150YearsofCare.org website header Since most of what I view on Youtube are genealogy subjects, and I subscribe to some genealogy channels, much of what is shown at login is genealogy. RLP 378: Interview with Gavin Beinart-Smollan * showed up, and I wanted to listen because my most recent genealogy project is all Jewish immigrants and their descendants, who mostly came to New York City from areas then called "Russia." Wikipedia says, " The Pale of Settlement included all of modern-day Belarus and Moldova, much of Lithuania, Ukraine and east-central Poland, and relatively small parts of Latvia and what is now the western Russian Federation."  Part of what makes this population challenging to research is the difficulty in locating records, and the confusing, even overwhelming DNA data. This is a result of the laws and customs governing life in the Pale of Settlement, described by Wikipedia: "The Pale of Settlement was a western region of the Russian Empire... th...

Casting Your Net Fishermen in a Rowboat Throwing the Net by  fabianoshow   How many family trees have you started? I tend to want everyone together in one tree, but there are lots of reasons to have separate ones. My latest project is working on a tree for our grandson which was started by his Goldsmith grandfather. Since there will be little to no overlap between Steve's Eastern European Jewish tree and mine, it seemed simplest and most logical to just work in his tree, with his DNA matches. It's a fresh challenge and quite exciting so far. I wrote before about digging up records for the base of the tree, which has worked well.  When Steve's AncestryDNA results came in, it was fun to place all the closer cousins in the tree. Just the usual challenges finding all the living people; thank goodness for good hints including other people's trees with records. I never copy anyone's tree; instead I call up the records and analyze those, then enter the data directly from ...

In honor of Women's History Month and each of the brave, generous, tenacious women described:  Barb and Bob, Ted and Lola: Loss, war, love and enduring friendship .   The story begins at the meeting place: 4711 Meridian Avenue, Seattle .  4711 Meridian Avenue, Seattle, Courtesy of Google Maps Four families and a l egacy of connection What seems like chance—the convergence of four young lives in one small house in Seattle—created bonds that would last lifetimes. The story of Bob and Barb, Ted and Lola reminds us how seemingly random moments can shape generations, including the author's very existence. The Meeting Place: 4711 Meridian  The story begins in a modest house in Seattle, owned by Mary Shutt, a woman who had already weathered more than her share of grief. Living with her was her daughter Barbara Jean, known to everyone as "Barb," a bright Lincoln High student with her whole life ahead of her. The Foundation: Mary's Journey Mary Reese was born in Indiana i...

 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 ac...

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 ar...