We Washingtonians recognize how important our apples are to the world.

Back in the first decade of the 1900s a series of National Apple Shows were held across Washington…….

This photo was from the first-ever-held National Apple Show in 1908 in Spokane. The photo comes from our Washington State Digital PHOTOGRAPH collection……….. bet you didn’t remember that there were many, many older photos available via this website. (They were Charles Libby photos.)

Doing a Google search for “national apple show,” I found this newspaper quote (from the San Francisco Call ) for December 6 and 8, 1908:

“President Roosevelt will press a button at 10:30 tomorrow morning Pacific time which will give the signal for the formal opening of the National Apple Show to be held in Spokane December 7 to 12. The exhibits, ranging all the way from a single apple to carload lots will fill twenty thousand feet of floor space………… the exposition is the greatest and finest exhibition of apples, apple products, implements and machinery associated with the cultivation of the apple that has ever been assembled anywhere. The array is bewildering in magnitude and beauty.

“The bulk of the exhibits come from Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon but some are from western Canada and Luther Burbank sends an exhibit from California……….. there are exhibits from Japan, France and England, Norway, Germany and several U.S. states…….”

“One feature of the show is the presence of sixteen young women from the Domestic Science class at Washington State College in Pullman who will demonstrate the coking and serving of apples…. they have 56 ways of cooking this one fruit.”

Think about it; would YOU have been excited to go to an Expo all about apples?????

A regular column in The Spokesman  here in Spokane is “Jim Kershner’s This Day In History, from our archives 100 years ago.”  Jim gleans his bits from scouring the old newspapers from 100 years ago. Here is a bit he posted on 7 Sept 2015:

Dr. Henry Suzzallo, president of the University of Washington, told Spokane’s assembled teachers that the old-fashioned methods of teaching were no longer useful. “The old system of teaching a class by first saying ‘Position,’ (and having the student fold his hands on the desk, feet flat on the floor, sitting upright) has passed and now the pupil is allowed to remain in a comfortable position in which he will be best able to gather the most from the teacher’s remarks.”

He also advised teachers to “laugh and be merry” and not merely “put on a stern face.”

In 1915, Henry Suzzallo was appointed President of the university  and a new library building became one of his top priorities. Beginning in 1922, Suzzallo envisioned a library was was to be “the soul of the university.” The Suzzallo Library opened in 1926 (date of above photo).

Have you ever been to the Suzzallo Library to do research? I have not; I would enjoy hearing your story about this experience.

If you would enjoy some inside photos of this magnificent library, click to www.lib.washington.edu/suzzallo

James Tanner, GenealogyStar blog, back on 26 August, posed this question:  “Where are all the photos?”  He explains that “millions of digitized photos go online every day. How many of these photos are of your ancestors?” Or I might add, your family?  Tanner, in this blog post, goes on to trumpet the virtue of attaching photos to your Family Tree in FamilySearch:  “All the tagged and captioned photos on FamilySearch.org are searchable by Google.” What does that say to you? Tanner tells you:  “The best way to find these photos is to search by your ancestor’s name in the Google Images program.” Now you know. And, by the by, I do recommend that you sign up for Tanner’s blog at www.GenealogyStar.blogspot.com.

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Next trip to Bellevue you might want to stop for a visit to a brand new research facility. A recent announcement by FamilySearch explained that the new Seattle Family Discovery Center is open for business!! I’ll quote from the announcement:  “High-tech “Museum of You” concept for center guides visitors to discover, share and preserve their histories and memories…… visitors to the center are provided with a tablet computer as a personal guide to interface with large touch screens where they learn more about themselves, view family origins, and discover how ancestors may have lied and even dressed. Data used for the interactive experiences is drawn from online data at FamilySearch.org and select partners.” Check it out for yourself at www.FamilySearch.org/discoverycenter/seattle   And by the by, this is totally FREE and is located just behind the LDS temple, seen on the northside of I-90 approaching Bellevue.

