2012 Year in Review

Well according to Google Analytic 1887 people visited my blog this year and by far the pictures of the Seattle Worlds Fair of 1962 I posted over the last two years are the most popular posts I did.
Here is the list of most popular:
Seattle Space Needle
Carnival of Genealogy Scrapbooking (This was on the Seattle Worlds Fair)
Bubbleator and the Sky Ride Seattle Worlds Fair
Seattle Worlds Fair Day 7
1962 Seattle Worlds Fair
Rest in Peace King Forrest Cole (This one is on EXPO 74 in Spokane)
For December one post jumped into that group:
Wordless Wednesday Kababeka Falls and Port Williams.

Note only two posts on the above list were from this year, all the rest from 2010 or 2011, so here is the list for 2012 with the pageviews:

915  Seattle Space Needle
175  Bubbleator and Sky-ride Seattle Worlds Fair
98 Electric Power Pavilion Seattle Worlds Fair
89 Wordless Wednesday Space Needle
53 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy How To Books
51  1940 Census for Carnival of Genealogy #117
51  Wordless Wednesday The Highest Stack
44  Carnival of Genealogy #119 Swimsuit Edition
40  Missing Locker for the 122nd Carnival of Genealogy
38  Carnival of Genealogy #104 iGene Awards

So it looks like people like the pictures I post more than my ramblings.

Wordless Wednesday Seasons Greetings

Another post card from my dad's collection, about 1915, the back is blank.

Wordless Wednesday A Joyful Christmas

Another postcard from my dad's collection, the back is blank, probably from about 1915.

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy Washington Death Index

Week #50 – Genealogy Database

Week 50: Genealogy Database. Which individual database has been most helpful in your genealogy research and why? Is this database available for free or is it behind a subscription wall? What does this database include and how can it benefit other genealogy researchers?

 I started doing research for others in 1998 and the Washington Death index was one of the databases I used all the time. I was lucky as the library had a microfilm copy, and I was given the old copy from the library. The database was soundexed and then microfilmed, and parts were very hard to read. It was interesting that the copy the library had was easier to read in places than the copy I had.
The death index started in July of 1907, and my copy goes to 2001, the library copy goes to 2004.
The Washington State Digital Archives and Family Search have the death index online for free from July of 1907 through 1960, and even more exciting Family Search has the actual death certificates on microfilm, and the film number is listed in the index on Family Search for each person in the index.

Ancestry also has the Washington Death Index in their pay for view area from 1940 to I think about 2000, I am not sure about the ending date. There seems to be a lot of people missed in the Ancestry database and we have tried to figure out why. I think they missed a bunch of people that died in October, November and December. Most of the deaths list the death month as a number (1-12), but some of the microfilm uses the numbers 1-9 and then the letters O, N, and D. Easy for a human to see this is October, November and December, but when a computer is looking for 10, 11 or 12 and finds O, N, and D it skips those.

Wordless Wednesday Christmas Greetings

This is another postcard from my dad's collection.

probably from around 1915.

The back says it is from Fay.

Fay DeRemer Hansen was a 

first cousin to my dad.

 

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy Research Location

Week #49 – Research Location

Week 49: Research Location. Which genealogy research location or city brings a smile to your face? What makes this place special to you? What family history treasures does it hold for you? Why should others visit this place?

Well there is two places I really like to research, one is the Spokane Main Library that has the genealogy records, newspapers, genealogy books and of course the Northwest room.
The second place is the Spokane  Courthouse, I used to spend a lot of time there, but do not get there much anymore. I used to spend a lot of time in the auditors archives, when I started she had early birth and death records from 1891 to July of 1907 when the state took over, marriage records from 1880 to the present and land records from 1880 to the present. The archives was packed and the space between the shelves was very small and so when the Washington State Archives Eastern Branch opened nearly all the original records were transferred there and today most all of them are online and easily re searchable at home. The largest group not online yet is the land records, but they are all digitized now at the courthouse and slowly appearing online at the digital archives.
The other fun records at the courthouse is the superior court records, criminal and civil records. The civil records include divorces, probates, and adoptions. The only problem is that adoptions are sealed by the courts forever, and it takes a court order to open those records. But divorces and probates are open and the things you find in those records are amazing. I remember years ago being asked to get a probate for a man that died in 1932, he was pretty well off, but no kids. He had given $10,000 to about15 people and all the rest to his wife, and his probate was about 80 pages long since he owned a lot of real estate and they had appraised it twice before closing. Every one of the people that was to receive the $10,000 refused it and gave it back to the wife. I thought this was interesting for people to refuse money in 1932 in the worst part of the depression. A month or so later I was asked to look for the probate for his wife and she had died in 1941. I went to the archives and they found the microfilm with this probate and it took up almost the whole microfilm, 365 pages, and at that time they charged a dollar a page for the copies (it is 50 cents a page today). I did not have 300 dollars with me. Why so many pages? The file included TWO lawsuits. The heirs sued the trustees saying they had appraised the property too low and they did not get a fair share, so they reappraised all the property two more times. The second lawsuit the heirs sued the trustees saying they had to pay too much inheritance tax because the appraisals were too big. The tax they paid I think was about $500 federal and less than $10 to Washington State on an estate of over $300,000.
They are in the process of putting the court records online and so sometime in the future we can access those records at home.

Wordless Wednesday Christmas Wishes

Another postcard from my dad's collection from the 1910s.

The back says from Grandma, so Eliza (Hellenbolt) Dillingham, since his other grandma Karen Jorgensen had died before he was even born.

2012 Advent Calendar Christmas Foods

My mom  would make fudge every year from the recipe on the marshmallow cream jar, and my sister and I always liked licking the pan after it was made. While I like that chocolate fudge, chocolate does not like me very well, so for years I have tried different fudge recipes and this one is my favorite, Lemon Fudge
 
The actual recipe was actually called Black Cherry Swirl Fudge, and I changed two items from the original recipe:

2 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk (small can)
1/2 cup butter or margarine (1 cube)
1 package (10 or 12 oz) white or vanilla baking chips
1 jar (7 ounces) marshmallow creme
2 envelopes unsweetened black cherry Kool Aid (I used lemon Kool aid instead)

Line a 13x9x2 inch pan with foil and grease the foil with butter, (I used pam instead), set aside. In a heavy sauce pan combine the sugar, evaporated milk and butter. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook and stir for 4 minutes.
Remove from heat; stir in vanilla chips and marshmallow cream. The vanilla chips did not melt very well every time I used them so I stirred in the vanilla chips while still on the heat and when melted I turned off stove and stirred in the marshmallow creme. Next they want you to put a cup aside and then stir in the Kool Aid to the remaining fudge and then swirl the two together so you have ribbons of white and color. I just stirred the Kool Aid into all fudge and the poured it into the pan to cool. I first made this last Christmas and it was very lemony, and while I like lemony most people said it was too much lemon, so this batch only had 1 package lemon Kool Aid, and that is still very good. What other Kool Aid flavors would make good fudge?

2012 Advent Calendar The Christmas Tree

This is a copy of the 2011 Advent Calendar
In 2009 and 2010 I wrote about the trees we had and also those my grandparents had, so this tree is one I won at the raffle at our Eastern Washington Genealogical Society a few years ago. It is about 2 foot high and has a Santa hat on top.







If you look close you can see an eye staring at you, but the real surprise is when someone walks close to the tree it springs to life and and sings Jingle Bell Rock or Up on a Housetop, and then four sayings like Happy New Year

Bon Marche Christmas Decoration

This is a picture of the Christmas Decoration on the front of the Bon Marche building, and even though it is now Macy's the BM above the Christmas Decoration is still there.