**** The Yakima Valley Genealogical Society just celebrated their 50^th anniversary in October. Three of the original charter members are still alive; one of those is Maxine Bissell, age 100+, and they hoped she’d be able to attend the party. The day of celebration was Saturday, Oct 21^st, and included a potluck by the members and an open house and sharing of stories. Sue Ericksen, a member for 25 years, and current president, arranged the day. Way to go, YVGS!!

How many other genealogical societies in our state have 50 years under their belt? Skagit Valley Genealogical Society just marked their 30^th. The Eastern Washington Genealogical Society, founded in 1935, has been serving genealogists in Spokane and surrounding areas for 82 years. Any society top that?

**** This is truly a serendipity story. Last time I visited the Yakima Valley Genealogical Society library, Frank McLean showed me their newest treasure….. 16 volumes of Mortgages of Yakima County, dating from 1898. And where did these books come from? Frank said that some time ago a fellow called from Hawaii to say he had spotted these at a yard sale there and did some looking on the Internet, found YVGS, and so called to see if YVGS wanted these books. (“Duh,” quoth Frank.) This wonderful fellow paid to ship all 16 volumes to Yakima. The YVGS plan now is to digitize all the pages (“nearly done,” said Frank) and index it all and make it available on the YVGS website.  The question begs: How on earth did these books end up in Hawaii?????