The 32nd Carnival of Genealogy is Posted!

Susan Kitchens of Family Oral History Using Digital Tools is the host of the 32nd Carnival of Genealogy. The topic? "Family Stories of Wartime," in honor of Ken Burns' new documentary series, "The War," coming to PBS on Sunday, September 23rd.

"What is a Carnival?" you may be asking. A blog carnival is like an online magazine, but instead of the articles being all in one place, they are posted on the individual blogs of each author. The links to all the posts, along with summaries and/or descriptions for the topic of the carnival, are posted at the blog of the host--in this case, Susan. Just as you enjoy reading a genealogy magazine such as Internet Genealogy, Family Tree Magazine, or Ancestry, you will also enjoy reading the posts from the Carnival of Genealogy. As usual, there are a variety of interesting and informative posts that were submitted for this particular Carnival. I learn something new in the fields of genealogy and history at every one! The Carnival is also a great way to "meet" other genea-bloggers (our invented moniker for "genealogy blogger") and discover great new blogs to add to your feed reader! You may find a genea-blogger who writes about an area where your ancestors once lived, learn some helpful research tips that could break down your brick wall, or discover a great trick that could improve your Internet-researching skills!

I encourage you to head to Susan's blog to start reading!

Military Records Mini-Seminar

Donna Potter Phillips will be presenting her new Military Records program at the Whitman County Genealogical Society's mini-seminar to be held this Saturday morning, September 15th in Pullman, Washington. A continental breakfast will be served at 9:30 AM, followed by the program at 10:00. Pre-registration is appreciated, although walk-ins are welcome. Registration will cost $5.00. For more information and a pre-registration form, visit the WCGS website.

Sno-Isle Genealogical Society Fall Symposium

The Sno-Isle Genealogical Society is presenting a fall symposium on Genealogy & Technology: New Tools for Digging Roots, to be held Saturday, October 20, 2007 from 8:30 AM - 3:45 PM at Lynnwood Elks Lodge, Lynnwood, Washington. Here is the program lineup:

1. Gary A. Zimmerman, Ph.D., President of Fiske Library: "Finding Digitized Resources of Genealogical Value"
2. David A. Ault, Ph.D., Chair of the Seattle Genealogical Society's Computer Interest Group: "Internet-Based Genealogical Research"
3. Margaret Robe Summitt, Ph.D., a member of Sno-Isle Genealogical Society: "Solutions to Brick Walls"
4. David C. Abernathy, Computer special Interest Chairman for Eastside Genealogical Society; "USB Devices, Tips & Tricks, Questions & Answers

For more information, including a brochure/registration form, please click here.

North Idaho's German Heritage - Lecture

I apologize for getting this information out so late. It was announced at the meeting on Saturday, and comes from Dr. Steve Barrett, Archivist of the Idaho Public Archives and Research Library, Boise, Idaho:

Twin Rivers Genealogical Society presents Arthur Hart, "North Idaho's German Heritage," September 13, 2007 at 7 p.m., Student Union Building, Room 143, Lewis-Clark State College, Lewiston, Idaho. For more information, please contact Hellenmerie Walker, 208-798-1864.

Arthur A. Hart, director emeritus of the Idaho State Historical Society, is the author of many books and articles on Idaho and Northwest history. His talk will feature such notable citizens as John P. Vollmer of Lewiston, who was born in Germany in 1847 and became North Idaho's richest man. Vollmer is credited with providing ideas for some of this friend Mark Twain's stories.

This program is funded in part by the Idaho Humanities Council, a nonprofit organization that serves as the state-based affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Admission is free, and this presentation is open to the public.

What is a Blog and Why Does EWGS Need One?

What is a Blog?

A blog is short for a web log or web journal. It's easiest to think of a blog as an online newsletter or newspaper. The most recent articles (called "posts" in the blogging world) will be listed at the top of this home page. Older posts are available as you scroll down the page, and the oldest posts are available by accessing the blog archive in the right-hand side bar. You can also search for your favorite post by using the search box in the upper left-hand corner of this page.

Just as a newspaper allows letters to the editor, so a blog usually has a place where you can add your comments of approval or disapproval on each post. I'll be writing more on that later.

Why Does EWGS Need a Blog?

There are many reasons a blog would benefit the Eastern Washington Genealogy Society as a whole, as well as its individual members.

1. Information on a blog is instantaneous. As soon as a post is written by one of our reporters (bloggers), it will appear online. There will be no waiting for publication, like the information found in our quarterly, The Bulletin of the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society, nor will you need to wait for the end of the day to read news, as you do if you are subscribed to the digest version of our mailing list.
2. A blog is easily and instantly corrected. If one of our bloggers makes a mistake in writing a post, they can quickly go back and fix it, instead of having to write another message, as we do with our mailing list.
3. Local genealogical news and reviews of recent meetings will be other purposes of this blog. We will be featuring other local societies and their happenings, so that you, our reader, can benefit from attending other workshops and hearing speakers visiting in the area. If you missed one of our society meetings, you can "catch up" on what happened by reading a review of the last meeting.
   
4. Whenever you read about genealogy news in a genealogy magazine or other publication, it is usually several months old. For instance, this last week, there was a major upset regarding Ancestry.com's Internet Biographical Database. It was huge, and if you are not a regular reader of a genealogy blog, you missed it! Since these kinds of issues directly or indirectly affect you, it's vital that you keep up-to-date with the online genealogy world. This blog will help you do that. (You can read more about the IBD turmoil at Miriam's genealogy blog here and here.)
   
