Donations & Memorials

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Mary Paynton Schaff is Northwest Librarian at the Washington State Library, where she has worked since 2005, assisting library users with research on Pacific Northwest history, government, and genealogy. She also serves on the Washington Committee for Geographic Names.

 

Join us to hear Mary give an update about the resources, services, and expertise the Washington State Library provides to genealogists, and then help WSL plan for the future by providing valuable input for how they can best assist you. She’ll also discuss the important work of geographic naming in our state, and how genealogists can lend a hand there as well.

 

The Zoom link for this meeting will be provided here prior to the meeting.

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Ancestors' photos, stories, documents, and heirlooms are part of your family's past, and they deserve to be protected to share with future generations. The PASS (Prepare / Allocate / Set up / Share) process can help in organizing and storing family history materials; setting priorities for keeping key items and finding new homes for other items; writing a "genealogical will" to safeguard your collection for the future; and sharing your family's history now. This presentation also included ideas to consider if there are no obvious heirs for your genealogy research and materials.

 

Marian Burk Wood is the author of the popular genealogy book, Planning a Future for Your Family’s Past. An experienced speaker and a long-time blogger about family history issues and methodology (at https://ClimbingMyFamilyTree.blogspot.com), she earned an MBA from Long Island University and a BA from the City University of New York. Marian is a Bronx native transplanted to New England who has been researching her family tree for 25 years, with a special interest in preserving family history.

 

A recording of this meeting is now available for OGS members. Click on Community Events / Recordings* and click on "Future Planning" to view the recording. Program material is available under Publications / Downloadable Files / Program Materials-OGS Only*.

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So you've been tracking down your ancestors and you've finally arrived to the one who immigrated to America – now what? Do you feel that the only choices you have are to travel to that country for further research (but you can't speak that language!!) or hire a professional “over there” to do the work for you? We heard from three of our own OGS members on their research in Norway and Italy as Linda Fialkowski, Jon Halvorson, and Greg Nordlund shared their techniques, tips and recommendations with us.

 

See handouts in Program Materials.

 

A recording of this meeting is now available for OGS members. Click on Community Events / Recordings* and click on "Countries" to view the recording. Program material is available under Publications / Downloadable Files / Program Materials.

 

          

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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 7:00 - 9:00 pm (note change in start time)
• FAMILY TREE MAKER - David Abernathy; meets 3^rd Tuesday 1:00 - 3:00 pm (note changes)
• 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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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.

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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.