How would you like to have free genealogy lessons? On random topics? Once or twice a month? At your convenience--weekday, weekend or evening? With free access to Ancestry Library Edition and other online sites? All this can be yours if you take advantage of this opportunity: Become a Genealogy Research Volunteer at the library! SKCGS Genealogy Reference Collection at Auburn Branch of King County Library System The SKCGS collection of historic and genealogical books and periodicals has been located at the Auburn Branch of the King County Library System for many years.  During that time, society volunteers have provided free research assistance with the collection in particular and with genealogy in general. In March, 2020 the Covid lockdown interrupted our volunteer service. Many of our members have helped out over the years; and we  have loved it, wishing we were able to use the libraries during lockdown. Our  recent,  most faithful volunteer, Jan Emerson has chosen ...

White River Valley Museum The White River Valley Museum - photo courtesy of Barbara Mattoon Auburn, Kent, Algona, and Pacific Those of us who live in South King County are fortunate to have many local museums and historical societies that hold records and artifacts relating to this area. One of these repositories is the outstanding White River Valley Museum in downtown Auburn. Its collection covers the communities of Auburn, Kent, Algona, and Pacific. Exhibits The interactive exhibits include a room from The Tourist Hotel which was located just down the street from the Auburn Depot; The Northern Clay Company, later known as Gladding McBean which used clay from the Green River Valley, artisans from Vienna, and laborers from Auburn to produce the architectural terra cotta that still adorns high-rise buildings in Tacoma and Seattle; a Muckleshoot Indian canoe, and a tour through a replica of Auburn downtown in the 1920s. You can learn about the immigrant experience by visiting a Japanese-...

Nearly hidden Pioneer Cemetery   Courtesy Google Maps If you are north bound on Auburn Way North, a main thoroughfare in Auburn, south King County, Washington, and stop for a traffic light, you may glimpse a small cemetery to your right at 8th Street NE.  This is the Auburn Pioneer Cemetery, on land donated for that purpose in 1878.  Grave of a Civil War veteran, M. P. Hopkins Courtesy Kristy Lommen "The marker commemorating the Auburn Pioneer Cemetery’s only Civil War veteran is disappointingly vague. It includes no dates, neither birth nor death. The soldier’s name is included, but in abbreviated form. And to add insult to injury, the sparse information that  is   displayed has been mis-transcribed and published incorrectly on several online genealogy sites. Fortunately, the stone does include the fact that Mr. Hopkins served in Company B of the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry—and that single fact was enough information to discover much of his life story."1 Recently the...