TCGS Finally Has a Human Side

As genealogists we study people history. Our passion is finding and placing together one tidbit of information after another in an attempt to get to know our ancestors in a clearer light. The biggest thrill in our family history research are the personal interest stories that give us colorful glimpses of our ancestors’ lives. We often dig deep for the uncommon and are ecstatic with such discoveries.  

People history is our passion but sadly it has not been a focus regarding the history of our society. We, the members of the TriCity Genealogical Society, create important personal interest stories daily and now we have a member who has taken on the task of collecting this information. Pamela Mackey Keller is the new Historian for the TriCity Genealogical Society and we are thrilled to have her fill this much needed position.

Pamela is a third-generation Montanan who is very proud of her pioneering ancestors. She is the eldest child, grandchild and great-grandchild in her family and takes her responsibility as this generation’s genealogist very seriously. Her paternal line surnames include Mackey, Rollyson, Watt and Leonard and her maternal line surnames include Kerr, Perry, Hemmer and Phillips.

Pamela shares the following personal interest stories about herself and her passion for genealogy.

Pamela Mackey Keller - TCGS Historian

“My maternal grandfather, Laurence Perry Kerr, was a major influence during my childhood and I’ve been fortunate to locate and preserve a great deal of information on my family’s history in Ravalli County, Montana. As a family tradition, every year on Memorial Day we’d drive 36 miles south of my hometown of Missoula to the Pioneer Cemetery in Victor, Montana.  We’d decorate the graves of our many family members with arrangements of white, deep purple and lavender colored lilacs and retell stories of our family history.

Probably the greatest influence on my interest in genealogy was my 2nd Great Uncle, Robert Delanson Watt, born 1899 in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Uncle Bob was an educator and member of the Montana State Legislature from Missoula, Montana, serving six terms in the House of Representatives and three terms in the Senate. In about 1981 he self-published “The Life and Times of Charles Columbus Watt and Minne Ellen Royster Watt, their descendants ancestors & collateral relatives”. In about 1991, at 92 years of age and nearly blind, Uncle Bob arranged for a caretaker to travel with him from Missoula, Montana to Spokane, Washington to personally (and proudly) deliver my copy of his book.”

Pamela’s personal goal is to someday provide a new edition of her family history with hopes that the torch will be passed on to a new generation.

Please help us welcome Pamela as we look forward to the ability to look back on the human side of the TriCity Genealogical Society.

2015 Annual Meeting Highlights including New President and Vice President

The TriCity Genealogical Society had its Annual Meeting at the Isla Bonita Mexican Restaurant on November 11, 2015. A recap of the year was provided by reports of various Chairpersons. The 2016 approved budget was announced, and a change to the By-Laws was discussed and unanimously approved. The By-Law change changed our due structure to no longer have prorated dues. It was announced that starting in January 2016 TriCity Genealogical Society meetings will be held at Charbonneau Retirement Center.

The highlight of the meeting was the distribution of awards. President, John Covey, gave Certificates of Recognition to members who worked on the “Traveling Through Time” seminar that was held in September. Certificates were given to Walt Wood, Sandra Floberg, Bill Floberg, Janis Littlefield, Mary Kay Walker, Margaret Dunn, Art Kelly and Lawrence Clay. Jean Alexander, Gigi Bare, and Susan Davis Faulkner will also be receiving certificates for their work on the seminar but were not present at the Annual Meeting. Certificates of Appreciation for work on the library renumbering project were given to Dan Metzger and Linda Stephens. Mike McKinnon and Veronica Anguiano will also be receiving certificates for their work on the library renumbering project but were not present at the meeting. Special recognition was given to Margie Beldin and Veronica Anguiano for the Washington State Genealogical Society Outstanding Volunteer Awards that were presented to them at the Washington State Genealogical Society Conference in June.

As the business of 2015 was brought to an end new officers were elected by unanimous decision. The TriCity Genealogical Society President will be Walt Wood and the Vice President will be Bill Floberg. Walt Wood is bringing fresh ideas and energy to the Society and we are excited to catch his vision for the future. Bill Floberg has served the Society for many years as the Membership Chairperson, along with various as-needed jobs. We are honored to have him step up to this new position.

Walt Wood - TCGS President

Bill Floberg - TCGS Vice President

Other new Committee Chairpersons are Lawrence and Corliss Clay as Membership Chaircouple and Cody Allen as the Finance and Budget Chairperson. All other positions will continue with their previous leadership and are: Secretary, Mary Kay Walker; Treasurer, Margaret Dunn; Librarian, Sandra Floberg; Website and Publications, Janis Littlefield; Research, Veronica Anguiano; and Publicity, Susan Davis Faulkner.

