GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Wednesday Evening E-News

THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s

Wednesday Evening

E-News, Early Edition

6 December 2017

For more information visit www.gfo.org, contact us at info@gfo.org, or call our library at 503-963-1932. We love hearing from you!

For a complete GFO CALENDAR click here.

Also, if you missed your free copy of our monthly Insider for November 2017, you’re in luck because we saved you a copy HERE. NOTE: The Insider issues are now located under the “Learn” > “Our Publications” menu at www.gfo.org.

Curious about the status of your GFO Membership?? We’d love to have you as a GFO Member!

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We wanted to say thank you again for helping us get ALL CAUGHT UP on our labeling project this last week.

This project’s success couldn’t have come at a better time, with the holidays around the corner!

We’re happy to announce we have reached our labeling goals for this year.

Now it’s time to go out and play and rest with all our friends and family. We hope you all have a very very merry holiday season!!

Many hands have sure made the recataloging and relabeling much much lighter! Thank you again everyone!

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Bringing families together through personal archives.

Read all about one businessman’s chance discovery of a forgotten treasure bin of letters from three brothers during the second World War.

“Inside, tightly packed, were rows of envelopes. Alosi opened one, and then another, and then another. The Marine Corps veteran felt a slight chill.”

The story tells also about how Alosi was able to finally locate the remaining relatives of these three brothers and how he connected the relatives to the unearthed treasure of the letters. You can read the letters either in their original handwritten form or via transcription at the article link below.

Full Washington Post article HERE.

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GFO’s GenTalk: Saturday, December 16th, 2 – 3pm

Join LauraDenise White, GFO’s resident archival consultant weekend after next.

Get ready for the holidays with Personal Papers & Archiving! Learn how to not only preserve some of those family heirloom papers and photographs you know are just sitting in the attic and basement, but also see how you can put together wonderful family history gifts with these fabulous relics of the past. Learn how to weave the fabric of your family history into inspiring and lasting treasures.

Attendees are encouraged to bring in a sample of items of their very own to work on during this interactive session. Photographs and letters and diaries, oh my! Bring them on in! We’ll work on them together while discussing ways to keep them safe AND ways to share them with family and friends both far and near.

Remember! All our GenTalks are FREE events, completely open to the public. Help us get the word out! CLICK HERE for FLYERS

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Annual Appeal

Don’t let 2017 slip away and miss out on your tax write-off.

Because GFO is a 501(c)(3) organization, your donations are tax deductible.

Give now by visiting our Annual Appeal page HERE.

Remember GFO is a 100% volunteer-reliant organization. That’s right! We have no paid staff.

So every gift goes directly to keeping the lights on, the doors open, and the to providing the best resources possible for family history researchers!

The simple truth is: GFO relies on donations for our continued existence.

If you prefer to send a check or money order, you can use our paper form HERE and mail it with your gift to: Genealogical Forum of Oregon, 2505 S.E. 11th Ave., Suite B-18, Portland, OR 97202.

Thank you in advance for your support!

Psst! GFO belongs to the Oregon Cultural Trust (as “GFO”) and has attained a silver-star rating on GuideStar.

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Are you Prepared For Any Disaster?

Research Assistants and Special Interest Group leaders, please remember to pick up GFO’s updated Disaster Preparedness Pocket Response Guide (PRep) at the library’s font desk next time you’re at GFO.

Check out this recent news article from the Argus Courier about the efforts of historical societies, libraries, and archives this last month in Sonoma County.

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This Week at the GFO…

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Go on! Click the calendar. I dare ya!!

FRIDAY, December 8th

Virginia Group 11:30am – 1:30pm

Finding your Hispanic ancestors from Mexico, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California. This Special Interest Group (SIG) will pertain specifically to Mexican ancestors from Mexico and the American Southwest (New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California).

Beginning and intermediate researchers are very welcome. Some subjects will include online parish records, Hispanic genealogy societies, Family History Library/FamilySearch.org. Ancestry.com, solving genealogical problems, methodology of organizing your research, etc. Of course this group will also be about sharing our research experiences, and having fun.

If you know of any other people interested in Hispanic genealogy tell them about the up and coming group. They don’t have to be a GFO member to participate.
For questions or comments, please email Vince at sw@gfo.org.

SATURDAY, December 9th

Writers’ Forum 1 – 3pm

This is a peer group of genealogists, who meet to learn about writing and to share our writing with each other. Peggy Baldwin facilitates this group and can be reached at peggyrbaldwin@gmail.com or 503-916-9410.

SUNDAY, December 10th

Maps Work Party 9am – noon

We are planning to continue working on this project on the second Sunday of the month from 9:00 am until noon or however much time you can spear. Come when you can! Doris Cruickshank is our fearless map project coordinator, and would love to teach you the ropes.