Since 2003, the Washington State Genealogical Society has recognized over 600 outstanding volunteers and teams, nominated by their local society or genealogical organization for their service and dedication. These volunteers are the backbone of their local society, giving their time and expertise, to the organization and the field of genealogy. In the coming months, you will be introduced to each of the 2022 award recipients and learn why they received the 2022 WSGS Outstanding Volunteer and Team Award.

Today we’re introducing LeeRoy Kind of Marysville, Washington, who was nominated by the Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society (SVGS).

As a volunteer, LeeRoy enjoys training patrons: 1) how to do research on their own and, 2) how to use the SVGS library. He became a volunteer in 2009, and served as parking lot attendant coordinator and speaker monitor for the Northwest Genealogy Conference. In his earliest days with SVGS, he digitized obituaries and entered data from area newspapers for SVGS’s online Death Index. More currently, he has been the driving force behind the Weller Funeral Home Card Digitization Project.

In LeeRoy’s opinion, one of the most important things to remember when doing research is that we’re not going to find everything we’re looking for the first time we type a name into a database. It’s “…a continual search.”

LeeRoy was born in Pelican Rapids, Minnesota and moved with his job at Hewlett- Packard from Detroit to California and finally to Marysville, Washington where he has lived since 1982.

For more information on the WSGS Outstanding Volunteer Award program, visit the Recognition page of the WSGS website or contact Info@wasgs.org. Please type “Volunteer Award.”

Since 2003, the Washington State Genealogical Society has recognized over 600 outstanding volunteers and teams, nominated by their local society or genealogical organization for their service and dedication. These volunteers are the backbone of their local society, giving their time and expertise, to the organization and the field of genealogy. In the coming months, you will be introduced to each of the 2022 award recipients and learn why they received the 2022 WSGS Outstanding Volunteer and Team Award.

Today we’re introducing Flynn Kennedy of Marysville, Washington, who was nominated by the Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society (SVGS).

In 2011, Flynn became a volunteer librarian with SVGS. She worked with the Northwest Genealogy Conference for three years as a Jackie-of-all-Trades, serving in a variety of roles. Her current projects include creating a four-generation history for a patron who is related to Noah Webster, transcribing a 33-page application for a claim against the U.S. Southern Claims Commission, and attempting to solve a family history mystery in Vermont in the 1830’s.

In Flynn’s opinion, the three most important things to remember when trying to break through a brick wall are “… collaboration, collaboration, collaboration.”

Flynn was born in Toledo, Ohio and moved to Seattle on September 28, 1980. She earned a B.A. from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio (during the Punic Wars) and earned a Post Graduate Certificate in Genealogy Research from Boston University in 2014.  

For more information on the WSGS Outstanding Volunteer Award program, visit the Recognition page of the WSGS website or contact Info@wasgs.org. Please type “Volunteer Award.”

Since 2003, the Washington State Genealogical Society has recognized over 600 outstanding volunteers and teams, nominated by their local society or genealogical organization for their service and dedication. These volunteers are the backbone of their local society, giving their time and expertise, to the organization and the field of genealogy. In the coming months, you will be introduced to each of the 2022 award recipients and learn why they received the 2022 WSGS Outstanding Volunteer and Team Award.

Today we’re introducing the Digitization of Historic Newspapers Team that was nominated by the Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society (SVGS). The team was comprised of Sue Walde, Michele Heiderer, Suzanne Brown, Ruth Caesar, Karen Looney and Sue McNeil.

Despite COVID-19, SVGS’s Outstanding Volunteers worked with SmallTownPapers, Inc. to digitize 7,770 pages of The Arlington Times historic newspapers (1895 – 1924) from microfilm. The team reviewed every page to ensure each was posted as accurately as possible on the SVGS website. Roughly 500 corrections were discovered, researched and reposted. The newspapers are an essential source of local history of Arlington and the surrounding Stillaguamish Valley benefiting genealogists, historians and local families for posterity. Now the earliest of the historic Arlington Times newspapers (1895-1924) are freely available to the world at www.stillygen.org.

For more information on the WSGS Outstanding Volunteer Award program, visit the Recognition page of the WSGS website or contact Info@wasgs.org. Please type “Volunteer Award.”

Since 2003, the Washington State Genealogical Society has recognized over 600 outstanding volunteers and teams, nominated by their local society or genealogical organization for their service and dedication. These volunteers are the backbone of their local society, giving their time and expertise, to the organization and the field of genealogy. In the coming months, you will be introduced to each of the 2022 award recipients and learn why they received the 2022 WSGS Outstanding Volunteer and Team Award.

Today we’re introducing Elizabeth Dalton of Camano Island, Washington, who was nominated by the Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society (SVGS).

Elizabeth began as a volunteer with SVGS in its early days, as a member of the Publications Committee, by serving as an indexer for some of the society’s earliest published books. In between indexing projects, she wrote articles and fillers for the newsletter “The Stillaguamish Star,” as well as performing editor-in-chief duties. More recently, she functioned as vice president of the library for a time during the pandemic.  Currently, she is working on organizing a large collection of donated materials from the Camwood Genealogy Workshop.

In Elizabeth’s opinion, the three most important things to remember when doing genealogy research are “… accuracy, accuracy, and accuracy.” She adds, “We need to prove the accuracy of every record used in our research to the best of our ability.”

Elizabeth was born in Seattle and currently lives on Camano Island in Island County. She has been an SVGS lifetime member since 2015.

For more information on the WSGS Outstanding Volunteer Award program, visit the Recognition page of the WSGS website or contact Info@wasgs.org. Please type “Volunteer Award” in the subject

Since 2003, the Washington State Genealogical Society has recognized over 600 outstanding volunteers and teams, nominated by their local society or genealogical organization for their service and dedication. These volunteers are the backbone of their local society, giving their time and expertise, to the organization and the field of genealogy. In the coming months, you will be introduced to each of the 2022 award recipients and learn why they received the 2022 WSGS Outstanding Volunteer and Team Award.

Today we’re introducing Ruth Caesar of Arlington, Washington, who was nominated by the Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society (SVGS).

During the last two years of pandemic lockdowns, mandates and uncertainty, Ruth has been the “glue” that has held the Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society and Library together. Along with fulfilling her own duties as society president, she has taken on many tasks that others have been unable to perform. During discussions considering “boxing up the books and shutting down the library,” Ruth continued to advocate for maintaining our community presence, which has been successfully accomplished. She was also able to work with the City of Arlington to secure rent relief during the lockdown as well as continuing to lead fundraising efforts which have been instrumental in paying for necessary services.

The SVGS library is now back open, welcoming staff and visitors and the business of the society is being conducted as before, thanks to Ruth’s leadership and commitment.

For more information on the WSGS Outstanding Volunteer Award program, visit the Recognition page of the WSGS website or contact Info@wasgs.org. Please type “Volunteer Award” in the subject line.