We look forward to what this new blend of old and new Board Members will bring to the TriCity Genealogical Society. If you have ideas or questions, please don’t hesitate to let them be known.

~For pictures of the 2015 Annual Meeting go to the TriCity Genealogical Society Facebook page at www.facebook.com/TriCityGenealogicalSociety ~

We Are All Winners in the October Archived Document Contest

The Archived Document Contest is a monthly contest to showcase what can be found when we explore beyond what is available online. Those that enter the contest share what they have discovered, how they have discovered it, and how it relates to their family history research. In October we learned that there are methods to get information when the records are not available. We also got insight into fascinating aspects of some ancestor’s personalities that were revealed when researchers explored past indexes and transcriptions.

John Covey shared with us that his request for his aunt’s birth certificate was denied because he was not a direct descendant. What he received from the Tennessee Office of Vital Records instead of a birth certificate was an extraction of the information that the official document contained. This included the date, time, and location of his aunt’s birth along with detailed information about her parents and their background. We always want original records but when they are restricted there are often other ways to obtain juicy tidbits of information.

Linda Stephens provided a copy of her grandmother’s marriage certificate. The original document had holes in it caused by an eraser where the ages of the bride and groom were once recorded. By looking at the original document it was obvious that the 28-year age difference must have been a concern to someone.

Margie Stein Beldin entertained us with her story of her research trip to Scotland. After days of looking for information about her great-grandfather she hit a goldmine on the last day of her trip. She had poured through many collections at the UK National Archives before it was suggested that she visit the Scots Guard Barracks archivist. She was presented with a huge file folder of information pertaining to her great-grandfather. Included in the folder were his enlistment and discharge records which included his birth date and place, parents’ names, and religion. In addition to the information she expected to find she also was provided with his physical description, his health history, and reports of his drunken behavior.

Loren Schmid educated us with his research report disproving a family legend about his great-aunt’s father-in-law. This man was said to have been so tall that he hit his head on a barn while riding a horse and that he had sustained an injury that gave him a mental disorder. Searching through various Civil War military records, vital records, historical biographies, and even grave markers Loren ascertained that this man was actually 5 foot 2 inches and died of senility contributed to by arteriosclerosis.

We can all claim to be winners in this month’s contest. The examples and lessons learned provide us with an astounding amount of information to let us know that personalities of our ancestors are recorded and can be found when we leave the Informational Highway titled the Internet. The judges had plenty of material to consider before making the decision on which of the entries would win the TriCity Genealogical Society membership which was the prize for the October contest. They finally concurred that Loren Schmid and his discovery of his great-aunt’s height-challenged father-in-law was the winner. Loren was honored at the TriCity Genealogical Society Annual Meeting with a certificate stating that he had won an annual membership. Loren stated that since he had already paid his 2016 dues he would like for the money slated for the prize to be donated to the Wreaths Across America project. More information about this project can be found at www.wreathsacrossamerica.org

Loren Schmid accepting certificate for winning
October Archived Document Contest
 from John Covey, President

November’s contest is underway. Enter your story for an opportunity to win a free 2-hour consultation with Stories to Tell Books. Stories to Tell Books assist authors in any and all steps necessary to publish manuscripts.  Need some technical advice? Want an editor to look over your work? Check out Stories to Tell Books at www.storiestotellbooks.com.  Better yet, submit your entry to the November Archived Document Contest. Upload a family history related document to the TriCity Genealogical Society Facebook page at www.facebook.com/TriCityGenealogicalSociety Include how you obtained the document, which can be any method other than downloading from the Internet. Also explain how it pertains to your research. All monthly winners will be entered into a separate and special contest for the Annual Archived Document Contest with prizes to Ancestry.com and Findmypast.com

Connecting in 2016

The definition of the word “join” is simply to bring together or to connect. When we join the TriCity Genealogical Society we have many opportunities to bring together our interests in genealogy with others that have the same interest. By connecting with others of this same interest we have an opportunity to learn which helps us manage and strengthen our own personal research and interest. Being a member of the TriCity Genealogical Society is a dance that allows us to swirl in movement as we interact, learn, and teach. Our membership helps provide opportunities for this dance to occur.

We could list all of the details of each aspect of membership. If we did this we could start with the TCGS Bulletin which is an online publication written by and for genealogists. Many of the articles published in the Bulletin share struggles and successes of TCGS members. Reading these articles allows us to not only learn from their experiences but also get to know these members in a more personal light. We can casually build a contact list of who to ask questions covering various topics.

If we built a list of benefits to being a member of TCGS we could discuss the educational opportunities that are available to us monthly. Adding this to the list would possibly be a distraction as we reflect over the various Regular Meeting speakers or Hands-On Classes that have been offered in just the past year.

