Member Involvement - Dupus Boomer and Wreaths Across America

by Heather Murphy

December was a busy month for most of us with all the added events the holidays bring.  A couple of our members reported their involvement in genealogically or historically related events in our community.

Dupus Boomer's PREFABulous Richland

TCGS member Connie Estep and Terry Andre presented Dupus Boomer's PREFABulous Richland on December 21st.  The presentation wove together the comic Dupus Boomer and the history of Richland's quick growth as Hanford needed workers.  You can find the handout here which contains additional resources on the topic and information about Richland walking and Hanford reactor tours.

Wreaths Across America

The motto of Wreaths Across America is "Remember. Honor. Teach."  The organization's birth resulted from a surplus of wreaths made by the Worcester Wreath Company.  The company decided to use the wreaths to honor veterans by placing them at grave markers in Arlington Cemetery.  Eventually, other people wanted to be involved and the movement grew to over 700,000 wreaths placed in over 1,000 locations throughout the country in 2014.  The goal of Wreaths Across America is for veterans to be remembered and honored long past their deaths.  You can find more information at www.wreathsacrossamerica.org.

For the past four years, the Sons of the American Revolution - Mid-Columbia Chapter (SAR), Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), and Eilan's Funeral Home have sponsored wreath laying in Richland.  This year's event happened on December 16th at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Richland, with about 20 people helping to lay 171 wreaths next to the grave markers of veterans.  Art Kelly participated in and reported on this year's event.

The group also honored William H. Johnston, who is the only Civil War veteran buried in Richland (in Resthaven Cemetery).  The following was read at the ceremony:

William Hadden Johnston by Richard W. Roddy - 12 Dec 2015


Today we honor the memory and service of William Hadden Johnston, born 22 Dec. 1843. As a 19 year old from Athens Ohio, he answered Mr. Lincoln’s call for volunteers from the various states to help preserve the Union. Pvt. William H. Johnston mustered into D Co. 75th Regt. Ohio Volunteer Infantry on 28 Oct. 1862. 75th Ohio was in 1st Division, 11th Corps, Army of the Potomac under Gen. Oliver Howard at the Battle of Chancellorsville and at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Pvt. Johnston was captured during the heavy fighting at Cemetery Hill during the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, 2 July 1863. Sometime later he was exchanged for a Confederate prisoner as was custom during the first part of the war and rejoined his outfit.

August 1863, 75th Ohio was transferred with 1st Div., 11th Corps to Charleston Harbor in South Carolina while the other two Divisions of 11th Corp where sent to Tennessee to join Gen. Sherman for his famous march to the sea. 75th Ohio was at Charleston from August to September when it moved to Folly Island and later formed into mounted infantry and moved to Jacksonville, FL.  In August 1864, a small union force was attacked near Baldwin, FL just West of Jacksonville by elements of 2nd Florida Cav supported by some infantry.

A part of 75th Ohio mounted infantry war sent to Baldwin, FL in putative action against 2nd Florida Cav. This action did not go well and on 12 Aug 1864, Pvt. Johnston was wounded and captured. The surviving Union forces retreated to Jacksonville.  By this time in the war Union and Confederate forces were no longer exchanging prisoners, so Pvt. Johnston was sent to the prisoner of war camp at Andersonville.

Andersonville was a horror with overcrowding, and little or no sanitation, food, or medicine. Photographs of emaciated Union prisoners held at Andersonville taken at war’s end look very much look the later photo of NAZI Concentration Camp survivors of 80 years later.

Pvt Johnston was held in captivity from August 1864 until his liberation in April 1865. He survived and was mustered out 25 May 1865. The Commandant of the Camp at Andersonville was tried for war crimes and executed.

William H. Johnston returned to his home in Athens, Ohio were he married and raised a family. The early part of the 20th century found William Johnston in Los Angeles and later in the Seattle area. He died 26 Jan 1938, at the home of his son in Richland, WA.

We owe him thanks for his service and sacrifice in preserving the Union and should resolve to make it our purpose to keep his memory alive for future generations.

December Meeting - Show Your Legacy

by Heather Murphy

We had a wonderful evening at our December meeting sharing pieces of our past and present.  At the beginning of our meeting we were presented with the 2018 TCGS Board, from left, Jim Macica - President, Art Kelly - Vice President, Margaret Dunn - Treasurer, (not pictured) Dan Metzger - Secretary.  We are grateful to them for their service.

There are several opportunities for additional members to be more involved in the functioning of the society.  We are looking for someone to fill the Membership Chair as well as assistants to other positions.  Oftentimes something comes up, such as an out of town trip or an unexpected illness, and our main volunteers could use an assistant to help with their load or in case of the previously mentioned situations.  If your could share a little bit of your time, please contact a member of the board to discuss how your hands could be of service.  You can find contact information here.

We had time for socializing and enjoying the many displays presented by our members regarding their family history or hobbies.  I have included a few of the wonderful displays below.

Dennis Armstrong presented a stitch work piece by Johanna Nilsson.  The small picture is of Johanna and some of her family members with the stitchery hanging on the wall on the left in her home.

Mary Kay Walker provided a lovely display of various purses and photographs of women.

