THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM OF OREGON Wednesday Evening E-News 30 March 2016
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 go to www.gfo.org/calendar.htm.
Also, if you missed your free copy of our monthly Insider, you’re in luck because we saved you a copy at http://www.gfo.org/insider/16-Apr.pdf.
Help the GFO not miss a whale of a deal, Wed, April 6th, at 10 AM! We need your help, oh my, oh my.
Did you say fabulous and extremely valuable books are being donated to the GFO? French-Canadian research galore?
We have a call to action for next week. We need as many volunteers as possible to help retrieve some 90 boxes of French-Canadian research books that are being donated by one of our elderly members.
Yep, you read that right!
WE MUST PICK UP the books from their current home in North Portland on Wednesday, April 6th, at 10 a.m., bright and early!!
If you can help in any way – from sitting and boxing the books, to bringing boxes to the pickup site, to showing off your burly muscles to move boxes already loaded with books – please email our fearless leader Laurel Smith at president@gfo.org.
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GFO’s Open House is Coming! April 9-17, 2016
Boy, oh, boy! Do we have some book deals for you!!
Surplus Book Sales at the GFO Open House, April 9-17
By now you’ve seen the fabulous line-up of classes and events that will be offered at the GFO Open House this year, and are scheming how to skip work or drop the kids or grandkids off at OMSI, so you can attend them all.
As you’re updating your Open House schedule, save some time to browse GFO’s 1,200 surplus books to find those perfect items to put in your personal library. In addition to genealogical treasures, we also have a variety of historical fiction, and even a cookbook or two!
If you’re unfamiliar with GFO’s stash of Surplus Books, here’s how it works. When the Library receives a book donation, volunteers evaluate the donation: Is it genealogy-related? Do we already have the book? Is the book we have in better condition than the donated item? Or is it “new to us” and should be added to the Library?
All this is considered, and if we can’t use it in the Library, it will be offered for sale. Then, the BookSales team finds the lowest price anyone else is selling the book at, and marks 20% off of that! We sell the books online at AbeBooks and at GFO. If you are a member and purchase one of these books at GFO, and show your membership card, you’ll get ANOTHER 10% knocked off the already low price. The list of books for sale are on our website here: http://gfo.org/library/surplus.pdf
Our shelves are bulging, so at the Open House, we’ll be offering discounts. Be sure to ask about the Specials each day!
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Call for assistance! Manuscripts Work Party – Sunday, April 3rd
This coming Sunday, April 3rd, is our monthly work party from 9 a.m. to noon. We have been asked to put together a display and short program for a special event that will happen at the library on May 1st. The idea is to highlight the treasures that are found in our manuscript collections, and that are now and/or will soon be accessible for online research via our current digitization project.
Some examples of hidden treasure could include…
* correspondence,
* early family and historical photos,
* family business diaries,
* unpublished genealogical papers,
* personal and/or family journals, and
* cemetery extractions.
We will also need help to pull out and tag some of the historic family Bibles. If you have previously come across something that you found interesting and can recall where you saw it, we would love to pull it out of the file or find an already digitized copy in our Digital Manuscript Collections to print to display at the May 1st event.
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Holy genealogy tips, Marcia! Facebook can help me research my family history?
Hello! We just wanted to pass along a genealogy tip that our Facebook Administrator, Marcia Coffman Hicks, recently discovered. Marcia recently came across a blog by Kathrine R. Willson called: SocialMedia.com.
Kathrine has a link on her site titled “Genealogy on Facebook” List, which has a list of over 7,000 Facebook pages related to genealogy! This link covers individual states, countries, individual surnames, associations, magazines, libraries, newspapers, etc. For those who are a bit shy about using Facebook, please feel free to email Marcia at marcia.hicks56@gmail.com for a quick tutorial.
Check it out!! What are you waiting for?
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Calling all proofreaders! The Bulletin Indexing team needs your help!!
BrattleboroPostOfficeLedger 1792-1799
The GFO exists to promote, educate, preserve, compile, and publish within the genealogical community.
GFO volunteers help to fulfill this mission by indexing records held by our library.
Our indexing volunteers have just completed indexes for the contents of our quarterly publication, the Bulletin, from 2013. But! We need proofreaders to scour the indexing before publishing of the 2013 set of work.
If you can help out, please email Cathy Lauer at volunteer@gfo.org.
Only two books left on the reviewer shelf, so act fast!
If you would like to read and write a short review of any of the books listed below, please contact our Book Review Co-ordinator, Joan Galles, at 503-252-2807, Afftravel@aol.com.
THE PEOPLE OF THE SCOTTISHBURGS, a Genealogical Source Book. The People of Aberdeen, 1600 – 1799.
By David Dobson.
GENEALOGY AT A GLANCE: GENETIC GENEALOGY BASICS.
By Angie Bush.
Editor’s Note:
Because reviewers need to remove the above-listed books from the premises, we are requesting that only GFO members act as reviewers currently. Interested in becoming a member? Please visit our website’s membership page HERE. If you have an idea for a book review, member or not, please still feel free to contact Joan at her above-listed email or phone number.
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What’s Happening this Week at the GFO?
Virginia Group – Saturday, April 2nd, 10am – noon
Research in Virginia can be difficult, with the complication of “burned counties”, as well as the ordinary difficulties of using historical documents. But it is not impossible. We discuss the history of Virginia and explore various methods to do sound genealogy research. We hope to foster collaboration among our many Virginia researchers and work on our varied research problems, or “brick walls”, together. Each month we will have a discussion or presentation on a topic related to our research. There will also be time each meeting for discussion, suggestions, and perhaps research on individual topics. We’ll also explore the settlement of Kentucky, the Carolinas and Tennessee. For more information, contact Judi Scott at judiscot@gmail.com or Carol Surrency at lcsurr@gmail.com.
German Group – Saturday, April 2nd, 1pm – 3pm
The topic this session will be “German Naming Patterns” and we’ll hear Carol Linneman talk about naming patterns from the old country can help identify the family of your ancestors. Bring your own examples and questions. We will also have a short introduction to one-name studies.
MANUSCRIPTS WORK PARTY, YEAH! – Sunday, April 3rd, 9am – noon
Please come help us decide what treasures from our manuscripts and digital manuscript collections should be put on display at an upcoming presentation to be held May 1st. Any time you can spare this coming Sunday morning would be wonderfully appreciated. Your opinion about what goes on display matters!
Free First Monday – You guessed the day, good job! The date this month is April 4th. The GFO Library will be open to all, member or no, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
BOOK DONATION RETRIEVAL RUN – Wednesday, April 6th, 10am
We have over 90 boxes of very valuable research books that MUST be picked up from their donor’s home in North Portland on this date. Please email Laurel Smith at president@gfo.org to sign up and for details!
Learn & Chat – Wednesday, April 6th, 10am – noon
Join us to talk about your genealogy questions and help provide support to others. Facilitated by the wonderful Connie Lenzen.
DNA Q&A – Wednesday, April 6th, 1pm – 2pm
Lisa McCullough will be available to help answer your DNA questions, whether you are new and just getting started or have more involved questions.