Eastern Washington Genealogical Society Blog Named as One of FTM's Top 40 Genealogy Blogs!

The Eastern Washington Genealogical Society blog has been honored, once again, to be named as one of Family Tree Magazine's Top 40 Genealogy Blogs! We are in respected company as one of six genealogical organizations so chosen: the Brooklyn Historical Society blog, NARAtions (the National Archives blog), New York History, Sandusky History, and Seeking Michigan. To view the other 34 blogs who are named as recipients of this annual award, please read the article on the Family Tree Magazine website.

The EWGS blog is co-written by the society's current president, Donna Potter Phillips; the society's researcher, Charles Hansen; and the Rest Stop Fundraiser Chairperson, Miriam J. Robbins. All three have personal genealogy blogs of their own (click on their linked names to learn more). The EWGS blog was honored in 2011 to receive this award for the first time. Thank you to all those who nominated our blog for this award.

The EWGS Blog is One of Family Tree Magazine's 40 Best Genealogy Blogs for 2011!

Have you heard? Family Tree Magazine has named the EWGS Blog as one of its 40 Best Genealogy Blogs for 2011!

This site is all about community: It shares frequent news and information with a small but involved group based out of Spokane. Find a great page of links for those researching roots in eastern Washington state.

Our blog was listed as one of five in the Local and Regional Research category, along with distinguished blogs such as the Brooklyn Historical Society Blog, the California Genealogical Society and Library Blog (which also won last year), the New York History Blog, and the Sandusky History Blog out of Ohio. Other categories included Everything Blogs, Cemeteries, Technology Blogs, Heritage Groups, Research Advice, New Blogs, and My Family History. Go here to see the complete list and to add the entire 40 to your Google Reader account.

The EWGS Blog is written by a team of bloggers: Charles Hansen, Miriam Robbins Midkiff, and Donna Potter Phillips, each of whom writes at least one other genealogy blog of their own! We encourage you to check out the links and widgets in the sidebars of this blog (if you're viewing this message in a feed reader such as Google Reader, or have subscribed to receive posts in your email, you'll want to go directly to the blog to see these features) and also to visit our website. We'd also like to express our appreciation to the many individuals who nominated and voted for our blog and to the expert panel who made the tough decisions of whittling down the list to just 40 winners!

The Eastern Washington Genealogical Society Blog Nominated as One of Family Tree Magazine's 40 Best Genealogy Blogs for 2011

The Eastern Washington Genealogical Society Blog has been nominated as one of Family Tree Magaine's 40 Best Genealogy Blogs for 2011. This was a reader-submitted nomination, and we thank our readers who nominated our blog.

Family Tree Magazine offers the following information for the voting process:

In the July 2011 issue of Family Tree Magazine, we’ll name the 40 Best Genealogy Blogs, or Family Tree 40. It's time to vote on the blogs nominated by the genealogy community.

The nominees are divided into eight categories. In each category, please choose five blogs (you'll get an error if you choose too many).

For category descriptions and Family Tree 40 qualifications, please see http://blog.familytreemagazine.com/insider/2010/11/15/NominateAGenealogyBlogForThe2011FamilyTree40.aspx. Voting is open until 11:59 p.m. Monday, Dec. 20 [Note: No time zone is given.]. You may vote multiple times.

You can click through to visit the blogs from the post at http://www.geneabloggers.com/family-tree-magazines-40-genealogy-blogs-vote-favorite/.

You can also choose to click on the image above and it will be placed in the margin of this blog. Thank you for your support!

WSGS Volunteer Awards John Ellingson

This is a picture of Donna Phillips EWGS President awarding John Ellingson the WSGS Volunteer award for 2010. Each member society of WSGS was supposed to nominate 2 people for the annual WSGS Volunteer award and John Ellingson was one of the two nominated by EWGS for that award for 2010, John did not go to the WSGS Conference in Chehalis this year so Donna brought the award home to give to John.
Congratulations John.

EWGS Blog Listed as One of OnlineUniversities.com's 50 Best Blogs for Genealogy Geeks

The Eastern Washington Genealogical Society Blog has received its first recognition in the geneablogging (genealogy blog) world! OnlineUniversities.com has listed it among its 50 Best Blogs for Genealogy Geeks, specifically with 13 other blogs categorized under Specific Research Projects:

Even if you’re not from the Spokane, WA, area, you might have fun peeking at posts about genealogy societies, local culture, and the Pacific Northwest.

So what do online universities have to do with genealogy? I took a look at their website and blog and found this explanation:

Americans are proud of their melting-pot culture, but genealogy is also a popular past-time and even profession, as family ancestry is complex and often hard to define. It takes a lot of research to untangle the web of genealogy in order to create a clear family tree, but as an online university student, you’re probably used to taking on similarly large projects. Either as a break from studying, a supplement to your history classes, or even for inspiration to start your own family ancestry research, check out these 50 blogs on genealogy.

Thank you to Kaitlyn Cole and OnlineUniversities.com for recognizing the EWGS blog, and congratulations to the other winners!