Fiske Genealogical Library May Classes

Wednesday, April 24

10:00 am to 11:15 am Pacific Time – Fiske Genealogical Library, Seattle (Virtual Class)

From a Box in the Closet to a Treasured Family Heirloom

Presented by Sara Cochran

For links to join the meeting and get class notes, select https://fiskelibrary.org

If you’re overwhelmed by the collection of photos your family has accumulated, you’re not alone! After a brief history of photography, we look at organizing techniques, digitization basics and options/ideas on what to do with your photos so they can be enjoyed by generations to come, instead of collecting dust in the box.

Wednesday, May 1

10:00 am to 11:15 am Pacific Time – Fiske Genealogical Library, Seattle (Virtual Class)

Bagging a Live One: Reverse Genealogy in Action

Presented by Mary Roddy

For links to join the meeting and get class notes, select https://fiskelibrary.org

Mary will show you how to find distant relatives, perhaps ones you never knew existed. You will come away with the skills to target specific people and to find their contact details. Great for finding missing friends and cousins or for locating family members to fill out your DNA “dance card.”

Wednesday, May 8

10:00 am to 11:15 am Pacific Time – Fiske Genealogical Library, Seattle (Virtual Class)

Becoming the Ancestor

Presented by Beth Swartz

For links to join the meeting and get class notes, select https://fiskelibrary.org

“Becoming the Ancestor” is about planning for your genealogy when you’re gone. Deciding what to do with it and who’s getting which items or documents. I also discuss identifying items, papers, etc that you want passed on to younger generations, friends or donated to a society. Genealogy wills and getting your wishes down on paper so your family knows your intentions. This is not legal advice, seek advice from an attorney or estate planner in your local jurisdiction.

Wednesday, May 15

10:00 am to 11:15 am Pacific Time – Fiske Genealogical Library, Seattle (Virtual Class)

Across the Pond to Scotland

Presented by Winona Laird

For links to join the meeting and get class notes, select https://fiskelibrary.org

The church, government and the wars all play a part in tracking Scottish genealogy and Scottish migration to other countries. Included is the search for baptismal, marriage and death registers plus the census records of Scotland. In addition, the clans of Scotland, the structure of family and kinship, are important in discovering Scottish genealogy.

Wednesday, May 22

10:00 am to 11:15 am Pacific Time – Fiske Genealogical Library, Seattle (Virtual Class)

Disaster Proofing Your Research

Presented by Sara Cochran

For links to join the meeting and get class notes, select https://fiskelibrary.org

Family historians spend years gathering and compiling records, photographs, and family heirlooms to preserve the past and guide the future. Let’s talk about ways to ensure that all this hard work isn’t lost in any number of potential disasters.

Wednesday, May 29

10:00 am to 11:15 am Pacific Time – Fiske Genealogical Library, Seattle (Virtual Class)

Pruning Your Family Tree

Presented by Jenny Hansen

For links to join the meeting and get class notes, select https://fiskelibrary.org

We grow up hearing stories of ancestors and poring over old family files. But how much of that information is really true? Whether you are trying to crack family mysteries or just starting your own original research, this class will show you how to verify your family tree. Learn how to eliminate potential relatives and how to embrace the true stories of your past

Puget Sound Genealogical Society April 24 Program

Apr22 by Charles Hansen

Puget Sound Genealogical Society’s April Program will be Beyond Maps with Janet Camarata. It will be on Wed, Apr 24 and will start at 1pm.

Click here for more information

Upcoming Events

Eastern Washington Genealogical Society Trip to the Oregon Trail!

Apr22 by Charles Hansen

Please join us on this trip to the Oregon Trail!

(Be sure to read to the end of this message to discover what other treats will be offered at this event.)

Saturday, May 4

Genealogy of the Oregon Trail

1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

Hybrid Meeting at The Hive – 2904 E Sprague Ave, Spokane, WA 99202

Oregon Trail by Travis Boley, Manager of the Oregon and California Trails Association

“Join Travis Boley from the Oregon-California Trails Association (OCTA) as he presents on Paper Trail, OCTA’s online index to thousands of emigrant diaries from the 19^th century. The diaries are indexed in a fashion to make it simple for researchers to find people, places, tribal interactions, and even numbers of wagons and animals in a train. Mr. Boley will walk us through Paper Trail and show us how to most efficiently use this valuable genealogy tool.”

1:00-3pm, doors open at 12:30 Greeters will be there to open the door
If you will be “zooming in” the Zoom link will be available on the website EWGSi.org the day prior to the event.
Please print your handouts prior to attending; handouts will be available on the website the day prior.
If you are able, please arrive early to help set up/ or stay late to help clean up.

Free Table:

Bring research items that you no longer use;

take something home that may help you break down your brick wall.

Cookies:

Eat cookies and drink coffee with friends.

(If you haven’t brought cookies in a while, be sure to sign up.)

