June 2009 Volume 16 Number 4 Inside This Issue
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1644 43rd Avenue East, Seattle, WA 98112-3222 (206) 328-2716 www.fiskelibrary.org FISKE GENEALOGICAL FOUNDATION NEWSLETTER JUNE 2009 VOLUME 16 NUMBER 4 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Research Meet Ancestry.com Library 7 edition omits info Mary Familyhistory101.com 7 Peters City Directories 8 Fiske North Dakota Digital 10 Board Articles Expands New Board Member 1 Part 3 of 3 Mary Peters Mary first learned about the Fiske in Berks and Schuylkill counties. Mary Try a Genealogical Wiki 2 Library almost 20 years ago when she reports that she has traced all but 19 met Mary Stoebuck at the Sandpoint surnames to the homeland. On-line Newspapers 3 National Archives and was invited to stop by the library which was then Mary and her husband enjoy traveling Facebook Genealogy 10 housed in an apartment on Queen Anne and have visited all 50 states. Her first Hill. When Arthur heard she was a trip to the mid-west was spent meeting Books descendant of the Hopkins from distant cousins and visiting repositories Maryland, he said, "Oh, those aren't the while her husband sought good fishing New Acquisitions 4 Mayflower Hopkins. They descend lakes. In the ten years since his from Gerrard Hopkins." Mary was retirement, they have also cruised to Book Donors 6 immediately intrigued and was soon a South America, Western European regular participant in his classes. capitals, Scandinavian countries, through Fiske—General the Panama Canal and Alaska’s Inner In addition to attending 18+ years of Passage, and have toured Australia, New Fiske Board Members 2 Fiske seminars, she has gone to the Zealand, and China. Library Hours 11 Family History Library in Salt Lake City 15 times and has taken the UW Mary has provided great service to the Newsletter & Patronage 11 Genealogy Certificate class. This Fiske Foundation and Library. She has Fees knowledge and dedication has enabled entered all Fiske books, periodicals and Driving Directions to 11 her to tie into her Plantagenet notebook articles into the shelflist for Fiske Library Ancestors and the Magna Carta Barons. several years. Mary also regularly She has researched her 1/4 English volunteers and has taught beginning LC Classifications at 9 Fiske Library ancestry back to the early 1600s and genealogy classes on Wednesday her 3/4 German ancestry back to the evenings. We are fortunate to have her Pennsylvania Dutch with 50 surnames on the Fiske Board! Page 2 Volume 16 Number 4 H AVE YOU TRIED A GENEALOGY WIKI? Gary A. Zimmerman Although many genealogists have become familiar The wiki offers easy ways to illustrate a family’s with Wikipedia, they may not yet have taken a tour of migration route on maps and photographs may be the genealogy wiki at www.werelate.org. WeRelate annotated with boxes to identify specific features. is a well-designed website where you can share your There is a place to exchange messages about the family information in a way that others can view your content of any page. Your e-mail address is never tree and your documentation and add their own published, but comments are easily sent to you by the findings at the same site. It is a convenient way for wiki operations center. distant relatives to share their results for a common ancestor. When the work is in progress, it is easy to This site is a joint project of the Foundation for On- add or amend what is on the website. You merely line Genealogy, Inc and the Allen County Public type information and submit it with no need to Library and is well worth your consideration. “create” the webpage. Screen shot from WeRelate.org showing the westward movement of one generation of the Billings family. There is a short, highly recommended on-line video to introduce you to the site. You can register for free FISKE BOARD and then you can upload a Gedcom file or type in your own family tree. If you have documentation MEMBERS you can add .jpg files or .pdf files for posting on your page. You can “follow” any page on the site by President Gary A. Zimmerman indicating your interest and leaving your e-mail address. Whenever a change is made on a given page, all “watchers” of that page are advised by an e- Treasurer Ann Owens mail alert that something new has been added. Secretary Carolyn Blount A “history” feature permits you to compare all of the changes made, and a “talk” area reports the merges Technology Director Dave Brazier and discussions of any contributor. It is very easy to follow the changes as well as to find others who are working on a particular individual and who may have Directors Lou Daly information you need. Best of all, prompt assistance Karl Kumm is available from knowledgeable volunteers. Mary Peters Fiske Genealogical Foundation Newsletter Page 3 New Tools at the Fiske