SGS RECOGNIZES VOLUNTEER
 BETTY RAVENHOLT

In January, the Board of Directors named Betty Ravenholt as the Volunteer of the Quarter. She was specially honored in the first months of this year.  Betty has most successfully filled a large number of roles and offices in the society, including several years as the Society’s secretary and also as Director of Communications (when a position of that name existed), coordinating and providing look-ups for queries. She served as a seminar co-chair during that same time period.  More recently, she has been one of the very active SGS Library Trustees. In this capacity, she devoted great energy to restoring and substantially increasing financial resources for library acquisitions; and she is in fact a continuing member of the Materials Review Committee, which oversees new additions to our library shelves.

Betty will long be appreciated for her outstanding work as the SGS Seminar chair for 2015.  The fall presentation with Tom Jones, which she organized, was an extraordinarily successful and well attended event.

Betty Ravenholt was born in Middle Tennessee and went to school just outside Atlanta at a small liberal arts college for women, Agnes Scott.  She has since lived in Nashville, Norfolk, Chapel Hill, and the Washington D.C. area.  She notes that she had never lived north of Washington D.C. or west of Nashville until she moved to Seattle with her husband (who had lived here previously) in1987. Betty had worked since the late 1970s in international public health — primarily family planning and maternal and child health – an occupation that necessitated a great deal of travel.  She retired from consulting two years ago and describes herself as “happy to be at home now and tending my gardens.”

Betty’s family has deep roots in the Southeast. She characterizes herself as “the geographically wayward child” of the family. Her family history research is consequently limited primarily to that area — especially the states of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.  Her research goal – she calls it her ‘delirious wish’ — is to be able to identify the immigrant ancestor in each of her families.  Thus she is currently researching seventeenth and early eighteenth century American records.

HELP! VOLUNTEERS STILL NEEDED for the 2016
  PACIFIC NORTHWEST SCOTTISH HIGHLAND GAMES
Saturday, July 30 & Sunday, July 31
Enumclaw Expo Center

We still need some volunteers to man the Seattle Genealogical Society and Library booth during the Pacific Northwest Scottish Highland Games in Enumclaw. Volunteers are supplied with a free ticket to the games and are scheduled to help for a two hour session leaving you plenty of time to enjoy the festivities yourself.

Please contact Jean A. Roth by June 19th so we can procure your ticket.  She’ll need your name, email address, phone contact, age if you are over 62 and a time preference, if you have one. Contact info:

JEAN A. ROTH, SGS Outgoing Director of Education and Outreach Coordinator
Email: jeanaroth@juno.com
Ph: (206) 782-2629

–  LISTEN TO THE BAGPIPES – WATCH THE DANCERS –
–  VISIT THE CLANS – HELP SGS PROMOTE GENEALOGY –

* HELP WANTED *

GRANT WRITERS FOR SMALL, TARGETED GRANT PROPOSALS

SGS has big plans for the coming year, and some of these plans are above and beyond our budget, but they would add great value to the society.  There are several organizations that invite grant proposals from small non-profit organizations like SGS and we’d like to take advantage of this opportunity.

One example: The SGS Library contains over 15,000 books; some of them are not available in other local and regional libraries.  But until recently, having our library catalog on-line was prohibitively labor-intensive and costly.  So these treasures go undiscovered and our library isn’t used as it could be.

We have discovered a way to put the SGS catalog online on our website with little or no effort on our part, in a way that will update automatically. This means that the online SGS catalog would always be up-to-date and readily accessible to everyone.

In order to accomplish this, we need to upgrade our catalog software (cost ~$200) and pay an annual fee (~$180 per year) for the on-line access to the live catalog.

We are looking for one or two people to take the lead in completing this small grant proposal, and other similar proposals in the future.  If interested, please contact Reiley Kidd at Secretary@seagensoc.org .

SOLICITING YOUR OPINIONS

The Education Committee is asking for your input on the types of classes/programs you’d like to see SGS offer.  Pass along to them any ideas of things you’re anxious to learn that will help you in your family history quest.  Do you have knowledge or skills you’d like to share with other SGS members; could you make a presentation or teach a class?  Finally, if you’d like to join the Education Committee, they’d love to have you and are waiting to hear from you.  With any of the above, please contact Verlin, the new Director of Education, at education@seagensoc.org

CALENDAR

Unless otherwise indicated all programs will be at the SGS Library, 6200 Sand Point Way NE.  Please check the SGS Web Site for additions, changes, and corrections.  Programs may be canceled or postponed due to inclement weather.  The German, Irish, Canadian and Scandinavian Interest Groups will not meet during the summer; regular meetings will resume in the fall.

JUNE

Tuesday, June 21, 12:30 pm – 3:00 pm, Technology Tuesday, Hosted by Lisa Chan, SGS Director of Technology, Bring your laptop or mobile device, visit with other members and learn from each other while working on your family history. Discuss current projects, hardware, software, organizing data, and technology trends in genealogy.

Tuesday, June 28, 12:30 pm – 3:00 pm, Technology Tuesday, Hosted by Lisa Chan, SGS Director of Technology

JULY

Tuesday, July 5, 12:30 pm – 3:00 pm, Technology Tuesday, Hosted by Lisa Chan, SGS Director of Technology

Tuesday, July 12, 12:30 pm – 3:00 pm, Technology Tuesday, Hosted by Lisa Chan, SGS Director of Technology

Tuesday, July 12, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm, “Avoiding Genealogy Mistakes”, program presented by Jean A Roth