Vendor Spotlight: National Archives in Seattle, Washington

The National Archives in Seattle will be a exhibitor at the Washington State Genealogical Society's 2009 State Conference at The Davenport Hotel in Spokane this coming weekend.

The National Archives offers insight into the lives of people, their families and our history. Because the records at the National Archives come from every branch of the Federal government, almost all Americans can find themselves, their ancestors, or their community in the archives. Knowing how a person interacted with the government is key to a successful search.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)'s Pacific Alaska Region facility in Seattle has 83 record groups, representing Federal agencies, bureaus, or other administrative units including federal courts in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Carol Anne Buswell, Education Specialist for the National Archives in Seattle will be on hand at the state conference to answer questions about the records collections in Seattle and how to access them. If your ancestors lived in the Pacific Northwest, you will want to take advantage of this opportunity to learn more about the archives and how they can help you in your genealogical research. We look forward to having the National Archives in Seattle at our state conference!

Click on the link below to register.

Online Registration
(need help with the online registration? read our tutorial here)

Brochure and Saturday Schedule
(to help you choose your classes and activities)

Mail-in Registration Form
(for those who prefer registering offline - or you may prefer to fill out and use this form to register in person at the conference to ensure your registration is received before the conference begins)

If you are interested in being a vendor at the Washington State Genealogical Society's 2009 State Conference, would like to advertise in our syllabus, or if you have an item or service which you would like to donate as a door or raffle prize, please contact Miriam Robbins Midkiff.

Vendor Spotlight: The Northwest Chapter of the Oregon-California Trails Association

The Oregon-California Trails Association is a national membership organization, with 11 chapters in states or regions through which western emigrant trails passed. The Northwest Chapter is one of the larger and more active chapters of the national organization, with members primarily from Oregon and Washington.

The purposes of OCTA are to preserve what remains of the western emigrant trails, to interpret those trails to the public, and to educate people about the western emigrant trails and their historic importance. They do a lot of volunteer work mapping and marking trails, gathering information from contemporary diaries and journals, and other related activities. The national organization's website is: www.octa-trails.org. From this site there are links to chapter websites.

In the Northwest chapter, the big preservation issue at present is wind farms. In a number of places these pose a threat to remnants of the historic emigrant trails; the association tries to work with all parties concerned to come to solutions that everyone can live with. Because the Oregon and California Trails are National Historic Trails, administered by the National Park Service, the association works very closely with the NPS, at both the national and chapter level.

At the national level, OCTA publishes a scholarly quarterly journal and a member newsletter, as well as books. The Northwest chapter publishes a quarterly newsletter and sponsors outings and programs of various kinds throughout the year.

If your ancestors immigrated west on any of the western trails, or if you are interested in historic preservation, drop by this vendor table at the Washington State Genealogical Society's 2009 State Conference at The Davenport Hotel in Spokane this coming weekend. We look forward to having this organization at our conference.

Click on the link below to register.

Online Registration
(need help with the online registration? read our tutorial here)

Brochure and Saturday Schedule
(to help you choose your classes and activities)

Mail-in Registration Form
(for those who prefer registering offline - or you may prefer to fill out and use this form to register in person at the conference to ensure your registration is received before the conference begins)

If you are interested in being a vendor at the Washington State Genealogical Society's 2009 State Conference, would like to advertise in our syllabus, or if you have an item or service which you would like to donate as a door or raffle prize, please contact Miriam Robbins Midkiff.

Vendor Spotlight: Washington Secretary of State - Digital Archives

The Washington Secretary of State - Digital Archives will be exhibiting at the Washington State Genealogical Society's 2009 State Conference being held this coming weekend at The Davenport Hotel in Spokane.

The State Archives are under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of State, and the main physical archives housing the state's records collections are held in Olympia. In addition, there are five regional archives which house many of the county and local archival collections of their respective regions: Northwest, Southwest, Central, Eastern, and Puget Sound.

Furthermore, the state pioneered an award-winning digital archives project that has been a trailblazer and model for other states and even other nations. The purpose of the Digital Archives has been two-fold: to digitize physical records in the state's records collections and make them available online; and to preserve electronic state records (such as former governors' websites) for posterity. The Digital Archives is centered at the Eastern Washington State Regional Archives in Cheney and this facility is one of the tours being made available for the conference on Friday afternoon. Also, State Archivist Jerry Handfield and Assistant Archivist of the Eastern Washington State Regional Archives Lee Pierce will be making presentations on Saturday during the conference.

If you have Washington State ancestors, you will definitely want to sign up for the above presentations and tour and make a stop at the Secretary of State - Digital Archives vendor table to obtain more information about how the archives can further your genealogical research. WSGS and EWGS welcome the Secretary of State - Digital Archives to our state conference!

Click on the link below to register.

