Montana State Genealogical Society Conference

Montana State Genealogical Society Home Page

Please Note: As of 31 July 2017, the original room block has sold out. A few more rooms at the Big Horn Resort have been added at the adjusted rate of $99.00/night plus tax, but these are expected to sell out quickly as well.
Click for downloadable PDF Form:

Registration Brochure & Form

There will also be 3 FREE WORKSHOPS starting at 5:00 on Thursday afternoon, September 21, 2017.

These are informal gatherings where attendees interested in learning about the topic can ask their questions and learn from each other.

Topics offered this year are:

First Families & Early Settlers of Montana: Have questions on the application process? This one is for you

Norwegian Research: Get help with this often tricky and confusing area

DNA Q & A's: Confused about DNA? Ask & Learn from each other's experiences

Coming Early and looking places to visit in Billings? Click here for some ideas!

Check back often for more details!
For more information, contact Verba Valentine at blgsmarket@aol.com

Family Search to End Sending Microfilm to Family Search Centers

Family Search will stop sending microfilms to the Family Search Centers September 1, 2017.
They say they will have all the microfilm digitized by 2020, and they have been working on the most requested films first.

Here is the story from Family History Daily

Eastern Washington Genealogical Society June Meeting

 Army Medicine during the American Civil War 1861-1865    
Saturday, June 3
Army Medicine during the American Civil War 1861-1865  (EWGS Meetings)
12:30 pm to 3:00 pm
Spokane Public Library Auditorium, Downtown Spokane
Presenter: Mike Inmann

Mike Inman is a retired Firefighter living in Spokane with his wife MJ and has been reenacting for 26 years.  He does reenacting and living history including the frontier army of the 1880's focusing on Forts Sherman and Spokane as well as portraying a surgeon 1861-1865 with the Washington Civil War Association.  Mike has an extensive library for research to questions and some details of ancestors who fought in the Civil War.  Mike also has a vast array of equipment including original medical instruments that he displays and allows people to handle so they can get a hands on experience, for example, of what an actual Civil War period amputation saw feels like.  He not only reenacts throughout the Pacific Northwest but has attended many Civil War reenactments back east as well as participated in filming for Civil War oriented movies.  Mike strives to educate or as he likes to say, "de-Hollywood the American Civil War" as well as entertain through both a presentation and a question and answer period.

The program is designed to give both military and civilian medical history involving the armies of the Union and Confederacy.  But the presentation can go in any direction the audience wants such as drug use, medical procedures, nursing activity, field hospital organization, statistics, etc.

Go to "Download: Meeting Handout." to obtain the presenter's handout.

Cookies & Social Time: 12:30 PM.  Meeting starts at 1:00 PM
Download: Meeting Handout.

NeWGS 2017 Fall Seminar

A Day with Dollarhide

Saturday – September 16, 2017

To be held at the Ambulance Shack

      at the north end of Colville (just east of the Roundabout)
 

Saturday, September 16^th the Northeast Washington Genealogical Society will be holding their 36^th annual Fall Seminar at the “Ambulance Shack” located at the North Roundabout in Colville.

The featured presenter will be William Dollarhide; renowned genealogy lecturer and author. He has been in pursuit of his family origins since 1971 and involved professionally with genealogy since 1980. He has written over 120 published magazine articles relating to genealogical research; has developed several software systems for genealogy; and he is the author of over 30 books, including Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses, 1790-1920, one of the best-selling genealogy books of all time

Topics for our workshop include:

  American Migration Routes, 1750-1800

 Using Deeds to Trace the Trails of Your Ancestors
 You Know About Census Records But What About Census Substitutes?
 Civil War Genealogy

Mr. Dollarhides numerous books will be available for purchase during breaks and lunch.

Mark your calendars now! You don't want to miss this one. In fact, why not bring a friend? Remember you don't have to be a member to attend.

Registration is at 8:30 a.m. with the program beginning at 9:00 a.m.  Lunch is included. The Registration Form is attached below. Please contact Karen Struve at 509-690-8380 should you have questions.

