THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Thursday Evening E-News Edition March 28, 2019

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

For more information visit www.gfo.org. Contact us at info@gfo.org or 503-963-1932. Be sure to check the complete GFO CALENDAR. Also, don’t miss the current issue of The Forum Insider

Open House Breaks Records!

Only three days left! Friday, March 29th – Sunday, Mar. 31st

Wow! Just wow! We’re blown away by how many people are coming to the annual GFO Open House this week! Irish Day kicked things off last weekend with our classroom jammed with enthusiastic genealogists. We thought attendance might drop during the week, but we were wrong! By the half way point more people had joined us than in all 9 days last year. By the time this email goes out, we still have 3 more days of classes left. Friday, March 29 will include classes on Citing Sources, Mexican Ancestry, & Ohio River Area Research. Closing weekend, March 30 & 31 features DNA Days. Please come down! All of the classes are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

Class List with Times & Details

Ingredients for a successful Open House: ▪ Great Speakers ▪ Free Access to Library ▪ Drool-inducing treats! Meet our Coffee Queen! Judith Leppert comes every morning to our Open House this week to make fresh coffee and share her latest home-baked treats! Come see what she brings during the rest of this week through Sunday, March 31. Thank you, Judith!

Another Brick Wall Comes Tumbling Down! United States and Irish Record Research…

Military documents reported Patrick Powers as a native of Ireland who came to the US and then became a US citizen in 1892 by virtue of his US military service. His descendants knew nothing of his Irish roots or his family connections as his early death resulted in almost no verbal history for him. April’s Genealogy Problem Solvers presentation will demonstrate the use of a wide range of records in both the US and Ireland, including detailed examination of Catholic Parish records, Valuation Renewal Books, and Civil records. Utilizing these records, we will pinpoint Patrick’s birthplace, and identify some of his ancestors as well as additional kin. We will focus on how detailed examination of many records, the use of spreadsheets, a timeline, and even a distant DNA connection can contribute to finding the story of an elusive ancestor. Join us Saturday, April 20th, at 9:30 a.m. to learn how this technique can help you in organizing your research. For more information contact Katie Daly at GPS@gfo.org.

GFO’s in the Oregonian…

Did you see the marvelous story about the GFO in the Oregonian? Tom Hallman, Oregonian’s Pulitzer winning feature writer, wrote about us on Sunday, March 24. Many people coming to the Open House say they learned about the GFO for the first time from this story. You can read it online here.

GFO Hall of Fame Nominations Needed by May 1st

The Hall of Fame Award is our way of honoring GFO members who have performed outstanding service to the Forum. The award is limited to one person per year, except in the case where a pair of members has worked together or the Board waives the limitation. A nomination may be made by any Forum member and the recipient will be selected from the panel of nominations by a majority vote of the Board of Directors. The recipient must have a well-documented history of… * Service * Leadership * Accomplishment …in more than one facet of the Forum over a significant period of time. Please include examples of how this nominee fulfilled all three categories. Any current GFO Member may nominate a member for the Hall of Fame. Please send nominations to secretary@gfo.org before May 1st.

German Genealogy Conference is Around the Corner

Register Now!

Beginning on Saturday, June 15, 2019, Sacramento will host the second international conference of the International German Genealogy Partnership (IGGP). More than 700 people are expected to attend the conference to focus on the history and genealogy of those with German ancestry, wherever they live in the world. Regular pricing ends April 15th. Don’t forget to sign up soon!

We Regret the Error… We apologize for a typo in the Financial Report in our most recent Forum Insider. The GFO posted a gain in February of $5,388.24, not a loss.

This week at GFO …

FRIDAY, March 29th OPEN HOUSE – Citing Sources, Mexican Ancestry, & Ohio River Area Research 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. See the full detailed class list here. SATURDAY & SUNDAY, March 30th & 31st OPEN HOUSE – DNA Days! 9 a.m. – 4:45 p.m. See the full detailed class list here. Two sessions with guest speaker Barbara Rae-Venter are sold out: Saturday at 1:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9 a.m. All others are open on walk-in basis until the room is full. Please also be sure to check our Open House website. MONDAY, April 1st Free First Monday! 9:30 a.m. – 8 p.m. Please note! We’re open late (until 8 p.m.) for this month’s Free First Monday. Stop by after work! Come visit our research library each first Monday of every month and splurge on all GFO’s wonderful resources for FREE. Explore our online databases like Fold3, Ancestry World Library Edition, Newspapers.com, and many more. Our analog and microfilm collections total over 50,000 items. Don’t miss out! WEDNESDAY, April 3rd Library Open Late Until 8 p.m. Learn & Chat 10 a.m. – noon At Learn & Chat some of the learning comes from speakers with particular expertise but most of it comes from the sharing of experiences and knowledge of attendees who have developed methods that work for them. And if you have been doing genealogy for any length time you have likely experienced the wonderful moments of exhilaration, the successes that you then share with others and that drive you to continue researching. Unfortunately those times can be few and far between. Join us to talk about your genealogy questions and help provide support to others. Facilitated by Jeanne Quan. DNA Q&A 1 – 3 p.m. Lisa McCullough will be available to help answer your DNA questions, whether you are new and just getting started or have more involved questions. Questions? Email the facilitators dna_qa@gfo.org.