https://www.hispanicheritagemonth.gov/about.html   "Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. "The day of September 15 is significant because it is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September18, respectively. Also, Columbus Day or Día de la Raza, which is October 12, falls within this 30 day period." All this according to the official site,  https://www.hispanicheritagemonth.gov/about.html . Many of us never learned the history of Americans who were not colonists or immigrants from elsewhere, but there were many people living in what is now the USA when colonists arrived, and many in what w

Courtesy Pixabay In the past ten or twelve years a new fiction genre has gained popularity--genealogical crime mysteries. Some rely on historical research to solve modern day mysteries while others use modern research resources such as DNA to solve cold cases, and some, both. Some of the new literature is nonfiction as people present their search for family through adoption and other family dynamics. As a result there is a wealth of entertaining reading material available.  By now, most of you are familiar with Nathan Dylan Goodwin and his Morton Farrier, Forensic Genealogist series which has its tenth book in progress. Nathan has also written two books in his Venetor series which focuses on solving cold cases with DNA. Nathan is presently researching for the third book in that series as well. At this point you loyal readers are expecting me to list other authors and, if I do, I am sure to neglect somebody's favorite so I suggest you go online to your local library or Amazon books

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Treasure_hunter.jpg Have you ever started a crazy-seeming project? Labor Day weekend is our annual work party up at our cabin outside the Mt. Rainier National Park, where we cut, split and stack the winter's firewood, and do general fix-up and cleanup jobs.  Dad, Ted Cowan, cutting wood ca. 1979 For me, it was an attempt at some family tree repair, but without any internet. My daughter brought up her mother-in-law, and I had prepared for the conversation by creating some screenshots of her part of the family tree. That was somewhat productive, because I realized I had followed her step-mother's line rather than her mother's -- because her stepmother's obituary mentioned her as a daughter by her unusual name, so I just knew I was right! But this was the first time she had seen my (incorrect) work.  A few days ago, I drove up to to Seattle to spend the afternoon with her, taking a fresh look at the tree. One of the first hints for h

Picture courtesy Freepix and Vecteezy This month SKCGS celebrates FIVE years of blogging! We've covered many topics from basic techniques to more involved methodology.  Members have contributed marvelous family stories and pictures.  You have truly made this your blog! Several of our blogs have featured online resources, either as a topic or as a source of information.  One of our more frequent of these is "Chronicling America", the free  online digital newspaper collection site at the Library of Congress .  The Library of Congress has programs aimed at middle and high school students as part of their National History Day competition.  One of the resources for research is, of course, Chronicling America and LOC is presenting: Chronicling America: "Turning Points in History" Wednesday, September 6, 2023 1 - 2 pm EDT Explore Turning Points in History and learn to use Chronicling America, a freely-available collection of historic American newspapers at the Library

How to help others is a live question on my mind, because my daughter's mother-in-law is in town, and is interested to learn more about her family. A few years back, I created a tree (in my own tree) for her son Jason, my son-in-law. We'll soon be meeting so she can see what I've found so far. Also, we had a very fun time at the Genealogy Help Desk last Thursday at the Auburn KCLS Library. If you would like to practice helping others and live close to Auburn, Federal Way or Renton,  please write to Outreach@skcgs.org to volunteer.  Libraries in those locations are asking for us to come help!! All Together Or Separate? Common question -- why make someone else's tree part of your own, as I did? Isn't it better to have separate trees? There are advantages either way, in my opinion. The most important factor I think of, is this from Family Tree Magazine,  " keep in mind that the further back in time you start splitting your files, the more likely it is that you’ll

Bannner for  https://10millionnames.org/   Lately, American Ancestor's new project has been everywhere in the news, from  Michael Strahan  going to Shankleville on  Good Morning America , NPR's All Things Considered , to the Rev. Al Sharpton show on MSNBC.  Their mission: "10 Million Names is a collaborative project dedicated to recovering the names of the estimated 10 million men, women, and children of African descent who were enslaved in pre- and post-colonial America (specifically, the territory that would become the United States) between the 1500s and 1865." American Ancestors, who is spearheading this project, is also known as the New England Historic Genealogical Society, based on Boston, Massachusetts . FamilySearch says about them,  Founded in 1845, the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) is the oldest such society in the United States. They maintain an Internet database of over 100 million names, including vital records, compiled genealogie

Catoctin Furnace, Frederick County, Maryland   Catoctin Furnace operated in Maryland in the 18th and 19th centuries using both free and enslaved African American labor. Harney et al. analyzed DNA from 27 individuals from an African American cemetery that was excavated 40 years ago during highway construction (see the Perspective by Jackson). The authors found genetic evidence of biological family groups, modern-day African populations with whom they may have shared ancestry, and even possible distant relatives in the United States through identity-by-descent comparisons with consenting customers of 23andMe. This study demonstrates that when studied responsibly with input from stakeholders, long-buried DNA can be used to uncover obfuscated or forgotten histories of marginalized individuals.  Corinne Simonti wrote the above abstract of the study by Harney et al. which can be seen at  https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ade4995 .  "Despite the hardship evident in the remains,