2026 Renewed Antique Show Ocean Shores, WA

Celtic Music Festival Oct 2025

2025 NBGS at the Renewed Antique Show in Ocean Shores

Diane Carter NBGS Vice President and
Carrie Bergquist NBGS President
Have been framed at the 2025 Ocean Shores
Renewed Antique Show!

 

Getting Books - 4 Parts and counting

FamilySearch Library
Link is here

Titled another way, this post might have been "identify it, find it, and bring it home." Carrie Cartwright Bergquist says "I'm a paper person." Personally, I'm more of a "download bits person." Either way, a lot of what happens is the same. This is part of a continuing series on finding that "special book or document."

In the meantime, here's a "hot tip." Any documents found from this series can also be searched for from our local Ocean Shores FamilySearch Center. It's got many online databases that are simply not available within a two-day trip from Western Washington.

Part 4 - Finding a book still under copyright mentioned at the NBGS Meeting

Google Books Result for "Virgina's Eastern Shore"

One of our members mentioned she USED to have a copy of "Virginia's Eastern Shore," but no longer had it due to lending it to a relative. Taking that as a challenge, I decided to find a copy. As it turned out, the book was published in 1951 and is still under copyright. What's more, while available via Amazon Books, eBay, and "bookfinder dot com," all of those places wanted over $200 for the large, 2 volume set that had over 1500 pages. For something in good condition that included both volumes, the price was $5000.

Genealogy Cafe on July 17th

In what may become a quarterly series of events (depending on continued audience reception), NBGS is holding another Genealogy Cafe on Wednesday, July 17, from 11:30 until 3:30. Location is at the Ocean Shores Library.

I believe Carrie can certainly use more volunteers and it is more fun that way anyway. No special equipment needed.

In addition to the information on the flyer at left, Carrie notes that we have an added Cafe planned for Wednesday, October 16th 2024. Appointments are not being scheduled for October at this time, but keep that date on your calendar.

Part 3 - Test of the Best

 

FamilySearch LIBRARY Results for "Franklin County" Search

Having a gauntlet thrown down, a member of our SOCIETY wondered what might be found about “Franklin County,” as in the Franklin County in Tennessee. Here’s what came up when using "Part 2 - Checking the Top Genealogy Library Catalogs"

Simple Way to Get Date Information

As it turns out, there is no need to keep dates of events consigned to either a paper file or in a document stored for reference. While our own site provides a good reference for those grave markers that say "Joseph Goggins died January 28, 1816, aged 27 years, 2 months and 7 days" on Simply ask Google for simple date questions! This probably works with other search engines as well. Certainly duckduckgo provides the answers, though not quite in as big type at the top of the search. Ditto for Yahoo. Usually a simpler query gets better results than an involved question.

Example 1 includes official census day dates. One obtains the same results from "census day 1790." Apparently Google is smart enough to know that something like "census day 1891" is some sort of British thing, though it doesn't mention that the England and Wales Census was the day before the Canadian version.

Google tells when was census day in 1790

Part 1 - Finding Books about a Small Town History

 

Many of us have roots in what are, or were small towns, this is a story about finding books in one such place.

In previous posts, various Internet sources of old genealogical books have been noted here. The use of Worldcat and other sources to find old paper books has also been discussed here.

Part 2 - Checking the Top Genealogy Library Catalogs

A while back, a post, here, discussed the best genealogical repositories beyond our nearby libraries. Now, we're going to investigate what you can get from "the nation's best." To come up with this list, FamilyTree Magazine's ranking was considered, along with that from FamilySearch. In addition to this post, the "Genealogy's Star" blog has a good post on the subject which emphasizes actually GETTING the relevant item.

• Anyway, the list below has the following characteristics considered
• They are part of worldcat dot org. One worldcat trick that is handy for genealogical searching on worldcat is to make the "best libraries" also your "favorites." 
• They have an online catalog
• There is a way for a nonresident to borrow materials without going there in person

Departed Member Updates in March

Hi all,

Carrie Bergquist got an update from the Turners which has been added to the departed member as an update, along with the Dindinger update. Our departed member post is here.