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The Northeast Washington Genealogical Society (Colville) was treated to a great program recently by president, Karen Struve. Her topic was “Understanding & Using Pinterest.” Karen explained how to create an account, create your boards and pin items of interest to your boards. “Boards can be for recipes, craft ideas, gardening ideas, dogs, or genealogy! Think of Pinterest as another place to post, store and share the documents and/or photos of your ancestors.  I was lucky enough to be at that meeting and it was explained that the under-30 crowd is using Pinterest every day (most likely) and if you want to connect with your grandchildren, and no matter how old you are, you better learn how to use these social media…like Pinterest.

On a parallel note, an article in the Daughters of the American Revolution, Sep-Oct 2014, article by Maureen Taylor titled, “5 Ways to Use Pinterest for Genealogy” listed these reasons: (1) Follow your favorites…like Ancestry, FamilySearch, FamilyTree Magazine, etc.  (2) Keep track of sources for research; you can create and keep your To-Do list there with images of books and/or documents that are on your To-Do list;  (3) Create boards for ancestors; post biographies and images to grab your grandkids’ attention;  (4) Document local history..take and post pictures of cemeteries and places where your ancestors lived…this ultimately will reach dozens of cousins potentially;  (5) Compile a virtual family history cookbook. All good ideas.

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“Have you bookmarked JSTOR Daily yet?” So began a post from Judy Russell on her blog, The Legal Genealogist, on July 17, 2015. Judy explained that since she discovered this resource she has found it “irresistible” and “packed with great information.” So what is JSTOR Daily? She explains:  “JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization, founded to help academic libraries and publishers; is a shared digital library created in 1995 to help university and college libraries free up space on their shelves, save costs, and provide greater levels of access to more content than eve before…………. JSTOR currently includes more than 2000 academic journals, 50 million digitized pages and continue adding at the rate of three million pages annually.

“JSTOR is cool but it can be overwhelming,” Judy advises. That’s where the JSTOR Daily comes in. Anybody can sign up for this free newsletter/guide to the JSTOR collection at www.daily.jstor.org.  Both Judy Russell and I recommend this to you!

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Your Genealogy Today is the new incarnation of the Family Chronicle Magazine, published out of Toronto but applicable to all genealogist’s needs. The July-Aug 2015 issue featured these articles:  (1) Panama Canal employee records;  (2) Beginning World War II Research;  (3) DNA & Genealogy;  (4) “What the Widow Got,” an article looking at how your female ancestor may have been affected by property laws.

You can subscribe to this dandy publication in a paper/print form or a digital form by either calling 1-888-326-2476 or clicking to their website, www.internet-genealogy.com.  Cost is $19.95 for the digital edition.

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I’ll sign off today with a quote found in a 1935 newsletter about the building of Grand Coulee Dam encouraging worker safety:  “A ladder is no stronger than any one rung.”  In our genealogy arena, we could say, “A genealogy society is no stronger than any one member.”

Thank you Jeanne Coe!  Jeanne, a past president of the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society handed me a copy at a recent meeting that came from the website www.alphadictionary.com. She had printed out the bit about Washington got its name. “On August 29, 1851, 27 male settlers met at Cowlitz Landing (south of present-day Olympia) to petition Congress for a Columbia Territory separate from Oregon covering the area between the Columbia River and the 49^th parallel. The petition was reaffirmed by 44 delegates who met in Monticello on November 25, 1852. Congress approved the new territory on February 10, 1853 but changed its name to Washington in honor of the first president of the U.S. It was President Millard Fillmore who signed the papers creating Washington State on November 11, 1889.

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Does your genealogical society’s seeming lack of enthusiasm to participate get you down? Perhaps this will help. This is a blurb from the September 1975 issue of the EWSG newsletter and was titled: “There’s a Hitch to It.”  (No author given.)

With his thumb up, a hitchhiker says, “You furnish the gas, car, attend to the repairs and upkeep, supply the insurance and I’ll ride with you. But if you have an accident, I’ll sue you for damages.”

This sounds pretty one-sided but one wonders how many hitchhikers there are in many organizations and even churches. Many members seem to say, “You go to the meetings, serve on boards and committees, do the paper work, contact the legislators and take care of things that need doing and I’ll just do along for the ride. And if things don’t suit my6 fancy, I will complain, criticize and probably get out and hitchhike to another group.”

