Valorie Zimmerman fan chart from Ancestry.com Sometimes we want to take a break from researching, or our budget tells us  that we need to do so.  How will you handle this? We know that "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" but you are reading this post, so you still want to learn more. What to do? Will  exploring a new (free) website  be enough? Everything—every search, every record, every download—on FamilySearch is free and available every day, all year long * . The same is true at the Library of Congress , the National Archives , Archive.org , all the US state archives, and state digital newspaper collections, your own public library system, and often neighboring systems as well! King County Washington residents have access not only to KCLS , but also Pierce County , Snohomish County , and Seattle Public Libraries as well. Don't overlook local college and university libraries, county and city archives and many large and some smaller museums. Sometimes gett...

COLLABORATION 2023 will be the Year of Collaboration for me, as President of this society. Everything we do will serve to foster collaboration, as we share resources, encourage and even give helpful criticism of work products as we work together for our mutual goals. The South King County Genealogical Society was described as "primarily educational" in our  Articles of Incorporation . Our mission is to Stimulate interest in genealogy and aid individual members in compiling their family records Seek genealogical and historical knowledge Preserve and perpetuate the records of our ancestors Promote the preservation of public and private genealogical materials So, we meet! And we write, and talk and listen, and help one another. EDUCATIONAL MEETINGS AND RESOURCES We've had monthly meetings since our founding, although early records are sparse. Within a few years, we began amassing a lending library (now housed at Auburn KCLS  and the Kent FHC ), hosting special interest and u...

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-...

By Linda Blais At our June meeting, Mary Kathryn Kozy gave us some practical tips for preparing to take a genealogy research trip.  Listening to Mary brought back memories of the last research trip I took to North Carolina and Tennessee with my cousin who acted as my research assistant. It also brought up some "aha" or "oops" moments on a couple of things that didn't go quite as planned, even though I had spent months preparing my itinerary. Here are some basics about the trip. My goal was to visit as many historical sites, libraries, museums, courthouses and archives as I could in 10 days that were relevant to the life of Sarah Barton Murphy, who lived in North Carolina as a child between 1753 and 1760 and in Tennessee as an adult between 1781 and 1802.  She is not my ancestor, but I am in the process of writing a biography about her. Her claim to fame is that she founded the first Sunday school west of the Mississippi in 1805. The research I do for an anc...

By Cheri Sayer In December 2018, the Greater Kent Historical Society (GKHS) will proudly mark their 25th anniversary!  There had been an “Old-Timers” group in Kent, WA, for many years, and it is still going strong with an annual awards event.  During a meeting in 1992, Rae Reitan, a native of Kent and the City Historian, suggested that Kent should have a legitimate Historical Society.  The idea was adopted, a committee was formed, and a campaign was held to collect artifacts and information about Kent and the surrounding area.  The Greater Kent Historical Society was formed and incorporated as a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization.  The next year a space at 209 W. Meeker in historic downtown Kent became the temporary home of the society and it’s collection for the next five years.  I remember well my visits to that small space with it’s artifacts and excellent exhibits. Interest in a larger space eventually settled on the historic Bereiter home on Smith...