5. Genealogy societies that are thriving are using blogs. We've all heard about the demise of societies, and while some blame the Internet, others are realizing that survival depends upon changing with the times. If we want to see younger, more active members joining our society, we need to offer them a society that appeals to them. Jasia, a genealogy blogger who was interviewed on this subject by Family Tree Magazine not long ago, has written a series on this topic on her blog, Creative Gene (see her series here). We bloggers here at EWGS have been inspired by another genealogy blogger, Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings, who as the president of the Chula Vista (California) Genealogy Society, has created a society blog, the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe.
   
6. We want to keep the Inland Northwest, the country, and even the globe informed of our society's doings. Why? Because you never know where in the world someone is living who may have Eastern Washington roots! Our blog will show up in Google searches for Spokane genealogy. And as the host for the Washington State Genealogical Conference of 2009, we want to keep potential conference attendees abreast of what's happening here in Spokane.
   

Who Will Be Writing This Blog?

Currently, Miriam Robbins Midkiff is our editor-in-chief (administrator). She has been blogging about genealogy since January 2006, and of all our bloggers, has the most experience with this particular mode of communication. Our reporters (team members) include Donna Potter Phillips, who has several decades of experience writing about genealogy for popular national genealogy magazines and newsletters (Ancestry, Family Chronicle, and Bill Dollarhide's Genealogy Bulletin, to name a few). She also currently writes the "News Hotline" and "Stories from Our Cemeteries" features for our Bulletin, and is a past columnist for the "Heritage Hunting" feature of The Spokesman-Review, our local newspaper. Bette Butcher Topp is twice a past president of our society, and has been one of our most active contributors to our mailing list in the past. Because she has a way of keeping her ear to the ground to find genealogy news to share with the society, we have invited her to join our blogging team. Our society researcher, Charles Hansen, has been honored by many local societies and organizations for his volunteer contributions. Charles is one of the minority of our members who actually has Eastern Washington roots, and his experience in researching local records in the Spokane County Courthouse, the archives of the Eastern Washington State Historical Society, and our public library is invaluable. Like Donna and Bette, he is a Distinguished Service Member of EWGS.

Does This Blog Replace Our Mailing List, Bulletin, or the Newsletter?

No, it does not. The purposes of our mailing lists, our Bulletin, and our newsletter (the handout you receive at society meetings) are different from the purpose of our blog, and each of those communication pieces are still necessary and vital for our society.

While our mailing list will continue to be used for news updates, it is also a terrific place to leave queries (questions); that is not something the blog will be used for. Our Bulletin also will carry news, but in addition, it has lists of extracted records, articles, book reviews, and entries for our annual literary competitions. The blog cannot replace this rich resource. And because not everyone in our society has home access to the Internet, we continue to need our newsletter.
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In later posts, I'll address how to use this blog, how to leave comments, and how to "subscribe" to this blog. I hope you'll return here often!

"Death & Taxes"

Death & Taxes....that's the title of Susan Beamer's presentation to EWGS one week from today, Saturday, September 8th, 2007, at the downtown Spokane Public Library. All interested genealogists are most certainly invited to attend. We begin at 12:30 with coffee, cookies and conversation; the meetings are usually over by 3:00-ish.

Susan is currently the main archivist for Schweitzer Engineering in Pullman, Washington. Her previous job was with the Eastern Washington branch of the Washington State Archives in Cheney Washington. Believe you me, Susan knows her records!

This will be a fun and fact-filled presentation. Please come??? It's free!

Genea-Google-ology

Google has wonderful bells and whistles that are of immense value to us "geneahistorians." I like to call them Genea-Google-ology Tools! Have you tried Google Alerts? You can be alerted with a message sent to your e-mail inbox every time your surname of interest (or other keyword or phrase) shows up on the Internet!

For instance, every time any of the words midkiff, sweers, tuinstra, valk, or westaby show up online, I get a handy-dandy e-mail letting me know, along with a link to that site. The above surnames are some of the more unusual ones in my husband's and my ancestries. You can also choose a phrase (put your search terms within quotation marks) or a combination of words (use the plus [+] key). I have genealogy+michigan as another alert, which searches for both words (not necessarily together) on a website or blog. You can control where your results come from, too: news, blogs, web, groups, or comprehensive (all).

You can also tweak your alerts a bit, by narrowing your results using the minus ( - ) key. Using only tuinstra as a search term, I was getting links to dozens of articles written by well-known journalist Fons Tuinstra, stationed in China. I changed my alert to tuinstra -fons to get better hits. I was also getting a lot of hits for a Joost Valk that did not apply to my genealogy, so again, I made a change to valk -joost. I still get some unconnected hits, but they have decreased in volume considerably.

"So how do I set up Google Alerts for myself?" you may be asking. Go here to begin. As far as I can tell, you do not need a Google account or Gmail address to set up an alert. The process is fairly simple, and once you sign up, you should start receiving alerts soon. As a matter of fact, you can control how frequently you receive these alerts, too: once a day, as it happens, or once a week. And you can edit your alerts at any time!

(P.S. Thanks to Ruby for telling me about this, many months ago!)