Spring Forward into April

-
By Barbara Mattoon

Longer, lighter days beckon us outside to enjoy spring flowers, sunshine and warm breezes, but there are still many opportunities to advance our genealogy knowledge and practice.  March 31 is World Backup Day.  One small accident or failure could destroy all your important stuff, including your genealogy research.  Genealogy pundits recommend backing up three ways.  There is plenty of information online on how to do it.

Watch for Valorie Zimmerman’s April 1 blog post titled Civil War Veteran Found in the Woods.  Is it an April Fools’ joke?

The Board of Directors will meet Tuesday, April 2, at the Valley Regional Fire Authority, 1101 D St. NE, Auburn, at 7:00 pm.  It will be preceded by  a 2020 Seminar Committee meeting at 6:00 pm.  All members are encouraged to attend both meetings.  There are several open committee assignments for the seminar.

Saturday, April 6, Winona Laird will present Family Tree Maker’s new Family Atlas and Family Book Creator programs.  The meeting is scheduled from 10:15 – 11:45 am in the small meeting room of the Auburn Public Library.  Please RSVP to Winona at 253-631-3252 or w-laird@msn.com well in advance so we can move to a larger location if necessary.

The second meeting of the Genetic Genealogy/DNA Special Interest Group will be held on Monday, April 8, from 1 – 3 pm at WAPI, 28815 Pacific Hwy S., Suite 7A, Federal Way.  (Added benefit: a spectacular view of Puget Sound from the meeting room.) MaryLynn Strickland will lead the group in “Downloading Raw Data from the Testing Companies”.  Plan on bringing your laptop and passwords for all the DNA testing companies you use.  If you have not already registered with GEDMatch, please do that before the meeting and  remember to bring your password.

More DNA at our General Meeting Saturday April 20!  Mary Kathryn Kozy will present “From Matches in a List to Family: Case Studies in DNA”.  Come at 9:30 to have a few minutes to socialize, catch up, and meet new genealogists before the meeting begins at 10:00 am.  We will meet at Wesley Lea Hill in the 2nd Floor Assembly Room.  An elevator from the 1st floor is available.

If you need to do research on subscription websites that you do not subscribe to, or in documents held by the Family History Library that are available only via Family History Centers, be sure to plan to join our “SKCGS only” Research Group at the Kent Family History Center on Friday, April 19, from 1 – 3 pm.  RSVP to Winona Laird w-laird@msn.com is required.

The Technology Users Group will explore “Browser Apps & Extensions in Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari” on Monday, April 22 from 1 – 3 pm at WAPI, 28815 Pacific Hwy S., Suite 7A, Federal Way.

Whew!!  Are we one active group?

Barbara Mattoon 
             

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Looking for a Needle in a Haystack? GAME CHANGER at FamilySearch

-
Image
Generated with Bing ImageCreator (AI), March 13, 2024 Where is YOUR Needle, Your Missing Record? Genealogical Proof Standard When we use the GPS (Genealogical Proof Standard) as our guide, we all know that "exhaustive research" can be both tedious and exhausting. Is life long enough to search page by page through all the counties where all the members of a family might have lived, paid taxes, bought, leased or sold property, made a will or died intestate? It is possible that the new Full Text Search at FamilySearch will  eventually  allow us to do just that. It has been estimated that 75% or more of the records at FamilySearch were browsable but not searchable; the only indexes those found in the records themselves. Those records are certainly attainable by using those indexes and browsing to the record of interest, but the process is tedious, often frustrating, and slow. And once found, the record must be read and transcribed to be useful. This new Full Text Search tackles a...
Read more

What's the Question?

-
Image
We genealogists are often told by experienced researchers how important it is to begin with a research question. I resisted doing this for a long time, but now that I use a series of questions to guide my research, the search is more focused and actually finds more of the history of the family I'm investigating. I use a Google Doc as the  research proceeds, where I keep the question(s), the plan, timelines, checklist of resources to search, etc. all in one place. I've seen others use spreadsheets in the same way, perhaps splitting up things in tabs (Excel or Google Sheets). I prefer a document because I add source citations as I find them and I can begin writing up the case right there in the doc as the hypotheses are proven. Specific Questions in Previous Successes As beginners we often have no clue how much and what details we already know about a person, event or relationship, so it's hard to specify what we want to know. But when looking back at successful research, it ...
Read more

Help Save This Abused and Neglected Cemetery

-
Image
Screen capture from Google Maps History In an exchange of emails this past week in both the main SKCGS group, and in the Washington-State-Genealogy group, many facts were revealed about the history of the I.O.O.F. Comet Lodge Cemetery, also known as the Old Burying Ground, the Georgetown Cemetery, the Graham Street Burying Ground and maybe more.  FindAGrave sums it up this way: "Since it was established in 1881, the Comet Lodge cemetery site has been whittled away to less than half its original 5 acres. Records are sketchy but it's safe to say that some 500 pioneers were buried here, atop unknown numbers of native Duwamish people. New burials ended in the 1930s. Since then, homes and streets were built on top of many of the plots as the neighborhood around the cemetery grew.  "Upkeep and ownership of the cemetery bounced between the city, civic groups, relatives of Comet Lodge residents, and nearby neighbors. For years, much of the property was allowed to deteriorate int...
Read more