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Adams County Obituaries

Thursday, August 5, 2010 – 7:12 pm

If you have ever been to Adams County (as many of us driving the route between Spokane and Seattle have done!) you know that it is a county of wheat and cows. Many of the original settlers of Adams County were Volga Germans, Germans who came from Russia, searching for a place to plant their wheat and raise their families. As the generations have expanded, the population of Adams County has dwindled. Many genealogists can trace their heritage to the wheat fields of Ritzville and Odessa but then are stumped when it comes to finding obituaries in the local newspapers. Sometimes obits were printed in the Spokesman Review, but when they aren’t there, where do you go? This is where Sue Gardner comes in. This genealogy angel has been transcribing obituaries from four of the newspapers that were published in Adams County and posting them on the usgenweb Adams County site. The newspapers cover from 1898 to 1964, although Sue is working to bring them up to date. This is a fabulous resource for all genealogists and deserves to be noted. And if you are lucky enough to find your relative, you have Sue to thank!!


Posted in Records, Research, Uncategorized, United States, Washington State, obituaries | Permalink | No Comments »

Genealogy Karma

Wednesday, June 16, 2010 – 11:38 pm

Those of you local to Spokane (or who read the Spokesman Review) may remember having read the article by Jim Kershner February 28, 2010, entitled 100 Years Ago Avalanche Wreaked Havoc In The Cascades. The story was written to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the Avalanche that killed 96. Those 96 people had relatives who, quite possibly, never saw a body and only had the articles published in the local papers and their memories to pass down to their children. How many families have forgotten or lost this information? A web site started in 2006 is working to reunite people with their lost loved one. GenDisasters is a free site that you can search or post to in an effort to find that great uncle who was killed in a mine explosion or your great great grandfather who was struck by lightening. The site is searchable by state or province (currently only the U.S. and Canada are recorded), surname or event. If you come across an event in your local paper you can set up an account and add it. Or if you are looking for an event you can post it to the site. So some rainy day, when you are prowling through the archives of the Spokesman Review or the Spokane Chronicle on Google (did you miss that blog? find out how to search here!) you can help someone out by posting that article about the Airplane crash at Fairchild or the drowning at Lake Coeur d’Alene. You may be helping a fellow researcher and hopefully the karma will come back around to help you!


Posted in Newspapers, Records, Research, United States, Volunteering, Washington State | Permalink | No Comments »

How many editions did the Spokesman Review Publish?

Friday, April 30, 2010 – 11:52 pm

Have you ever noticed when you are viewing the Spokesman Review there is more than one copy on the microfilm? This can be really annoying and sometimes you may think you’ve already looked at it once and you can skip the rest. However, in my experience I have found that this is not the case. A few years ago a Spokesman Review employee explained the reason why there are so many copies. The Spokesman Review printed SEVEN editions of the newspaper!! Because the paper covers such a large area (Northern Idaho, Eastern Oregon, Western Montana, Eastern and Central Washington) there were different stories in each edition. The key to understanding which paper you are looking at is in the dots next to the title. A single dot was Western Montana, two dots was Idaho, three dots was Central Washington, four dots was North Central Washington, five dots was Southeastern Washington, six dots was Northeastern Washington and no dot was the City final, which included Spokane and Spokane Valley. Most homes received the City final and that was the paper they read. However, if you are looking for something that happened Wenatchee you would probably want to find the edition with three dots (Central Washington). Hopefully, with a little time and this guide you will find exactly what you are looking for!


Posted in Newspapers, Uncategorized, United States, Washington State | Permalink | 1 Comment »

Passenger Records

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 – 3:00 am

Many families came to the United States before Ellis Island began operation on January 1, 1892. Instead of one single port of entry prior to 1892, there were many, run by the states themselves, and most did not document well the incoming passengers. To complicate things further, in order to avoid more rigorous entry requirements, people would disembark in Canada and then cross into America. For those who did come through New York, the debarking point was Castle Garden. Originally known as Fort Clinton in the West Battery, it reopened as Castle Garden in 1824 and served as a an entertainment venue. In 1855 it became the Emigrant Landing Depot run by the State of New York. Although some records were damaged in a fire, many are available online for searching. The Castle Garden site allows you to search by passenger name, ship name, occupation, port of departure, country of last residence, and by date-1820-1913. Sometimes the best way to search is with the least amount of information. To perform a wildcard search use the first three letters in the name followed by an asterisk (*). This is especially useful if you aren’t sure how the name was spelled-ie. Gustav instead of Gustaf. You might be surprised to find that you have been spelling it wrong the whole time!


