The Grays Harbor Genealogical Society is sponsoring a workshop fundraiser benefiting their recovery efforts from the June 9 fire that destroyed their research library. Professional genealogist Pam Vestal from the Portland area has donated her talents for the 2-class workshop. Those that sign up early, may attend a free class with Pam in the morning. For more information, contact Info@GraysHarborGenealogy.com.
Late Fees Waived !!
Lisa Louise Cooke is the owner of Genealogy Gems, a genealogy and family history multimedia company. She is Producer and Host of the Genealogy Gems Podcast, the popular online genealogy audio show available at www.GenealogyGems.com, in iTunes, and through the Genealogy Gems app.
Lisa is the author of a variety of multi-media materials including the Genealogy Gems Premium website subscription, and four books: The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox (Second Edition), Mobile Genealogy, How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers, and Genealogy Gems: Ultimate Research Strategies, and the video series Google Earth for Genealogy.
Lisa is a sought after international genealogy speaker. Whether in person or online, Lisa strives to dig through the myriad of genealogy news, questions and resources to deliver the gems that can unlock each genealogist’s own family history treasure trove!
Lisa is a doting wife to Bill, the proud mom of three daughters, and has added the role of Grandma to her resume. She counts her blessings every day for the love, fulfillment and laughter that family brings to every aspect of her life.
Brochure: 2018-Brochure-FINAL
Registration Form Seminar-2018-registration-form-FINAL
October 24, 2018 – Save the date!
Sixth Annual Virtual Genealogy Fair
Every year, the National Archives hosts a virtual Genealogy Fair via live webcast on YouTube. The sessions offer family history research tools on Federal records for all skill levels. Thousands of family historians participate in the live event.
As a virtual attendee, you can:
How time flies when you’re having fun! The last day of the Northwest Genealogy Conference was again filled with classes, networking, book sales, vendors and amazing discoveries.
Our keynote speaker for the day was Beth Foulk, whose energetic style entertained us with tales from colonial immigration to the importance of the crossroads state of Missouri to the battle for bounty lands. My “extra” class was Rich Venezia‘s “Emerald Isle Express: Researching Irish Ancestors.” He gave me some new resources and encouragement in finding my Irish ancestors. My hopes spring eternal that I’ll find ol’ Patrick Murphy (no middle name) and Lawrence Ryan (also no middle name and the son of a string of like-named men).
Stilly President Ruth Caesar with conference co-chairs Phil and Lisa Bartlow
I can’t heap enough praise on the amazing volunteers from conference hosts Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society. Did you know it takes approximately 2,500 hours to ensure the success of this conference — and it shows! I look forward to it every year. In fact, I’ve already marked my calendar for next year’s conference: August 14 – 17, 2019. Michael Strauss and Thomas MacEntee have already jumped on board to headline two of the days.
Maureen Taylor, the nationally known “Photo Detective”,
is coming to Bellevue on September 15, 2018.
“Finding Family History in Your Picture Mysteries”
Her Three Presentations:
This event will be held on September 15, 2018 at the Vasa Park Ballroom, 3560 W Lake Sammamish Road SE, Bellevue, WA 98008. Doors open at 9 am with presentations from 9:30 am to 2 pm.
Private consultations with her are available afterwards at an additional cost.
This event is part of the Eastside Genealogical Society’s 40th Anniversary celebration. Thus, EGS members, who register before September 1st, will have free admission.
Boxed lunches are available for $15, if ordered by September 1st.
Non-EGS Members and everyone after September 1st will be charged $25 admission.
For more details about the presentations and lunch, see our website (Also, there are links to the digital files for the Color Poster and the Registration Flyer.) Of course, you can register for the event using our website.
Come and bring your friends for a fun day!
One of the most entertaining fea
tures of the Northwest Genealogy Conference is the “Dress Like Your Ancestor Day.” It was so fun to see attendees dressed as their Salem Witch ancestor (complete with noose), Norwegian (or German or New England or Irish or…other parts of the globe) ancestor. We all love to talk about our ancestors and today it was so fun to see them walking around the conference.
Peggy Lauritzen was our keynote speaker today. Her presentations ranged from migrations into the Shenandoah Valley to the Amish and Mennonites to researching school records. She’s always entertaining and certainly “delivered the goods” today!
