A Tribute to Sarah: Sarah Little, 1947-2023

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Image by orchidart on Freepik


From 1988 to 2000, I was the Administrative Assistant at the Southeast Seattle Senior Center. In the early years, sometime around 1990, the seniors were offered a beginning genealogy class, taught by Sarah Little.  Sarah came once a month to teach the class and I would often help her make handout copies on our copy machine.

As an employee, I was busy in my office and could not take the class; I wasn't very interested in taking a class anyway because my mother's cousin had done our family history back in 1960. He had traced us back to an ancestor born about 1800 in Vermont; it was all done, no need to do anything more. Ha!

In early 2001 my cousins and I decided we should update that 1960, seven-page history and I offered to type it up once we added our spouses, children and grandchildren. In the meantime online, I found a 1634 Boston immigrant Stowe family with a descendent born in 1799 New Hampshire, same name as my 1800 Vermont ancestor. I was hooked.

I wanted to make sure that the information was reliable so I looked up the only person I could think of that could verify the sources--Sarah Little. Somehow I got a phone number for her and she graciously took my call. She assured me that N.E.H.G.S. (New England Historic and Genealogical Society) was probably a reliable source.

I think back now that as a rank amateur I had the audacity to contact someone who turned out to be a university professor and president of the Seattle Genealogical Society. But her patience and encouragement was characteristic of her love of genealogy. - MaryLynn

MaryLynn's tribute above was prompted by the recent news of Sarah Little's death, announced by her home society, Seattle Genealogical Society. In it, 

SGS remembers Sarah as a dedicated leader who was determined to see that SGS survived and prospered.

Sarah joined SGS in 1985 and immediately became involved. Jim Secan, current SGS president, provided . . . [a] list of all the positions she held at SGS and he commented, “She was on the Board pretty much full time from 1987-2003!”

Some of our South King County GS members commented on our post linking to the story and her obituary that they had taken classes from Sarah years ago at the UW and Seattle Community College. Rosemary said, " still refer to some of her handouts." And Bobbi Boyd said, "She was so generous and inspiring.  So sad to hear of her leaving us."

Sarah Thorson Little, December 16, 1947 – April 9, 2023. 

Click to read her obituary.

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