Raffles:

I got a sneak peek at this month’s raffles…

you will want to bring some cash to win something!

Hint: It’s Spring, Birds Singing, Gardens Growing, Mother’s Day,

Oregon Trail…Wow!

$$$50/50$$$

Be sure to bring a couple bucks for the 50/50 jar!

Last month’s winner went home quite a bit richer!

Auction

The yearly EWGS auction will take place in October.

You can bring your donation to any meeting

or contact Brusan Wells.

Here’s an item recently donated:

See you soon on the Oregon Trail!

Let’s Talk About….FamilySearch WIKI!

Apr19 by Donna Phillips

Have you accessed the wonderful, fantastic, FREE resource that is the FamilySearch WIKI? When you click to www.familysearch.org/WIKI this is the page that opens up to you. From this menu, you can “order” among over 106,000 articles……… articles about places all over the world, records of all types, and what records can be found where. When my Puerto Rican friend, Leticia, wanted help with her family tree, the first thing I did was to go to the WIKI and print out all the pages of tips, helps and websites.

Danielle Batson at the 2023 RootsTech, gave these tips in her talk:

“The WIKI is your online genealogy guide linking you to all known records of the entire world!” How can you top that??
WIKI is constantly adding newly found links/sites.
WIKI offer strategy papers.
Search by locality, she said. “That’s where things happen!”
Search top-down…. ie, start with Denmark or Virginia and then work your way down through the menu.
Realize that some countries (“Bulgaria for instance”) hasn’t as many records.
Don’t over look the sidebar with links to other related records.
You can also join a community group for your target area and ask locality-specific questions.
Wiki offers Guided Research….. Wiki offers guides to where you might look next.
You can book your free Virtual Genealogy consultation, a 20-minute time one-on-one with a FamilySearch specialist for that area or type of record.
And this, the best words she said were these:

“The FamilySearch WII is your researchers’ Golden Ticket!”

Pioneer Pursuit Contest Winner: Ralph Brown

Apr17 by Roxanne Lowe

Wholehearted congratulations are extended to Ralph Brown from Bothell (Snohomish County). Ralph contributed an amazing 1,285 individuals to the Pioneer Pursuit Contest. Although the contest portion of Pioneer Pursuit ended 31 Oct 2024, Ralph is continuing to submit names, sources and associated stories of individuals, mostly in southwest Washington, who were in Washington Territory on or before statehood on 11 Nov 1889.

Although he now lives in Snohomish County, Ralph grew up in Underwood, an unincorporated community on the Columbia River in Skamania County. He went to school just up the river in White Salmon (Klickitat County).

Ralph and his wife Ruth had three children of their own and adopted another. He was a missile technician in the Navy, then a long career with Pacific Northwest Bell.

Trike Trips Lead to Discoveries

After he retired, Ralph spent the next ten years researching his wife’s and his families and got heavily involved in Find a Grave. In a wild and crazy decision, Ralph decided to buy a three-wheeled trike – without even knowing how to ride a motorcycle! Undaunted, Ralph and Ruth soon put more than 200,000 miles on that trike, traveling to all the local cemeteries in Klickitat and Skamania Counties taking pictures and satisfying photo requests for Find A Grave.

Because of his ardent work on Find a Grave, Ralph decided to document all the pioneers in the Underwood Cemetery. One thing led to another and his interest soon mushroomed to document all the other small cemeteries in the area.

Pioneer Pursuit to the Rescue

Over the years, Ralph carefully documented Klickitat and Skamania Counties’ local history with a vast amount of research, documents, photographs, newspaper articles and interviews. But he needed to find a home all that research.

Fortunately for Washington State researchers, WSGS came up with the Pioneer Pursuit program – an effort to document every man, woman and child that lived in Washington Territory on or before statehood on 11 Nov 1889.

Ralph is a dedicated Facebook contributor, managing a group with over 2,000 followers. One of his followers, Bo/Casey Gleason had already submitted the Creviston pioneer family to Pioneer Pursuit. When Bo realized a connection with Ralph’s Gilmer family, they hooked up.

Continuing to Pursue Pioneers – and Quilting

Ralph still hasn’t stopped identifying territorial settlers and submitting them to Pioneer Pursuit. He’s also researching local logging, utilities and transportation histories and he hasn’t forgotten about schoolhouses and post offices.

But he’s also spending more time with his quilting longarm. Yes, Ralph is a quilter – supporting Ruth’s passion for creating intricate quilts, such as “Labyrinth Walk” shown here. “I can see me spending the rest of my life identifying people, but I have to get my passion aligned with my wife’s — which is quilting.”

According to Ralph, “There is a slogan for us motorcycle riders, “Too many roads, not enough time” and that applies to genealogy as well: “Too many territorial settlers, not enough time” and “too much history to uncover and not enough time to document.”

Congratulations, Ralph, for submitting 1,285 individuals to the Pioneer Pursuit. If anyone is interested in following your lead and participating in Pioneer Pursuit, visit our website here.