Online Registration
(need help with the online registration? read our tutorial here)

Brochure and Saturday Schedule
(to help you choose your classes and activities)

Mail-in Registration Form
(for those who prefer registering offline - or you may prefer to fill out and use this form to register in person at the conference to ensure your registration is received before the conference begins)

If you are interested in being a vendor at the Washington State Genealogical Society's 2009 State Conference, would like to advertise in our syllabus, or if you have an item or service which you would like to donate as a door or raffle prize, please contact Miriam Robbins Midkiff.

3D Animated Flags--By 3DFlags.com

Spokane Library Genealogy Blog

City Directories
from Library Genealogy Blog by genealogy librarian

The genealogy Librarian recently was asked to find out who owned a certain property in Spokane in 1910. Her first thought was to go to the city directories, but these weren’t cross referenced by address until 1929. She knew the census would have the information but how was she supposed to find an address in the census?! She went back to the city directory and discovered that not only is there a listing for all Spokane Additions and their boundaries, there is an explanation of the five city wards in Spokane as well as their precincts. In 1910 there were sixty five precincts in Spokane, from Ada to Eve. The 1900 city directory also lists the wards and precincts in Spokane, but unfortunately the 1920 and 1930 do not. With the information from the 1910 directory she was able to find the owner of the property, searching about twenty pages of the census instead of the hundreds had she not known the ward and precinct. So if you know where your relative lived but can’t find the magic spelling to bring them up in the census, check the local city directory. You may discover a whole new search option at your fingertips.

This is a great tip, but before the 1910 census was indexed I made a map of the voting precincts and where to find them on the microfilm rolls of the 1910 census. Not all the precincts are put on the microfilm in alphabetical order. Notice she says the precincts are listed from Ada to Eve, in each ward they changed the first letter of the precinct names, Ada through Astor is Ward 1, Butler through Blake is Ward 2, Clay through Custer is Ward 3, Day through Dwight is Ward 4 and Earl through Eagle is Ward 5. The other fun thing that happened in Spokane during 1910 was a lot of Spokane streets were renamed, before that you could name the streets in your own development anything you wanted, and the neighboring development could name the streets in their development, so you could drive down a street and it might have three different names in the span of a dozen or more blocks. Notice the city changed the names in 1910, so on the census you can find people living right next door to each other with a different street name. The voting precincts are listed in the Spokane City Directories till about 1926 or 1927, I made a copy as I was assuming the 1930 census would again use the voting precincts, but they did not, so I downloaded the enumeration district boundaries from the internet and made a map for Spokane for 1930. That map is in the genealogy section of the library. So if your ancestor is not in the 1910 index check the actual census.

Some people saw I had a 1910 map of the precincts and street name changes and wanted a copy of that map, so I made a copy for the library and EWGS sells copies for $2.00 plus $3 postage and handling.

Local Paper Highlights WSGS State Conference and Whitman Massacre Survivor

Our local newspaper, the Spokesman-Review, features two articles of interest to genealogists. The first is a lengthy one highlighting the Washington State Genealogical Society's 2009 State Conference to be held September 11-13 at The Davenport Hotel, featuring principal speaker, Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak.

The second one is about Catherine Sager Pringle, author of Across the Plains in 1844, who as a young girl was orphaned twice, the second time during the infamous Whitman Massacre. Her simple grave lies at Fairmount Memorial Cemetery in Spokane, quietly belying her place in American history.

The Spokesman-Review archives its articles to its subscription area after only a couple of days, so you'll want to read these as soon as possible. Also, it's not too late to register for the conference. Click on the link below:

Online Registration
(need help with the online registration? read our tutorial here)

Brochure and Saturday Schedule
(to help you choose your classes and activities)

Mail-in Registration Form
(for those who prefer registering offline)

Wordless Wednesday

 

Reference desk genealogy department Spokane Public Library Downtown Branch

Vendor Spotlight: MaKaNcy

Those of us in EWGS who attended the Fall 2008 Seminar have fond memories of MaKaNcy (a.k.a. "The Card Ladies") as they were a favorite vendor there. MaKaNcy is a greeting card business made up of three ladies: Margaret Caldwell, her sister Kay, and their friend Nancy. But they're oh-so-much more than that! At the seminar, the ladies dressed in campy 1950's period outfits and added definite flair to their card making! An example of one of their greeting cards is below:

We very much look forward to having MaKaNcy as a vendor at our state conference!

It's not too late to register for this terrific conference! Click on the link below:

Online Registration
(need help with the online registration? read our tutorial here)

Brochure and Saturday Schedule
(to help you choose your classes and activities)

Mail-in Registration Form
(for those who prefer registering offline)

If you are interested in being a vendor at the Washington State Genealogical Society's 2009 State Conference, would like to advertise in our syllabus, or if you have an item or service which you would like to donate as a door or raffle prize, please contact Miriam Robbins Midkiff.