Chapter News

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Monday, May 24, 2010 was an exciting evening for PS-APG http://www.psapg.org/. We hosted Elissa Scalise Powell, CG. Elissa took time out to share with PS-APG members and other enthusiastic genealogists in the area. We met at the Greenwood Senior Center on 85th. Elissa talked about the Dreaded Research Report. Her method is to write the research report as she performs the research including the documents into her word processor. She uses templates for the report so she has some information already to go. She uses templates for sources that she uses frequently so she can just make simple changes. She explained the differences in compilations versus the research report. The research report is about the research only it is not a genealogy written for the family. Elissa feels that writing about the research is essential in understanding the research project and finding clues for further study. The next topic was a discussion about the Board for Certification of Genealogists http://www.bcgcertification.org/. Elissa encouraged the group to go to the BCG website where they will find all kinds of information to assist them in becoming certified. There are articles on various subjects to assist you in learning how to prepare as an example a transcript of a document or an abstract. I took a look around their website and was very impressed. There is a video by Elissa and Tom Jones that discusses the process of certification available for you to study. It is worth it to examine this website for it is packed with hints and help. She went over the certification process and the reasons you might want to become a certified genealogist. We are greatly indebted to Elissa for her time and thank her for coming and sharing her knowledge. The Seattle Genealogical Society seminar with Elissa the past Saturday was a great success you can learn more at the SGS President's blog http://seagensociety.blogspot.com/.

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The National Genealogical Conference took place in Salt Lake City at the Salt Palace Convention center. PS-APG was there. Bonnie Jean MacDonald PS-APG Chapter President arrived on Tuesday April 27th and found the Family History Library to be filled to the brim with busy genealogists researching their families. The conference officially began at 8 am at the Salt Palace on Wednesday April 28th. There were several wonderful videos about the work being done by the Family History Library to digitize their collection. They had figured out how to do that in 10 years rather than taking a century. The videos took us on a tour of the Vault in the mountains where they keep most of the collection. The doors to the Exhibit hall opened and the conference was officially on. We were all off to tour the Exhibit hall and get ready for our first lecture. Trish Hackett Nicola was also there she arrived Monday April 26th. Trish led the Gathering of the Chapters which took place on Thursday April 29th, at 4 pm. Bonnie attended as well and shared about the Scrapbook Project being added to our website in the next months. Trish told them about Elissa's visit on May 24th here in Seattle http://www.psapg.org/. The Oregon Chapter is looking forward to having PS-APG attend dinner after the GCO Conference in Eugene on July 31st http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~orgco2/conf2010/register2010.pdf. Friday, April 30th was the APG Luncheon and Trish, Bonnie and Claudia Breland, PS-APG Chapter Secretary attended this event. Friday evening was the NGS Banquet where everyone comes to enjoy the evening http://conference.ngsgenealogy.org/ and http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/conference_info. It too was filled with enthusiastic genealogists from around the world. Of course awards were given out. You can find out the news at the NGS website. On Saturday at 10:30 Bonnie and Trish helped out at the APG Booth and signed up one person as a new member. Mary Clement Douglas who has presented at Gen O Rama for South King County Genealogical Society several years ago. She was just finishing her shift at the APG Booth. Mary's website is at http://www.historical-matters.com/ She said she was off to give a talk in Montana soon. As Washington State Genealogical Society Newsletter Editor Bonnie was happy to see that this group was also represented at the conference. Sue Erickson, President, Ginny Majewski Vice President, Carole Medeiros, Treasurer and Ross Abbot, Region #3 Representative were all there. The Washington Genealogical Society website is at: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wasgs/index.htm We had lunch and dinner together sharing good stories about our genealogical finds. It was a great conference and Washington State was well represented.

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On Saturday, April 10, 2010 PS-APG sponsored a tour of the Northwest African American Museum in south Seattle. We were greeted by Wadiyah the Genealogy Center director. She took us to the center and explained their goals. They would like the Genealogy Center to be multi-ethnic. This is a brand new center for genealogical research. They have 4 computers with access to the internet. They have a small library and are willing to accept donations of genealogical books. They have volunteers that come at various times throughout the month who come from the Black Genealogy Research Group, the Family History Library and interested individuals. They provide volunteer training. For more information contact Wadiyah at this email: genealogy@naamnw.org. The next part of the tour was into the exhibit areas were we were introduced to a timeline for African American's migrating to the Pacific Northwest and their contributions to this area. The other exhibit is on Ethiopia and they are hoping to have many more. Here is the link to the NWAAMuseum http://naamnw.org/index.html. This is a great addition to the genealogical community so go and check it out.

In March Trish Hackett Nicola, CG, was a judge for Washington History Day. This year’s students researched and wrote papers on the theme,” Innovation in History: Impact and Change.” Trish helped judge the second round of papers for the Puget Sound region. The papers will have one more judging at the local level. The top ranking papers will go on to the state level, and a few will make it to the final competition at the national level in June 2010.

