Category Archives: Miscellaneous

FamilySearch Worldwide Indexing Event – SUPPORT NEEDED!

by Roxanne Lowe

From July 15-17, FamilySearch International and supporting organizations are coordinating the single largest gathering of volunteers online from around the world to help in the noble effort to save, and increase access to, the world’s genealogically significant historical records. With a target of 75,000 online volunteers for the weekend event and a stretch goal of more than 200,000, WE can make a real difference. Remember, every historic record tells the unique story of someone’s ancestor and helps make a personal connection. Until that record is easily discoverable online, that ancestor’s story and their place in the family tree, remains untold.

Please visit https://familysearch.org/worldsrecords for information on the world indexing event and how YOU can participate.

FamilySearch Not Available Tomorrow, June 27

by Roxanne Lowe

There’ve been lots of announcements, but we want to make sure you know:

FamilySearch has been working on an upgrade to their website to accommodate the ongoing growth of new features, such as hinting in the Family Tree. As a part of this process, FamilySearch.org will undergo a technical upgrade on Monday, June 27, starting at 12:00 a.m. MDT (6:00 a.m. UTC). The site may be unavailable for up to 24 hours as they test the system improvements.

For more information, visit FamilySearch.org.

FamilySearch Will Be Down This Monday June 27, 2016

by Charles Hansen

FamilySearch Will Be Down This Monday

The FamilySearch website will be undergoing a technical upgrade Monday, June 27th starting at 12 midnight MDT (6am UTC), and may be down for up to 24 hours as they test the system.

The entire FamilySearch system will be down, including the API that RootsMagic uses to interface with it, so during that time you will be unable to:

  1. receive or view WebHints from FamilySearch
  2. access FamilySearch to find matches, share data, or otherwise work with FamilySearch from inside RootsMagic.

This is a major upgrade to the FamilySearch back end, but once complete you should not experience any adverse effects in RootsMagic from the change.  We will, however, be closely monitoring the interaction between RootsMagic and FamilySearch once they have completed the upgrade to make sure there are no issues that creep in.

If you do encounter problems with FamilySearch after they have completed the upgrade, give it a couple of days to “shake out”.  If the issues continue after that please let us know the specific details at support@rootsmagic.com.

Color Your World

by Roxanne Lowe
Roxanne Lowe's Birthplace Pedigree

Roxanne Lowe’s Birthplace Pedigree

In case you’re more of a “visual” person than a paper person,  try your hand at color coding your five-generation ancestor birth charts using the Excel spreadsheet created by Spokane’s own Miriam Robbins. Her blog post and downloading instructions are available here.

Inspired by J. Paul Hawthorne of GeneaSpy, Miriam’s take on the visual representation of her ancestors’ birth places is making the circuit on Facebook and other social media sites. It’s easy — join the fun!

Photo Restoration Opportunity for WSGS?

by Charles Hansen
 Hi there from the U.K.!
I’m a photo restoration specialist and I would like to introduce my services to your Society. I have attached an example of what I do but you can learn more here: http://www.dylandesign.co.uk/image-manipulation.html
My services start from just US$30 and as an introductory offer I would be happy to give all your members a 20% discount on their first order [please quote discount ref: DD24216]. Although I’m based in the UK my clients are worldwide as everything can be done over the email.

Please feel free to forward this email to your members or, if you would like to know more, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,Dylan Jeavons.

www.dylandesign.co.uk
Tel: 01908 200912

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DDphotorestoration/

Address: 23 Hanmer Road, Simpson, Milton Keynes MK6 3AY, UK.
Attachments area

Preview attachment DD sample.jpg

DD sample.jpg
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Happy New Year

by Charles Hansen

Happy New Year

This has been a learning year for me, Charles Hansen and the WSGS team of bloggers, Donna Potter-Phillips, Roxanne Lowe and Susan Faulkner. Word Press is a lot different than blogger and so we were feeling our way around the WSGS blog for months, tweaking and adding plug ins to make it work better and easier for everyone.

Our top ten articles for 2015 were:
1. Seattle Genealogical Society Tip of the Week
2. Northwest Genealogical Conference August 2015
3. 2015 Seminars
4. Subscribe to Blog Updates
5. Oregon Burial Site Guide for just the Cost of Shipping
6. 2015 WSGS Annual Conference
7. Do Records Matter?
8. Veronica Anguiano Honored as 2015 Outstanding Volunteer
9. WSGS Blog Promoting the Preservation of, and Access to, Genealogical information in Washington State.
10. Seattle Genealogical Society

Many others were popular also, which one was your favorite.

One of the best part of blogging is reading the comments, but we get so few comments, so I guess we are doing a great job? Anything we can do better in 2016?

Big Kudu for Washington from Genealogy’s Star James Tanner

by Charles Hansen

In case you missed this…………………

The Genealogical State of the States

Posted: 21 Nov 2015 06:24 AM PST

There is no real second place in the list of the genealogically valuable U.S. state websites. The Washington State Digital Archives wins hands down, no contest. Unfortunately, although there are some other notable collections, most of the states have a miserable level of digital offerings. Currently, the State of Washington has preserved 165,412,383 records and made 64,505,776 records available as of November, 2015. They have also added 2,638,172 records in the past month. At the other end of the spectrum, most of the states make no attempt to systematically digitize their records and what they have preserved online is usually in a “Memory Project.”

“Our” Jerri Thorpe McCoy’s article in the Mayflower Descendant

by Charles Hansen

Mayflower

Our own Jerri Thorpe McCoy, who has been active with the Washington State Genealogical Society and many other related societies, is a published author!

I was recently in the Family History Library doing some documenting work on my several Mayflower lines and came upon a reference in The Mayflower Descendant, Winter 2 008, Vol. 57, No. 1, “Huldah Gross, wife of Jehiel Gates of East Haddam and Litchfield, Connecticut.” This was a ten page article with 107 source citations. I was most impressed.

Jerri is currently the historian for the Washington State Chapter of the Mayflower (Descendants) Society. If you think you are (or know you are) a Mayflower descendant, and would like to join this group, here is the official link:

http://www.washingtonmayflower.org/04-application.html

We are proud of you, Jerri Thorpe McCoy.