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“Batty Brock and the Research Plan:  The Search for the Marriage Record for Charles Beverly Brock Raymond and Marie Marguerite Richards”
as inspired by Thomas W. Jones, PhD, CGL, FASG, FUGA, FNGS

     My fifth cousin, Carol, is in the process of identifying all the descendants of her ancestors, Azariah Perkins and his wife, Elizabeth Moss, of New Brunswick, Canada, of which she and I are two. She inherited the project from her mother.In the midst of her research, she saw my query asking about another descendant, my great-grandfather William Samuel Winslow Raymond, also of New Brunswick.Her question, “How are you related to William?He never married and had no children” and my answer, “He did marry in Boston in 1902 and had seven children and I’m the granddaughter of the eldest!” sent us on a merry chase, which included much sharing of information, photos and more research.I’m happy to say that it also led to a wonderful friendship.
     During this process, Carol asked the question, “Did …
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Activities November 2019

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Needpix.com 
This is the time of year when we think about the sacrifices our ancestors made coming to a new land seeking a better life for themselves and their unknown descendants.Many of them braved perilous voyages over rough seas in tiny ships seeking religious freedom.One hundred and fifty years later, their grandsons fought in the Revolutionary War for the right of self-government.As genealogists, we have the privilege of gathering their stories and preserving them for our descendants.I hope you will share their stories as you gather with your family this month.
On October 5, Katie Hanzeli, Marilyn Schunke and I attended the Seattle Genealogical Society’s Fall Seminar featuring Dr. Thomas W. Jones.The topic of the Seminar was “Creating Credible Conclusions While Circumnavigating Walls”, learning how to forge innovative paths around research brick walls with confidence and ethics.Learning from Dr. Jones is like drinking from a firehose.Sunday, I attended an additional session, “Dev…
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23andMe Wants You!

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23andMe Wants You!  In the early years of 23andMe DNA testing, the site seemed like a useful site for researchers. Then all that changed.

For the next few years, many genealogists and family history researchers felt unwelcome at 23andMe. Family trees were removed from the site, and moved to MyHeritage. There was no useful linking to these trees, and match profiles were closed by default. Among active researchers, 23andMe matches were notorious for never answering messages (in site), rarely granting matching, and not being interested in finding common ancestors, even if they replied. The messaging system was so bad that there was a Chrome add-on to make it usable!
Times have changed - family tree tools The designers of the site seem to changing all that, and inviting us researchers back in. If you have a 23andMe kit and log onto the site, open up Settings and scroll to Preferences at the bottom of the Settings page, you will find the Beta. Select Become a tester, and you will have som…
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Mitochondrial and Y DNA research - New Resource!

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The three kinds of DNA of use for family history research*
Autosomal - what most of us use, via Ancestry, 23andMe, MyHeritage, FamilyTreeDNA Family Finder and LivingDNAY - available from FamilyTreeDNA, Yseq and a few othersMt or mitochondrial - available from FamilyTreeDNA Autosomal DNA For autosomal DNA (AtDNA), to make best use of your results for research, you will "fish in all the ponds" by testing with Ancestry and 23andme since neither accept uploads, and then upload your raw data to Gedmatch, MyHeritage and FamilyTreeDNA, which do accept uploads - for free! 
The value of autosomal DNA testing is that it covers all of your ancestry back four generations or so, and up to six or seven generations, which is quite long ago. However, as your matches are ever smaller as you go further back in time, your AtDNA will not take you back to your deep ancestry before surnames and record keeping. Y and Mt DNA Both Y and Mt DNA will take you back very far, but it may or may not help …
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Enrich Your Research with Newspapers!

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Newspapers are wonderful sources for your genealogy and family history research -- and they are available FREE! You might think that your ancestors would never be found in the newspaper, but if they lived in a small city or town, or even out on a farm -- you will find them, and not just in obituaries. The fire referred to in the above "Card of Thanks" was not reported in the newspaper, but the notice was. And without this little notice we would never have known about the fire suffered by my great-uncle Sidney and his family.

Obituaries can be a goldmine, though, even if you already know the date of death and place of burial. Especially if the surviving children are mentioned, you then know that they are alive at that date, and sometimes their locality and spouse are mentioned as well. Those who are *not* mentioned is sometimes meaningful too. A caution that "facts" reported in an obit are not necessarily true.



I found a story about my father's cousin (left) wh…
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South King County Genealogical Society Activities

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SOCIETY ACTIVITIES

 The September General Meeting featured the presentation of a Washington State Genealogical Society Outstanding Volunteer award to our long-time member, Katie Hanzeli.  The award highlighted the many areas in which she has served and continues to serve SKCGS. 
Lori Lee Sauber presented a method of organizing genealogical research using project management methodology.The advantage of this method of organization is that it is easily customized to meet the needs of any researcher.She urged using a version of this method to avoid “abandoned” genealogy projectsIt also helps keep the researcher on track to complete a project by a self-imposed or outside imposed deadline.As a result of her presentation, I have revisited Trello.It is easy to set up the project board. You receive positive reinforcement when you move the task card to the “Completed” column.
We welcomed one returning member, Pat Noecker, and three new members at the September 21 meeting.Jack Barney, whom Rich Thay…
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Who Does Your DNA Think You Are?

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Who Does Your DNA Think You Are?Save the Date!And get involved with the preparations!We've got a tremendous seminar coming up next June and the Seminar Committee members, headed by Winona Laird, are already working hard to make this a success.  Valorie Zimmerman is in charge of publicity.  Last May we mailed "Save the Date" postcards to nearly 100 genealogy societies, historical societies and other organizations.
Linda Blais is in charge of the Silent Auction and Raffle.  She has a list of items she plans to put in baskets and bundles for either the auction or raffle.  You may have one of the items you would be happy to donate or procure.  Linda would love to hear from you.

The flyer above is available on our website skcgs.org  Please download it, print a few copies to hand out or email it to friends.   
The seminar is eight months away but it will go quickly.  Between now and next June there will be several tasks to accomplish and we could use extra hands.  It may be one a…
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