What Will Happen To My Research?   What Can I Do Now? Nearly every day I see a post on social media asking for advice on what to do with the results of many years of genealogical research. “No one in my family is interested. I am afraid that they will just throw it all in the dumpster.” The topic is of interest within SKCGS as well. Dorothy Pretare presented on the subject at a General Meeting and wrote a blog post on the topic. [1] A great place to start is the FamilySearch Wiki article “What to do with the genealogy and family history I collected”. [2] Often people who have not had to deal with a collection suggest a local historical society. Unless the collection deals with local pioneers or persons of historical importance to the community, it is doubtful that they will be able to accept Aunt Ida’s papers. I have heard stories of people dumping grocery bags full of loose papers at the local library. What do you think is going to happen to those papers?  Enjoy Your Resea

Collaboration The logo above is one of the main reasons I love WikiTree and the same reason some do not. Collaboration means working with other genealogists, who sometimes disagree about the facts! The WikiTree community really is collaborative and helpful. In fact, many members spend their time welcoming new members, answering questions, helping people with problems, and even adding sources to unsourced profiles.  Privacy Controls The privacy controls on WikiTree profiles are unmatched by any other site I've seen. Every profile on WikiTree has an independently-managed Privacy Level and Trusted List. If you're on the profile's Trusted List you can access everything. If you're not on the Trusted List, what you can see and do depends on the Privacy Level. -  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Privacy For instance, profiles of living people where the person is not a WikiTree member are unlisted .  Unlisted profiles are entirely hidden from everyone except those on the Trus

While the NGS Monthly is free, I've been going through these short to-the-point articles.  WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM? by Aaron Goodwin  put a point on the issue for me and how I've been doing research lately. Mr. Goodwin stresses setting up a standard: start your plan with a focused question based on known information. [1] What's the Question? I realize that while I have been posing some research questions, they may not be based on known information. So my first action is to created an extremely detailed timeline of Effie McBee's life, since my first question is about her last husband, Mr. Hunt, when and where they married and when and where he died. I think this is necessary to find out when and where she died. Her last known married surname and location is in her older brother's obituary: What Facts are Known? Effie was my great-aunt, so not a huge brick wall. I know who her one child was, and the descendants of that child. Still, I want to know when and where she die

Genealogy Education: Institutes If you have attended more than a few genealogy society meetings, you have undoubtedly heard the terms GRIP, SLIG, Gen-Fed, or IGHR mentioned.   Either you just let the terms float by, or you were reluctant to ask what they meant. These terms describe genealogical institutes.   A genealogy institute is not the same as a genealogy conference. Genealogy institutes offer intensive courses usually lasting four and one half to five days. Conferences offer five to seven hour-long presentations daily for three or four days. The presentations may cover many different genealogy topics. Several week-long “Institutes”   are held each year. Typically, the courses are intended for intermediate to advanced genealogists.    Until 2020, these institutes were in-person events held in a hotel, conference center, or on a college campus.   Some conferences and institutes were canceled this year due to the coronavirus, others converted to online “virtual” events.   IG

Onc e upon a time, in a land right next door, South King County Genealogical Society  had regular, person-to-person meetings on the third Saturday of most mon ths of the year.  People got up early and drove to the meeting place, were greeted at the door and received a printed handout provided by the speaker of the day.  People visited with each other and learned new techniques for researching their family trees.  They went h ome and tried new links from the printed handouts and then saved the paper copy in a file or notebook.   Life was routine, predictable.                                                                                                                                                                   Then something happened; the people started learning new words—CoronaVirus, Covid-19, pandemic, social distancing, Zoom, Amazon ordering, curbside groceries, webcams, Google Meets.                               People at SKCGS have learned how to conduct virtual meetings

Oh boy, there was William Williams, right age, immigrant from England, working in a mine in southwest Idaho on the 1900 census.  But having chased Bill from England to Michigan then to South Dakota and eventually to Wardner, Idaho, how could I be sure this was the right one? The picture below was among family photos passed down to Ken Williams, a great grandson of Bill.  In fact there were two copies of the photo, a pretty good indication that there was a family member in it. Will the real Bill Williams please stand up?  That is, if the real Bill Williams is in this picture.  We'll probably never know which man is Bill but there is enough circumstantial evidence to place him in Owyhee County in 1900.  The clue--the photographer.  C. E. Joy had a photograph studio in Salt Lake City around 1900 and probably made trips to neighboring communities. Looking for the clues There are many clues for dating and identifying photos.  Prominent among those is researching the  photographer. The t

Back when SKCGS Special Interest Groups could still meet in person, I attended the DNA/Genetic Genealogy Group meeting in early February. The subject was using Ancestry tools such as Thru-Lines tool to “group” your DNA ancestors, and was led by our Publicity Chair Valorie Zimmerman. This tutorial only works if you have tested your DNA through Ancestry, and have a tree where you are linked to yourself on that tree. It’s best to have a subscription, so you can follow up on suspected common ancestors. The class was very hands-on and we were immediately getting signed in to Ancestry and clicking on our list of “DNA Matches” at the top of the page under the DNA tab. Other people you share DNA with and have tested with Ancestry will appear on your list. First on the list will be close relations, and you will most likely recognize the names and know them. From there you will get a longer list of DNA third and fourth, and fifth and sixth cousins. Note that this list seems to grow