THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Thursday Evening E-News Edition June 13, 2019

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

gfo.org | 503-963-1932 | info@gfo.org Be sure to check the complete GFO CALENDAR. Also, don’t miss the current issue of The Forum Insider

Please Attend Our Member Meeting This Saturday

We encourage all GFO Members to attend our annual membership meeting this Saturday, June 15, at 2 p.m. (Yes, that’s the correct date. We apologize for the typo last week.)

Richard Crockett will present the budget for the new fiscal year which starts on July 1. You, the members, will be asked to vote to approve the board’s plan. It’s your chance to see our new board members who join the board next month. And, we’ll reveal this year’s Hall of Fame Award winner. This is the GFO’s highest honor, which carries with it lifetime membership in the GFO. The meeting lasts 30 minutes. Then, please stay on for a free GenTalk by Kristin Parks. She’ll talk about land records and how to reach them from our library computers.

Donations Delivered to Paradise Genealogical Society

All 28 boxes fit in the car! President Vince Patton shows every nook and cranny we used to do it.

The Paradise Genealogical Society in northern California hasn’t had much to smile about since a wildfire burned their library to the ground. Smiles returned today as they received nearly 1,500 books and periodicals. We delivered donations from the GFO and the Clark County Genealogical Society a few hours ago. A team from Paradise drove north, and GFO President Vince Patton drove south. We met halfway in Medford for the transfer of 28 boxes. It’s a great way to jumpstart the rebuilding of their library in a new temporary location in Chico, California.

Joyce Higgins and Carol Sutherland of the Paradise Genealogy Society were thrilled to have a van load of books to drive back home.

Half-Day Workshop: Adding Historical Context

Adding Historical Context: A Hands-On Approach Join GFO’s Kate Eakman July 14 from 9:30 a.m. – Noon for a half-day of learning about how to add historical context to your genealogical research to make it richer and more interesting. In this workshop you will: ▪ Practice identifying items, events, and topics ripe for historical research. ▪ Once the questions have been asked, learn how to find the answers. ▪ Discuss how to add this new-found information to one’s family’s history. Take advantage of Early Bird pricing. Register by June 30 and save $5.00!

Register Now

GenTalk: Locating Land Using the GLO, HistoryGeo & GFO

The website of the Bureau of Land Management’s General Land Office (GLO) is an incredibly valuable resource for researching your Federal Land State ancestors. Even those ancestors who never left the east coast can sometimes be found if you know how to look. Using the GLO, HistoryGeo, and the GFO’s collection of Oregon Donation Land Claim materials can lead you on a rewarding journey of discovery that covers a lot more territory than you might think.

Join GFO Research Assistant and Education Committee Chair Kristin Parks this Saturday, June 15, from 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. to learn more about these helpful resources.

Member Dues Rise July 1 – Renew Early Before the Increase

Anyone may renew early, before July 1, to lock in this year’s lower rates. NOTE: If you are midway into a standard membership and would like to become a Life member, we will credit your life member dues with the unused amount of what you have already paid. Life members can pay everything in one lump sum or spread payments out over three years.

Renew or Join Now

Great Lakes Region Interest Group is looking for your help!

The Great Lakes Region Interest Group is looking for presenters for the coming year! Do you know someone who might be interested? If you send us the person’s name and email address, we’ll do the rest. Contact us at greatlakes@gfo.org. Our next meeting is Saturday, September 14 at 9:30 a.m. Until then, we wish you happy trails and a summer of productive genealogy research!

Surplus Book of the Week: First Hundred Years of Lincoln County

This week’s surplus book is a special commemorative book that beautifully captures the first 100 years of Lincoln County, Oregon, from 1893 to 1993. It was published by the News-Times of Newport in 1993 and includes 192 pages of historic photos and advertisements.

This softcover book captures the fishing, timber, rail, and cultural history of Newport. It’s in very good condition with no marks inside or out. We’ve found it for sale online for $40 plus shipping. Your price: $30 – pickup at GFO $35 – we’ll mail it to you If interested, please email booksales@gfo.org. (Please contact them first; don’t just show up at the library to purchase.)