Posted in Passenger lists, Records, Research, United States | Permalink | 1 Comment »

New Online Newspapers From Washington State

Friday, January 8, 2010 – 8:48 pm

This was printed in the Washington State Library Newsletter and announces an important addition to genealogical resources in Washington State:
“More than 42,000 historic newspaper pages from 8 Washington newspapers were contributed by the Washington State Library to the Chronicling America web site, hosted by the Library of Congress. The site provides free and open access to over 1.7 million pages from 212 titles that were published between 1880 and 1922 in 15 states and the District of Columbia. The new titles are Washington Newspapers: Colfax Gazette 1900-1912, Colville Examiner 1907-1922, Commonwealth 1911-1914, Leavenworth Echo 1904-1922, Pullman Herald 1888-1893; 1907-1922, Ranch 1902-1914, Seattle Republican 1903-1913, and Washington Farmer 06-15-1914.”
This collection is browse only but provides valuable insight into the life and times of the early twentieth century farming communities and towns in the Inland Northwest. To access these newspapers you can go to the Secretary of State website or click here. For more information about Washington’s Digital Newspapers or WSL’s participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), please visit the project website or contact Laura Robinson, National Digital Newspaper Program Manager at laura.robinson@sos.wa.gov or 360.570.5568.


Posted in Newspapers, Research, United States, Washington State | Permalink | No Comments »

New England Historical Genealogical Society

Wednesday, December 23, 2009 – 8:50 pm

The Spokane Public Library is proud to announce the addition of the New England Historical Genealogical Society to the list of available databases. This database covers much of the northeastern United States, with heavy emphasis on Massachusetts and Rhode Island. As of right now, the records in Massachusetts are complete to 1910 and they are daily adding records to 1915. If you are new to the site I would recommend checking out Getting Started . This resource is only available in the library buildings, but could be the breakthrough you need to move further back in your family’s history. So check it out and let us know what you think!


Posted in Massachusetts, New England Genealogy, Records, Research, United States | Permalink | No Comments »

Genealogical Stories

Thursday, October 8, 2009 – 7:01 pm

The path to our ancestors is often fraught with brick walls and misleading information. But occasionally we get a break, like Michelle Obama. Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, the speaker at last months Washington State Genealogy Conference, recently tracked Mrs. Obama’s family back to 1844, during a time of inequality and racial tension. Mrs. Obama’s great-great-great grandmother was a slave. And her son was biracial, born of a black mother and a white father. Mrs. Obama is an ancestor of a woman who survived some of the worst things life can throw at you and survived. Her descendants were carpenters and painters and civil rights activists and the first lady of the United States. Stories are waiting to be told and, while we may not have a Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak to help us, the excitement is in the discovery and the stories that are waiting to be told. For more on the search of Mrs. Obama’s ancestors you can read the New York Times story.


Posted in Research, Uncategorized, United States | Permalink | No Comments »

City Directories

Thursday, September 3, 2009 – 7:41 pm

I recently was asked to find out who owned a certain property in Spokane in 1910. My first thought was to go to the city directories, but these weren’t cross referenced by address until 1929. I knew the census would have the information but how was I supposed to find an address in the census?! I went back to the city directory and discovered that not only is there a listing for all Spokane Additions and their boundaries, there is an explanation of the five city wards in Spokane as well as their precincts. In 1910 there were sixty five precincts in Spokane, from Ada to Eve. The 1900 city directory also lists the wards and precincts in Spokane, but unfortunately the 1920 and 1930 do not. With the information from the 1910 directory I was able to find the owner of the property, searching about twenty pages of the census instead of the hundreds had I not known the ward and precinct. So if you know where your relative lived but can’t find the magic spelling to bring them up in the census, check the local city directory. You may discover a whole new search option at your fingertips.


Posted in Uncategorized | Permalink | No Comments »

Search the Spokane Daily Chronicle Online-Free!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009 – 11:21 pm

A friend recently brought to my attention that Google has digitized and made searchable the Spokane Daily Chronicle and its predecessor, the Spokane Falls Daily Chronicle as well as the more recent Spokesman Review from approximately 1890-date. The method of finding the search is difficult, which is probably why it has remained unknown for so long. Although you can find articles and view them on Google, in order to get a physical copy you would need to come to the library or contact us with a citation, which is available at the top of the page. The way to get to the search is as follows: First, go to Google and click on News. Then click advanced news search (to the right of Search the Web). On that page, click archive search, then click advanced archive search. One last thing, make sure you enter “Spokane” in the source box to get only local searches. If you are from out of town and need a lookup contact us at telref@spokanelibrary.org. Happy searching!


Posted in Research, United States, Washington State | Permalink | 1 Comment »

Home Sweet Home…

Thursday, June 18, 2009 – 2:41 am

Have you ever scanned a census and wondered what the house your family lived in might have looked like? How many bedrooms did it have? Did it have a parlor? Through the miracle of modern technology you can find out. If the house is still standing the city’s local assessor’s office should have information such as layout, age, and number of bedrooms listed. In Spokane, you can even get a picture of the house. All you need is the address. This allows you to “see” the house even if you don’t live in the city and especially if your family no longer owns the property. So visit the Spokane Assessor’s office or google one where your family lived. It can be a great way to understand more about your family and how they fit nine children in a four bedroom house!


Posted in Uncategorized | Permalink | No Comments »

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