Careless Transcriptions and Brick Walls Mary Emeline Brown Armstrong Ernst (1833-1910) was my great-great-great-grandmother. She appears on 101 users' trees on Ancestry.com, including mine. Of the 88 public trees on which she is listed, 24 also name her parents, and 20 of those give her parents' names as John Brown and Ruth Nelson, based on the parents' names recorded on Mary's death certificate. For years, those names and Mary's marriage place were all the information I had concerning her origins. Unfortunately, there was only one strong candidate for a possible father named John Brown in the county Mary came from, and no matter how I tried, I could not link him to a daughter named Mary or Emeline or even one close to the right age. Many other folks have gone ahead and linked this John Brown to Mary on their trees, but I couldn't bring myself to do that. There were no records of any kind naming a Ruth Nelson in that county either, nor any marriages between a

Vecteezy image October 20, 2024 What kind of reader are you? Do you become involved with the characters in the book, locating their setting on a map even though the main town is fictional?  Do you enjoy books that have historical settings, either time period or location so you are immersing yourself in a favorite environment or are learning something new?  Do you look forward to the next adventure that a main character may experience, thus following them through a series of books? If any of these traits describes you, you will probably greatly enjoy reading genealogical crime stories.  And you will find several authors to satisfy your hunger. Vecteezy October 20, 2024 Genealogical Mysteries are like lessons in Genealogy The authors take their characters through the trials and tribulations that most of us experience when we are researching.  We can identify with the frustration of a brick wall and rejoice with a character's successful discovery. Good authors keep their characters up

Renton Highlands Library:  https://kcls.org/locations/renton-highlands/ Starting a new endeavor is magic! Recently, we ( SKCGS ) were asked to open a Genealogy Help Desk at the Renton Highlands Library, pictured above. Two of our newer volunteers have been there on the second Thursday mornings beginning this September. I was privileged to be there last Thursday and help a brand new genealogy researcher get started. He walked in with a copy of GenHelp Desk flyer which he picked up at a local senior center.  When I asked what his interests were, he said, his whole family. And I know that when starting something new, there are a lot of hard ways to do it. Please show me the best way. It is not often that I'm asked for advice! It was a pleasure to walk with him over to the KCLS computers, where he navigated to Ancestry.com , to create a new free tree. Ancestry really does make it easy to get started when some basic facts are known. Along the way, I explained that while he may get som

Village, Generated with Bing ImageCreator AI 5 October 2024 What is the " basic unit of society "? It is often said to be the family. However, even in so-called Western societies, where families are often defined as a husband, wife and their children, about half the families I find in records do not meet the monogamy  standard. Often one of the partners has died or divorced, and there are other family members living with them—parents or other relatives of one or more of the partners, former neighbors or their children, "fictive kin," such as a close neighbor or relative of an in-law or former spouse. FAN Principle The more we follow the FAN principle [1] , and research all the people in and around the family, the more strongly we find that the basic unit is the village or neighborhood . While people do occasionally move somewhere new all by themselves, that is often impelled by personal danger of some sort, such as a crime or other threat. Mostly, people moved with

Sankofa bird; public domain image. "The “Sankofa” is a metaphorical symbol used by the Akan people of Ghana, generally depicted as a bird with its head turned backward taking an egg from its back. It expresses the importance of reaching back to knowledge gained in the past and bringing it into the present in order to make positive progress."  https://sankofa.org/about   Looking Back; Looking Forward Thoughtful week here. For many reasons, I've been looking back—and forward, and thinking deeply about both.  My term as president of the South King County Genealogical Society ends May 2025. If you are considering stepping up to ask the membership to entrust you with that responsibility, please contact me or another Board member for help to prepare you. Read about the duties of the President here .  Term Limits According to our Bylaws  Section 5.4.3: "No President or Vice President shall serve more than two consecutive terms in the same office." I want to choose how

Generously Sharing Resources Generated with Bing Image Creator AI, 21 September 2024 It all started with some extra time after one of our first virtual meetings. That day, few people wanted to leave the call and during the following discussion generous book-lovers offered to do look-ups in their treasured volumes. Before we ended, someone suggested meeting again specifically to offer and ask for lookups in various books already on our shelves.  A search of our Society@skcgs.groups.io finds the first message posted about offered books:  Marilyn Schunke's Book . Two great things grew out of this collaboration—our monthly Genealogy Chat , and our  Books: Pleasure, Learning, Lookups wiki page. If you have books to share, please add to that page! and feel free to ask for lookups as well. Don't forget that we have two public book collections too. Most of our books are shelved at Auburn KCLS Library at 1102 Auburn Way South, Auburn, Washington and a smaller one is housed at the Ke

Revisit Old Research   White Goose Flying - Royalty free from pickpic.com Why Rake Up Old Research?  There are lots of reasons to revisit old research. Perhaps: New DNA match New record  Questions from connections Or maybe questions you ask yourself based on new education, more experience and newly-found connections. No matter the reason, I have found that revisiting is more useful than a "do over. " We all learn as we gain experience, both in methodology and as we deepen our understanding of our families and their stories, migrations, and the places where they lived.  DNA Tools Give a Reason for a Fresh Look Recently I asked my cousin to generate a DNA cluster report for my McBee uncle, because he is one generation closer to our ancestors than any of us cousins are. If you have never seen an autocluster, see one here:  https://education.myheritage.com/article/autoclusters-for-dna-matches/ . It is fun to see the report take shape, and the groups are very useful. I share DNA w