Billion Graves vs Find-A-Grave: What's the Difference?

 

What IS the difference between these two "finding grave memorials" websites? 

Both Billion Graves and Find-A-Grave do have similarities. Both websites have cemetery data.The biggest and main difference is that Billion Graves included the GPS coordinates which, they say, follows the Genealogical Proof Standard.

Billiongraves.com was begun in 2010 with the stated mission to provide accurate gravestone data with both images and GPS coordinates. To date, the website has millions of headstone images and they're closing in on nearly two million records.

Find A Grave started in 1995 with the stated mission to post memorials, remembrances and virtual flowers first for celebrities and then for every-day people. They now exceed two million records. 

As I see it today, the best thing for you to do to understand the differences is to click to both sites and click around, seeing what they offer and how the data offered. Pick a little cemetery that you know of and see if there are transcribed memorials for that cemetery. 

Additionally, you can take your own grave marker photos and upload them to both sites, and you can assist with the indexing of the tombstone information. 

Today's Laugh: Many in the Northwest are elk hunters; I hope they and you get a laugh from this postcard. It reads "The morning after the last day of elk season. Idaho." These delightful cards are the creation of Paul Stanton and produced by Clay Salzman. He offers a bunch of similar cards; click to www.duckboy.com.  (He did give me permission to use this image.) 

Remember GPC...Genealogical Publishing Company?

 

Remember getting catalogs from Genealogical Publishing Company (based in Baltmore, Maryland)? I sure do..... sometimes I did order a book but more often I made note of a book pertinent to my research and would look for it next time at a big library. Maybe you did that too?  Well, GPC has morphed into My GPC Library and comes offering books to you in a brand new format: digitally. Click to www.genealogical.com to get all the info. But, bottom line, you'll have access to 800 books for a yearly subscription of $135, or for six months for $75, or for three months for $45.  (What a great idea for our long winter days, no?)

Before you read on, here's a warm fuzzy for you from EWGS member Rosemary Braun. She has a granddaughter born when her parents were in South America, and was named Xochitl....... "so-CHEE."  The name is Mayan and means "beautiful flower."  Rosemary assures us that she loves her name. 

Breakdown of the major categories:

• Industry leading how to books and manuals – an unsurpassed collection of more than 140 of our best titles that you cannot find anywhere else
• More than 375 genealogy books on colonial American families
• Over 239 books on New England or Mayflower genealogy
• Nearly 200 immigration titles covering Colonial America to about 1865
• Native American guides and records
• The best collection of titles on Royal and Noble genealogy
• More than 90 titles on Irish and Scottish genealogy
• Guidebooks for African American genealogy and records of families prior to 1870
• Nearly 800 titles in all, and growing

Coulee Dam Reminiscences

 

This is one of the best non-fiction books I've read lately. It's the story of "Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics." 

College rowing had been a team sport since the early 1800s and began in New York. By 1900, many major colleges had rowing teams and the competition was fierce.  I literally couldn't put the book down as I learned about the history of this sport and the teams at the University of Washington in particular.  I do recommend this as a worthwhile winter read for you all.

What I want to share with you today begins on page 122 and I both quote and paraphrase:  "In one small corner of the country (Washington state), something large was beginning to stir that terribly hot summer..... early on August 4th (1936) .... folks from Seattle climbed into their automobiles and headed east. People in Spokane filled their picnic hampers and loaded them into their cars and headed west. By late morning, the roads were black with automobiles converging from all directions on one unlikely spot: Ephrata, a forlorn little town of 516 people, out in the desolate scablands, not far from the Columbia River and a 50-mile long canyon called the Grand Coulee.

"By midafternoon, 20,000 people had gathered behind a rope line in Ephrata. When Franklin D. Roosevelt appeared on the platform before them his cigarette holder angled jauntily upward, the crowd roared its welcome. Then Roosevelt began to speak, leaning forward on his podium, clutching it. In measured tones, but with rising emotion, he began laying out a vision of the benefits that the new Grand Coulee Dam would bring to this arid land in exchange for the $175 million public dollars it would cost.........."

