TIP OF THE WEEK
Here’s a simple tip. If your ancestor’s name does not sound like it is spelled then uncheck the “Soundex” and “Sounds Like” options on the search forms you are using.
Tag Archives: Seattle Genealogical Society
Seattle Genealogical Society News
SGS DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY
The Board of Directors is pleased to announce the creation of a new position, SGS Director of Technology. This position will be responsible for the following areas: 1.all components of the SGS Library In-House I. T. needs;
2.the SGS website; and
3.SGS’s growing social media presence.
Adding this position to the Board of Directors will require changes to our Bylaws, which specifically name each officer and director, and list their responsibilities. These changes will be on the SGS ballot in March, and the Director of Technology will not become a Board position until June 1. In the meantime, SGS member Lisa Chan has been appointed Interim Director of Technology, and she’s already hard at work.
Lisa has over 20 years of experience in information technology, including website design and management, managing computer library assets, and training others in the use of new technologies. We are excited by the possibilities under Lisa’s leadership.
If you have expertise in any of the areas above and would like to join the team, please contact Lisa at lisachansgs@gmail.com Continue reading
Seattle Genealogical Society Tip of the Week
TIP OF THE WEEK – ABOUT RETIRING FTM
Many people are upset with Ancestry.com “retiring” the desktop application “Family Tree Maker” aka FTM. The thing to remember is don’t panic. There is time to explore your options as Ancestry.com has pledged to support the program through January 1, 2017 and you can actually continue to use it after that for as long as your computer’s operating system will allow. Just be aware that after January 1, 2017 it won’t sync your online tree or do other things that interface directly with Ancestry.com.
Since this is a widely used application we will be visiting the issue again and again. SGS members have made suggestions and pointed to articles they found helpful.
For starters read Keith’s article at GenealogyTools.com . It was recommended by Dick Eastman and provides a good overview to the novice of what a “gedcom” file is and how to scrub your data to become “gedcom” compliant.
Find the article here :
Family Tree Software Alternatives, Part 1: How to Scrub Your Data (Updated 16 May 2018)
Seattle Genealogical Society Newsletter
THE SGS LIBRARY – ONE MEMBER’S EXPERIENCE
Lisa Chan is the SGS member that leads the “Seattle Genealogical Society Networking” group on Facebook as well as shares her interest and enthusiasm for genealogy, including some useful tips and tricks, via her on-line blog.
She recently wrote about exploring the shelves at SGS. Wouldn’t you, too, like to treat yourself to an afternoon at the SGS Library doing one of the things you enjoy most, researching your genealogy?
Here’s an extraction from Lisa’s blog to whet your appetite. To read the story in its entirety you can find her blog at http://genealogy.grippingyarn.com. If you are a Facebook member, consider joining the “Seattle Genealogical Society Networking” group.
NEHG and MARYLAND : EXPLORING THE SHELVES OF SGS
By Lisa Chan
This afternoon, I was greeted by the lovely desk attendant Chris. A volunteer with Seattle Genealogical Society for many years, she delights in helping intrepid researchers find just what they’re looking for among the stacks, and often resources of value that they weren’t expressly seeking.
Dangerously, I hadn’t set out this early afternoon with specific research goals. However, I did have a general desire to browse and see what goodies could be found amongst the Maryland section, maybe find something to inform my RHODES of Maryland research.
Before settling in, I stopped at the open seating area just inside the door of SGS. Comfortable chairs face a welcoming coffee table adorned with local society bulletins, Dick Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter (Plus Edition), and various journals.
Prominent and tempting, The NEHG Register: Winter 2015 (produced by the famous New England Historic Genealogical Society) called out for a casual thumb through. Curious about the overall-size of SGS’s collection, I wandered over to Chris and she graciously directed me to the treasure trove. 3 full shelves of products produced by NEHG!
“Is The NEHG Register collection all there?”
Chris explained that it was almost complete. I found Vol. 1-60 looking great, but then around Vol.s 70-96 things got a little dicey. I can imagine that at some future point, those small voids will get filled. But after Vol. 96, I believe the collection looked solid (I didn’t count every single one).
“And how do I find things?”