On March 11, 2010, Trish Hackett Nicola, CG, presented a paper, “The Halcyon: the Infamous Opium Smuggling Schooner,” at the Pacific Northwest Historians Guild Conference on Northwest Borderland at MOHAI.

The Halcyon was beautiful and fast. Her owners used her to smuggle Opium and Chinese into the United States in the late 1880s and early 1890s. The cargo came from China and was dropped off in Hawaii, Victoria, Vancouver, Port Townsend, and ports all the way down the coast to San Diego. The presentation gave background information on her owners and crew, the smugglers and their illegal cargo, the Halcyon’s evasion from Custom officials and how she was finally captured by authorities.

On Saturday December 12th, 2009 PS-APG members and guests gathered at the National Archives in Seattle (NARA) to share special genealogical memories and finds.

Front to back and left to right: Claudia Breland, Evelyn Roehl, Bonnie Jean MacDonald, Alan McCool, Trish Nicola, Melonie Soper Ramsey, Jean Yager and Jim Johnson.

On Saturday, November 14, 2009, Bonnie, our President attended the Family History Expo in Redmond. Melonie and Claudia also came and helped out at the PS-APG Table. This Expo is sponsored every year by the Bellevue and Redmond FHC's. They take turns. This year it was in Redmond. This has become a very popular Expo. According to the conference organizer Dave Thaler they had 238 people registered. It starts at 8 a.m. and goes to 5 p.m. Here is the link to their website. http://www.wafamilyhistory.net:80/ Mary Slawson was their Keynote Speaker and she was outstanding. She talked about what was happening with the Family History Library and all the changes coming. They are pushing hard to get their collection digitized as you all know for free online. I have heard this before but I get a much stronger feeling that it is really going to happen. Microfilms, microfiche and all these things will eventually go. The new Family Search will be released but I was not clear exactly when. It will be a giant family tree with the idea of cleaning up and reducing duplications. The Family History Library website will again change probably in December. So this means we need to keep and eye on what is happing with the Family History Library. Later I attended a lecture on the New Family Search and Wiki and learned about that. I am not Mormon so I do not have access. However, it will be released eventually. The talk was by a Godfrey Ellis. I had attended his talk earlier about English research that he shared with his wife Mary. Excellent. I gave my talk on visiting the Family History Library but after Mary Slawson's talk I have no idea what all this change will mean for visiting in Salt Lake City in the next 10 years. I expect big changes. I like to go to the Family History Library and do research but if everything is digitized and online free, that will mean a whole new role for the FHL in SLC. This was one of the best FHExpo's that I have attended. PS-APG had a table along with many other vendors. We had a lot of traffic come by our table. See their website for the listing under Exhibitors.

On October 29, 2009 an additional tour was being offered and this was the Seattle Municipal Archives which is located on the 3rd floor of the new Seattle City Hall next door to the King County Administration Bldg which I visit a lot. The Seattle Municipal Archives had an open house 12 to 3 pm that day. I joined the tour about 12:15 pm. Patricia Summers-Smith was also in attendance. It is a little tricky to get to the 3rd floor if you come in on 4th avenue, you have to go to the Lobby and then up another set of elevators. Their offices are new and very nice. They have a storage facility on that level that is very large. There research room was a nice size but not huge. They have rooms where they work on video and audio, a area where they do the conservation work on documents like maps. They are striving to move photos to a digital format as well as preserve maps and other documents. I did not find their website as easy to get around http://www.cityofseattle.net/cityarchives/ as the KCA but they are putting photos and other information on line. They do have their collections listed by subject. The tour was a little crowded and the rooms were tight and was difficult to hear what was being said but it was good to see the rooms and of course the storage facilities. They took us to the basement where they had another huge storage room. The tour archivist said that they had planned the storage for 25 years but where filling up much faster than they had thought. The records at this archive has are more government oriented but they do have payroll records for various government organizations, municipal court records and maps. It will take a little more digging for genealogical gems due to a lack of indexes for a lot of the records.

On October 28, 2009 PS-APG sponsored a tour of the King County Archives. That event took place on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at 10:30 a.m. and we had a nice turn out of about 8 people which was just about right for a visit. Trish, Patricia SS, Claudia, Cathi and myself were in attendance along with several guests. Deborah Kennedy is the Archivist and she showed us around and into the back areas of the archive and the different storage areas. Deborah is proactive in preserving records so that is good news. Several of her assistant archivists were there and they answered our questions with enthusiasm. They are very friendly and helpful. I was greatly impressed with the progress made by this archive to improve their access from years ago. Their website has also gone from a very crude website to one that is in my opinion user friendly http://www.kingcounty.gov/operations/archives.aspx. They are the King County Archives so they are part of the King County Government website. You can get to their website by just Googling - King County Archives. They have been working diligently to improve the website and are open to suggestions. Rebecca Pixler gave us a tour of the website and their goals for it. They have an assistant who is a genealogist so he is helping to make documents more available on their website as well as helping to describe the collections. One of the big services they perform at the King County Archives is helping people who call in to find the records and because there is no one place for records in King County they field a lot of questions and assist people to go to the proper archive whether it be themselves, Seattle Municipal, Washington State Archives Puget Sound Region in Bellevue, King County Administration Bldg, and the King Courthouse etc. So if you need to strategize where a record might be they could be a great place to go to get help. Several of the archivists had worked for the Washington State Archives at Puget Sound years ago, giving them a little bit of an advantage on where records are. As we walked through the storage area I spied Kroll Maps, they have marriage records, court records and more. I suggest you go to their website for more information. It was a great day. Several of our PS-APG members and guests stayed behind and did some research. They have a very small research room so they really prefer that if you wish to do research that you call them at least a day in advance so they can make sure there is room for you as well as pull records that might be of value.