Hitchhiker or driver, which one are you???

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Did your ancestors settle in western states and were first landowners? If so, you can find the information about their land at www.historygeo.com. Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming land records were recently added to the database. I don’t have ancestors in those states but I did find great-great-grandfather in Kansas. Doing a search on some surnames of those I know settled in these areas produced a lot of results. Check this database for your ancestors. Read the article about these 3.3 million original landowners added to historygeo.com.

Blog.historygeo.com/2015/06/08/western-states-added-to-first-landowners-project/ –

(Jeanine Barndt is the Head Librarian for the Heritage Quest Research Library in beautiful downtown Sumner, Washington; this bit is from the HQRL Newsletter for Fall 2015.)

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We all know the nursery rhyme, Yankee Doodle. Did you ever wonder what this part really meant:  Stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni. Well I just found out!  Reading Edward Rutherfurd’s  New York (2010), on page 197, and the year is 1765:  “Some months ago, word had arrived of a new group of dandies in London. Macaronis, they called themselves. They had taken to parading round London’s West End and their extravagant plumed hats and jeweled swords had caused quite a scandal……”  A character in the book fears that the custom will seep into New York “by the next boat,” he felt that such a public extravagance could only be an offense to most people in hard-pressed New York. “Don’t let any of your family dress up like a Macaroni,” he urged.  Now you know.

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“Jon” is a regular patron using the Genealogy Section of the downtown Spokane Public Library. He is not a member of EWGS nor is he interested in our meetings or classes. But he is a dedicated researcher. I recently found him studying books from our set of The Domesday Books (“a manuscript record of the ‘Great Survey” of much of England and parts of Wales completed in1086 by King William the Conqueror; it contains the records of 13,418 settlements in the English countryside). And my point is this: A genealogy library serves all wonderful sorts of patrons and we librarians must never think that “Oh, nobody uses THOSE books so let’s put them into storage,” or worse yet, donates them to the next book sale.

Do you have a set of The Domesday Books in your collection? Do your library patrons use those books? If not, the probable reason why not is that they don’t know about them and how to benefit from studying them. Spokane Jon could teach them!

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Judy Russell, The Legal Genealogist, was one of the speakers at the recent NWGC (Northwest Genealogical Conference). As you would guess, and knowing she is/was a lawyer, she speaks on exacting and precise topics. Her blog post of 14 August 2015 was a tribute to the many and good records in our Evergreen State.

“Eighteenth in size among the states, 13^th in population, known for its timber and aircraft industry, home of the Kennewick Man and the Space Needle, Washington State is also home to some truly amazing genealogical resources.”

Then Judy took an entire page worth to list and describe some of our resources, and ended with “This is truly a comprehensive and amazing resource for anyone with Washington State research to be done. So check it out….. the Evergreen State has a lot to offer.”

We thank you, Judy, for your sure and kind words about our Pacific Northwest home.

Serendipity Monday

Highlights of today’s post:

• Using Pinterest for Genealogy
• Association for Gravestone Studies
• Flipster
• Spotlight on Wilbur, Washington
• “Skulls among Goodwill donations.”

The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) magazine, American Spirit, carried an article by Maureen Taylor in their Sept-Oct 2014 issue. Titled “5 Ways to Use Pinterest for Genealogy” it was a good read. Taylor offered these five ways to use this social media website:

• Follow your favorites…. Like Ancestry, MyHeritage, FamilyTree Magazine, etc. “These sites’ boards feature abundant research tips.”
• Keep track of your sources for research…. Keep images of books you’ve checked, or want to check.
• Create boards for ancestors….. quoting Taylor: “Create a photo album of your ancestors’ lives using photographs, documents found online (if allowed) and links to images of places they lived….”
• Document local history………..you could do a “come visit this area and do genealogy” by listing/showing the repositories in your area.
• Compile a virtual family history cookbook……..

If this “piques your beak,” as they say, click to Amazon.com and order a copy of Thomas MacEntee’s book, Pinning Your Family History, for your Kindle for a whopping $2.99.

