Summer is a great time to travel to the old home places and distant repositories. What's your first step?  Create Your Plan The longer your trip and farther away your destination, the more preparation you will need. Are passport, visa, special vaccinations required? Early on, write away for maps; some are available for free but arrive by mail; good local maps will help in the planning process. How about connections with researchers in the localities you will visit? Join some local societies, and start conversations with the local history groups, libraries, colleges, courthouses, archives and museums. Create a spreadsheet or table to gather names, contact information, closed dates, hours of operation. Before you leave, print your itinerary and the info sheet. Leave a copy at home with friends and family, too.  Prepare short biographies of ancestors who lived locally to leave in vertical files in libraries and archives. Ensure that each bio has your contact information; if...

Image from page 86 of "The diary of a birthday doll" (1908); Internet Archive Book Images; public domain Lies my Grandmother told me My Grandmother Billie was a character. She spoke her mind and had a Scot-Irish brogue and heritage. Born Wilhelmina Marian Gamble, after her father William. She always went by Billie. The following statements were not necessarily made directly to me. Some I found while researching our family tree. Though not surprised that stories are not altogether truthful, I was really surprised that some were made to government officials. Graduated from High School. In our family, it was understood that Grandma Billie “finished” high school. Though she lost a year to illness, she graduated early. She did have a severe illness at a young age, which may have led to her missing school and resulted in a mitral valve problem later in life. 1 However, it looks like her “graduating early” was due to marrying Oct 1926 2 , at the age of 17-3⁄4. Her first chi...

 Go There! Generated by BingImageCreator AI 'April 19, 2024 How times have changed in family history research! Traveling to your family's homeplace or writing letters to genealogy or historical societies, courthouses, local libraries and archives used to be the first step in beginning family history if there were no published books or periodicals we could consult.  Later, we had access to microfilm, which required traveling to where that microfilm was. Now, our first step is often to see what's online at Ancestry.com, other pay sites, and free sites such as FamilySearch.org . But as we know, no matter how fast these services add new databases, only a small percentage of records are or will ever be online.  Why Travel? Beyond records, though, why should we travel to gather our family history? Two reasons: everywhere is different, and only by going there can we experience that. Reading about the history, geology and social forces that shaped the community is one excellent w...

  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...

If you are living in the midst of a story, as all of us are, do we know how it turns out in the end?  What if there is more than one story happening, and more than one challenge along the way? Courtesy of Steve Czajka creativecommons Once upon a time, there was a girl who was given the responsibility to care for her younger brother and sister after school. She was unhappy with these duties, and her siblings did not obey her and do the things she told them to do. She began to grow apart from her sister and brother, and once they were all adults, was not close to them.  As life continued, she thought about making peace with her brother. Perhaps it was losing her younger sister which prompted her to visit him, and ask how he remembered their childhood. To her surprise, her brother said, I was always jealous of you. Our mother trusted you to care for us; why didn't she trust me? I could have helped out. Many of us have compared stories and memories from our childhood with fam...

For years there has been periodic emphasis on "growth of our genealogical societies." While we always welcome new members, we must not overlook another important task--sustaining the function of our existing societies. Successful societies have established a mission such as that of SKCGS: 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 While the mission may be tailored to fit the needs of its members by time and location, one thing remains constant--who is sustaining the operation of the society?  Does the society meet the needs of its members?  Who is working behind the scenes to to accomplish that goal?  How do leaders, members and newcomers contribute? SKCGS works toward our purpose through monthly meetings featuring knowledgeable speakers on a range of topics i...

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...