Eastside Genealogical Society's News & Notice

11 Sept 2014 – Bellevue, WA

The Eastside Genealogical Society General Meeting will be held (7 to 9 pm) at the Bellevue Regional  Library, Room 1, 1111 – 110^thAve NE, Bellevue.  Doors open at 6:30 pm for networking.  Visitors are always welcome.  

The September topic will be “Washington State Library, Washington State Archives, Digital Archives, and Scribe, a volunteer transcribing and indexing project”.  The speakers will be Kathryn Devine from the WA State Library & Tracy Rebstock from the WA State Archives, who will discuss various genealogical resources at their locations & Amber Raney from the WA State Archives, who will tell us about the Scribe

project.

Our Society website is http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wakcegs/    .  Check this website for FREE genealogical help and under the “Calendar” tab, find the times and locations of Special Interest Group meetings (Czech/Slovak, German, Irish, Italian, Scandinavian or the Legacy Family Tree software).  Visitors are always welcome at these meetings, too.

Washington 1889..... Help with this project?

Good afternoon!

We have 48 hours left on Legacy Washington’s first Kickstarter Campaign to help raise the private funds needed for the next exhibit,Washington 1889: Blazes, Rails & the Year of Statehood. We are 40% towards our goal of $5,000 and need your help!

Washington 1889: Blazes, Rails & the Year of Statehood marks the sixth exhibit of Legacy Wash­ington, an educational program within the Office of Secretary of State. This public exhibition cele­brates the big stories of Washington’s seminal year, the year of Statehood. It will be on dis­play in the Legislative Building from November, 2014 through August, 2015 and will feature exhibit panels, videos and artifacts including an eleven-foot 42 star flag that was specially made when Washington became a state. The exhibit will officially open onNovember 11th, alongside the Washington 125 celebrations, commemorating Washington’s 125^th Anniversary. We hope you can join us in the festivities!

All funds raised through Kickstarter will specifically go towards the printing of the exhibit panels that are hung in the Secretary of State’s lobby in the Legislative Building (no state dollars are used for any of our exhibits). The Legislative Building and Secretary of State’s office welcome tens of thousands of people annually including student groups from across the state. Legacy Washington exhibits offer a unique and interactive opportunity for students to learn about our state’s history and the people who made it remarkable. All exhibits continue traveling to schools and museums throughout the state for free once they are taken down.

There are two ways you can help:

1)      Visit the link below to learn more and support Washington 1889 (you can donate as little as $1!)

2)      Tweet or share our Kickstarter page with friends via email or through Facebook

Legacy Washington Kickstarter page and information on the exhibit: http://kck.st/1oCcjQg

Kickstarter is a global crowd funding platform that helps “Bring creative projects to life.” Kickstarter projects range from everything from films, games, music, art, design, technology and more. What better way to garner support on the new exhibit than through Kickstarter?! We have 48 hours to make our goal for the new exhibit as Kickstarter is all-or-nothing funding platform - no one will be charged for a pledge unless our project reaches its funding goal!

We hope you will consider checking out the Legacy Washington Kickstarter page and helping to celebrate Washington Statehood by supporting this exhibit.

Thank you!

Grays Harbor Genealogy Society Postscript

This flyer post is a follow-up to the August 13th post of the GHGS's upcoming workshop. 

Clallam County Genealogical Society

After the WSGS conference, I got to spend a week in Port Angeles "teen sitting" a grandson. One highlight of that week was lunch with Ginny Majewski, President of the Clallam County Genealogical Society, and having a tour of their new library and building.

Ginny told me over lunch that CCGS currently has about 175 members, with 50 quite active and 25 very active. They have a great website (www.olypen.com/ccgs) and a Facebook page but no blog. Cyndi Ingle will be their upcoming October workshop speaker.

Here is Ginny welcoming me to their new library building:

Here are photos of the interior of the library; not shown is their computer room and conference room: 

Their collection includes many locality-specific items....... like the census of the Makah Indians, Neah Bay Agency, 1885-1899, and the census of the Quillayute Indians for the same years.  

The library seems not to have trouble getting volunteers to staff the library for all the days they are open as evidenced by the hanging rack of name tags to which Ginny points. 

I was most impressed with the news and doings of the Clallam County Genealogical Society, as told to me by Ginny Majewski, current president, and I was doubly impressed with their new facilities and library.

Congratulations, CCGS. We join our hands in clapping and voices in wishing you continued success in all your endeavors.

Researching In Illinois.......... Free Webinar on IRAD

A wonderful opportunity awaits those of us who have research to do in Illinois! 

