What To Do With My Genealogy Library?

 

Does your book-keeping area in your genealogy room look anything like this??? Do you realize that if you get gored by a water buffalo tomorrow and cross the rainbow bridge, and your kids have to deal with this mess that they're not going to speak pleasantly about you?

My Rules of Advice: (1) YOU gathered up all those books; YOU do something with them! (2) Your children 99.9% of the time WILL NOT want all your collected stuff. It's YOUR thing, YOUR hobby, not theirs. Oh, they'll be interested to look at "their" tree online, along with the images you've scanned and added. But the boxes of books and stuff. No way, jose. 

So what to do? Some decisions are easy, other are not so simple. Here's some ideas:

* Totally get rid of all non-genealogy books and magazines. Donate them to a local veterans' home, thrift shop or senior center sale (let another senior citizen deal with them, HA). 

* Sort the remainder by category: PLACE books and FAMILY books. The PLACE books, like History of Sagamon County, send to the Sagamon Public Library! (Book rate at the Post Office is cheap.) Ditto for Vital Records of Lewis County, Wherever, etc. Books like Researching Welsh Ancestors is tricky but likely is out of date anyway. 

* While you're sorting decide what (if anything) you REALLY want to keep for more personal research but that can get out of hand too. And so many books are now available online. (Rule: If you've not used a certain place-resource book in years, out it goes.)

*Family histories are something else. I have a whole shelf of books on certain lines in my family. I have entered the genealogical information on my ancestors gleaned from those books, but still...... (Rule: unless you already have a descendant who really wants them, out they go.) Donate them to the National Society of Bradford Descendants, or some such. 

*What about a family history book authored by you or say your grandfather? That's different. Here's where you might consider donating those type of books:

•   Local genealogical or historical society libraries.
•   State archives or libraries.
•   DAR Library
•   FamilySearch Library
•   American Ancestors Library
•   Library of Congress

Please remember: NOBODY and NOWHERE wants your paper files, your 3-ring stuffed binders. Either YOU get the data entered into an online database and toss the paper in the burn barrel or your family will do it after you're gone and all your years of work will be lost. Like it or not, that water buffalo is waiting for you. 

Do We Like FREE?

 

The Appleton Public Library, in Appleton, Wisconsin (east side of the state, between Milwaukee and Green Bay) is a giant in the land of free genealogy learning resources. Click to their website, www.apl.org, and check it out for yourself. 

Founded in 1847 and named for Samuel Appleton, a wealthy Boston benefactor, the area boomed from the lumber trade and its good location on the Fox River. Oh, and legendary illusionist Harry Houdini grew up in Appleton in the 1870s! (Put that in your getting-ready-for-jeopardy file).

Back to the library. Besides lots of local history resources online, they offer CLASSES...... FREE CLASSES via ZOOM. The Library maintains a YouTube channel offering a wide variety of presentation (and older ones are archived there). Some recent offerings are: Birth & Death Records, Marriage and Divorce Records, Using Ancestry Library Edition, Newspapers, Part 1 & 2, Census Records, Immigration Records, Naturalization Records, City and other directories, Religious Records and Court Records. 

Wouldn't these be great introductions to genealogy? Or as a refresher to the more experienced? Tiz a case of "try it you'll like it." 

President Grant's Centennial Proclamation 1876

 

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Ulysses S. Grant

18th President of the United States: 1869 ‐ 1877

Proclamation 228—Publishing a Resolution of Congress Recommending That Counties and Towns Develop a Historical Sketch for the Nation's Centennial Celebration

May 25, 1876

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

Whereas a joint resolution of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States was duly approved on the 13th day of March last, which resolution is as follows:

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled , That it be, and is hereby, recommended by the Senate and House of Representatives to the people of the several States that they assemble in their several counties or towns on the approaching centennial anniversary of our national independence, and that they cause to have delivered on such day an historical sketch of said county or town from its formation, and that a copy of said sketch may be filed, in print or manuscript, in the clerk's office of said county, and an additional copy, in print or manuscript, be filed in the office of the Librarian of Congress, to the intent that a complete record may thus be obtained of the progress of our institutions during the first centennial of their existence.

And whereas it is deemed proper that such recommendation be brought to the notice and knowledge of the people of the United States:

Now, therefore, I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States, do hereby declare and make known the same, in the hope that the object of such resolution may meet the approval of the people of the United States and that proper steps may be taken to carry the same into effect.

Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, the 25th day of May, A. D. 1876, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundredth.

U.S. GRANT.

By the President:

HAMILTON FISH,

Secretary of State.

Any idea how many of the "several counties or towns" actually responded to this presidential plea????

