Volunteering Hands, Royalty-free image courtesy of PickPik This is Volunteer Appreciation Month, and we have much to appreciate and celebrate! Officers These are the folks who have stepped up and taken responsibility to support our mission in a multitude of ways. Many of us are part of more than one team, some take on lots of tiny jobs which few notice, unless they don't get done. President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer; all are critical to the health of South King County Genealogical Society.  Out-going President Valorie Zimmerman Vice President Alexis Hacker Booker Secretary Melanie Hinds Treasurer Michele Mattoon Board The Board is made up of the officers and the team leaders who choose to take on more responsibility. In particular, MaryLynn Strickland is the voice for the Membership on the Board, along with her work in the Education team. Thanks to all of you! Education Our pre-eminent duty as a society is education , both of our members and the general public. Th...

Courtesy of Pixabay; Peggy & Marco, artists Chat was Great! Following our society November monthly genealogy Chat, I was left with an emotional high I had not felt in quite a while. And I have been thinking since then – what made me feel so good and how does it affect anything or everything genealogy-speaking? Working with Relatives After sifting thoughts and memories, I realized that the chat reminded me of how my Grand-Aunt Bessie Arminta McPherson Hill captivated me with our family stories and memories. I thought about some of my best genealogy times – when I met a Tennessee cousin who had gone to school with my Dad’s youngest brother on an email list where we researched virtually together for over 10 years until her death. We corresponded online with loads of cousins and other folks from East Tennessee families. It was a heady feeling. I thought of looking for lost graveyards with my cousin Terry on old Manhattan Project land in Tennessee, still under lock and key just 20 ye...

When planning research in a new place, many of us have consulted the FamilySearch Research Wiki, and have collected books which cover states or regions where we find our ancestors and their friends, associates and neighbors.  On this blog   we've discussed creating a checklist  to ensure that we don't overlook useful resources to answer our research questions. Reusable locality research guide is a map to success Recently, advice to create our own locality research guides seem to be popping up everywhere, which takes the checklist concept to a whole new level. The recent   National Genealogical Society Magazine , had "Creating and Using Locality Guides as Genealogy Tools" by Jan Joyce. The article itself is available to NGS Members or from the magazine itself, but fortunately her case study and examples are available  here  for everyone. Holmes County, Indiana is shown but the principles are the same for every locality.  Challenge Accepted! Countie...