Luana Darby will present a FREE webinar on Tuesday, September 9th, at 6:00pm our time, on understanding and using the Regional Archives of Illinois. You must click on the link below to register for this live webinar; I suggest you doing it today for even in the digital world only so many can attend these webinars. A confirmation email will come to you. Then all you have to do it at the appointed time have your computer turned on and plan to sit and "attend" this seminar presented as a webinar and take notes and learn! Easy as raking pine needles. 

September 2014 

Treasures and Hidden Secrets of the Illinois Regional Archives (IRAD)

• Presenter:  Luana Darby, MLIS
• Date: September 9, 2014, 8:00 pm Central
• Description: If you research in Illinois, you don’t want to miss the resources held in the seven regional archive repositories of IRAD. From vital records to city directories, probate to local histories, each site has its own unique set of records. Learn tips and tricks for getting the most out of your visit, whether long-distance or on site. Come see some of the gems already gleaned from the vast resources of this amazing Illinois asset.
• Registration:  https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1778023905401548033
• This webinar is sponsored by FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org)

WSGS 2014 Conference Arlington, Washington Day 3 and 4

Got up early and unhooked from the services, drove to the conference center early to find a level parking spot as the refrigerator got pretty warm the day before, then we had breakfast in the parking lot as it filled up. Watching all the volunteers was great also. Our cousin Ardys Vaughn parked right next to us and the Historical Records Project van was on the other side of us.
Josh Taylor was the first speaker on Saturday, his topic was Evaluating and Documenting Online Sources. His message was that URL's change so document the web site owner as this will not change.

 My next class was by Steven Morrison titled: Start Writing Your Ancestors Legacy Depends upon it. I have heard that many genealogists want to finish their research before they do the writing, but that might never happen. So start writing now.

Next was lunch a barbeque of hamburgers, potato salad and chips. It was interesting that we all picked the same chips on our table. They also had us tear our meal ticket in half, as the second half was for desert, an ice cream vendor set up his mobile pedal freezer in the parking lot and we got our choice of ice cream bars, ice cream sandwiches, ice cream cones or frozen bars.
Before lunch was a group picture of all the attendees in the hall by the auditorium.
After lunch was Josh again, his topic now was The Web, the World and YOU (Advanced Internet Researching), where he told about researching with his grandmother and finally finding his immigrant ancestor.
My next class was by Margie Beldin in the AHS Commons titled Anything but Genealogy: Non Genealogy Software for the Genealogist, and Margie is a wiz at showing these programs and how they can make your life easier.

In the Commons was this picture, and so I took a photo of it also.

Last session was Josh again titled Putting it Together: A Case Study, where he wrapped up all the research to finally find his immigrant ancestor.
Next the conference center emptied out very fast and we headed down the hill to a service station that had a big sign Propane as one of our tanks was empty, but got there too late for them to fill propane tanks, so off on I-5 on our way to Ocean Shores.  Saw the Space Needle on our way through Seattle.

Got into Ocean Shores about 10:30, hooked up electricity and went to bed. Got up next morning and got the propane tank filled, and back to our lot at Ocean Shores. The deer are very tame there (no shooting area).

You can see days 1 and 2 here

Oregon State Library closing the Genealogy Reference Room

There is a very interesting article on the NGS website about the closing of the genealogy collection of the Oregon State Library in Salem, Oregon: http://upfront.ngsgenealogy.org/2014/08/reference-room-closing-oregon-state.html
Be sure to check out both of the links in the article. They are returning all the books donated by the Willamette Valley Genealogical Society and are not going to let them meet at the library one day a month. The society is small and does not have the budget to rent their own library.

After reading this article I see a parallel to our collection at the Spokane Public Library and they had many more visits than we get in a month, so I am very glad we have a great relationship with our local library.

Any local genealogical societies are free to copy this article for their own newsletter.

WSGS 2014 Conference Arlington, Washington Day 1 and 2

My sister Jacque Lane and I were at a campground in the North Cascades National Park about 100 miles from Arlington, Washington, and we headed to Arlington after breakfast. We headed for the Smoky Point RV Park, and had lunch and took a shower before we went to the WSGS board meeting at the Quality Inn breakfast nook. After the meeting we went to the Skookum Brewery for dinner and to get our packets for the conference.

The photo above and below are the people filing into the Byrnes Performing Arts Auditorium.

Soon after this photo was taken Ruth Caesar, President of the Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society introduced the Mayor of Arlington, Washington to welcome us to Arlington, Washington. If you look close you can see Shirley Penna-Oakes and Delma McLean in the front of this photo.

