APRIL 16-18 Genealogy Zoomboree – Making the Invisible Visible
The Genealogical Forum of Oregon celebrates its 75th Anniversary with a multicultural Genealogy Zoomboree, April 16-18.
Four nationally known experts bring us 8 lessons to help you tap online resources from home as you trace your family roots.
Registration for one, two, three or all four speakers is online at https://gfo.org/zoomboree.
Rebecca Whitman Koford, CG, CGL, Board for Certification of Genealogists –
- Courthouse Research & Indexes – Find critical genealogical information from your local courthouse.
- Land Records: Rich Sources for Your Research – Even non-landowners can end up in land and deed records.
Linda Harms Okazaki, Nikkei Genealogical Society
- Introduction to Japanese American Research – Japanese American research provides lessons in genealogical research that benefits all genealogists. Custom information for Oregon included.
- WWII Internment Camps: Japanese, Germans & Italians – Japanese Americans and their families, as well as Americans of other heritage, were considered “enemy aliens,” and imprisoned by the U.S. Government. Learn about internment sites and the records created.
Sherri Camp, MLS, Past President Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society
- African American Research Strategies – Learn key strategies to locate resources and records for information about African American ancestors and family members.
- A Treasure Trove of Free Websites – Learn how to access free genealogical information while we stay safe at home doing research at our computers.
Michael Lacopo, DVM, Professional Genealogist –
- Medical Genealogy: A primer of diseases that killed our ancestors and the epidemics they lived through – Many researchers barely understand the cause of death listed. Know what afflicted your ancestors’ communities, the common diseases, and you’ll learn how they lived.
“I am poor, obscure, plain, and little.” Researching Invisible Ancestors – If your ancestors had little money, did not buy and sell land, did not leave wills, and did not purchase gravestones, how do you find them? This lecture will show you how!
THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Thursday Evening E-News Edition November 12, 2020
Come meet Lisa, ask questions, and get two days of her popular “Gems” for yourself! Learn about reopening cold cases, handling common surnames, finding living relatives, and see how Google Earth Pro can help every genealogist.
We have a great opportunity to learn how to create a timeline with what you know, identify gaps, consult a genealogical research checklist for sources to fill those gaps, and record your queries on a correspondence research log.
On Tuesday, Nov. 24 at 6:30 p.m., Linda presents 
This online presentation will be held Saturday, November 21, 2020, from 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m (Pacific) and topics will include: Mayflower Sources, Resources for the New England Great Migration 1620-1640, Understanding New England Town and Vital Records, Using New England Court Records, and Using New England Land Records. Cost is $50 for non-members. Click 
The Data Extraction group is working to index GFO’s Bulletin quarterlies. Is this something you would like to do from home? If so, we can send the indexing rules, the Excel spreadsheet for the volume, and a digital copy of the volume for you to index.
As our library closure continues, we are featuring free online resources so you can reach out and connect, as well as continue to learn and build on your genealogy skills, from home.
Dorothy Spruill Redford spent ten years traveling down winding southern roads, through county courthouses and state archives, and onto the front porches of people willing to share tales handed down through generations, to trace the lives of the slaves and their descendants from Somerset Place, North Carolina. Her hard work created a homecoming of more than 2,000 descendants which attracted national publicity. And it marked the beginning of a campaign to turn Somerset Place into a remarkable resource for learning about the history of both African Americans and whites in the region.
Redford preserved this remarkable story in Somerset Homecoming – Recovering a Lost Heritage, published in 1989. This paperback copy is a first edition signed by the author. It is in good condition with a crunched right corner on the cover and the first few pages.
We find no marks inside (other than the author’s signature.) It includes an introduction by Alex Haley. Our price: $18, shipping included. Contact 
The Week Ahead: The GFO Research Library is closed, and all on-site groups, classes, and work parties are suspended. 
THE GENEALOGICAL FORUM’s Thursday Evening E-News Edition November 5, 2020 Curious about the status of your 
We’re Turning 75! Help Us Celebrate The GFO is about to hit a major milestone. In two months we turn 75 years old! Please help us celebrate.What are you favorite memories of the GFO? It could be a discovery, an event, or meaningful relationship. Perhaps someone helped you break a brick wall. Maybe you got to meet a star in the genealogy world. 