Roosevelt then spoke of the many benefits and in closing said:  "We are going to see, I believe, without own eyes, electricity and power made so cheap that they will become a standard article of use....for every house within the reach of an electrical transmission line." 

While it was not mentioned in this book, no doubt Roosevelt spoke to the thousands of "arid lane" that could be transformed into productive agricultural land. 

I wasn't there; you weren't there, but with this author's words, we can well imagine the day, the crowd and his welcome news. 

Bits & Pieces, Tips & Trivia

 Who has not seen this fantastic image of the Titanic's bow as she rests nearly a mile deep in the Atlantic:

Bet you did not know:

• She was the largest moving man-made object until 1912.
• Some 4000 workers took 2 years to build her in Belfast, Ireland
• She cost $10,000,000 in 1912 dollars (about $322,000,000 today)
• The 4-day, one way, first-class passage cost about $80,000 in 1998 dollars
• Lifeboat requirements were based on tonnage, not passenger count
• New York Evening Sun ran a headline: ALL SAVED FROM TITANIC
• The 1997 movie, Titanic, cost 24 times what the ship itself cost to build in 1911 (you do the math!)
• One body, still floating in its life vest, was found 2 months la
• More than 3000 books have been written about the Titanic
• The last funnel on Titanic was  "dummy" for ventilation and aesthetics and no smoke came out of it
• The Titanic Historical Society, founded in 1963, has 5000 members; PO Box 5153, Indian Orchard MA  01151

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August, 2023: Miami, Florida:  Archaeologists have found a submerged gravestone in Dry Tortugas National Park near the Florida Keys and they say the discovery could also mean there's a cemetery and hospital in the area. The site could have been used for quarantined yellow fever patients on a small island that has since eroded into the sea.

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Jeanne Coe, a longtime member of EWGS, does indexing under the SCRIBE project for the Washington State archives. She notes odd and unusual names.......... like these:

• America Jane Chamberlain, b. Oregon
• Ralph Oregon Dunbar, b. Illinois
• Mary Nevada Kiner, b. 1877 in Iowa
• Nevada Melvina Cameron, b. 1901 in Washington
• Hazel Inez Price, b. 1892 in King County, WA; her father was Lake Erie Price, b. Minnesota and her mother was Capitola Albatross Fuller, b. Kansas.
• Denver Colorado Sayler, b. 1906 in Kansas

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From Kenneth Roberts' book, "Trending Into Maine," published in 1938, I learned that the Salish word for white person was soo-yap-ee, which meant "upside down face." This happened because most 19th century Euro-American men wore beards. 

Appleton, Wisconsin, Public Library

 We do tend to head straight to the "big" libraries in the big cities and so easily overlook what the smaller town libraries might have for us. Case in point, the Appleton, Wisconsin, Public Library in Appleton, Wisconsin, located northeast of Madison, the state capitol. 

This town of about 75,000 citizens, has just opened a brand new library.... doesn't it look both grand and enticing????

Why should you care about the Appleton Wisconsin Public Library? Because they offer free genealogy resource/research monthly programs via ZOOM, that's why. 

Their program quickly upcoming on Saturday, November 18, 2023, at 2:00 Central Time is titled "Researching German Ancestry". Link to register is: https://bit.ly/3Xx1XHK (or likely from their website..... if you don't register, you won't get the ZOOM link). 

The Saturday, December 9th program is titled "Making Sense of All the Research You've Done." The link to register is: https://bit.ly/3x1gtKm. Again, do register to get the ZOOM link. 

The library hasn't posted any information about their 2024 programs but I imagine that these offerings will continue. 

Hills: Barriers To Growth In Spokane & Seattle

 Why was Spokane first settled along the river, east to west through what's now downtown? There was a simple reason in those early days: the south hill.  A couple of years ago, Lynn Krogh and I enjoyed a Southside Community Center's history tour led by Richard Sola. Here is some of what we learned that day:

There were some 50,000 people in Spokane by 1900. They mainly arrived on the railroad. They settled east to west in the valley because the south hill was a real barrier to growth. There was no way to get up the basalt-formation hills until roads were cleared and especially until the streetcars arrived. There were bridges across the Spokane River to access the north side and so settlement first spread north. 