Chris pointed out several bound volumes representing the printed indexes. Overwhelmed, I wondered out loud if there might be an online searchable database.
There is! Continue reading
Seattle Genealogical Society Library Team Named Outstanding Team in 2015
Since 2003, the Washington State Genealogical Society has recognized more than 450 outstanding volunteers and teams, nominated by their local society or genealogical organization for their service and dedication. These volunteers and teams are the backbone of their local society, giving their time and expertise, to the organization and the field of genealogy. In the coming months, you will be introduced to each of the 2015 award recipients and learn why they received the 2015 WSGS Outstanding Volunteer and Team Award.
Today we’re introducing the Library Team at the Seattle Genealogical Society (SGS). The team was recognized for its dedicated volunteer efforts to enlarge and improve the society’s library.
SGS Library Team
The team included Dona Bubelis, Daniel P. Harmon, Kathi McGinnes, Charlotte Wixon, and Ann Wright.
Under the expert direction of committee chair Dan Harmon, an impressive team of SGS volunteers was recruited for the new Library Committee. Ms. Ann Wright, assisted primarily by Ms. Charlotte Wixon, took the lead in the herculean task of cataloging the almost endless number of boxes in the backlog of donated books. Ms. Wright oversaw the day-to-day operation of the library, while Ms. Wixon looked after the shelved collection. Ms. Wixon also took the lead in book repair, a skill which the committee acquired through special training.
Ms. Dona Bubelis, who works with library periodicals, coordinated efforts to develop the collection by identifying important new works for acquisition. She was also in charge of eBay sales, a source of funding for the SGS Library Fund.
Ms. Kathi McGinnes played a key role in maintaining the ever-changing collection of genealogical websites available for the use by library patrons, a role which will grow in importance in the months and years ahead.
The members of the SGS Library Team made a real difference in the quality and quantity of the SGS library collection. They richly deserved being recipients of a WSGS Outstanding Team Award.
For more information on the WSGS Outstanding Volunteer Award program, visit the Recognition page of the WSGS website or contact Roxanne Lowe, Recognition Chair, at Roxanne@thekeeffes.com.
Seattle Genealogical Society Tip of the Week
Tip of the Week – Improve Your Google Search Results
As promised in the last edition here are some examples on using “*” as well as the “site:” operator.
The “*” is known as a wild card in searching. Use “*” to match one or more words in a phrase (enclosed in quotes). For example, “Google * my life” tells Google to find pages containing a phrase that starts with “Google” followed by one or more words, followed by “my life”. Phrases that fit the bill include : “Google changed by life”, “Google is my life” and “Google helps me with my life”. Can you see yourself using this when you’re not sure of the exact title of a book, or the entire adage you are trying to recall, or someone’s full name?
The operator called “site:” is used to when you only want results from certain sites or domains. Likewise with the “–site:”, you can exclude a particular site or domain. Some examples, “James Brown” site:ancestry.com or “James Brown” site:familysearch.org tells Google find me all the James Brown pages in Ancestry.com or all the James Brown pages in Familysearch.org, respectively. Likewise, “James Brown” –site:Youtube.com says find me all pages for James Brown, but ignore any at Youtube.com
Don’t worry about memorizing the syntax for every operator or punctuation we’ve discussed because you can also use the Advanced Search page to create these searches. If you search often, try adding advanced search to your favorites: https://www.google.com/advanced_search
Seattle Genealogical Society E-News
CHECK OUT THE RECENT ACQUISTIONS SHELF
The money earned from seminar book sales and raffles, as well as library book sales and e-bay sales all go into the Library Fund and this is used for acquisition of new material for the SGS Library. We’ve acquired some really good reference materials that have made their way to the new acquisitions shelf. Come by and check out what’s *New*.
*New* The Maine Historical and Genealogical Recorder
Nine volumes in three. A repository of genealogical data on Maine unequaled by any other work on the subject, The Maine Historical and Genealogical Recorder is back in print in a handy three-volume edition. The work consists of a multitude of articles covering every conceivable facet of Maine genealogy, with special emphasis on town and church records, biographies, family histories, and cemetery inscriptions. Typical contents include articles on religious and ethnic settlements; early pioneers; army musters; land grants and claims; births, marriages, and deaths; historical sketches; wills; censuses; and town histories. Each of the nine volumes is separately indexed, the names alone numbering nearly 15,000 altogether.