September 11-13, 2009: The Washington State Genealogical Society (WSGS) Conference has come and gone at the amazing Davenport Hotel. If you love old buildings or houses you would love the Davenport. Bonnie Jean MacDonald our President was there representing PS-APG and participating in her duties as Region #2 Representative for King and Pierce Counties for the WSGS. It was in Spokane this past weekend (September 11 to 13, 2009) starting Friday morning with beginning genealogy classes, tours in the afternoon and another round of classes and dinner with Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak discussing cases that made her brain hurt. Bonnie has attended lectures by Megan in the past and Megan is always a treat, there is always something that she has to tell that makes you laugh and learn. The next day the conference was in full swing with a wonderful buffet breakfast and another talk from Megan on Reverse Genealogy... in the lovely Isabella room of the Davenport Hotel. The lectures in the morning were all very interesting the first one that Bonnie attended was what is happening at Family Search website followed by Scandinavian Research. The next thing Bonnie knew she was back having a lovely lunch and another talk about DNA from Megan. The afternoon went quickly with more lectures one on Eugenics which is a dark topic but very informative and the influence it had on the immigration laws of the early 1900's. This could be why you can't find that illusive ancestor that came to this country and then disappeared. The last lecture Bonnie attended was a fun talk about cemetery research.

The evening was free to do as you pleased but as Region #2 Representative Bonnie attended a dinner with the WSGS Board and the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society Conference Committee at Luigi's. After dinner the WSGS had a speedy board meeting because everyone was tired from the many activities of the past two days. Sunday morning opened with a breakfast and a talk by Megan on newspaper sites on the internet and her experience with the explosion of these sites. All the talks from Megan were excellent but this one on Sunday was the best of the bunch. The Eastern Washington Genealogical Society did a wonderful job with this conference. There were close to 200 people attending maybe more. Congratulations to EWGS for all their hard work. The Eastern Washington Genealogical Society has a blog that has been featuring vendors, conference information and will probably have great photos of the conference posted here is the link: http://ewgs-spokane.blogspot.com/ On the right under their logo is a link to all the talk about the conference, so click on that and you can focus on the conference information rather than the whole blog. PS-APG is featured there as a vendor. If you want to know what lectures were offered go to the Washington State Genealogical Society website and scroll down the home page and click on the conference brochure links. There were changes in the program because more people came then first thought so it is not totally up-to-date but it will give you and idea of what was offered. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wasgs/index.htm.

On Saturday, June 27, 2009 our President Bonnie Jean MacDonald gave a talk "Wills, Probate & More" at Heritage Quest in Sumner, Washington. There was a nice turn out and a fun exchange of information, and questions. Our Claudia Breland came for the talk. After the presentation Bonnie put on her Region #2 Representative hat for Washington State Genealogical Society and had a nice chat with the officers of the organization. She was informed that they are doing well and have a great fall seminar planned. They are changing the seminar. They are bringing the author of the book "Google your Family Tree" to Sumner on October 10, 2009. Heritage Quest has a website at http://www.hqrl.com and they are located in the very heart of Sumner. Check back often for updates.

June 19th, 2009 Birmingham, AL - Patricia Summers-Smith successfully completed the "Professional Genealogical" course at the Institute for Genealogy and Historical Research at Samford University. The week-long course, coordinated by Elissa Scalise Powell, Certified Genealogist^SM, was an intensive study of business practices, client communications, and opportunities to use genealogical knowledge to help people discover their family history. Congratulations Patricia. See Patricia's Member Profile and our Education page.

Genealogy is one of the nation’s top hobbies whose interest has expanded since Roots by Alex Haley was published. With the Internet and DNA studies being within easy reach of the general population, those curious about their ancestors have turned to professionals for help in interpretation and a deeper understanding of records identifying their family. Patricia Summers-Smith is one such professional who is a member of Seattle Genealogical Society, National Genealogical Society, Washington State Genealogical Society and Association of Professional Genealogists national organization and Puget Sound regional chapter. You may contact her through her website at http://rootstracker.com.