Geologically, Dr. Sola taught, is that the Dishman Hills is the original seashore boundary (where the Pacific plate subducts). The several Ice Age Floods bypassed this area to it kept its good soil and was perfect for agriculture.

The first whites in the area were the fur traders; very few came between 1830 and 1870 because there was no easy way to get here except on the trail up from Walla Walla (which is why these towns south were settled before Spokane). 

Today we think nothing of the rather steep drive south up the Monroe Street hill (except when its icy!) but yesterday that incline was considered nigh onto impassable.... until it was not. 

Other Washington cities have had their steep road problems. Consider the massive regrading project in Seattle:

Quoting from Wikipedia:  "Seattle's first 58 regrades "consisted largely of cutting the tops off high places and dumping the dirt into low places and onto the beach".^[4] The most dramatic result of this was along that former beach, filling the land that constitutes today's Central Waterfront. Today's Western Avenue and Alaskan Way lie on this landfill.^[4]"  

I do suggest that you click to Wikipedia to read the rest of the story about

the regrading of Seattle's hills. 

Eastern Washington Genealogical Society collecting for Toys for Tots

 

It's time to get started on your Christmas Shopping!

Once again this year, EWGS will be a BIG participant in the Toys4Tots/Gold Star Mother's Toy Campaign.  

We will have 4 different drop off sites:

North: Jennilyn Weight 509-467-5703

South: Carol Anderson 509-981-2759

East: Lola McCreary     509-939-9246

West: Lynn Krogh          509-939-3131

You may drop off toys with any of these folks (but call first),

or even easier...bring your toy to the December 2nd EWGS meeting at Shadle!

If you absolutely cannot face shopping, please call Lynn Krogh; she and her grandchildren (ages 4,8,12) will shop for you!  

 

Please remeber that the toys should be new, unwrapped, and suitable for a child age 2-12.

The deadline is December 10th. 

Comic Strips: Yesterday & Today

 
What would you guess was the longest running newspaper comic strip in the U.S.?? A strip most like your grandparents laughed over? 

If you guess the Katzenjammer Kids, you win a prize! This strip ran from 1897 t0 2006. 

Next in order were...... do you read any of these today? Which ones might you remember your parents, or grandparents, chuckling over?  P.S. They're not all carried in our local newspaper. Makes one wonder how they can still be relevant today...... Prince Valiant?

• Gasoline Alley - 1918 to now
• Barney Google & Snuffy Smith - 1919 to now
• Little Orphan Annie - 1924 to 2010
• Popeye - 1929-1994
• Blondie - 1930 to now
• Dick Tracy - 1931 to now
• Prince Valiant - 1937 to now
• Brenda Starr, Reporter - 1940 to 2011
• Beetle Bailey - 1950 to now
• Dennis the Menace - 1951 to now
• B.C. - 1958 to now

Since we're enjoying humor today, here's a "Chuckleberry" for you (from the Huckleberry Press):

"Okay, so a Texan rancher comes upon a farmer from Maine. The Texan looks at the Mainer and asks, "Say, how much land you think you got here?" The Mainer answers, "Bout 10 acres, I'd say."  The Texan (boasting), "Well, on my lot, it takes me all day to drive completely around my property." The Mainer (doubtless with a straight face) replies, "Yep, I got one of them trucks too." 

FREE: Genealogy Brick Wall Busters!

 

Genealogy Brick Wall Busters Free eBook

Family Tree Magazine

https://familytreemagazine.com › Resources › eBooks

Stuck in your genealogy research? In this free ebook, our experts show you ways to overcome some typical (but still frustrating) research challenges.

Family Tree Magazine offers all sorts of good stuff, some for pay and many for FREE. Such is this offer........ a 32-page guide that can be yours for FREE to download.

This book is comprised of reprinted articles from the FT Magazine, all helpful, insightful and How-I-Did-It articles. Why not go see..... it's FREE! We can always learn something new and a review is also always helpful.

While your at the www.familytreemagazine.com website, check out their other offerings and consider subscribing............. why not give yourself a November treat?