Eric Strochein taught four classes in the auditorium: The Foundations of Genealogy: Using Direct Evidence, Using Direct and Indirect Evidence: The Importance of Methodical Evidence Evaluation, Using Direct and Indirect Evidence: Correlating and Analyzing Seemingly Unrelated Evidence, and Indirect and Negative Evidence Case Study. I only went to the first three and then I went to the Palatine Immigrants: Tracing and Locating 18th Century German Immigrants Online. by Luana Darby.

Lunch was after Eric's second class, a box lunch at the Arlington High School Commons. Look close and you can see Cindi of Cindi's List in purple just right of center.

This was Frank and Delma McLean manning the WSGS booth.

After the Palatine class we had about an hour to visit the vendors, or walk around to get out the kinks of sitting most of the day. I did visit the Historical Records Project and got to meet Amber Raney the person I have been E-Mailing for about a year about the Scribe program to index the millions of records on the Digital Archives. Next was the evening banquet and the WSGS Annual Meeting. They had a wonderful buffet dinner for us. Then Mike McKinnon took the podium to start the meeting. Roger Newman the WSGS Secretary read the minutes and Kathryn Bowen did the Treasurers report.

Roxanna Lowe Recognitions chairman handed out the volunteer awards.

Donna Potter Phillips from Eastern Washington Genealogical Society got one, as a surprise from the Tri Cities Genealogical Society.

Our two volunteer awards were for Lola McCreary who did not make it to Arlington and Shirley Penna-Oakes.

Although there was 38 volunteer awards only eight of the volunteers were there. Ruth Caesar the Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society was really surprised. Steve Morrison our EWGS speaker for our October Seminar was also honored along with Donna and Shirley.

Next was the award for the best Genealogical Society Website, won by the South King County Genealogical Society, presented by Virginia Majewski.

Next was Bonnie MacDonald our retiring newsletter editor, and Donna Potter Phillips and Charles Hansen the new WSGS Bloggers, that will try to do as good a job as Bonnie has done for the last four and a half years. We need help so we need more bloggers.

Next Ruth Caesar presented Eric and Karen Stroschein with awards for all the hard work they did in organizing this years WSGS conference.

Last was the Keynote speech by D. Joshua Taylor talking about how to get generation Y interested in Genealogy.

You can see days 3 and 4 here .

Grays Harbor Genealogical Society's September Event

The Grays Harbor Genealogical Society is sponsoring a workshop with professional genealogist Miriam Robbins from Spokane on Saturday, September 13. Ms. Robbins will be presenting two classes: 

“Frugal Genealogy or How NOT to Spend a Fortune on Your Family Tree” 

and

“How to Find Volunteer and Low-Cost Researchers Online.” 

The workshop begins at 1:00 p.m. at the Aberdeen Museum of History, 111 East Third Street, Aberdeen. The registration form is attached.

As an added bonus, for those that sign up for the workshop, they can also attend Ms. Robbins’ 90-minute presentation entitled “Finding Your Ancestors’ Vital Records and Obituaries Online” beginning at 10:00 a.m. – also at the Museum of History.

If you have any questions, please contact Roxanne Lowe at Roxanne@thekeeffes.com or (360) 495-4822.

This workshop is sponsored by the 

Grays Harbor Genealogical Society. 

For more information about this 

workshop or other programs, 

contact: 

Roxanne Lowe

Grays Harbor Genealogical Society

(360) 495-4822

Roxanne@thekeeffes.com

Or visit our website:

www.GraysHarborGenealogy.com

Roxanne, on behalf of the GHGS, sent a lovely flyer but (alas!) it was in a .pdf form (not .jpeg) and I could not upload it to here. I'm sure that flyer is posted on their society website. Sorry :-(   Donna

TriCity Genealogical Society Assists At Lincoln Event

Kennewick, Washington’s MidColumbia Library is hosting the traveling exhibit of “Lincoln – The Constitution and the Civil War.” Opening festivities included a ribbon-cutting ceremony, speeches, and prerecorded documentaries about President Abraham Lincoln and how the United States Constitution was deeply examined and questioned during the Civil War.