Library F INDING DIGITIZED Ann Owens N EWSPAPERS ON -LINE I love to go to genealogy libraries and browse the If you are interested in your ancestors as people rather shelves. Some of my best finds have come from than dates and locations, you should check out the simply looking through books in the general category many newspapers that are now available on-line. of my area of research. But increasingly, I’m Local newspapers, particularly those in the 19th realizing how fortunate we are at Fiske to have new century, provide a plethora of life’s details, from research tools available to us through WorldCat and birth announcements, wedding and honeymoon First Search. Let me give you just a couple of accounts to obituaries. However, many local examples. newspapers also routinely covered “Here and There,” Open the Fiske website (www.fiskelibrary.org) and a column of interesting details of visitors to the town, you will see a search line. I entered “Rowley”, the illnesses and accidents, as well as other minutia of town in Massachusetts where 13 of my ancestors your ancestors’ lives. settled in the mid 1600s. I found Early Settlers of Rowley, Massachusetts, a book that Fiske has and one One of the better websites is the Library of Congress that I have read cover-to-cover. The surprise came Chronicling America site at when I also discovered that Fiske has Ipswich Village http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ where you can and the Old Rowley Road. It was, of course, shelved search through the newspaper pages that have been in the Ipswich section. I probably would not have digitized so far. found it without the computer search. To my delight, there was a whole section on my ancestor, Twiford West, who settled not in Rowley, but along the Rowley Road. Another extremely helpful tool is First Search, which can be accessed through Fiske. I have been looking for an article that appeared in the spring of 1891 in the Baptist newspaper, Christian Secretary. I entered the name of the newspaper and came up with 164 libraries across the country, including the UW, that hold copies. When I was on the field trip to Suzzallo At the Chronicling America site you can also search a with Fiske, I found microfilm for Christian Secretary, directory of historical newspaper titles by date and although not the year I wanted. I went back to my list place. The latter feature enables you to make a list of of 164 libraries and contacted the two most logical newspapers that were published in locations where ones in Connecticut. Both libraries responded that your ancestors lived so that you can find references to they didn’t have the year I needed, but thought them in the local newspaper. Over a million perhaps the Public Library of Cincinnati would. I newspaper pages have already been digitized from contacted them (finding their contact information on newspapers between 1880 and 1922 in CA, DC, FL, the web) and received a wonderful response saying HI, KY, MN, MO, NE, NY, TX, UT and VA and the that they do hold microfilm of that year and will do states of IL, KS, LA, MT, OK, OR, and SC are in the the research for the particular article I need. I could process of being digitized. never have guessed that Cincinnati, Ohio would have Christian Secretary, published in the 1800s in The National Digital Newspaper Project at Hartford, Connecticut. http://www.neh.gov/projects/ndnp.html will eventually I continue to be impressed and thankful that our Fiske have over 20 million pages digitized and is a site you Library has moved into the 21st century by being part definitely will want to check on frequently to see what of WorldCat. your ancestors might have been doing on a daily basis. Page 4 Volume 16 Number 4 F ISKE LIBRARY— RECENT ACQUISITIONS The following books have been added to the Index of North Carolina Ancestors Fiske Library since March. The information [F253 .I53] within brackets [……] gives you the exact Obituaries from Tennessee Newspapers shelf location of that book in the Fiske [F435 .G37 1980] Library. Marriage and Death Notices from Baptist newspapers of South Carolina 1866- 1887 [F268 .M18 1996] New England Claiborne County TN newspaper articles 1872-1888 [F443.C5 H63] Links to your Massachusetts Past Tennessee Settlers and their descendants [F63 .G34 2002] [F435 .T368] Mayflower Families: John Howland Life and Travels of Rev. Thomas Ware, Vol 23, Part 1 [F63 .M39] itinerant Methodist preacher Connecticut Revolutionary Pensioners [BX8495.W25 A3 1984] [E263.C5 C69 1982] Ebenezer Record Book 1754-1781 (GA) Deborah Moses or Pen Pictures of [F292.E3 J66 1991] Colonial life in New England [PZ3.W417 The Five Royal Governors of North D43 1915] Carolina [F257 .R6 1968] New Englanders in the 1600’s / North Carolina’s role in the Spanish- Genealogical research published 1980- American War [E726.N8 S73 1975]