Hula is an activity that Sandra Floberg has enjoyed.  She made nearly all of these items on display.  She explained that Kumulipo (the green book on the right) is a hula that tells the story of the world from its creation.  In one of her hula classes she was instructed to create a hula telling her own story beginning at her earliest known ancestor.  That project is what began her interest in genealogy.

Thank you to everyone who brought items to display.  It was a wonderful way to share a little bit of ourselves, and our families, with each other.

Benefits of Membership Explained by Kathy Weddle Sizer

Kathy Weddle Sizer, President of the Yakima Valley Genealogical Society, has been a member for

over 40 years. On June 10, 2015 she explained the benefits of society membership and active participation to those attending the TriCity Genealogical Society meeting. As with any other organization, club, or society, membership in a genealogical society can provide companionship which without effort leads to mentorship. Hiking can be done alone. It is not wise but it is possible. Someone that is interested in hiking would benefit by joining an organization where they can learn more about terrains, gear, and methods. The same is true for genealogy. It too can be done in solitude but the void created by solitary research can lead to innocent mistakes.

Kathy provided an example that was close to home. Her niece found Kathy’s grandmother’s name listed on the Social Security Death Index. Using the location of Kathy’s grandmother’s last benefit location as her place of death, she made a grave error. Kathy’s grandmother died in Union Gap but her last Social Security benefit was received in Cle Elum. Kathy’s niece innocently used the Cle Elum location as her place of death. This error is now available for others to copy from Ancestry.com Members Public Trees. Had Kathy’s niece attended meetings and interacted with other researchers she would have known that there can easily be a difference between the last benefit location and the death location. Kathy also pointed out that many errors like this are available to copy from various sites online and warned researchers about the fallacies available in online family trees.

Interacting with other researchers can help someone tear down brick walls. Many a seasoned genealogist is happy to share the methods that lead to their own personal victories that can also be repeated by researchers struggling to understand the best way to prove historical facts. There are also seasoned genealogists who focus on particular studies like medical information or military involvement. Kathy shared stores about adoption cases that were solved by following leads made available from other members or presentations at meetings.

There is strength in numbers. A society represents a group of people and through their efforts great repositories can be created. Kathy gave many examples of what can be found at the Yakima Valley Genealogical Society library but also provided personal stories of great discoveries she had experienced by researching at genealogical societies close to her ancestral homes.

Kathy summarized her presentation by saying, “My membership in my local society is the best gift I can give myself.” Kathy’s devotion to local societies was not only enthusiastically testified verbally but also visually. Even an arm in a sling didn’t hold her back from enjoying the TriCity Genealogical Society meeting.

Members Guided thru Google.com

Mikal McKinnon, our TCGS Past President, Assistant Family History Center Director and Washington State Genealogical Society President, took our TCGS members through a tour of Google.com. The outline for the class can be found online at:  https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Google_Commands:_How_to_Search_More_Effectively. This was the basis Mike used to help the TCGS members learn the ins and outs of searching with Google.  When I peeked in on the class, they were all glued to their monitors finding interesting things on their families.  The final tip was a place to have google help you search for your genealogy online: http://www.genealogy-search-help.com/.

I believe the final conclusion would be that everyone got something out of Mike’s presentation. I know of one person who was going home to continue her search. I’d bet the others were anxious to get home and continue their searches as well.

Thanks Mike for a great presentation. 

New Indexing Project

The TCGS meeting for the Washington State Archives Cemetery project will take place at 7pm  Thursday, 23 August 2012, at the Richland Family History Center.

Now that the 1940 U.S. Census indexing project has finished, John Covey, TCGS President, has found another wonderful indexing project for us. This one closer to home, we are indexing local cemeteries. Washington State Digital Archives, at the request of the Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed, is asking societies to index their local cemeteries for preservation in the digital archives.

Over the years, members of the society have been indexing the cemeteries but there is still plenty of indexing to do. If you are interested, please attend this meeting tomorrow evening.  If we all pitch in, we can get our cemeteries online and hope that others are indexing the cemeteries in the areas we are interested in researching. Let’s not let the enthusiasm from indexing the 1940 census die.

June 13th Meeting Features Guest Speaker, Donna Potter Phillips

For TCGS Members, having Donna come speak to our society has become a yearly treat, this year no exception.

Donna always brings an interesting and inspiring presentation but this year she has chosen to bring us an eclectic look at genealogy “… or at least a new way to teach something old. Our upcoming seminar will prove that once again. Donna is coming with her netbook and six pages of questions, news, notes and answers and we will all talk at once and learn together. She advises that you do bring a notebook for taking notes; she offers no handout as she expects you will jot down the points that YOU need. Come learn with us!”

Donna’s upbeat personality and interesting lectures always bring fun to learning genealogy. No one can ever walk away without having learned something.

Please mark your calendars for this special presentation sure to inspire all of us in pursuit of our family’s history.

Bibles and Genealogy

Last night brought us another excellent presentation from Susan Davis Faulkner, past president of TCGS. Susan’s witty and thorough coverage of why and how to use Bibles for our genealogical research was outstanding.