If we decided to build a list of benefits to joining TCGS we could consider the projects that would allow each of us to contribute to the genealogical community as a whole. We could list projects dealing with our local family history centers or even specify the indexing project for the largest family history library in the world.

In building a list of benefits that being a member of the TriCity Genealogical Society gave us we could count the social media aspects of Facebook and the TriCity Genealogical Society Blog. We would once again need to guard against distraction however because the articles and pictures of membership activity could be an interruption.

Instead of building such a list we should consider the basic principle of economics that explains that we, as consumers, vote with our dollars. If we believe in the benefit of a product and we want to see that product grow and expand and flourish we vote by spending our money in its favor. If we believe that the TriCity Genealogical Society is a group of people that contribute to the world of genealogy and that we can learn by joining with that group then we should invest in its future by paying our annual dues. We should all join the future of TCGS and pay our 2016 dues and join together as we build a list of what we want 2016 to offer.

Don’t Pay Your 2016 Dues. Win Your Membership in the October Archived Document Contest.

Entries to the Archived Document Contest in September gave the Judges plenty to discuss. They enjoyed getting to know the individuals behind the documents that were offered.

Digital copies of a scrapbook were shared. These scrapbooks were created by a businessman in the early 20^th century. He collected poems that he enjoyed written by Whittier, Longfellow and Wordsworth. He also kept copies of his own poetry that had been published in local newspapers. The poetry showed a very special and unknown part of this man who was known as a businessman and Seattle politician. Typical genealogical records would have never been able to share the spiritual and sensitive side of this person, yet the scrapbook collection made it possible to get to know this side of him.

Typical genealogical records can provide insight into ancestral mysteries though. The Judges also got to review a digitized copy of a marriage certificate found at the Ellensburg library. In finding this certificate descendants discovered that their ancestor had married again after his wife had died. Not only had he remarried but he had married a woman with the same first name as his deceased wife. Without finding this marriage certificate it would have been easy to assume that his first wife had lived many years longer than she did since both women died with the same name.

After much discussion, and a lot of fun with various scenarios, the Judges decided that Mina Jo Payson was the winner of the September contest. Her document taught a very important lesson in allowing the documents to support our research. This was a difficult decision for the Judges, however, as they would love to see everyone find a scrapbook filled with items of importance to our ancestors.

This is for the documents contest. My brother came home from the library in Ellensburg and asked me if our great grandfather had a second wife. When I went up to the library, we looked for a marriage certificate and guess what? He married his housekeeper six years after his first wife, Sarah, died. Conveniently her first name was Sarah, too! This led to some more interesting discoveries about our family.

What have you discovered about your ancestor? Share a digital copy of a document on the TriCity Genealogical Society Facebook page. The document could have been found anywhere except the Internet. Explain where you found the document and how it ties into your family history research. Don’t pay your dues. Win your dues. The prize for the October Archived Document Contest is a 2016 Membership to the TriCity Genealogical Society

"Traveling Through Time" Hard to Sit Through

About 65 individuals had a difficult time sitting through the Traveling Through Time seminar with speaker William Dollarhide. Within minutes of his opening remarks there was a desire to leave the room and research.

The first session of the all-day seminar was titled “Dollarhide’s Five Rules – Essentials for

Successful Genealogical Research.” Rule number 1 was “Treat the brothers and sisters of your ancestors as equals.” With this rule Dollarhide encouraged everyone to obtain those important census records, vital records, and various historical documents on all collateral lines. He provided a great case study of locating his own Dollarhide Family Bible by following this rule. Most genealogists, he explained, focus so closely on their ancestral line that they overlook the very important clues that are available by examining records left behind by aunts, uncles, and cousins of every generation. With this he also told everyone that they had an awful lot of work to do. It was a difficult way to begin the day as we knew that we were only beginning to understand how little we had done.

In his second session Dollarhide taught about the American Migration Routes from 1750 to 1800. With easy delivery, as if he was explaining something very simple to an attentive child, he took us on a tour of how one road was built to lead to the need for another, or to connect an already important route. He explained that many of those same routes are still being used today and encouraged us to acquire a 1941 Rand McNally Road Atlas. The Interstate System was not developed until 1956 so many of the most used roads were built on historically proven routes developed over several hundreds of years of travel.

The Civil War created a massive amount of records, many are still available today. Not all of these were federal records either. In Dollarhide’s session titled “Genealogical Resources of the Civil War Era” he gave us information on where to look, both online and on microfilm at the Family History Library, for records created during this time.

The day ended with tools to find living people by using online resources. Dollarhide shared the story of his own research in the 1970s. City directories and telephone books were extremely important and he lived mere blocks away from the Pacific Bell Telephone Company. He spent weeks pouring through various telephone books in order to locate other people with the surname of Dollarhide. The Internet has provided many websites that have taken away the need for telephone books, yet the information is still available if a researcher knows where to look. He endorsed ZabaSearch.com as a free website that was worth a visit that would provide at least a 75% success rate. Pages of additional websites were also provided to help fill in the 25% gap of information.

