The best visualizations help you see things you never thought the data would tell you. These 22 charts and maps were, at least for me, in that category: all of them told me something I found surprising. Some of them genuinely changed the way I think about the world.”  Really, now, try it you’ll like it.

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Have you heard of Thomas MacEntee’s The Genealogy Fairy? Thomas explains:  “Back in March 2015, I announced a new concept as part of my genealogy business: The Genealogy Fairy. I have seen a huge increase in business revenue related to affiliate marketing and I wanted a way to say thankyou to those who continue to support my business and believe in what I do to improve the way we search for our family history. 

What Thomas has done is to set aside 5% of affiliate income for some type of grant program. These Genealogy Fairy grants are open to all genealogical and historical organizations, especially non-profits, and to individual genealogists who seek to fund specific projects related to genealogy and family history. 

If this offer intrigues you, click to www.genealogybloggers.com/update-genealogy-fairy.com. Or just Google “the genealogy fairy.”  What a good guy to make such a great offer.

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Been wanting to make a family book? An ONLINE family book? Like with Shutterfly?  I was just introduced to the Olive Tree blog:   Olive Tree Genealogy, created by Lorine in February 1996 was started to bring genealogists FREE genealogy records. Olive Tree Genealogy has more than 1,900 pages of free genealogy records to help you find your brick-wall ancestors and build your family tree. In a post of 1 Sep 2015, Lorine pointed to three YouTube tutorials on how to do a family book using Shutterfly. Why not take a peek?

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Unserious Thought for Today:  Broken pencils are pointless.