*New* North Carolina Historical and Genealogical Register
This short-lived periodical contains the best collection of genealogical source records for the Old Albemarle region of North Carolina. Chief among its contents are abstracts of land grants, court records, conveyances, births, deaths, marriages, wills, petitions, military records, licenses, and oaths. The abstracts derive from records from present-day counties of the Old Albemarle region: Beaufort, Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Halifax, Hyde, Martin, Northampton, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Tyrrell, and Washington and the Virginia counties of Surry and Isle of Wight. Continue reading
Seattle Genealogical Society Tip of the Week
TIP OF THE WEEK – Improve Your Google Search Results
Presented below are a couple lesser known operators that will benefit the genealogist doing Google searches. Search operators are words that can be added to searches to help narrow down the results. You can use search operators and other punctuation to get more specific results from your Google search.
Many of us already know to use quotes around two or more words in order to search for that exact phrase, the same exact words in the same exact order. A search for Philander Smith will return millions of hits; pages that contain the word Philander and/or the word Smith.
Not what we were expecting, right? So try “Philander Smith” in quotes; this will return 237,000 hits. Closer, but there is still room for improvement.
Did you know when you use a dash before a word, it excludes sites with that info from your results? In our example try “Philander Smith” -college ; this returns 9,970 hits; gone are the pages for Philander Smith College because we are looking for people named Philander Smith, not information about the college.
Another thing to consider when searching for genealogy data is often names are stored last name, first name. Try searching “Smith, Philander” instead of “Philander Smith” .
One more trick; did you know there is syntax for specifying a date range? It’s year two dots year. In our example let’s add the date range 1820 through 1825. “Smith, Philander” or “Philander Smith” 1820..1825 –college
To recap, when searching for genealogical data remember : •Formatting names as last name comma first name might be beneficial
•Use of the year range function and the minus sign function helps exclude inconsequential data
•In most searches, using quotes around your phrase will get you better results
Next time we’ll explore using “*” (the wild card function) along with something I just learned about “site:” (the site operator).
Seattle Genealogical Society News
UPDATE ON THE SGS KING COUNTY COURT CASES INDEX
The SGS King County Court Cases Index, 1881-1980 (KC3I for short) is a wonderful database of King County court cases spanning one hundred years. This index includes every divorce and probate case in King County during this time span, and is a valuable new tool for local researchers.
SGS just completed its first year of providing this service. In this period, we completed 181 lookups for 81 different individuals. Roughly two-thirds of the searches produced one or more “hits.” Turnaround time was less than two days in the vast majority of requests.
This service is free for SGS members, and members accounted for most of the requests. Requests by non-members generated $335 in revenue for the Society in the first year.
If you are researching in King County, Washington and have not yet checked the KC3I, visit our web page, http://seattlegenealogicalsociety.org/kc3i for more information about its contents, and how to make use of this valuable resource. We’d love to check it for you!
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 cancelled or postponed due to inclement weather.
DECEMBER Continue reading
Seattle Genealogical Society Tip of the Week
TIP OF THE WEEK – DEMYSTIFYING THE CENSUSES
1790 TO 2000
In 2002, Jason Gauthier of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Economics and Statistics Administration produced a 148-page document called Measuring America: The Decennial Census from 1790 to 2000. It explains, in detail, exactly what the census takers were told to do for each and every U.S. Census from the first census in 1790 through the twenty-second census of 2000.
This document will prove invaluable. Besides a good, clear image of each census form itself, you’ll find an expanded definition for every column on the form. No more straining your eyes or guessing.
Reading the instructions to the enumerators tells you what terms such a “housekeeper” vs “keeping house”, “farmer” vs “planter”, or “inmate” meant in the context of the census. And why “indians not taxed” weren’t included in the enumerations. Were you even aware there was a separate questionnaire for “Indian Population” in many of the censuses?
There is just a wealth of information in this document. Check it out. It’s available to read on-line, or to download, absolutely free, at: https://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/pol02-ma.pdf