TCGS’ monthly general meeting was held at the Mid-Columbia Library to celebrate the exhibit Manifold Greatness: The Creation and Afterlife of the King James Bible. How wonderful to learn we were only one of two cities in the whole state of Washington to be a part of  this special exhibition. Thanks to Susan and Michael, MCL staff member, for arranging for this wonderful and unique opportunity, the exhibit of several locally-owned Bibles and Susan’s informative presentation.

Susan gave us some good background on the existence of Bibles in our world. Did you know that it took 350 years after the King James Bible was first written for another Bible to take its place along side it? Wow! That’s staying power if there ever was any. And, to be sure, the KJV has not been replaced. Many people today still use it in spite of a handful of other versions.

Because the “family Bible” was a precious commodity, many people chose not to write their family data in it. In spite of this, the Bible owned by your family may still holds pieces of gold. People often kept such important documents as deeds, wills, bonds and land records in their Bible. In addition, one might also find funeral cards, pictures, letters, locks of hair and pressed flowers. Most of these can be used to enhance your genealogical research.

Bibles are especially useful for research because vital records are more rare than one would think. In essence, they are, except for a few instances, a 20th century invention, while the Bible has been around since 1611. Of course, many of the other written records or pictures that wind up in Bibles are also pretty modern concepts, so hopefully your ancestors took the time to record your family’s heritage in the family Bible.

The Manifold Greatness Exhibition will be at the Mid-Columbia Library until the end of March. At 7pm, Thursday, March 22nd, there will be another presentation entitled, “A Visual History of the King James Bible” with author and scholar Donald Brake, Ph.D. In addition, the movie Fires of Faith: The Coming Forth of the King James Bible will be showing at Fairchild Cinemas in Pasco, 7pm Thursday, March 29. Both the presentation and movie are free.

Richland FHC Director, Richard Allen, Doesn’t Disappoint!

As always, we are offered treats when our FHC director, Richard Allen, gives a presentation whether it is for TCGS as it was Wednesday or at the Richland Family History Center.

This month, he again returned to his favorite website, FamilySearch.org, that just seems to be get bigger and better all the time, especially if you listen to Richard. He always finds the gems and presents us with new and interesting ways to research using FS.org.

Below is a list of the topics he covered followed by a link to a list of all 27 videos on familysearch.org demo’ing the many facets of that ever-growing website. Richard used several of the videos in his presentation but those were just a taste of what FS.org has to offer. Check them out!

Kudos to Richard for always giving us such tantalizing and useful peeks at what is available to all of us free-of-charge and just a few clicks away on the internet.

FamilySearch.org - A Treasure Trove of Family History Information
FamilySearch.org provides FREE online access to:
• BILLIONS of indexed original records.
• BILLIONS of original record images.
• Family Trees from the Ancestral File and the Pedigree Resource File.
• A Catalog of all materials (including microfilm, microfiche, and publications) found at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.
• Thousands of scanned and downloadable books (Family Histories, County and Local Histories, etc.) from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah and other major genealogy libraries.
• The Research Wiki with thousands of family history articles and links to other sources of family history information.
• Hundreds of free online Research Courses covering a variety of topics and geographic areas.
• FamilySearch Forums where you can obtain answers to your specific research questions.
• FamilySearch Blogs with information about new and upcoming resources and capabilities.
• Getting Started Videos to help you begin your family history.
• Technology Tips such as how to use your Smartphone for genealogical research, or how to tag people in digital photographs.

https://www.familysearch.org/learningcenter/results.html?q=product+demo&resultListItem=0

Technorati Tags: Richard Allen,TCGS,FamilySearch.org,FS.org

Make TCGS a Part of YOUR New Year’s Resolutions

Wednesday evening, Richard Allen, the director of the Richland Family History Center will speak on “FamilySearch”.

In the webinar, “10 Ways to Jump Start Your Genealogy” by Thomas MacEntee, just aired this evening, it was suggested you join a genealogy society and “Get Out!” to freshen your perspective and re-energize your research.

Starting your New Year with Richard Allen introducing us to all that is new with FamilySearch certainly could help us “jump start our genealogy.”

Make a resolution today to attend all that TCGS has to offer. You may be surprised at all you will have gained by December.

7pm Parkview Estates 7820 W Sixth Avenue in Kennewick

See ya there!

LiveJournal Tags: TCGS,Richard Allen,FamilySearch

March General Meeting

Just a reminder that our general TCGS meeting is this Wednesday, 7pm, at Parkview Estates.

Our own Sandra Floberg will be the presenter. She has conducted her own survey of the 10 most popular reference books we should all consider having in our homes.

Her intention is to help us decide which books we would like Barnes and Noble to stock prior to our fund-raiser in May.

If you like what you hear and decide there are some books you would like to consider buying, be sure to get your requests to Susan Faulkner right away. She will have Barnes and Noble order in the books for you to review. No pressure to buy (although your purchases on that day will benefit TCGS and help fund our Washington State Genealogical Society Annual meeting in September.)

After Sandra's presentation, we will provide more information so that you can prepare for our next big event, the Barnes and Noble TCGS Fundraiser, May 21st.

Stay tuned for more details.