Continue reading →

Last week, while visiting the Central Washington Branch of the Washington State Archives in Ellensburg, and since I have no family connections to the counties covered by this archives, I looked for interesting Washington trivia. And I found much in the books on the shelves there.

From the book:  Plats & Descriptions of Operating Properties Owned by the State of Washington, a report prepared by L.D. McArdle, of the Dept of Efficiency on 30 June 1924.  Found some interesting maps.

This was the original platting for the Washington Soldiers’ Home in Orting. the first deed was dated 18 Nov 1890. The facility was opened in 1891 and was located on 181 acres in the beautiful Puyallup Valley near Orting. It is still in operation today.

To be eligible for admission, applicants must meet the following criteria:

• Served at any time, in any branch of the United States Armed Forces including the National Guard;
• Received an honorable discharge;
• Reside in Washington State;
• Be the spouse or widow of an eligible veteran;
• Or be a Gold Star Parent.

Was your ancestor a resident in this place??

As I’ll bet you are aware, there has been a storm of publicity in Spokane over Rachel Dolezal and her string of lies which built her career. In this week’s newsletter (www.eogn.com for 22 Jun 2015) Dick Eastman delivers a genealogy answer to her:

A Genealogist Traces Rachel Dolezal’s Ancestry and Finds No Black Relatives
Rachel Dolezal has recently stirred up a controversy concerning he ancestry. She resigned Monday as head of her local NAACP chapter after reports surfaced that she was born white yet has claimed she is black. If you are not familiar with this recent news story that has been on all the news networks, start at https://goo.gl/QykhVSto find a few hundred reports about her recent controversy. Now a professional genealogist says that Dolezal’s claim is bogus.

Professional genealogist Elizabeth Banas has researched Dolezal’s ancestry back to 1671 and found that her family were entirely white, including some who were Mormons. Archives show that Rachel’s ancestors came to the US from Europe and have no bloodlines linking them to slaves or to Africa. Even a great grandmother who has almost identical features to Rachel was identified as white in two census documents.

Of course, there is always a possibility of an adoption that cannot be found in official records or that a baby was switched with another at birth. However, Dolezal’s parents claim that is impossible. They say Dolezal was born at home and spent her entire childhood living with her biological parents.

Details may be found in the Daily Mail at http://goo.gl/FzWemn.

Below is something I found in a 1936 St. Louis, Missouri, City Directory. I was browsing through this directory online at Ancestry and spotted this page and just had  to share it with all my genealogy friends:

City Directory Don’ts

DON’T put your Directory in an out-of-the-way place, but keep it where

your customers can see and use it without stopping some one to find it.

DON’T think that a Directory is paying for itself unless you use it any more

than an idle clerk can make you money.

DON’T look mad when a customer asks to look at your Directory.

DON’T look happy when a neighbor wants to borrow your Directory,

for if you do, he will borrow it again, and if all were borrowers,

when would the next Directory be published?

DON’T forget that an up-to-date city must have a Directory;

and a merchant that has no Directory is what?

DON’T forget that a Directory borrower today will forget to return it

tomorrow and you will call him what?

DON’T forget that the man who has a Directory pays for it and the borrower

gets for nothing what another man pays for. What do you call him?

We think of a City Directory as a past-tense resource. But to the merchants and civil servants of the day it was a valuable day-to-day “now” resource………. and one that was obtained only by paying a fee. 

Here are some quotes that our ancestors no doubt heard and allowed to be guides to their lives:

James Madison:  “Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

George Washington:  “Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.”

Thomas Jefferson:  “Great standard works of established reputation, too voluminous and too expensive for private libraries, should have a place in every public library, for the free resort of individuals.”  (What would Thomas think of being able to access these “standard works of established reputation” on our phones, tablets or Kindles?)

Maybe our modern-day generation would recognize a quote from Michael Crichton:  “If you don’t know history, you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it’s part of a tree.”

