By MaryLynn Strickland How to begin a story or an article is usually the first thought for a writer.  The overall temper of the article may be set with specific facts or points of interest in mind, but that crucial opening sentence or paragraph can be difficult to phrase. So too in this article but there is another element—how to close.  This is the last issue of SoKingNews as we have come to know it.  No longer will the quarterly collection of articles and notices about interest groups be emailed to members and interested societies with whom we have exchanged information.  But this is not a sad event because SKCGS has been transitioning to a new format—the weekly blog! Since September society members have been contributing articles to the weekly blog.  If you have been following you may have enjoyed learning about the Black Diamond Historical Museum or Fiske Genealogical Library .  Maybe you got some new tips about using genealogical software or ...

By  Winona Laird Family History isn’t about just gathering names and dates of our ancestors.  It’s about learning about our ancestors, where they lived, why did they live in that certain area was it because of their occupations.  Maybe it was because family before them lived in the area. What ever the answers are, research your family member or members for their story. Good stories don't just happen.  You have to find the Story and tell it. I became interested in family history when I was 11 years old in a church class. We had to gather the information about ourselves and our parents and grandparents. We also had to have our parents and grandparents write a short life story about themselves. My mother and father wrote their story and just my grandmother my mother's mother side wrote her story for me. The stories were only about a page long. Years later when my grandmother passed away my aunt found a box with notes that my grandmother had written about different ...

By Richard  M. Thayer Yesterday we marked the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I which formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 when the Armistice with Germany went into effect.  On 13 May 1938, a Congressional Act was approved making the 11th of November each year a legal holiday to be known as Armistice Day.  On 26 May 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill making Armistice Day a day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who died in the First World War.  Six days later Congress amended the bill making 11 November Veterans Day instead of Armistice Day.  We have been observing Veterans Day ever since.  Albeit not in November for seven years in the 1970’s due to the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968.  Having been in the Federal work force (U.S. Air Force) in the 1970’s, I can remember the grumbling among us about holiday changes, “Why can’t Congress leave well enough alone!” Map of Lowe...

By Barbara Mattoon A couple of years ago I was looking for something to listen to while I decorated my Christmas tree.  Somehow, I had heard about Ezra Klein, so I figured out how to listen to one of his podcasts on my iPhone and I was hooked.  Since then, I have explored podcasts on many topics, but recently I have been partial to genealogy podcasts. Marketing guru Seth Godin says that podcasts are the new blogs.  (I listen to his podcast Akimbo, every week.) That could be, but I think there is still room for both forms of communication.  He also says that the backlist is as good as the current episode, and I totally agree with that.  With recently discovered podcasts, I frequently go back and listen to older episodes. “But”, you wail, “I don’t have TIME to listen to podcasts”.  Everyone’s needs and schedules are different, but I usually listen to an episode while I am preparing and eating my breakfast.  Less frequently, I listen while tra...

By Linda Blais I first learned about the Fiske Genealogical Library in June of 2017 when doing research for a biography that I writing about the founder of the first Sunday school west of the Mississippi. WorldCat has been one of my favorite places to go to find books that cover my research topic and to see if they are in a local library. While searching for books dealing with Missouri, I discovered that the only library locally that had the book I needed was the Arthur Fiske Genealogical Library in Seattle. Since this was a new library to me, checking out this repository became a fun task. Of course, I needed to know where it was. Two immediate places to find more information came to mind: Google Maps and the Internet. Yeah! Fiske had a website: https://fiskelibrary.org . Their "Library Information" page gave me the address and information that the Library was housed in Washington Pioneer Hall. Google Maps showed me that the building was right on Lake Washington. Ho...

By Janet O'Conor Camarata   Between 1900 and 1915, 3 million Italians immigrated to America becoming the largest nationality of “new immigrants” during the late 19th and early 20th century. They were mostly artisans and peasants. Many were unable to read, write or speak English and were listed as “laborers” on passenger lists. The migration included representatives of all the regions of Italy, primarily from the Mezzogiorno region of Italy-- southern Italy including the “boot” of Italy and the Islands of Sicily and Sardinia. Alfonso and Antonina (Pastorello) Aronica with their children and grandchild are one such family. Santa Caterina Villarmosa, Caltinasetta Province, Sicily, Italy, 1920 The Aronicas are an example of “chain migration,” a simple concept where early immigrants are known to be more likely to move to a new country or community if people they know already live there. And in turn with each new immigrant, they also are more likely to move where people they now...

Part II—Fire Spreads Death in Franklin Mine By MaryLynn Strickland By 1894 the miners of Franklin were working side by side—people who had migrated from Pennsylvania and Ohio, immigrants from Wales and England, single young Italian men hoping to earn enough money to bring their families to the US and black miners who had been “imported” from the mid-West in 1891.   Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper articles in 1894 related stories of miners striking throughout the United States.  Miners in Roslyn, Washington, had become divided over a wage reduction.  The August 18 paper reported that black miners had accepted the reduction; white miners were holding out and there was talk of moving black miners from Franklin to Roslyn.  Other news of the world dominated the front page of each issue. Picture property of Black Diamond Museum, permission granted for this purpose But “Stifled by Smoke” was the headline on the front page of the August 25, 1894, is...