THEIR HOME IN AMERICA Kristoffer Ulleland and Marianne Fitje grew up on neighboring farms in Naustdal.  Norway. They married there in 1888. Norway’s economy was hit hard by a  “depression” in the 1880s and early 1890s.   [ 1  ]   It was not easy to make a living so  Kristoffer and Marianne began to think about going to America. Kristoffer’s  brother, Olai, had emigrated to the Seattle area a few years earlier. He wrote  letters home telling of the availability of land and the abundance of work  available at good wages for those willing to work hard. On April 27, 1890, Kristoffer and Marianne said goodbye to their home and  traveled to Bergen, Norway. They spent a few days there visiting with Marianne’s  sister Helle. On May 3, they left Bergen for England. From England they traveled  by steamship, arriving in Halifax after 13 days on the Atlantic Ocean. They sailed  on down the St. Lawrence to Quebec then traveled across Canada to Vancouver  by train. They continued to Seattle by boat

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

  Elsie Schell Cowan and Thomas Cowan, mid-60s? Gramma and Grampa, as I called them, my grandparents, lived a short walk away from my childhood home. Thomas Cowan and Elsie Schell Cowan were my daddy's parents, I came to understand. My mother called them Mom and Dad too, so it took my child's mind awhile to figure out that they could not be Mom's mother and father! Maybe this was why I was interested in the family history early on - I wanted to understand why I only knew one set of grandparents. Thomas Cowan My grandfather, Tom Cowan, immigrated here from Canada in 1924. He was born in Puslinch township, Wellington County, Ontario, on his family's farm, Juniper Hill Farm. His great-grandfather established the farm in 1832, when he and his family and some neighbors (perhaps relatives) emigrated from Yarrow Feus, Selkirkshire, Scotland to Puslinch in Upper Canada. The house they built still is lived in. Grandpa's parents sold the Century Farm between 1911 and 1921 and

  Review:  Ravensdale Reflections: An Oral History , by Barbara Nilson (2004), privately published, undated. In a recent Genealogy Chat, Michele Mattoon, who grew up in Black Diamond, mentioned the book Ravensdale Reflections,  of which I had never heard. It is no longer in print, but Abe Books had a copy. The town of Ravensdale, originally 'Leary' has a rich history beginning before Washington Statehood.  Mine Tragedy This historic photo shows the crowd waiting at the top of the shaft as the bodies are brought out after the Ravensdale mine explosion November 15, 1915, that killed 31 men. (Renton Historical Society collection). Ravensdale History Ravensdale inhabitants asked the Renton author Barbara Nilson to write a book about them and their history, which took her some years of interviews, site visits and extensive research and photographs. There is an interview with the author here:  Local icon reflects on a life of travel and history writing . In an article she wrote for t

This week the South King County Genealogical Society begins a new study group [1] , of the book Mastering Genealogical Proof , by Thomas W. Jones [2] . The first chapter, Genealogy's Standard of Proof , first considers What is Genealogy . I can't better Jones' measured prose, but here is why I do genealogy. Why? Solving Puzzles Doing the research is satisfying! When there is a gap in the timeline, finding the right record is like fitting in a puzzle piece! That bit of satisfaction keeps me at it, often far too late into the night. Especially when the family group or locality (or both) are unfamiliar, finding the records feels like getting to know that person and the time and place where they lived. The contrast in how the lives of some the folks in the family fall into a pattern, and those who bushwhack their own path, is often surprising.  Why? Putting Meat on the Bones So solving puzzles are fun, but genealogy is work, too. Aside from the little rewards, there is enormous

The Andersons of Langbro Pursued the American Dream: “Go West, young man!” Axel Ludwig Anderson and Anna Nilsdotter; photo courtesy Jeanne Rollberg by Jeanne Rollberg "A.L. ANDERSON, one of the prosperous husbandmen of Klickitat County, belongs to that great body of foreign-born population without whom the industrial and natural resources of the United States would be in their infancy. He is a native of the kingdom of Sweden, born November 10, 1845.” Thus a State of Washington historian described Axel Ludwig Anderson in a book published in 1893 in Chicago. Two of Axel’s Anderson’s brothers likewise left Sweden in the 1860s and 1870s after seven siblings and their parents, Pehr and Christina Ericsson Andersson, had died. Hilder Yngve Anderson, born July 17, 1848, and Oscar Reinhold Anderson, born April 1, 1850, struck out for America at a time when the United States was advertising opportunities in railroading and farming to Scandinavians seeking adventure and prosperity. From the

If you have recent immigrant ancestors, especially from France, perhaps you have used Geneanet . The free resources are quite good. So it was with some excitement that I saw: Geneanet now launches Geneanet DNA, a new beta test service which allows you to upload the raw data of a DNA test kit taken with any company, to compare it to other Geneanet members' DNA data. Click here to discover Geneanet DNA The FamilySearch Wiki describes Geneanet:  Geneanet was launched in 1996 by genealogy enthusiasts to help family history researchers sharing their data. They wanted their users to pay only if they want and that’s why they created the Premium service. Most of the website pages and features are available for free but you can take advantage of Ad-Free browsing, more effective search engine and access to additional records by subscribing to the Premium. The site can be viewed in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. They add: Geneanet is especially u

By Michele Norton Mattoon Grandma worked on the railroad. No, that’s not a typo. Grandma worked on the railroad. No, not a cushy desk job! My grandmother, Mary Grady, of Ravensdale, Washington, at age 40, went to work on an all-woman railroad section gang and worked eight hours a day doing back-breaking manual labor. Women do all the jobs men do now, but that wasn’t the case in 1942. In fact, it was such a big deal that The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Pathé and Time Magazine all came to town to report on it.  First, let me tell you a little about Grandma. Born Marija Bele in Slovenia in 1902, Grandma lived on and worked the fields (haying) at the family farm in her small community. Our family has always said we were from “good peasant stock” and I think Grandma’s beginnings prove that. After marrying and immigrating to America in September 1922 at age 20, Grandma arrived in Hobart, Washington. Her husband had settled there the year before. Alone, and not knowing a word of Eng

Dr. John Phillip Colletta Sept. 22, 2018 at beautiful Salish Hall on the Green River College Campus, Auburn The day began with coffee, tea, books, raffle items and a great Silent Auction John Philip Colletta, PhD., began the day by introducing us to archives, libraries and manuscript repositories, discussing who created the records or documents and where we might find them. After a thorough introduction, he dove into several research cases, which included the records and how he found them. This was very enlightening, because so often we find one piece of evidence but never follow up to find the records and story behind the notation in an index, or sentence in a book. Before lunch, we traveled through the Library of Congress, and what research one can do in each of the specialized Reading Room/Research Centers. After lunch, we learned of some Lesser Used Federal Record, which provide detail about our ancestor's lives and biographies, rather than lineage. The amount o