The day was packed full with easy to understand methods and freely provided tools. Instead of rushing to research we stayed, partially because we were stunned with the amount of information that we were being given. The other reason we stayed is that the Reata Springs Baptist Church was a wonderful and comfortable venue. The salad and sandwich buffet, stocked by the church’s teens, made a perfect lunch which was enjoyed at round banquet tables decorated with interesting and beautiful historical artifacts. There were Door Prizes, a Silent Auction, and Show and Tell items that also kept our interest.

When we left we hit the digital highway to look for a variety of documents and information that we may have never really examined before listening to William Dollarhide. We may have even done a few ZabaSearch.com queries to find our long lost friends and tell them about our wonderful day at the Traveling Through Time seminar.

A List of Don'ts Revealed from August Archived Document Contest

For the August Archived Document Contest, John Covey shared much more than an amazing document that he acquired off-line. He showed that it is possible to find clues that may take his research back to the 1500s. By reviewing his entry we can determine some “Don’ts” regarding family history research.

John Covey has arranged the annual fieldtrip for members of the TriCity Genealogical Society to research in Salt Lake’s Family History Library for many years. He knows that the vast amount of holdings have information important to his research. Even though John has made this trip several times, he continues to take the trip each year.

In June 2015 John discovered the baptismal record of his 8^th great grandfather which was created in 1664. John did not arrive at the Family History Library expecting to locate this record, but rather found information leading to this record when he visited the basement of the library and researched German records. In this section of records he found a book that not only listed his 8^th great grandfather’s information, but information continuing back for about another hundred years. Being a seasoned genealogist, John admits that the clues were a great find but that they were not documented. This gave him ideas, but in and of itself it was not a solid record.

John shared the 1664 baptismal record and his explanation in this entry to the Archived Document Contest. 

“For my Archived Document Contest entry this week I have posted a copy of my 8th Great Grandfather Johann Martin Hartlieb's baptismal record from 1664 that I got at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City last June. His is the third from the bottom of the page. Until that trip I had not even heard of him until I found a book in the German section of the library which lists the Hartlieb's in that part of Germany from the early 1600's up to the late 1800's. Through this book I have traced some other parts of the maternal line back to the late 1500s but with the book not having sources more work needs to be done on my part. While looking at the document I noticed some symbols in the first column that I did not understand, after some research I found out they were astrological symbols used for the seven planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn). I found that astrology was being practiced in churches up until the late 1600's in some areas of Europe.”

Through John’s entry to the August Archived Document Contest we can all learn what not to do.

1.            Don’t be afraid of the basement. Many repositories store important records in basements. This keeps them out of the hustle and bustle of day-to-day activity. Basements can be easily overlooked yet may contain records or clues to additional information that is extremely important to our research advancement.

2.            Don’t disregard any set of records, but be cautious if the information is not sourced. John found a great deal of family history information in a book yet the information was not documented. John treated this unsourced book differently than he did the baptismal record that he found. He knew that the unsourced book provided clues which could be used to continue his research but he didn’t automatically adopt the information as fact. He used it as a launching pad to find the documented information that would make his research more accurate.

3.            Don’t overlook anything that you find in a record. Once John found the 1664 baptismal record of his 8^th great grandfather, he allowed his curiosity freedom. The baptismal record contained symbols that John did not understand. He discovered that astrology was practiced in churches up until the late 1600’s in some areas of Europe.

4.            Don’t assume that you need a detailed list of records created by hours of examining online catalogs in order to have a successful research trip. It is important to be prepared for research trips to any repository, but don’t let your list give you tunnel vision. New discoveries may very well lead to record sets that you had not previously considered.

5.            Don’t confine yourself to online research. The story that John shared gives us great examples of the type of records that are available beyond what the Internet has to offer.

John’s entry to the August Archived Document Contest won him an annual subscription to “Internet Genealogy.” “Internet Genealogy” is a genealogical magazine for people researching family trees, family history, their heritage and genealogy roots using the resources of the Internet. John is no foreigner to brick and mortar repositories but only because he knows how well these repositories fill out the research he is able to do online.

The winner of the September Archived Document Contest will win an annual subscription to Mocavo, which is a FindMyPast company. Mocavo has a highly sophisticated search engine bringing together vast amounts of indexes into one location. To enter the September contest simply share a digitized image of a record that you acquired in any method other than downloading from the Internet on the TriCity Genealogical Society Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TriCityGenealogicalSociety. Explain how you acquired the record and how it ties into your family history research.