Heritage Hunting.... 21 May 1987

 Thought you might get a bang out of reading some of my moldy-oldy Heritage Hunting columns which appeared in The Spokesman Review every week from 1986 to 2000. I discovered these clipped articles in the files of the Eastern Washington Historical Society (the MAC). 

SCRIBE.... Paying It Forward

 When you click to our Washington Digital Archives website (www.digitalarchives.wa.gov) or any digital archives for that matter, have you paused to wonder where did this information, so available to me right now, come from????

Well, it came from folks just like you and me volunteering some of our time to index records that the archives has already digitized. Without an index, such images are un-searchable. (At least not easily.) Look at the stats below: our Washington Digital Archives has preserved nearly 237,000,000 records BUT only 83,520,842 are indexed and easily findable. That's a humungous difference. 

And YOU and I can make a difference. Just click to the website (or Google it) find SCRIBE, sign up and bingo, you're good to go. (EWGS members Charles Hansen and Jeanne Coe are regular SCRIBErs.) 

And the next time you look at that impressive list of record-images available to you, don't just be thankful but be helpful. 

(Figures below as of mid-January 2022.) 

igital Archives Statistics

• Records Preserved:

  236,859,390

• Records Searchable:

  83,520,842

• New this month:

  143,410

Digital Archives Statistics

• Records Preserved:

  236,859,390

• Records Searchable:

  83,520,842

• New this month:

  143,410

Spring is here!

 

The gopher is out. 

The winter has gone;

The bluebird's about;

Hear the meadow lark's song.

This delightful little "ode to spring" poem was published on 28 March 1890 in the Cheney Sentinel newspaper. Was it penned by a subscriber? That was a good way to sell newspapers.........

(Photo by Donna)

Dead White Tree....??

 

I took this photo last summer when Tika and I went walking on the Centennial Trail near the Fort Wright Military Cemetery. I think it was an aspen. 

Somehow, I thought, this image can/must/should pertain to genealogy? 

Surely, no family tree totally dies out. The male/main surname may go extinct but going back a generation or more and the DNA is there and being passed down. 

Perhaps it symbolizes a branch of a family tree that's been neglected.... not researched? 

What do YOU think? Would love to hear your thoughts. Email me? Donna243@gmail.com

Spring is here!!

 

The gopher is out,

The winter has gone.

The bluebird's about,

Hear the meadowlark's song.

This delightful "ode to spring" little poem was published in the Cheney Sentinel  newspaper on 28 March 1890. Was it penned by a subscriber? Good way to sell more copies of that paper......

Did your ancestor ever have a story, poem, photo or drawing published in the newspaper? If you've not looked, then you don't really know, do you? 

Fort George Wright Military Cemetery

 

My little Tika and I often take walks in and around the old Fort Wright Military Cemetery; here we are reading the information sign (erected as an Eagle Scout project). 

This 100-acre plot of ground was designated a resting place in 1895 primarily for the men who died there while serving in the military. In 1900, some 86 remains from Fort Sherman (Coeur d'Alene) and Fort Spokane (near confluence of the Spokane and Columbia Rivers) were disinterred and moved here. 

The cemetery was closed to further burials (except for those already having space reserved) in 1969. A total of 669 persons are listed as being buried at Fort Wright Cemetery. 

The cemetery is right on the Centennial Trail and there is plenty of parking. Be sure to display your Discover Pass. To get there, get onto Government Way (west of SFCC campus) and it will be on your right. You and your dog will both enjoy a walk there. 

Things You Can Find In A Marriage Certificate

1. Such gorgeous clear handwriting back in 1917!

2. Name/age/birthplace of groom (Irvin VOSS)

3. Know where Bluestem, Washington, is?

4. Parents and birthplaces of his parents

5. Groom's signature!

6. Name/age/birthplace of bride (Pauline REICHOW)

7. Know where Downs, Washington, is?

8. Parents and birthplaces of her parents

9. Her signature!

10. Place/date of marriage

11. Witness names (W. R. & Frank Reichow) suggest family

12. Religion suggested by "Minister of the Gospel"

** Notice the two different ways he wrote the letter "e."

** Note the interesting name: Leoline (was her father Leo?)

** Note all seemingly German names: Voss, Reichow, Radke, Kats

** Were they Germans from Russia?? 

Isn't genealogy really like a 1000-piece puzzle?????