Potpourri Day!

Today, loosely defining the word potpourri as a mixture of things, I share some interesting (hopefully) bits and pieces.

EWGS lost another long-time member. Mary Jean Freese was 87 when she passed away recently. Many remember working on various committees with this dedicated member.

For "only" $199 you can get a DNA kit for your dog which will "help you find his long lost relatives" (?????) but help identify breed-related diseases. I think for $199, Tika and I will take our chances.

Here is a puzzle from Ask Marilyn in the Sunday Parade magazine: what do this words have in common, other than having six letters:  abhors,  adopt,  almost,  begins, bijoux, biopsy,  chimps, chinos, chintz?

Got a question? Google has the answer! The above made me wonder if our ancestors enjoyed puzzles:  The first known published crossword puzzle was created by a journalist named Arthur Wynne from Liverpool, and he is usually credited as the inventor of the popular word game. December 21, 1913 was the date and it appeared in a Sunday newspaper, the New York World. 

Now we know. Here's the answer:  the letters in each word appear alphabetically. 

New meeting place for February!

Don't forget to park your car at our new meeting place on February 1st, our next EWGS meeting. Due to the library's closing, we'll be meeting at 153 S. Jefferson for the next couple of years. 

It's easy to find...see the railroad overpass? And there is a 20-car lot plus lots of metered street parking (bring quarters!). 

Melode Hall (whose family owned a dairy once upon a time) will be our presenter. Her topic is Identifying Ancestors in Old Photos. 

Time is 12:30; hope to see you all there!

Differences: Ancestor travels yesterday vs. Our travels today.

In days of  yore, and roughly prior to the Civil War, our ancestors came to America aboard sailing ships......... which voyage could easily take over two long MONTHS.

Today, we can travel from America to most any part of the world in HOURS. Isn't that miraculous?

BUT.  Here in Washington, come 1 Oct 2020, if your drivers license does not have the ENHANCED endorsement, you likely may not be allowed to board your domestic flight. Note, you'll still need a passport for international flights and they can be used for domestic flights too.

BUT. If you don't want to carry a passport just to fly within the U.S., come October 2020 you better have an ENHANCED DRIVERS LICENSE. Word to the wise. 

(This was a blurb in the AAA Magazine.)

A clue why your ancestor changed the spelling of his name?

Working on extracting obituaries from 22 drawers of biographies housed in the Ferris Library at the MAC, Jeanne Coe and I have come upon some interesting stuff. Case in point:

"Eugene S. Eugene, 85, longtime Spokane florist, died yesterday... born in Poland, he'd lived in Spokane for 61 years... his son was also Eugene S. Eugene and "the double name of both the father and son was legally assumed in 1917 when Eugene, Sr., opened his store here. Since his Polish surname was difficult to pronounce, many of his customers called him 'Mr. Eugene.' "

Maybe this scenario does not apply to your family but it surely is food for thought. 

Rain or Snow I Do Not Know.................

Sometimes one picture tells the whole story:

Genealogy Refocus Group: Good meeting was had!

The January 2020 meeting of GRF (Genealogy Refocus Group) met at our new location, the Spokane Public Library out on north Indian Trails Road. Lynda Keenan, as group honcho, did a great job with a large group of attendees. The program was a review of three popular genealogy programs...... ones for YOU to keep on YOUR computer:

Kathy Warren explained about Family Tree Maker;  Sonji Rutan touted Legacy;  John Wilson did a show-and-tell for RootsMagic (he is the local leader of that special interest group).

I gleaned two great quotes from this meeting:  From Lynda Keenan:  "If you can research yourself, you can research anybody."  And from Jamie Shanahan: "Be a researcher not a searcher."

Next meeting is Wednesday, February 19, 1:00, Indian Trail Library. All are welcome.

"He swallowed a snake...." WWHHAAATTT?

Dan Earl hails from Michigan and has been a speaker at the Northwest Regional Genealogy Conference in Arlington, WA, the last three years because YES, he's that good. I understand that he'll be there again this year too.

Dan was one of our professional helpers at the recent Salt Lake Christmas Tour and he showed/told this almost unbelievable story which was published in the newspaper.

Can you imagine? Swallowing a snake? I'd guess he was in "great agonies."  Since no name was given, and it was in Pennsylvania, might it have been an ancestor of yours?

Networking Does Work!

Can you define networking? That's the word used to describe "it's not what you know but who you know." I can testify and verify to you that that is so true!

My granddaughter in law' surname is ABAD which originates in Mexico. When I was last in Salt Lake at the Family History Library, I searched the catalog for books on that surname. There was one listing and when I tried to chase down that book, I learned that it is "currently unavailable" whatever that means.

So here is this 97-page book on the Abad Family, written (of course) in Spanish out there somewhere and how am I gonna get a look at it?  Going back to the Library catalog, and scrolling down, it showed in WorldCat other places that might have that book. One place was the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. 

That's when I had my ahah moment!  I remembered a friend I'd met in Salt Lake years ago who lived in Albuquerque and who was of Spanish ancestry. VIOLA!  I contacted her and of course she is happy to go to that library and check out that book for me. 

Aren't I right? It's not always what you know but who you know? 

Breaking Brick Walls

Hope you didn't miss our January 4th, 2020, EWGS meeting and luncheon. Our webinar/speaker was Lindsay Fulton from the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Her topic was "Do You Have Brick Walls?"

Whether or not you were able to attend, I'll just bet you have brick walls to break down in your genealogy. Lindsay's tips were super but when I asked Google for genealogy breaking down brick walls I got 2,700,000 results! 

Point here is that you don't have to throw up your hands just because you currently have a brick walls. Take the time to educate your self from over TWO MILLION tutorials and see if that helps. Will give you all sorts of new ideas, that's for sure.

Unless your ancestor beamed down from the planet Klingon, there is hope. 

Library Card Collage

Do you have a current Spokane Public Library library card? If so, great! If not, why not? For we genealogists, libraries are still places where miracles happen. Even when the building is remodeled beyond belief. Think of your grandchildren. Take them to get their very own library card and you'll be doing them a humungous push towards their education.

I found it interesting that most all library cards here in Washington are green or brown. Why would you guess that is so???

Tips from the New York Public Library

EWGS member, Jamie Shanahan, shared this link and bit of news with me about a month ago. Sorry, Jamie, for taking so long! But to you all: It's worth the wait. Click and check it out.

Jamie Shanahan	Dec 13, 2019, 8:29 PM
to me

If you wish to share this on the blog until the day we have a FB page that I can post to.  If not, it’s cool.

https://www.nypl.org/blog/2019/06/22/genealogy-tips-research-ancestors-home?fbclid=IwAR16l3QgqtXKW5LGgah71cFYnWqNa2s_h-Dnxp2N9u46pB3UV9ihfno3Qwg

Jamie, with my second, is thinking to hatch a new and hopefully helpful project for EWGS: an interactive Facebook page. This would be a forum/place where each of us in the group (closed group to EWGS members and friends) could post timely tidbits and ask questions. Think you'd be interested???  Please comment yes or no.