English Ancestry Front and Center at W.I.S.E. Seminar —Sandy Ronayne

Volume 13, Number 4 Denver, Colorado October, November, December 2012 English Ancestry Front and Center at W.I.S.E. Seminar —Sandy Ronayne The Rev. Dr. David McDonald, CG, will be the featured speaker at the W.I.S.E. seminar on 10 November 2012 at the Central Denver Public Library, 14th Avenue and Broadway, 9:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. Dave, an expert on English research, will speak on four English genealogy topics: • Researching Colonial Ancestors • English Church Records after 1558 • English Probate • Civil Registration Dave has more than thirty-five years experience as a genealogical researcher and more than thirty years experience as a genealogical lecturer. Board-certified since 2004, he is a trustee and president of the Board for Certi- fication of Genealogists. He has been a director of the National Genealogical Society since 2007. Both of his mothers’ grandfathers were natives of the north of England —Yorkshire and Durham— and he has enjoyed the opportunity to research in various church and public archives and record offices in the UK. Dave’s research specialties include the midwestern states, New England, American migration patterns, and churches and denominational history. He has lectured in England, across the United States, for both the National Genealogical Society (NGS) and the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS), as well as regionally and locally. He frequently writes book reviews for the FGS Forum. Beyond the genealogical realm, Dave is a minister serving in the United Church of Christ near Madison, Wisconsin. His wife, Dr. Jennet Shepherd, is an optometrist. They have three adult children. For a registration form go to the W.I.S.E. website: http://www.wise-fhs.org/docs/dave_mcdonald_seminar_with_logo_5.25.pdf The materials fee is $30 if paid by 3 November and $35 after 3 November. Contact Sandy Ronayne at [email protected] or 303.750.5002 for more information. www.wisefhs.org W.I.S.E. Words 56 October, November, December 2012 More than the weather occupied us, however. Once again, my husband and I visited the Ulster Histori- President’s cal Foundation near the campus of Queen’s Uni- Message versity Belfast to purchase books for W.I.S.E. to donate to the Denver Public Library. We purchased six, and two are of particular interest: the 747-page What could be more welcome than Colorado Index of People and Places to the Ordnance Sur- autumn 2012? Not only does it hold its customary vey Memoirs of Ireland by Patrick McWilliams, promise of renewed vigor in our family history which had been missing from the OSM series at study, but it portends the end of a ghastly summer DPL, and Them Wild Woods, The Transatlantic of heat, drought, the atrocity in an Aurora Letters of an Irish Quaker Family, 1818-1877, by movie theater and those gruesome fires Bill Jackson published in 2011 and based on letters that claimed three lives and more than 600 homes. rescued in Colorado Springs in 1914. They be- W.I.S.E. members Linda and Warren were among longed to Joseph Sinton, of the dairy business. Any those who lost their home in Colorado Springs. relatives among you W.I.S.E. members? Our heartfelt sympathy remains with them. We kept alert for appropriate purchases for door The worst of the Colorado fires occurred during prizes, which you”ll see at our fall and winter pro- our annual visit to the United Kingdom, and grams. We spent a weekend in London where I e–mails kept me informed of the sad occurrences visited the Silver Vaults that Tina Taylor-Francis here. But if I needed any further evidence that wrote about in the previous edition of W.I.S.E planet Earth was experiencing one weird summer, I Words, and we saw Shakespeare’s Henry V at the got it in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was rainier reconstructed Globe Theater. Always, we were and grayer than usual, and very cool. Furnaces aware of the importance of the British / Irish expe- were on. Parts of the city were flooded during a rience in the Anerican experience and vice versa. particularly fierce storm late in the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s visit when she shook hands with Martin McGuinness, the former IRA commander who now is a Sinn Fein politician and Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister. Belfast’s old, nar- row drains can’t handle the runoff from the city’s excessive paved surfaces. But Belfasters are used to this, and the queen made bigger news that day. Still, the weather commanded everyone’s attention, and we frequently heard an apology, as if the denizens could