Used with permission from Steven Young Caudill, photographer Will Rogers is reported to have said , " If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging ." Recently I found myself in a hole of my own making, and took that advice. My first step was a new custom Tree Tag for my Ancestry.com tree: SameNameConfusion to make the profiles easy to find. Previously I wrote about pruning , part of which has been using Ancestry.com's ProTools to find possible duplicate profiles. I've merged hundreds of such profiles without problems. This case seemed simple and obvious on the surface because I saw what I expected to see, rather than what was actually there.  I saw Jane and Eliza J and thought they were the same woman I saw Thomas J Booth and Jefferson Booth, and thought that they were the same man Because both families were in the 1900 census, I did not stop to notice that one family was in Missouri and the other in Iowa  The Jane with no surname had little information, so I merged...

  Soundside is a radio show and podcast about the Pacific Northwest, produced in Seattle by KUOW . There I heard a story about "One Book, One Coast" which intrigued me— "Seattle Public Library is one of 140 library systems up and down the West Coast joining in the 'One Book, One Coast' program. Dubbed the “largest book club on the West Coast,” the program is uniting libraries to explore an often erased chapter: When more than 110,000 Americans with Japanese ancestry (mostly in our region) were imprisoned in incarceration camps during World War II. The club’s first book pick: “They Called Us Enemy," according to their daily newsletter.  Links led to  https://www.spl.org/programs-and-services/authors-and-books/one-book-one-coast where I navigated to King County Library System to check out the book, They Called Us Enemy by George Takei. Not only have I loved Takei for years, beginning with his role as Sulu on Star Trek, but my father had personal experience ...

  Two workers pruning street trees in London during World War I,  released by the Imperial War Museum on the  IWM Non Commercial Licence . I have been pruning lately; not outside, where as I write it is still cold, windy and a week ago, slushing.  At first, it was exciting to whack people right out of my Ancestry.com main DNA tree, because some ancient "ancestors" had no sources, and conflicting or nonsense "facts." Delete, delete, delete. But sometimes while falling asleep, I wondered if the name itself is a clue I should have left in the tree.  A recent interview with Roberta Estes * quotes her: "E very connection has the potential to be incorrect.  I’d much rather saw a branch off than continue to bark up the wrong tree. "   I find that statement reassuring.  When I resume researching the pruned line, I'll find evidence unavailable when I was a beginner. Back then, I blindly trusted other people's trees. I thought that they had done thei...

Spring=New Growth For gardeners, spring is time for sowing new seeds, and enjoying previous plantings' fresh growth and blooms. It's also time to get ahead of the spring weeds! Genealogists and family historians face similar tasks and joys. Christmas DNA kit results are appearing as new matches, and the online databases are swelling with new record sets and improved search methods, such as full text search, and updated catalogs. It is a good time to take stock of your research goals, and plan ahead for any research trips. Now is the perfect time to contact the groups, cities, towns, repositories, and genealogy friends in order to make best use of your time and money.  It's spring here in the South King County Genealogical Society too. We have an election of officers coming up soon, and MUST have more candidates! As of this writing, instead of holding an election, the Board must instead plan for our demise or union with another group. A non-profit can't run without offic...

  Vecteezy: 250th USA Anniversary "A JOURNAL OF A. TYLER IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR " I joined the army at Boston, and was in the whole siege. " When the eighth month was out, I enlisted for one year. Then marched for Canida. My time was out the last day of December, 1776. Then I enlisted for three years under Capt. Silas Burbank in the Twelfth Massachusetts Regiment, Commanded by Col. Samuel Bauer (Bruer). " Left the Army — Colo. Sprouts took command, all my officers are dead — both General and Field, Captains and Sebolton Officers — except Captain Mains, he was a Lieutenant — the year 1779. Promoted to a Capt in Sprouts Regiment and continued during the war. I received an honorable discharge some time in March 1780. Then in order to make up my losses, I thought I would try the sea. I shipped on Board of a 20 gun ship Capt Jeremiah O'Brien commander. This ship was named the Horrable — Built in Newburyport — out about thirty days, and was captured by two of the en...

  To celebrate America 250 (our 250th anniversary of independence),  Washington State Genealogical Society  will be posting articles on Revolutionary War ancestors of our members.  If you have a Revolutionary War ancestor, please send the Word document to Charles Hansen, our blog master.  Our secretary, Jill Scott, has already sent in a very interesting article on her distant grandfather who was a Green Mountain Man, a very famous militia. Please share your story with SKCGS as well.  Here is one of my ancestors--Charles Dyer Captain of Rhode Island militia. Gravestone of Charles Dyer, Shaftsbury, Bennington, Vermont Charles was a descendant of several generations of public and military service in the Rhode Island Colony.  He served throughout the war and then settled in Vermont with other family shortly after the war.  He lived a long life, dying at age 92.  He had never applied for a pension, stating that he was well off and other people nee...