Family Tree of Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch painter who produced over 2000 works, including 900 paintings. "His work is known for its vibrant colors and expressive style...." He was born in 1853 in the Netherlands and died in 1890 in France. We've all seen examples of his work......

Vincent never married and had no biological children. I doubt very highly that he would accept this rendering of his family tree: 

Port Crescent: A Forgotten Town

 

Port Crescent, Clallam County, Washington, is a historic ghost town today. Once a booming timber port in the late 1800s, today all that's left is a small cemetery situated in a popular camping ground. 

This was once a thriving community with railroad cars brought huge logs to this deep-water port. Port Crescent flourished briefly as an industrial hub thanks to this deep harbor and proximity to timber-rich land. In its day, the town boasted a hotel, general store, post office, sawmills and even a dance hall. When the Northern Pacific Railroad bypassed the town, the place slowly dwindled and eventually it was abandoned.......... all except those resting in the historic cemetery.

This town figures into my family tree:  my son, Benjamin, married Vera in Port Angeles. She was a descendant of Emanuel Wasankari, born 1862 in Finland. He and his brother, August, born 1856, also in Finland, immigrated to Clallam County before statehood (1889). August arranged for Kindricka Pudilla to come from Finland to marry her and had a license dated 8 Jun 1889. But on the day her ship arrived, August was ill and Emanuel met her at the Port Crescent dock..... and promptly married her on June 20th!  Poor dear August never married. 

At 40 Miles An Hour

 

Page 4 of the June 3, 1903 issue of The Spokane Press carried this article that was just too good not to share:

"No. 5, westbound, which left Pendleton Wednesday morning on time in charge of Conductor Maher, was doomed to experience a great novelty before reaching Portland, says the Pendleton East Oregonian. While counting his tickets, the train speeding along at 40 miles an hour, within 30 minutes of Portland, an elderly gentleman who proved to be a doctor informed him that a woman, Mrs. Sears of Sumpter, in the chair car, was in a delicate situation and would undoubtedly add another passenger to his list before reaching Portland. 

"The conductor was horror-struck. It was too near the end of the run to allow such an annoying thing to happen. Besides, No. 5 was on time, and he would not stop and lose five minutes arguing the case with the woman for a month's salary. He swore vengeance on Conductor Nash, who turned the woman over to him in this condition. His first thought was to ask Jim Randall, the engineer, what to do, as he always did on all previous perplexing occasions. But he happened to think that Jim was always out on the road when such things happened at home and his wife attended to them, so Jim would not know. 

"He then determined to put on a bold front and ask the woman to wait till she got to Portland; she had waited this long, she could certainly put if off 25 minutes longer. While he was frantically wondering what to do, things were happening over in the chair car, and by the time he had resolved to make the best of it, a 10-pound bouncing boy had been added to his passenger list and his bosom swelled with pride to think of the good luck of the youngster who might have been born in the North Powder desert, had it not been for the fact that his train was on time.

"His feeling of enmity towards the little woman who had caused the trouble was swept away. He admire her for her judgment as she had evidently intended to reach Portland before the momentous event happened and had only missed her guess by 20 minutes, a feat which even an O.R. & N. conductor would not accomplish."

Anybody have a Mr. Sears, born in 1903 on a railroad coach between Pendleton and Portland, Oregon on their family tree???

(Thanks to a delightful little Spokane publication, Spokane Time Traveler, for this bit.)

Costco Came To Seattle in 1983

 

And where were you on September 15, 1983, if you were living anywhere near 4401-4th Ave So, in Seattle? Were you among the crowds on that historic opening day of the new Costco wholesale store?

The Costco Connection, July 2026, told the story titled "Golden Anniversary." The concept of a warehouse club began in San Diego in 1954 with FedMart. In 1976, the first Price Club warehouse opened in San Diego. Partners Brotman and Sinegal pioneered a new warehouse club company in Seattle and called it Costco. By 1983, Costco and Price Club had merged and in 1997 the company became simply, Costco. Our own Evergreen State became the birthplace of the company's iconic no-frills, membership-based warehouse model with headquarters in Issaquah, Washington. 

The partners were ambitious visionaries. In direct competition from other retail competitors, Costco in 1987 opened their Optical, Bakery, Produce and Meat departments. The famous "hot dog and soda" combo debuted in 1985 and still is only $1.50. 

There are now 35 Costco warehouse stores in Washington. And surely more will come. And there are 650+ stores spread all across America.............Maui or Fairbanks, Costco is the same! (Except for snow.)

Costco customers in 1983 in that first store in Seattle could choose from a nice selection of corded telephones.