Genealogical Societies Support Patriot Week

Apr17 by Roxanne Lowe

Volunteers from the Grays Harbor and North Beach Genealogical Societies are hosting Genealogy Cafe’s during Patriot Week from April 23 – 25, 2024, in Ocean Shores. Patriot Week is sponsored by the Washington State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Volunteers will be available by appointment. The sessions will be at the libraries in Ocean Shores and Hoquiam. See the flyer for details.

More information about SAR’s Patriot Week, including a list of events, is available here.

Tacoma Pierce County Genealogical Society DNA SIG

Apr17 by Charles Hansen

Tacoma-Pierce County Genealogical Society DNA Special Interest Group Meeting

Tuesday, April 23, Starting at 7:00 pm via Zoom

We will be reading Your DNA Guide by Diahan Southard.

This month we will discuss pages 40 to 61.

This book is available from the author, the publishers, Amazon, or perhaps through your local public library or via Inter-Library Loan.

Check WorldCat to see what libraries may have copies.

Calendar reminder: TPCGS DNA Special Interest Group Meeting

Every month on the Fourth Tuesday beginning at 7:00 PM Pacific Time

Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.

Monthly: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/tZYqdeyrrz0iEtx-c_J3gNfcI8mebT1zajLo/ics?icsToken=98tyKuGqqTkvGdWTuBGPRpwQB4joZ-nzmCFHj7dF0RzaKXNUTAX1H7pPN7BLQcLR

Join Zoom Meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82725316888?pwd=MDc3UEZrUVJNbmxmK2ZORmw5YzdDdz09

Meeting ID: 827 2531 6888

Passcode: 811780

One tap mobile:

+12532050468,,82725316888#,,,,*811780# US

+12532158782,,82725316888#,,,,*811780# US (Tacoma)

Dial by your location:

+1 253 205 0468 US

+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)

Meeting ID: 827 2531 6888

Passcode: 811780

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kIKCyZLQy

Let’s Talk About…Southern Research

Apr16 by Donna Phillips

Right off the bat, I’ll bet you’re surprised to see the number of states included under the umbrella of “southern,” as in Southern Genealogy Research. Surprise, indeed!

I attended the 2023 RootsTech and listened to a speaker (whose name I didn’t scribble down) speak about Southern Research and giving some tips for same:

Learn as much history on/from your family as you can!
Reason out the facts……… was it indeed a southern state?
Brush up on your U.S. history from 1763 to 1775 for starters.
Then progress to the Civil War time period.
Know that Georgia was only 1/2 British and was 1/2 Native American.
Yes, while many courthouses were burned and records lost, not everything was lost. The documentation of the county’s wealth and income was all important (how to levy taxes if you didn’t know who owned what land?) and were reconstructed.
Search the land records and deeds of target states.
Attempt a time line for each family in your target location.
Plot the family’s migration into and then through the Southern states.
Check newspapers for that time and place.
Correlate info from all available records: land, census, probate, court, military
BE AWARE OF COUNTY BOUNDARY CHANGES!
Use period maps.
Watch for name changes or just misspellings.
Southern “speech” often use “brother/cousin” when there was no relationship
Each southern state has historical societies and archives as do many of the counties in those states. Many of these societies had many much of their holdings available online.

Example: My hubby’s great-grandfather, Seaborn Phillips, born 1844 in Georgia and died in 1906 in Texas. Why Texas? He was a Confederate soldier (was at the Battle of Gettysburg, he said) and after the war, Georgia was devastated and had no resources to pay pensions to veterans, so he moved his family west to Texas where pensions were to be had (Texas was not heavily impacted by the war).

Let’s Talk About…Filles du Roi

Apr12 by Donna Phillips

Was your ancestral mother a filles du roi? If so, be proud. These women are known as the founding mothers of Canada.

Here’s the history:

To secure his colonial claims in North America, King Louis XIV of France had to strengthen his settlements in New France (Nova Scotia). French officials recruited girls and women to migrate to New France to increase the population. They became known as the filles du roi, or King’s Daughters.

From 1663 to 1673, nearly 1000 women came to New France. In exchange, the women received money, clothes and household items. Almost all of these women married and had children, doubling the population.

From the perspective of the French Crown, the program was a success. However, little has been recorded of how these women viewed their experiences.

The women were to be of child-bearing age and especially so, in good health. The women picked for this “adventure” were chosen by their age, health and physical strength, not necessarily for their looks. They had to be “in good health and strong enough for field work and have strong skills when it comes to domestic tasks…”

There are many Canada-based societies dedicated to preserving the memory, experiences and descendancy of these so-called King’s Daughter. Also, YouTube offers several video-stories.

So be proud if your great-x-time-grandmother was a Kings’ Daughter!

Seattle Genealogical Society “Finally Get Organized”

Apr9 by Charles Hansen