We’d like to share your stories with our members during our anniversary year. They might appear in the 
Now you can meet her, ask questions, and get two days of her popular “Gems” for yourself! Learn about reopening cold cases, handling common surnames, finding living relatives, and see how Google Earth Pro can help every genealogist. Lisa is an extremely popular international genealogy speaker, and the GFO is thrilled she will join us for our Fall Seminar, November 14 and 15, this year online. And everyone will get a great view of her presentations from the comfort of whatever seat they choose in their home.In addition, GFO members get big discounts at this seminar! $20 off the first day, $15 off the second.We are adding extra seats so everyone can attend. Please sign up now! 
Do you use Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram regularly? If you enjoy social media, the GFO could really use your help.We’d love to reach a broader, more diverse audience, especially on Instagram, which would be brand new to us.The GFO currently has only one person handling all 
We have a great opportunity to learn how to create a timeline with what you know, identify gaps, consult a genealogical research checklist for sources to fill those gaps, and record your queries on a correspondence research log. “Kathrine Willson is one of the most talented and engaging genealogy speakers I’ve heard. I’m thrilled she’s doing a GenTalk for the GFO.” — Laurel Smith, GFO Library Chair Katherine R. Willson will be our featured online GenTalk speaker for 
On Tuesday, Nov. 24 at 6:30 p.m., Linda presents 
Copyright © 2020 Adobe The GFO Library may be closed but there’s still plenty of work that can be done from home. We’re currently recruiting volunteers to help with these projects.We need volunteers to help with the PDF processing of digital scans. This requires the Adobe Acrobat Pro software. If you have this software already and would like to help, please contact Laurel Smith, 
• Family History Writing
As our library closure continues, we are featuring free online resources so you can reach out and connect, as well as continue to learn and build on your genealogy skills, from home. 
the book of sarahs; a family in parts, is her memoir as a biracial woman who was among the many children of color placed for adoption with white couples in the 1960s and 1970s.It may may include the first instance of a phrase we’ve not run across before: Afro-Saxon.Poet and author Hettie Jones wrote of McKinley’s book, “At once mystery and family history, Catherine McKinley’s story is a must-read for anyone – and that should be everyone – paying attention to race issues in our increasingly diverse, harder-to-categorize twenty-first-century America.” 
This memoir was published in 2002. This is a paperback copy in good condition. There are no marks of any kind on it, just some visible wear on the corners, and crease marks on the spine.Our price: $18, shipping included. Contact 
The Week Ahead:The GFO Research Library is closed, and all on-site groups, classes, and work parties are suspended.Saturday, November 7
We believe in transparency. That’s why we are sharing this update now. The GFO is working diligently to provide you as many services online as we can while COVID keeps our library closed. We are working to make more records available for members soon too. It’s the biggest pivot in our history – in order to continue to serve you. For you who keep your membership current, we can’t say Thank You deeply enough. The future of the GFO depends on our members. We will continue to try our hardest to be worthy of your support.
Last month we sent a special email to our members. We let you know the GFO Board is thinking about how we can buy our own building. The board’s job is to manage both short and long term prospects for the GFO. A permanent home would free the GFO of rent increases from a landlord. It would give us stability, a known space, and control of our future. Acting now could guarantee our future 25 years from now.
Daniel Clark, Troop 46, Rivers Edge District Daniel has set an ambitious goal: he hopes to get volunteers to help him with an Indexing Blitz. His goal is to index 10,000 names on records at FamilySearch! He writes to us, “I’m really excited about this project because it is something that will last forever and benefit so many people!”
The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society’s 
We need volunteers to create finding aids for the collections that have been scanned. This involves going through the digital images and recording basic information about them onto a spreadsheet. Volunteers are not expected to read the material, just skim through it to pull relevant data. Procedures and examples can be found 
This week’s surplus book includes two volumes of a set of three: Genealogical Research in England and Wales, Volumes 1 and 3. We wish we had Volume 2, but alas, we can only offer these bookends. David E. Gardner and Frank Smith wrote these books to give a thorough understanding the many useful sources for English and Welsh research.
Volume 1 reviews a wide variety of sources including Civil Registrations, Parish Registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, as well as sources on Nonconformists, Jews, and Roman Catholics in Britain. Volume 3 dedicates a large portion to deciphering handwriting from centuries ago, with ample examples and charts. What a boon this is when you encounter ancient handwritten records.
Our copy of Volume 1 is a sixth printing from 1964, a retired library copy with a label on the dust jacket and markings on the title page. It is a hard back in excellent condition with dust jacket. Our copy of Volume 3 is a hard cover in excellent condition, a revised edition from 1966. It too is a retired library copy with a label on the spine (there is no dust jacket), and a library stamp on the first page and an embossed stamp of the original owner on the title page. We find no other markings in either book.