First, some naval gazing - a look at this blog, by the numbers: Blogger also tells us where people are when they read: This annual report is an abridged version of those reports submitted to the Board in advance of our planning meeting in August. The original reports are available to SKCGS Members on request. Change If we thought things would calm down after 2020, we were wrong. 2021 was another year of change. In May elections, we elected a new President, Valorie Zimmerman, which meant that our Vice-President Valorie Zimmerman needed to step down. Michele Mattoon was re-elected as Treasurer. At the next meeting of the Board, Alexis Hacker Scholz accepted the post of Vice-President. Barbara Mattoon, the former President chose not to take the post of Past President, so MaryLynn Strickland continues as Member At Large. Barbara accepted the position of Chair of the Education Committee, where she had been ably serving in an unofficial role for some weeks. Work with KCLS and BDHS Closure

  SUICE, SOOS, OR SUISE CREEK?   EARLY IMMIGRANTS   AND THEIR STORIES The Cemetery In 1988, Louise (Melin) Merritt began gathering records of those buried in the Suise Creek Cemetery in preparation for publication of an Obituary Book in cooperation with the South King County Genealogical Society. “The cemetery was originally located above Suise Creek on SE 240th” [ 1 ] “In 1903, bodies were moved by horse and wagon from the old to the new burial grounds . . ..” located at SE 256th and 132nd Ave SE. [ 2 ] “A few years later some sort of a dispute arose between the Finns and the other Scandinavians, and henceforth most of the Swedes and Norwegians took their business elsewhere. They are predominately buried in the old Meridian Cemetery or the Hillcrest Cemetery in Kent, Washington” [ 3 ] Finnish Immigrants As the project progressed, Mrs. Merritt decided to compile a history of the immigra

 I saw this cartoon in the past somewhere and could not forget it. No images I found online matched the image I remembered, so my talented husband Bob Zimmerman drew one for me:  Copyright Robert Zimmerman 2021. Courtesy of Bob Zimmerman The reason I love this cartoon is that we all know a simple question can open us to a new way of seeing the world, if we let it.  I felt this way at a recent presentation of the Association of King County Historical Organizations (AKCHO) called  Looking Back / Moving Forward: Getting Started with Institutional Genealogy presented by Aletheia Wittman. In that presentation, she showed us a timeline which blew my mind and got me thinking about our society in a whole new historical perspective. We formed first as a branch of Seattle Genealogical Society (SGS) in 1979, and formally as an independent non-profit in 1984.[1] Here is a portion of Aletheia Wittman's timeline; used by permission: 2. Courtesy Aletheia Wittman. Numbers in the black balls are nu

 Thomas McEntee recently asked "Do you remember when your grandparents retired?" [1] Thomas Cowan 1890 - 1970 I do remember, because they threw a party! My grandfather, Thomas Cowan, had had a stroke a couple of years before, and once he almost completely recovered, decided that it was best to retire while he could enjoy it. I do not remember the date, although there is an article we found among my father's papers from his union newspaper, describing his history, career and property out in Issaquah. We lived just up the road, in walking distance, so I saw them a lot; basically any time I wanted to. The party was fun, and I got to show up to some of the older boys who were there, sons of co-workers I suppose, about where the fishing holes were in the creek. Once I caught my little trout, I paraded up the hill and past the party and those boys, with my pole on my shoulder and the little fish still on my hook. I walked home and cleaned it there. Yum, was it delicious! But on

Many of us who have tested our DNA have done so to satisfy our curiosity about our ethnic origins or to find unknown or elusive relatives.  Some of us learned a little about our ancient origins based on our ethnicity, depending upon the company with which we had tested. People who have gone further in their genetic genealogy study have had their Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA tested.  Usually these tests are used to confirm surname lineage in the case of Y-DNA or maternal lineage through mtDNA.  One outcome is learning one's haplogroup, either Y-DNA or mtDNA, and they are different! Judy G. Russell, the Legal Genealogist, posted this:  " Rob Spencer is a scientist who’s developed a set of tools for use with DNA results — visualizing some of our genetic genealogy. "He calls his website, Tracking Back , a place “for genetic genealogy tools, experimentation, and discussion.” And he offers a lot — to think about, and to play with. "One tool in particular is really neat f

Have you ever had this experience? You've recently learned about something you previously knew nothing about, and then someone asks a question about exactly this subject? I find this happening all the time, and love it. The  Black Genealogy Research Group of Seattle  recently gathered information about an ex-slave, Mary Jane Green of Everett, Washington, for a program. In an effort to gather more information, contacts and help with this research, a Wikitree profile was created for her.  I soon found that there is a project within Wikitree helping gather information about enslaved people in the US, using sources such as deeds, wills, business receipts, ledgers, even letters and oral testimony, called the US Black Heritage Project . I joined it, since I have other ex-slaves and at least one slave-owner to research.  Then there was another connection. In the International Society of Genetic Genealogists  (ISOGG)  online group , there was a discussion of an article called  Linked Desc

  Larry Strobel with Jan Gammel in basket June 1949 Ralph Strobel and MaryLynn Gammel photobombing in window If you have been around me at SKCGS for very long, you have probably heard me tell about a member of my family who asks those innocent questions I should be able to answer at a moment's notice--my Cousin Larry. You also have heard me suggest that every genealogist needs a "Cousin Larry" because his questions often lead to challenging research and opportunities to learn lots of new stuff. The answer to Aunt Minnie's burial question took about three months with searches at the newly opened Washington State Digital Archives and assistance from a member of Eastern Washington Genealogical Society in Spokane and her persistent calls to the funeral home.  Great Aunt Minnie's cremains were still in the vault, after 48 1/2 years!  Final disposition of Great Aunt Minnie is a story for another day. Larry's question about a newly married couples' "honeymo