TCGS members worked with the MC Library to have on-site genealogy help for several days during the exhibit. Thanks to TCGS member Cody Allen for these pictures: 

Margie Beldin and Dan Metzger

John Covey, Susan Faulkner, Cody Allen 

Susan Faulkner and Dan Metzger

Along with these opening ceremonies, the TriCity Genealogical Society was invited to host a table. This allowed members of the society to interact with the public and discuss the study of history from a family historian’s interest. The TriCity Genealogical Society had many handouts available, one of them included links to Civil War websites. In addition to handouts other visuals were created. Using a spin from “Who Do You Think You Are” a notebook was also made available for patrons to look through that showed Abraham Lincoln’s relationships to six celebrities. Did you know that Abraham Lincoln is related to Tom Hanks, Clint Eastwood, Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, Spike Lee, and Mitt Romney? Of course these relationships are X cousin to Y removed relationship. The closest related celebrity currently alive is Tom Hanks who is Abraham Lincoln’s 3^rd cousin 4 times removed.

There was also an hourglass family history chart showing four generations of Abraham Lincoln’s ancestors as well as four generations of Abraham Lincoln’s descendants. There are currently no living direct descendants of Abraham Lincoln. Or are there? Yes, even the Lincolns have non ending drama. Abraham Lincoln’s great-grandson Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith was married for a short time to a lady by the name of Anna Marie Hoffman. As divorce proceedings were in place, Anna announced that she was pregnant with Abraham Lincoln’s only great-great-grandson. Robert countered that her announcement was a fraud since he had undergone vasectomy surgery years before their marriage. The young Beckwith child was born, and the estate of Abraham Lincoln paid him dearly to if he (or his mother) agreed to not publicly claim any heritage.

If you get a chance to drop by this wonderful traveling exhibit, don’t miss it. It will be on display at the MidColumbia Library on Union Street until September 2^nd.

(Article by Susan Faulkner.)

Our Washington State Ferries

(Thanks to Google Images)

The Evergreen State is nearly bisected by Puget Sound and our Washington State Ferries (WSF) are the means to keep us all in touch and getting to where we want to go. 

Created in June 1951, the ferries now boast 10 routes and 20 terminals with 450 departures every day.

The WSF fleet is always being upgraded. The newest ship joined the fleet in March 2014, two years after the first weld on the ship. According to the shipbuilder, Vigor Industrial, a total of 2200 tons of steel went into the ferry. The ship is 362' long and stretches 83' wide. Named the Tokitae, it can hold 144 cars and more than 1500 passengers.  Each propeller on the Tokitae is nearly 12' in diameter and weighs 12,960 pounds. The cost of building the Tokitae was $117 million dollars. 

The name for Washington's newest ferry comes from a Coastal Salish or Chinook jargon greeting that means "nice day, pretty colors," and was used when members of different tribes met one another while traveling or trading. 

Look for the Tokitae the next time you have occasion to ride on one of our Washington state ferries. 

(Thanks to the magazine Discover Kitsap 2014 for information for this article. I picked it up on the ferry!)

SVGS Offering Classes Beginning in September

Skagit Valley Genealogical Society to Offer Beginners Genealogy Workshops

at the Anacortes and Burlington Public Libraries This Fall

SKAGIT COUNTY – The Skagit Valley Genealogical Society (SVGS) will be offering 6-week courses at both the Anacortes and Burlington Public Libraries starting in September 2014.  This new class series: Beginners Genealogy Workshop will be held at the Burlington Public Library, at 820 E Washington Avenue, Burlington on Tuesdays, from 1pm-3pm, starting September 9 and running through October 14. The workshop will be repeated at the Anacortes Public Library, at 1220 10^th Street, Anacortes on Wednesdays, from 12:45pm to 2:45pm, starting September 10 and offered weekly through October 8, with the final class on October 22 (no class on October 15).

To register visit SVGS’ website: skagitvalleygenealogy.org to download and print out the mail-in registration form. Registration is by check or cash only. The fee for the 6-week series of classes is $50 for all six classes if pre-registered by September 2, 2014. Space is limited so early registration is recommended. Walk-ins are welcome at both workshop locations on the day of the classes as space becomes available. Classes may also be registered for individually for $10 per specific class. A $10 discount is offered if registered for all 6-classes ($50 for 6 classes). For details visit www.skagitvalleygenealogy.org; email genealogy0715@gmail.com; or call Hazel at (360) 630-0170. 

SVGS is a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to educating, preserving and promoting family history research in our Skagit County communities. SVGS’ meetings are open to the public and are held on the third Tuesdays of the month. Meeting locations vary seasonally. Check the SVGS website for location and program information. The next SVGS general meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 23, 7pm-9pm at the Burlington Senior Community Center at 1101 Greenleaf in Burlington. A topic of interest to all levels of genealogy researchers will be presented.

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