Donations & Memorials

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See the note on the Membership page about 2022-2023 membership renewal.

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Tucked into the historical mining town of Roslyn, Washington, which was founded in 1886, the Roslyn Cemeteries are 26 distinct multi-ethnic cemeteries two hours away from Olympia. The operation of the cemeteries is overseen by the Roslyn Ronald Cle Elum Heritage Club’s Roslyn Cemetery Committee. Maria Adams, the Vice Chair of the Committee, and Lynda Solter, Committee Historian, will share history of the cemeteries and discuss ongoing innovative projects they are working on with local community partners, including Central Washington University.

 

The Zoom link for this meeting will be posted here the day before the meeting.

Shawna Valentine presented “How To Prepare for a Research Trip”. Although a lot of research is done from the screens of our home computers today, not everything is online, and nothing can replace the experience of being in the same environment that our ancestors once called home.  The time will come when we want to view manuscripts or documents that are only available in the locality, or we want to see former homes, landmarks, or tombstones. Locating what we hope to find requires careful planning. We learned organizational techniques that will help us prepare before we go.

 

A recording of the Zoom meeting is now available for OGS members.  Log in to the website and click on left side banner Community Events / Recordings*. This recording will be available for 30 days, for members only.

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It’s that time of year again to start up SIGs for the year.  Make this year the year to attend a SIG meeting or two!  This is a great venue to get to know more about genealogy software, DNA, how to write your story or ethnic research.  The plus side is getting to know fellow members in a small group setting.  Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are a benefit of membership so make sure your membership status is updated to access this wonderful benefit.  As we have been doing the last couple of years, the meetings will be held virtually.  However, we are switching the platform for our meetings to Google Meet.  Google Meet functions much like Zoom for the attendees.  You’ll find similar buttons that Zoom has.  The gain for changing over is that the SIG facilitator will be the one sending out invites and creating the meeting links.  The links will still be found on the corresponding SIG webpage.  If you would like to be on the SIG list, please send an email to the facilitator to be included on their list of members.  You’ll find their email contact on the Membership List.

 

Feel free to contact the facilitator to learn more about a group. More information is shared on the SIG pages and the related Forums once you have logged onto the OGS website.  Access to the SIGs and Forums is a benefit of membership; if you aren't a member yet, join up and start taking in all that OGS membership offers!!

 

• ANCESTRY - Greg Nordlund; meets 4^th Saturday 11:00 am - 1:00 pm
• DNA - Nancy Cordell; meets 2^nd Tuesday 6:30 pm
• FAMILY HISTORY WRITING - Laura Carroll meets 1^st Monday 6:00 - 8:00 pm (note September will meet 9/12/22)
• FAMILY TREE MAKER - David Abernathy; meets 4^th Thursday 10:00 am
• FAMILY SEARCH.org – Carolyn Gibbons; meets 4^th Wednesday 6:00 - 8:00 pm
• GENEALOGY CHAT - Peggy Cooley; meets 3^rd Wednesday 1:00 - 2:30 pm
• ITALIAN - Greg Nordlund; meets quarterly (Nov, Feb, May, Aug) 1st Saturday 11:00 am.
• LEGACY FAMILY TREE - Jerri McCoy; meets 3^rd Saturday 1:00 pm

OGS is always interested in starting new SIGs, if you have a topic in mind please contact Kerry Upton. Every SIG needs a coordinator, please let Kerry know if you are willing to be a SIG coordinator. All SIG meetings will be hosted on Google Meet.

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Dr. Jewell Lorenz Dunn of the Washington State Archives (Southwest Regional Branch) was the speaker at our June 9 general membership meeting. The topic was "Records found in our archives and a brief explanation of the difference between federal and state repositories."

 

Three members of the Olympia Genealogical Society are 2022 recipients of the Outstanding Volunteer Award from the Washington State Genealogical Society: Eileen Dodge, Norman Dodge, and Kathy Erlandson. Roxanne Lowe, secretary of the Washington State Genealogical Society, presented their awards.

 

The members of the 2022-2023 OGS Executive Board were elected by the membership.  2022-2023 officers are Laurel Haas (president), William Kautz (vice president), Jean Coons (secretary), and Karin Coppernoll (treasurer).

 

A recording of the Zoom meeting is available for OGS members.  Log in to the website and click on left side banner Community Events / Recordings*. 

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See the National Archives website for more information.

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The Olympia Genealogical Society's website is designed to allow our members to engage with each other as they trace their ancestors, fill out their family trees, and discover their family histories. We want to make this site a dynamic experience where members can share with and learn from one another. Here are just a few ways to engage on this site today:

• Go to Members Login* in the main menu and log in.
• Review your Profile and provide any appropriate revisions to your Contact Info and Member Settings. Email a photo of yourself to Membership@OlyGenSoc.org for posting to the Membership List.
• Under the Surnames tab of your profile, add the names of your ancestors.
• Join one or more of the Special Interest Groups (SIGs).
• Contribute to one of the Forums.
• Submit feedback, topic ideas or tips to Webmaster@OlyGenSoc.org.

If you aren’t already an OGS member, please consider joining and engaging with our community. To do so, see Membership in the menu in the left column.

 

Non-members can join our MailChimp mailing list by registering here.

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OGS provides a searchable public database to which an OGS member can add the surnames of their ancestors. At this writing, the database includes 348 entries. See OGS Surname Database for more information.

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See the current issue and the Archives.