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.