News from our Ferndale Genies

Our Genies are staying in touch during the pandemic and I am delighted to pass on information from them.  Thank you to Sylvia for doing the minutes this week and thank you to everyone who wrote in.  Enjoy!

Bill on RootsTech

”Thanks for sharing the info about RootsTech.  The video was excellent.  It answered the questions I had about how the virtual conference will operate and how to get started.  Very helpful.  

 “It’s important to note that the video is still available but moved to another site on YouTube.  Here is a direct link to the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiKF0RZL_qA&feature=emb_err_woyt  “

 

Elizabeth’s Warning

“FamilySearch invited me to check out a timeline for my great-grandmother. She turned out to be my great-grandfather's second wife, Mary Garnett, not my maternal grandmother's mother, Susan Fulmer. That wasn't the problem.

"This timeline attributes the five children of GGF's first marriage to this second wife. At the time of the marriage, the ages of the children ranged from 5 to 12. This is still possible. However, Mary would have been eight years old when the first child was born, a flaming red flag.  Clarifying information is easily available in census, marriage and burial records.

"Thanks to our small group FamilySearch project, I know how to fix this and may do it one of these days.

 "Be careful out there. 

" Elizabeth”

 

Rick’s Adventure

Rick has an unidentified newspaper clipping referring to the USS North Carolina in which his grandfather was not named but had written “this is me”.  Here is the rest of the story.

“Well, here is what I did...

"Sent a note to the curator for the USS North Carolina Museum and she got right back to me with a day to day schedule for the ship on the dates I asked for. 

"Went to Ancestry and put in the reporter's name and a match came up for a gentleman who lived in Washington DC. A couple of clicks later his WWII DraftCard popped up with his employer listed...Evening Star Newspaper, 11th & Penn Ave NW, Washington DC. I googled the paper and a link to the DC Library System showed up.

"Clicked on that and started a LiveChat and within 5 minutes had the link to the article...I needed a DC Library Card though to access. I told her that I was born there in 1953 but left there in 1968. She was nice enough to send me a PDF of the page that the article was printed on. Amazing. I shared that with the curator and 10 minutes later she sent me 21 pages of the ship's movement from May 1941 through the early months of 1942. I found where the ship traveled and anchored and matched that with the information in the article. It anchored in Gravesend Bay, between the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and Coney Island in New York.”

 

Barbara’s Spoon

Well, it’s not really Barbara’s spoon.  Her friend asked if she could help identify this type of spoon.  Anyone out there seen a spoon like this?  Or know someone who might know?

 

 

Sue’s News from Arizona

“Usually I do not have much to contribute but recently I have been busy.

"My son took the 23 and me DNA for medical reasons. It did show he should watch out for macular issues with his eyes and his grandmother had it bad.

"Two names showed up saying they were ½ cousins to Brian. One young lady (Jodie) we were not surprised that she was my brother’s daughter but her mother wanted to keep that a secret to Jodie. I understood her decision. We met young Jodie when she was a baby. Jodie never knew who her biological father was till now which is ok with her mother now. My husband and I are in Arizona now and will meet up with Jodie in a couple of weeks taking her gifts for her new baby. I have sent pictures of her father, my brother, and some stories about him. The ones I want to talk about.

"Now, the second ½ cousin was a huge surprise and Bill and I have been e-mailing back and forth with pictures etc. He only found out his “father” was not his biological father so it was a huge surprise to him. He had a terrible childhood but made a great life for himself with family and children.

I JUST HOPE NO ONE ELSE TAKES THE 23 AND ME DNA TEST!!

"Long lost family I found in Argentina sent me a letter that my Uncle in Detroit sent his brother (my grandfather that I never met) that moved to Argentina. It was written in such old Macedonian/Slavic writing my contacts could not translate. My daughter-in-law from Yugoslavia has been translating it word by word. I even contacted the Greek church in Bellingham and the Father there called me asking me to forward the letter and he could not help but so nice of him to try and help me.

"Now I got a msg from a lady that took a DNA and we are 3 or 4th cousins on my Macedonian’s grandfather’s side so we are exchanging information.

Regards,

Susan McFarlane”

 

Lynne’s Snow Art

Remember Lynne Oliver.  She used to sit on the window side, maybe by Rick and Peggy.  I’m still in touch with her because she is the Treasurer of the Whatcom Genealogical Society.  She loves to ski and she has been doing trail maintenance during Covid.  I hope this picture is good enough to see the profile of a horse.