EWGS Volunteers at KSPS Pledge Breaks

August 9th, 2015 several of us from EWGS took pledges at KSPS our local PBS station. It helps KSPS and we get a plug online and also in their program guide. Since they have went to computers for the pledges it goes a lot faster, but you can still use the cards if you are computer shy, so volunteer next time someone asks.

September Meeting, Scholarship & Peaches

Hello again. The next EWGS meeting will be on Saturday, September 12th (yes, a bit late due to Labor Day), 12:30 at the downtown Spokane Public Library.

Our program begins at 1:00. Collin Harris, a licensed funeral director, is coming to conduct a Q&A session and tell us more about how this work (all areas) is done. Will be most interesting for most all of our ancestors are dead, right?

Did you know EWGS offers a scholarship to EWGS members who might cannot afford the price of a seminar? Case in point, our October 3rd Fall Workshop with Cyndi Ingle. The cost to members is $25; if this is a hardship for you, please compose your scholarship request and send it to Donna243@gmail.com. (This scholarship fund was provided anonymously by a member.)

How much history do you know about peaches? This luscious fruit originated in China some 3000 years ago so say the experts. The Spanish missionaries brought peaches to the New World in 1571, first to St. Simon's Island in Georgia. 

A peach is a type of fruit known as a drupe. Other similar fruits are nectarines, apricots, plums and cherries. And no, a nectarine is not a cross between a peach and a plum but is a genetic mutation all on its own. 

If you really have an empty spot of time, click to www.YouTube.com and do a search for "carving peach pits."

Enjoy the rest of summer but know that EWGS is coming!

Gehrke Windmill Garden at Grand Coulee

Emil Albert and Stella Veva Gehrke had lived in the Grand Coulee area since 1958. In 1965 Emil began his unusual occupation of making windmills from scrap metal. The couple traveled some 62,000 miles picking up thrown-away materials to create over 500 windmills, whirligigs, and merry-go-rounds in their yard. Emil died in 1979 and Stella followed in 1980. Some 120 of their many windmills were acquired by the town of Grand Coulee and are displayed at North Dam Park as a memorial to the Gehrkes.

I visited this unique Washington garden last weekend and signed the guest book…. bottom photo…. even the guest book cover is made from an old rusty 8×11 pan. Do  stop whenever your travels take you through Grand Coulee. You will enjoy seeing this, I guarantee.

Dwight Radford: All Things Irish Research

I have been privileged to have known and to have worked with Dwight Radford for about 20 years. I know him to be a thoroughly competent professional researcher in all areas of Irish research. He recently put up his website... if you have Irish research needs, you could do no better than to contact Dwight. Donna

Dwight Radford is a full time professional genealogist residing in the Salt Lake City area. His interests lie in Ireland and Ireland immigration research problems. He has a blog site and a facebook page: www.thejourneyhomegenealogy. Another interest of his is researching the intermixing of the Irish immigrants with the local populations of all races where ever they settled.

Dwight is the co-author of A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your Irish Ancestors (Betterway Books: Cincinnati, Ohio, 2001, 2012) and was co-editor of the journal The Irish at Home and Abroad (1993-1999).  He has published many Irish-related articles in North American genealogical journals. 

He will be speaking on "Researching Your Irish Ancestors" on August 11th at the Ohio History Connection in Columbus:
www.ohiohistory.org/learn/archives-library/archiveslibrary-services/genealogy-workshops

Dwight recently completed a video, on his website, describing Irish research and its quirks. This was accomplished with the help of participants of the Salt Lake Christmas Tour and participants of the Kelowna &  District Genealogy Society in British Columbia.

Dwight has been to Ireland and Northern Ireland many times to work in the archives and to document the ancestral home sites for clients.

He can be reached at dwightradford@msn.com

Kittitas County Historical Museum in Ellensburg........ A Great Visit!

In May, while attending the WSGS conference, I added in a visit to the Kittitas County Historical Museum. What a delightful place!

This is the entrance; the museum is housed in a delightful old downtown building... roomy, spacious and nice high ceilings. This is also the home of the Kittitas County Historical Society.

Right off I was impressed with the number of Images of America books that were for sale:

Kittitas County, Snoqualmie Pass, Roslyn, Ellensburg, Wenatchee, Moses Lake, Leavenworth, Grant County, Yakima...... and more. These books are an absolute marvelous source to learning about "your" place.

They have displays, like this doll collection, all donated by folks living in the area over time:

They also have displays of interest to gentlemen (these are spark plugs):

The biggest draw is their collection of documented artifacts.... like this violin that came west in the 1860s:

The group is a little behind with their cataloging and filing but they are collecting historical information and for that I award them an "A"!

This wonderful museum is right downtown, easy to find. And well worth a half hour of your time. Good break on that long drive from west-east or east-west on I-90.

For more information, click to their website, www.kchm.org

"Ways To Keep From Growing Old"

In the 1930s, a small new city sprang up to house the workers constructing Grand Coulee Dam. It was called Mason City.......... does that even exist today? A newsletter was published for the workers and their families residing in this little city. Every page of this newsletter was stressing something about worker safety.

Worker safety during construction was a Big Deal as the above old photo shows. I had to laugh out loud when I read this list of "Ways To Keep From Growing Old" as it appeared in this newsletter:

Don't wear your safety belt.
Do walk under overhead swinging loads.
Do put your hand on a roller under the conveyor belt.
Do talk back to one of our local minions of the law.
Do step in front of a "cat."
Do handle electrical fixtures with wet hands.
Do ignore the blasting signal whistles.
Do eat with your knife.
Do neglect to get prompt first aid when you've had an accident.
Do not pay close attention to what you are doing and what is going on around you.


How could those rules be re-phrased for today?

Don't wear your car seat belt.
Do go swimming in a lightning storm.

What would YOU add?

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Serendipity Thursday

Last week, while visiting the Central Washington Branch of the Washington State Archives in Ellensburg, and since I have no family connections to the counties covered by this archives, I looked for interesting Washington trivia. And in the books on the shelves there.

From the book:  Plats & Descriptions of Operating Properties Owned by the State of Washington, a report prepared by L.D. McArdle, of the Dept of Efficiency on 30 June 1924.

The first deed for the land acquisition for the Eastern State Hospital near Spokane was filed on
 2 March 1888 for $1200 to the Northern Pacific Railroad for 160 acres.........

The first deed for land purchase for the Cheney Normal School (now Eastern Washington University) was from Benjamin P. Cheney.dated 10 June 1890 .............

If you're a "real" genealogist, then you're interested in maps and hope you enjoyed these.