Year of Anniversaries 2020--Have you noticed that there are some momentous anniversaries this year?  The Mayflower landed at Plymouth in 1620--400 years ago !  Do you have Mayflower ancestors?  Are you planning to attend any Mayflower celebrations? A bit closer to present day is the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment--Women's Suffrage .  Did you have an ancestor involved with that struggle for equality? There are many other anniversaries this year-- 75 years from the end of World War II , 40 years after the eruption of Mt. St. Helens,   You can probably name many more and please do! Do you have a hero, of either gender, someone you admire for his or her contribution to an eventful struggle? Or did an event impact you or your family?  Here is a challenge and an opportunity to honor a person or relate an event--write a paragraph or two and submit it here for publication. Here is an example of my hero connected to the Women's Suffrage Movement a...

Needpix.com  T h is 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...

by Kathleen MacLeod Hanzeli What do Alec Baldwin and his brothers, Humphrey Bogart, Barbara Bush, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Chevy Chase, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Christopher Lloyd, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Sarah Palin, Edith Roosevelt (Mrs. Theodore), Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Lillian Russell, Joseph Smith and Dr. Benjamin Spock have in common?  They all descend from the same ancestor who landed on these shores on 6 September 1620, on the bark Mayflower.  Most of us can claim descent from a Mayflower traveler, but the above person is unique and I didn’t know he existed until one day recently, my eleven year old grandson said to me, “Nana, my friend from school’s ancestor fell off of the Mayflower!” My first instinct was to respond, “What?  No one fell off the Mayflower.  If he had, he’d be dead and have no descendants.”  But with a little research, I discovered that the story was true, and my grandson can claim a good friend as a descendent amo...