My two “extra” classes today were Katherine Willson’s “40+ Sources for Finding Females’ Maiden Names” and “Coming to Your Census: Using State Census Records” with Daniel Earl. Really good stuff! I’m excited to use the tips and resources they shared.
The evening closed with the annual banquet at the Gleneagle Golf Course. CeCe Moore once again entertained the sold-out crowd with stirring stories of reuniting families, healing old wounds and solving criminal cases using genetic genealogy. We are so lucky to have her at the Northwest Genealogy Conference as her travels and professional demands are mounting. Lucky us!
Tomorrow’s the last day of the conference, but a full one. Besides hearing three plenary sessions with keynoter Beth Foulk and two other classes, I need to make sure I visit the vendors, including the Heritage Quest Research Library book sale. So much to pack in!
Sue Walde, Helen Eliason and Joanne Wetmore pose proudly with their recently published book, “Early Stillaguamish Schools.” For sale at the conference.
More than 300 of us were treated to a full day of everything genealogy — from DNA to Catholics and coroners (no, not together — separate classes!). We were all over the map, including learning about historical maps, Swedish, Maryland and Michigan research. Oh, the places we went together!
A crowd waits patiently to talk to CeCe after her presentation.
CeCe Moore, today’s keynoter, took us on quite an adventure into the world of Autosomal DNA during three plenary sessions. She packed so much information into them, she ran over her scheduled time slot. Responding to the crowd’s cheers of “Keep going!,” she graciously complied. Her personal stories and case studies were particularly interesting and heartwarming, bringing home the importance of being on the cusp of this developing science. If you haven’t purchased a ticket to Friday night’s banquet, you’re out of luck unless the Help Desk has a few from those unable to attend. CeCe will be talking about “Making History with Genetic Genealogy.” She’ll share behind-the-scenes experiences and research in her role in using DNA to solve family mysteries.
In addition to today’s three main sessions with CeCe, we were able to choose an additional morning and afternoon class. It was difficult to choose from the array of topics, but I finally settled on Lisa Oberg‘s “Catholic Catechism: Researching Your Catholic Ancestors” and Michael Strauss‘s “Historical Maps: The World at Your Fingertips.” Great choices! Michael’s class was so popular, we had to move to a larger room to accommodate the crowd!
Tomorrow’s going to be great fun! It’s “Dress Like Your Ancestor” day. You can still register for the day. Doors open at 7:30 a.m. We’re waiting for you!
What a great way to start one of the region’s best learning and networking opportunities: a free day at the Northwest Genealogy Conference!
Almost 250 genealogists gathered at the Byrnes Performing Arts Center in Arlington to take part in pre-conference classes on Wednesday, August 15, 2018. Most attended the free beginning genealogy class “Let’s Start Off on the Right Foot!” with Amie Bowser Tennant. Even those of us oldies (but goodies) learned more than a few new tricks, resources and how-to’s.
There were also three specialized workshops available to attendees. Those lucky enough to get into CeCe Moore‘s “Digging Deeper With Autosomal DNA” (filled up online in just SEVEN minutes!), learned tools and steps to understand genetic genealogy. Janet Camarata taught a class in how to use Family Search more efficiently and effectively while Mary Kircher Roddy taught a class on how to use Excel for genealogy.
The evening closed with a “Meet and Greet” taco bar at the Gleneagle Golf Course. What a great way to see old friends and make new ones.
Tomorrow we’ll be treated to three plenary sessions with CeCe Moore. Did you see CeCe’s recent interview with Megyn Kelly on solving crime cases with DNA? Check it out here. So interesting! In addition to CeCe’s presentations, we’ll also have to choose just two classes from the ten offered — everything from Catholic ancestors and coroner’s records to historical maps and Swedish research. Combing through the 150+ page syllabus now. Will be hard to choose!
If you aren’t one of the 300+ people who have already registered for the conference, don’t despair! You can register at the door for one day, two days or all three! You can’t register online anymore, but show up at the door and the uber-efficient volunteers from conference host Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society will get you set up. Just show up early! Doors open at the Byrnes Performing Arts Center at 7:30 a.m.
More tomorrow…
