Category Archives: Success Story

Snohomish County Naturalization Records

by Charles Hansen

I have been working diligently on the Snohomish County Naturalization Records and am nearing the end.  I hope to be done by the end of September.  Can you post something in your blog that it is almost complete? Yes!  I had completed up to 1947 and then it kicked me back to 1927. 1928 and 1930.  The numbers indicate about 1400 left.  These are fascinating records and beginning in the 1930s they posted pictures with their Declarations of Intent. I am sure your membership would find these records useful to them.

Your fellow typist at Washington State Scribe Digital Archives,

Vickie Schafer

Editors Note: Scribe is the way millions of records have been made available for everyone researching in Washington. Click Here for Scribe

Okanogan County Gen Soc Uses Their Innovative Grant

by Roxanne Lowe

 The Okanogan County Genealogical Society recently completed their Book Repair and Preservation project funded, in part, by WSGS’s Innovative Grant program.

On December 31, 2018, OCGS member Phil Brown completed repairs of the “Tonasket Times Newspapers” years 1913 – 1952.  Each of the 22 oversized books, which are located at the Okanogan County Historical Society, took five rolls of a specialized archival document repair tape.

The restoration project began in December 2017 and took almost 200 volunteer hours and 1,230 volunteer miles.

Besides the Okanogan County Genealogical Society, the four other successful 2018 grant winners were:

More information about the Innovative Grant program, including deadlines, will be available soon.

Kudos to WSGS Regional Rep Patty Olsen

by Roxanne Lowe

WSGS Regional Representative Patty Olsen has been working with the Columbia Gorge Genealogical Society to revitalize their society. In the most recent issue of their “Tales and Trails” newsletter, the society thanked her for her energy and enthusiasm. 

Thank You, Patty Olsen! Our society would like to thank Patty Olsen from the Washington State Genealogical Society for her help in the past year.  She has brought new ideas and energy to our group. We are a small society with various hurdles to leap from time to time and she gave us some new insight for a more productive society.  She really knows her stuff!! Thank You, Patty!

For more information about Regional Representatives, click here.

Seattle Genealogical Society is Now a Family Search Affiliate Library

by Charles Hansen

GREAT NEWS!
We have just become an Affiliate Library for FamilySearch.org. This means that when you are inside our Library either using your own computer or our Patron Computers you will be able to access the “locked” records on FamilySearch.org. You will be prompted to sign up for a FREE account through FamilySearch.org, or to sign in to your own account and then you can access the records. We are very excited about this affiliation with FamilySearch.org.

Sue Schack Jensen

Library Director
Seattle Genealogical Society
6200 Sand Point Way NE
Seattle, WA 98115
206-522-8658

Success Story

by Charles Hansen

Genealogy Serendipity

By Barbara Gorham Johnson

We’ve all heard of serendipity in genealogy but how many of us actually experience it? Well I did!

I had the great experience about one year ago when my husband and I were planning a trip to Ireland and Yorkshire. As a veteran genealogist, I knew to research my ancestral parish by looking for a local genealogical society. Nope. OK. Next step is to look for a local historical society. Bingo! Saddleworth (a tiny parish in West Riding of Yorkshire, England) has a very active Historical Society with lots of publications. I also made arrangements to tour the “family” church, St. Chad’s, built in 1215. Turns out I have thousands of cousins in the Parish.

I looked through the Historical Society web site and noticed that the President was a Mike Buckley. Hmm. I have Buckleys in my tree. I quickly sent him an e-mail and politely asked him how I could find out the maiden name of the Elisabeth who had married my John Buckley. A few days later, Mike responded that the bride was Elisabeth Heywood, gave me the date and the fact that they were married by licence (UK spelling) which meant one or both of them were wealthy. How did he know that? His response: our ancestors have lived here since the 1100s. Gasp!

After booking our flights, I re-contacted Mike to ask him if we could meet him. He responded affirmatively, saying he would be delighted to drive us around the parish and show us the ancestral sites! The day finally arrived. Mike picked my hubby and me up at our B&B and proceeded to drive us around for 5 hours! He was an encyclopedia of genealogy, family history, Roman history, and had tales to tell about our ancestors. We scoured the local cemetery finding grave after grave of MY ancestors! As a small thank you, we treated him to dinner.

Trivia: I learned from him and a few other locals that a Saddleworth good-by is a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Mike and I still email and exchange information. What an example of Serendipity!

And all it took was a quick Google search and one e-mail.

 

 

Success Story!

by Charles Hansen

Hi, Donna!

After your great presentation at our TCGS meeting on the 9th about the WPA and CCC, I found a distant relative (wife of a great aunt’s son) who worked for the WPA for 2 years starting at her age 19 in 1936 helping to build the Timberline Lodge in Oregon. Her name at that time before she got married was Marjorie Elizabeth Holtham. My Dad grew up with her husband’s older half-brother, even though we never met Marjorie. Here is a link to her FindAGrave memorial where I found the information about her WPA work in the newspaper death notice:

https://old.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=77285134

Kind regards, L.S., Richland, WA, member Tri-City Genealogical Society

 

**** I do not share this story to give myself a pat on the back. I share this story to demonstrate once again the WSGS slogan: YOU WON’T KNOW IF YOU DON’T GO!!!!