control it. “So sorry we’re hav- ing this awful weather while you’re here,” was the lament from family members, a bookstore owner, a Inspired by Tina Taylor-Francis' article in the previous edi- guard at the Public Record Office of Northern Ire- tion of W.I.S.E. Words, W.I.S.E. president Zoe Lappin visited land and even a friendly lady at a bus stop. No one the Silver Vaults in London in July. quite believed us when we assured them that we Back home, it was a busy summer for W.I.S.E. loved the cool wet weather, that it was 105 degrees members, led by Bill Hughes, at the Irish Festival. Fahrenheit when we left home (40 degrees Celsius Thanks to the enthusiastic and knowledgeable vol- in their terms) and that fires were rampant. Later, unteers. We gained three members who picked up when we rendezvoused in Belfast with W.I.S.E. our literature at the festival booth, taking W.I.S.E. members Sandy Carter-Duff and Duane Duff, one to an impressive 200 members for the first time. of Sandy’s first remarks was, “Isn’t this wonder- Only two genealogy / family history societies in ful?” She was referring to the weather, comparing the state are larger. Now, new (and old) members Belfast and Denver. www.wisefhs.org W.I.S.E. Words 57 October, November, December 2012 — do not hide your skills. We need you to make our society more vigorous. Letters to and from the Editor It’s time to take a deep breath and dive Recently I received an inquiry from a Missouri into Colorado in the fall, grateful for our riches genealogist who had been surfing the Internet look- — golden aspen against the evergreens, superb ing for folks with the surname of “Williams.” She genealogical resources, a thriving genealogy com- stated, “Imagine my surprise when I was munity, the proximity of the world’s greatest ge- googling around and came up with your [W.I.S.E. nealogical library just over the mountains in Salt Family History] website. In it I saw the photograph Lake City, and educational programs, especially that Lura Williams was holding of her husband’s the W.I.S.E. seminar on English research in ancestral home in Wales. … I also have photos of November. And, of course, cool weather. When I that house in Wales and have had letters and e- look back on my summer adventure in the land of mails from the lady living in that house. Someday I my roots, I’ll smile as I remember the headline in a want to go there.” The inquirer further asked how give-away tabloid newspaper, accompanied by a she might get in contact with Lura. photo of an ugly washed-out road in Devonshire, England: “Look on the sunny side! Weathermen As editor, I sent the inquiry on to Lura and asked are obsessed with rain, says tourism boss.” In the her to respond. Lura replied to me: “I LOVE it! UK this summer, everybody was a weatherman. …[He] is a person that I know little about—he left Wisconsin and went to Nebraska, apparently mar- ried twice. There is another cousin in Monument whom I am quite close to who once asked me, ‘Who in Nebraska would have sent a wedding pre- sent to my grandmother and grandfather?’ I knew who it was and am anxious to learn a bit more about them. I shall write to her now!” It looks like another W.I.S.E. member is off and running with a new line of research, thanks to the talent and efforts of volunteer webmaster, Al1an Turner, and programs coordinator, Sandy Ronayne. Further correspondence from the genealogist stated: “I had not known about your organization until I ran across the website. Do you know about the Welsh museum in Wymore, NE? The website is www.welshheritage.org … I want to learn more about your organization. I am program chair for the NWMO Genealogy Society in St. Joseph, MO.” So, I sent her second message on to our membership chairperson and fellow Welsh person, Nancy Craig, who after some friendly exchanges, learned that they have W.I.S.E. members Jack and Zoe Lappin, left, and Sandy acquaintances in common in Minnesota. It is a and Duane Duff rendezvoused in Belfast, Northern Ire- small world. land, dining at the Cloth Ear adjacent to the venerable Merchant Hotel in July. The wall hanging is labeled as Heart-warming experiences like these make it bit- “Burtons tailors demob suit and accompanying bow tie ter sweet to pass on the task of newsletter editor to worn for a wedding 1946-47.” A Burtons demob— my successor, Nyla Cartwright, effective with the demobilization—suit was a civilian outfit given to Brit- first quarterly issue of 2013. Thank you, Nyla, for ish soldiers upon leaving the military, especially after assuming this responsibility and I am confident World War II.

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