Registration Form ( https://newgs.org/upload/events/files/1490995286_2017RegistrationForm.pdf )

Eastern Washington Genealogical Society May Meeting

Saturday, May 6 They Wore Union Blue  (EWGS Meetings) 12:30 pm to 3:00 pm Spokane Public Library Auditorium, Downtown Spokane Presenter: Gordon Struve from Sons of Veterans of the Civil War   Gordy was initiated as a member of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) in December 2015. Through has genealogy research since retirement, he has obtained documented proof of his ancestral connection to six Civil War Union veterans; three of which are direct line and three are collateral. He is a Charter Life Member of the Fort Walla Walla Camp No. 3 SUVCW organization headquartered in Kennewick, Washington. This presentation will start with a brief historical review of the Civil War era and the anti-slavery issue that preceded the war. A chronology will take us to the formation of the Grand Army of the Republic which followed the war and then on to the creation of the SUVCW. A description of the modern day SUVCW organization will be presented including its mission to preserve the memory of soldiers who fought in the war and to support education of our school-aged children about elements of the war. The formal presentation will move on to linking with the SUVCW home page and database websites.   Cookies & Social Time: 12:30 PM.  Meeting starts at 1:00 PM Download: Presentation Outline

Library Construction Update

Stopped by the library today to take some pictures of the construction detours.

Looking north on Lincoln they have closed the crosswalk in front of the library across Main. You need to cross Lincoln first then Main and Lincoln again.

Cars heading north on Lincoln by the library, There is two lanes from Spokane Falls Boulevard to Main.

Looking South on Lincoln, notice right lane right only heading to Monroe, left lane either right to Monroe or left on Main.

Here is the new driveway on the right side of Lincoln that goes to the library parking lot.

This is from the second floor of the library showing the ramps to the parking garage and the lanes leading to Lincoln.

Here is a car leaving the garage and waiting for a hole in the  traffic to exit onto Lincoln.

They have closed the sidewalk heading north along Lincoln past the library book drop, so you can not walk to the garage ramps now. They have also removed all the parking along Lincoln so the traffic can move  efficiently.

This is the sidewalk along Main heading towards Monroe, it is closed just past the bike racks. The sidewalk on the south side of Main is still open, but a miserable way to get to it, across Lincoln to the east, south across Main then west across Lincoln again.

What You Missed April 1, 2017 DNA Seminar

The day started out interesting as the Video hookup for the Country Holmes Christian Church would not hook up to the computer of the speaker Mary Kathryn Kozy without an adapter and no one had one on them so the new projector that EWGS had just purchased was hooked up and worked perfectly. It was supposed to be demonstrated at the board meeting today, but everyone got to see it work.

 Hooking up our new EWGS projector

EWGS President Pat Bayonne-Johnson started the meeting a 9 am.

After introducing guests and the treasurers report Mary Kathryn Kozy presented her first session on DNA Fundamental and mitochondrial testing. A short break to try to eat up some of the cookies, brownies and other sweets and then on to second session. This one was on Y-DNA testing and its applications to Genealogy and a little on X-DNA. Both of these sessions were very informative and a lot of questions asked and answered so I hope everyone understands DNA now.

Next was lunch and sampling all the goodies brought in by EWGS members. Same problem as always way too much food and not enough people to eat it all up.

Mary Kathryn Kozy answering questions while she ate lunch.

Next the drawing for the door prize and raffle prizes and they did not even get close to my numbers.

The last two sessions started early in order to get done early so we could get home to watch the Gonzaga and South Carolina basketball game. ( The Zags won and will play for the championship on Monday)

First session was Can you Help Me Find My Cousins? Understanding Autosomal DNA. This one has changed the scientific thought on how DNA was passed from generation to generation. The last session was Using your Results, Gedmatch and other Third Party Tools. Not sure an hour to go over these tools could even scratch the surface of this subject, and then new tools are coming online also.