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Tacoma-Pierce County Genealogical Society, Washington State, USA

News & Notes

This year's seminar When Genealogy Meets Technology is now history. Both speakers Cyndi Howells and Emily Aulicino did a spectacular job, including infusing their presentations with humor!

Planning is already underway for next year's seminar, which will again be held at LaQuinta Inns and Suites, on April 27th, 2013. Speakers will be William "Bill" Dollarhide and Leland Meitzler.

Both Finding Your Roots on PBS and Who Do You Think You Are? on NBC recently aired their final episodes for the season. NBC announced that they will not be renewing Who Do You Think You Are?, however rumor has it that a new season of Finding Your Roots is already under development.

Elizabeth Shown Mills, the universally-acknowledged expert in genealogy documention, has published a companion website to her book Evidence Explained. Explore this website and sheck out the Quick Lessons posted there.

Do you ever wonder what an immigrant's name may have been in their country of origin? Or what your name might be if you still lived in that country? Check out English Equivalents of Foreign Given Names to find out.

Genealogists love maps! They are such helpful tools for our research and sometimes just fun to look at! The OldMapsOnline Portal is an easy-to-use gateway to historical maps in libraries around the world. It allows the user to search for online digital historical maps across numerous different collections via a geographical search. Search by typing a place-name or by clicking in the map window, and narrow by date. The search results provide a direct link to the map image on the website of the host institution. About.com has a nice article about this site.

Members should have just received the latest issue of the Newsletter. Newsletters are now by e-mail, and also posted on the website. Therefore the April 2012 issue is now available. And don't forget to submit your Queries for the Newsletter — they will also be posted on the website.

The 1940 United States Census is here! Available for free at Archives.gov, Ancestry.com, My Heritage.com, and FamilySearch.org. Indexing has begun — some states are already complete. But for those states not yet name indexed, check out Steve Morse's One-Step Website, where you can take his 1940 Tutorial Quiz.

And you can help create that index! Go to 1940 U.S. Census Project to find out how.

Have you watched a Webinar lately? One of the newest tools for genealogy, many webinars are available free. You can "attend" in real time, or watch later. While some do cost, many are available for free. Find out more at http://blog.geneawebinars.com/.

For those of you with Irish ancestry, Clare County Library has launched a superb new online maps viewer called GMaps. The county's GMaps are based on the Google Map system, allowing Google Maps to be overlaid with historical maps dating from 1842.

For the first time, the National Archives has launched online videos of its most popular genealogy “how to” workshops. These videos cover “hot topics” in genealogical research such as census, immigration and military records. Now, these popular workshops led by National Archives experts are available on the National Archives YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/usnationalarchives.

Also from the National Archives is the Citizen Activist Dashboard, where you can tag images and records, transcribe a historical document at You Can Transcribe It!, contribute to articles, upload your photos, enter competitions and much more! Check it out at http://www.archives.gov/citizen-archivist/.

Do you have ancestors from Colonial Virgina? If so, you will want to check out the Colonial Williamsburg website at http://research.history.org/DigitalLibrary.cfm.

Online microfilm ordering from the Family History Library is now available in the Pacific Northwest. Visit Online Film Ordering for more information. Now you can order films from the comfort of your own home, and receive e-mail notification when the films arrive at your local Family History Center. Please note that prices for films will go up to $7.50 each on February 15th.

The Tacoma-Pierce County Genealogical Society is now offering a Tacoma Area Obituary Look Up Service. Due to cutbacks at the Tacoma Public Library they are no longer able to offer this service, so have asked the society if we would take it on.

Washington Digital Archives is a fabulous place to search for your Washington ancestors. Other states are also establishing digital archives, such as Michigan's Seeking Michigan. To find one for your state of interest try Googling the state name along with "digital archives" or check out Cyndi's List.

Older News

As news items on the Home Page are replaced by newer ones, those of lasting interest will be placed here.



Monthly Meetings:
Guests are always welcome at our meetings. Come meet other Pierce-County genealogists and listen to great speakers.

History of the Tacoma-Pierce County Genealogical Society:
The society was organized in the spring of 1961 and began with 6 members, ending its first full year with 54 members. There are currently more than 350 members in the society, many of whom live in the Tacoma-Pierce County area of Washington state, as well as many other areas of the United States.


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Tacoma-Pierce County Genealogical Society
PO Box 1952, Tacoma, Washington 98401, USA
Updated Thursday, 24 May 2012, 02:10:32 PM MDT
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The Tacoma Pierce County Genealogical Society (TPCGS) is a registered nonprofit corporation recognized by the IRS under section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code using EIN 91-1180097. In addition, the TPCGS is a registered nonprofit corporation in the state of Washington under WAC 458-20-169 using UBI 600444975. As such, your donations and contributions may be tax deductible and are greatly appreciated. Fundraising activities are occasionally held for the benefit of the TPCGS.

The purpose of the TPCGS is to stimulate popular interest in family history, to seek genealogical and historical knowledge, to preserve and perpetuate the records of our ancestors, to aid individual members in compiling their family histories, and to collect and publish genealogical source material.