Generously Sharing Resources Generated with Bing Image Creator AI, 21 September 2024 It all started with some extra time after one of our first virtual meetings. That day, few people wanted to leave the call and during the following discussion generous book-lovers offered to do look-ups in their treasured volumes. Before we ended, someone suggested meeting again specifically to offer and ask for lookups in various books already on our shelves.  A search of our Society@skcgs.groups.io finds the first message posted about offered books:  Marilyn Schunke's Book . Two great things grew out of this collaboration—our monthly Genealogy Chat , and our  Books: Pleasure, Learning, Lookups wiki page. If you have books to share, please add to that page! and feel free to ask for lookups as well. Don't forget that we have two public book collections too. Most of our books are shelved at Auburn KCLS Library at 1102 Auburn Way South, Auburn, Washington and a smaller one is housed at the Ke

Wikimedia Commons [Valorie] Sometimes finding just one new fact, or one new resource, turns into an overwhelming flood of information. This blog is in response to a phone call from MaryLynn, who said, "I blame it all on Alexis!" Alexis recently offered  lookups in a book she discovered on her book shelf, in response to MaryLynn's blog about surveying our shelves to see what treasures we already have! [MaryLynn]  For more than twenty years I have been content to accept that my 2 great grandfather John Gamble was born about 1798 in South Carolina, information from the 1850 census for Huntington County, Indiana.  Occasionally I would have a mild curiosity about further information but I am not so foolhardy that I would search the 1800 census for a 2 year old boy. So, when Alexis mentioned that she had a book that listed petitions for land from the South Carolina Council, I asked her to look for the Gamble surname, figuring she would either find none or so many that I would

  Thanks to Twisted Twigs on Gnarled Branches via Facebook Organizing is a bunch of four letter words--sort, list, file, scan, copy, move. . .and a few others not to be uttered in polite society. Of those words, "List" should be one of your first actions.  Take an inventory of what you have and at least mentally remember where it is located now.  You might be surprised what you have in your file boxes and bookshelves.  Recently I spotted a book on my bookshelf that I could have used a few times myself and could have shared with others. A few years ago I prepared a presentation about the rectangular land survey system by which federal lands were allocated under various land grant acts including the Homestead Act of 1862. In the course of the presentation and several times in my own research I have encountered reference to Military Bounty Warrants. While I roughly know what they are, I have felt I needed to learn more about them but have never made the time to do so. What'

Image by  Miroslava Chrienova  from  Pixabay   Covid stopped us cold in March 2020, and yet only two meetings were cancelled. As we learned how to host virtual meetings, our online group communication became busier and more of a comfort to all of us. The time just to chat after meetings became so precious that we created " Genealogy Books Q&A " April 27 and it was a huge success.  We've not traded lookups much since, but our monthly chats have continued, now the fourth Monday afternoon each month. We have made friendships, deeper and stronger than one would ever expect with joy in having found each other.  We even had a New Year's Eve party! Virtual is safe, fun and EASY Since April, our monthly third Saturday general meetings have continued with presentations by society members and nationally known speakers, all accessed safely by virtual media.  And we aren't through yet!  We have speakers planned through May 2021 and a virtual seminar with Judy G. Russell,