Michael & Elizabeth Turner check in from Nauvoo

North Beach Genealogical Departed Members

Our members come and go. Sometimes members move away and continue their interest in genealogy. Sadly, sometimes their days simply run out. This collects some of those departures. Mostly going from newer to older communications:

From a post on 21 March 2024: Michael Dindinger Family Travels

Michael & Carole Dindinger

Michael Dindinger has been a major inspiration to my genealogical efforts and helped our NBGS Society and this site immensely. Our society has had membership turn over so many didn't meet Michael at our meetings, but some older "inquiring minds want to know!"

I was somewhat at odds on how to describe the adventures of Michael Dindinger, his wife Carole and our past president Anna. Instead of trying to summarize it myself, it seemed better to simply include excerpts from  some emails. These follow below, including one from earlier this week.

North Beach Society Photo Gallery

Below are many of the events and activities that the North Beach Genealogy Society and its members have put on or participated in. Scroll down the page to view the different events, which are (mostly) organized chronologically.

From our Facebook Page: At RootsTech.org. Michael Turner & Elizabeth Turner with Carrie Cartwright Bergquist.

Tool for Ancestry DNA Matches

Screenshot of FREE Ancestry DNA Match Downloader Page

Partly prompted by my update of the Internet Archive post, David Nowotnik (of a Colleyville, Texas genealogy association), sent a link from North Texas of a tool he developed to use Microsoft Excel to check for Ancestry DNA matches. The tool is free and the link is here. The page looks like the image above.

Mayflower Families Vol. 1,2,3,12,17 &18 Silver Books

 GENS - Family History Research, Library and Archives at 897 Minard Ave NW Ocean Shores, WA

We just received a donation of six silver books - Mayflower Families Vol. 1,2,312,17 and 18 from Carol-Lee Perkins. Please visit us to explore your families that arrived on the Mayflower!

One Blog to Another

 The Washington State Library Blog joined with the Washington Secretary of State blog FROM OUR CORNER

and can be reached at this address: https://blogs.sos.wa.gov/fromourcorner/

New North Beach Genealogy Facebook Page

Carrie, with a slightly Photoshopped sign

Thanks to Carrie, we now have a "non-Zombie" Facebook page which may be found here.

I suggest visiting and following it, since I suspect Carrie will use it frequently.

Overwhelmed By So Many Genealogy Resources

March 2023 - Yes, it is easy to be overwhelmed by an email box filled with genealogy resources, tools, tips and suggestions. How do we manage? We must work with our strengths! How do you determine your strength - follow your passion - which gives you joy!  Mine is genealogy research and sharing!

One of my favorite sites is - Lisa Louise Cooke - Genealogy Gems. Her weekly email starts with: The best information, innovation and inspiration to help you grow your family tree - feels as if she is speaking to me! I enjoy her guests - recent guest was Chris Whitten the founder of WikiTree.com.

Some suggest GenealogyBargains.com with Thomas MacEntee. He will give you hints on saving a few dollars but also some hints - such as "Tips for Speeding Up Your Genealogy Computer" my favorite - organize the mess of the icons on your desktop - create a folder called DESKTOP and the year (sounds like a junk drawer - someday you may look at it and clean & sort it) but until then it can speed up your computer.

Amy Johnson Crow has written an article "How to Avoid Genealogy Overwhelm" a few tips she gives is: Set a Goal; Focus on a Branch, Not the Whole Tree; And remember: It's a Journey - 

                  My Genealogy Journey has had over a fifty year life and it is unique to me!  (Hugs, Carrie)

Finding that Oddball Family History Book

In previous posts, various Internet sources of old genealogical books have been noted here. The use of Worldcat and other sources to find old paper books has also been discussed here. Sometimes these appear by simple luck, as discovering a previously unknown relative in one of those cheesy family history books.

A major resource exists that was touched upon in the review of Cradled in Sweden. That post was here. However, Amazon has far more power to uncover those oddball family history books than you might imagine.

Find it FAST in the US Census

If you need to look up something in the US Census. Pretty much all the big genealogy sites can help you. However, it takes time to put all the information in and then look through the images. It turns out there are simple and quick ways to look up something in the census.