Or this from LDS apostle, Dieter F. Uchtdorf: “History teaches us not only about the leaves of existence, but it also teaches about the twigs, branches, trunks and roots of life. And these lessons are important and needful to us.”

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At the recent NGS conference in St.Charles, Missouri, which I attended, I learned of this new website and research opportunity:  www.gengophers.com ……. or Genealogy Gophers. “Find your ancestors in 40,000 digital genealogy books!”  And it’s FREE!  Who knows but you might find via this website a book that you’ve long sought.

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Did you know that one of our favorite genealogy magazines, Family Chronicle, has morphed into Your Genealogy Today?  Why, after 18 years, was there a name change? Ed Zapletal and Rick Cree decided that it was time “to refresh and renew the look with an eye to making the publication more recognizable within the genealogy community and to the general public as well.”  Readers still may subscribe to the paper issues for $25 annually (six issues) or for $14.95 in a PDF format.

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There are still nearly six months of FREE family history webinars available to you via this link:  www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com.    These free webinars are usually on Wednesdays and last about an hour each. The agenda for July includes these topics:  Researching Female Ancestors, Pinning Your Family History (using Pinterest),  Have Swedish Roots and Don’t Know How to Get Started? and Storyboard Your Family History.  You’ll remember that in my classes I’ve taught many of you that “if it’s free, take two!”  Make it so for yourself.

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We all have “enjoyed” the rain and unusual hail to our parts of Washington but we’re lucky we had nothing like this!  From The Family and Vicissitudes of John Phillips, Sr., of Duxbury and Marshfield (Massachusetts), by Azel Ames, 1903, page 13-14 (copied for you here just as it was in the book):

“In the month of August in the year 1658, there was in the Towne of Marshfield, a terrible storm of Thunder Lightning & raine, & and as I was going homeward being about a mile from home I met with one John Phillips & another man coming out of a meadow from making hay to the next house for shelter from the storm, who advised me to goe in with them to the house least I should be overtaken  in the storm ere I should get home the storm then coming up exceedingly black and Terrible. I accordingly went in with them, & the said Phillips sat downe on a stoole with his face toward the Iner door & his back to the hearth & his side closs  to the Jam of the chimney. I sat down with my face directly toward him about six foot from him, the Thunder came quickly up over the house. The Clouds flying exceeding Low and thick soe that the heavens wee much darkened Then in a moment came downe (as it were) a great ball of fire with a Terrible crack of Thunder & fell Just before where the sd Phillips sat, my eye then happening to be on him saw him once start on the stole he sat on & fell form thence dead on the hearth backward without any motion of life, many bricks of the chimney were beaten downe the principle Rafters split the battens and lineing next the chimney in the chamber broken, one of the maine posts of the house into which the sumer (girder) was framed torn into shivers & great part of it carried severall rod from the house, the dore where the fall of fire came downe Just before the sd Phillips was broken downe, out of the girt or sumer aforesaid being a dry oake was peices wonderfully taken. I doe not remember there was any outward appearance of hurt upon the body of the sd Phillips, a young child being at that moment about three foot from sd Phillips had noe harm.”

A bit later in the article was this comment:  “This tragic and notable event is said to have been the earliest known death by lightning in the New England colonies and was very widely noticed and recorded.”

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I recommend chosing David Hackett Fischer’s Albion’s Seed, for your summer reading. Written in 1989, Wikipedia explains the message of the book thusly:   Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America is a 1989 book by David Hackett Fischer that details the folkways of four groups of people that moved from distinct regions of England (Albion) to the United States. The argument is that the culture of each of the groups persisted and that these cultures provide the basis for the modern United States.

The book is available at your library or for about $3.00 via Amazon.com.  I found it especially helpful to understanding the Scots-Irish. 

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“Things My Granddaddy said….”, from Postcards Magazine, publication of Montgomery County, Texas.  

His breath’s so strong, you could hang out the washing on it.

That coffee’s so strong it’ll walk into your cup.

He’s so strong he makes Samson look sensitive. 

Anytime you happen to pass my house, I’d sure appreciate it.

You small like you want to be left alone.

Even the chickens under the porch know that!

Confused as a goat on Astroturf.