Survey Results: Family Tree Errors

There were 46 responses with lots of “Other” answers. 23 – Try to get the tree owner to correct it 13 – Ignore it To see all the results, click here.

Have you ever looked for trees with errors about your ancestors for the purpose of correcting them? No 39 (84.8%) Yes 7 (15.2%) If you tried to correct the errors, how did you do it? (respondents could select more than one answer.) We’re glad to see some of you are working hard to get those trees corrected! 37 of you responded. 22 Sent the tree owner corrected information 19 Sent the tree owner documentation (or a link to documentation) 17 Added a comment to their tree 10 Tried to educate the tree owner about the value of reliable sources

New Survey: Correcting Errors on Ancestry.com

Have you ever looked and looked for a record on Ancestry.com, to discover when you find it that it was indexed incorrectly? It can be frustrating, for sure. And Ancestry will not correct them—but you can. It doesn’t change the incorrect information, but it adds information to help others find the record more easily. This week we ask if you already know about and/or post corrections. Please take our survey now.

Take the Survey

This week at GFO …

Friday, June 14th Mexican Ancestry Group 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. Finding your Hispanic ancestors from Mexico, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California This Special Interest Group (SIG) pertains specifically to Mexican ancestors from Mexico and the American Southwest (New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California). Beginning and intermediate researchers are 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. For questions or comments, please email Vince Ramirez at sw@gfo.org. Saturday, June 15th Genealogy Problem Solvers 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. No meeting this month. African American Ancestry Group 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. This meeting will be our second attempt at a “transcribathon” – we will work together on transcribing Freedmen’s Bureau records for the Smithsonian’s massive undertaking of creating an every-word transcription of every document in the Freedmen’s Bureau collection. Please plan ahead: Visit The Freedman’s Bureau website before the June 15 meeting and sign up. You will need to bring a laptop to the meeting to work on. If you have an extra laptop, consider bringing it in case someone else doesn’t have one, so that more people can help. For more information, contact us at african_american@gfo.org. Annual Membership Meeting 2:00 – 2:15 p.m. Come to see new officers installed, learn who is receiving the Hall of Fame award, and vote to approve the budget for the coming fiscal year. GenTalk: Using the GLO and HistoryGeo 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. Presenter Kristin Parks will show you how using the General Land Office website, HistoryGeo.com and the GFO’s collection of Oregon Donation Land Claim material can help take you on a path of discovery to learn more about your ancestors. Sunday, June 16th Father’s Day – GFO Closed. Wednesday, June 19th Learn and Chat 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Topic: Census – Part Two. The census is often the first place we search for “instant gratification,” a place to see our people and their community (FAN Club). The 2020 Census is now front-and-center in the news. Join us for Part Two of a discussion of how this constitutionally-mandated enumeration has changed over time. We share our experiences and are working together on a list of resources useful to all. A lively discussion and a lot of fun! Facilitated by Jean Quan and Sandy Alto. Questions? learnandchat@gfo.org DNA Q&A 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Lisa McCullough leads a discussion on various DNA related subjects, with each meeting focused on a particular subject. General questions are welcome at the end of each planned discussion. Questions? dna_qa@gfo.org Irish Group 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. In our first hour, we will interactively explore those new and improved Irish genealogy websites, or even a great general genealogy website that you have found useful. Email a couple of your favorite URLs to Irish@gfo.org by June 12th and everyone can have a copy of all the URLs at the meeting! We will be sure the laptop and projector screen are ready! Share what you liked about the site and we will all be a wee bit closer to our next ancestor discovery! Second hour we will address current challenges/brick walls/research obstacles – bring a concise outline of your challenge, and we will put our heads together to help move you forward. We’re planning now for August and October meetings. What topics/speakers would you like to hear? Please share at the meeting or email us at Irish@gfo.org with questions and suggestions.