Mason County Genealogical Society P.O. Box 103 Shelton, WA 98584-0103 The Mason Log Volume 12 Issue 9 May 2015 March meeting • Thursday, May 7th • 7:00 p.m. Start time • Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at 12th & Connection • Membership dues - single: $15.00 Couple: $20.00 • Find us on the web at http://rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wamcgs/ The inside scoop • Note to self • Online books • Obituaries Note to self I’d like to age gracefully and be the mellow sage that I was destined to be. Turns out that I made a wrong turn a few years ago and missed my chance at mellow sage. The jury is still out on graceful. Genealogy is to blame. It has lead me down the path of madness, intemperate behavior, and distrust of the American educational system. The only reason my computer monitor survives is that I can’t remember the combination of my gun safe, and by the time I find it, I’ve forgotten what I wanted in for. It all started innocently enough when Susie got interested in genealogy and family history. As she proceeded to dig deeper and deeper into her family it became apparent that her family has suffered the same malaise that I found in my family genealogies and histories. What is it you ask? There are a substantial number of extended family members in our lines that are clueless about American History. And science. And logic. Susie has gotten further back in time with her work than I have. She has family that arrived quite early in the settlement of New England. Some of her lines were being born, married, and dying in Massachusetts, New York, or Vermont prior to 1620. When I took American History in 1964-65, 1620 was when the Pilgrims landed and started Plymouth colony. This was the first European settlement that stuck around that neck of the woods for more than a couple of decades. American History, for whatever reason, is not exactly one of the favored areas in the current educational system. (I’m of the opinion that a significant number of posters on Ancestry.com think 1620 was the year that the Dodge brothers found Plymouth Rock and started the Chrysler Auto Group.) Some of these same family trees have young girls and boys, sometimes as young as three years old, being married, having children, and then dying all before the age of 10 years. So much for biology. (I thought it was common knowledge that boys and girls under the age of puberty thought of each other as yucky, even in the 1600’s.) Then there is the case of the mother dying in 1846 and her daughter being born in 1849. Perhaps the person who recorded this fact was chronologically challenged. Who knows, but the worst thing about all of these cases is that they have been accepted and are being added to trees as I type. The source for many of these “fact abuses” are those complied indexes/databases that seem to populate Ancestry.com and other online sites. There’s a reason that the DAR refuse to recognizes these as reliable sources. Please welcome Pam Harrell as the associate editor. She has expressed an interest in assisting with the newsletter, and I’ve needed the help… Pam has a vast amount of genealogical experience and is able to juggle up to eleven different families and bake cookies at the same time. I’m looking forward to working with her. About the cookies… , OCR Text: Mason County Genealogical Society P.O. Box 103 Shelton, WA 98584-0103 The Mason Log Volume 12 Issue 9 May 2015 March meeting • Thursday, May 7th • 7:00 p.m. Start time • Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at 12th & Connection • Membership dues - single: $15.00 Couple: $20.00 • Find us on the web at http://rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wamcgs/ The inside scoop • Note to self • Online books • Obituaries Note to self I’d like to age gracefully and be the mellow sage that I was destined to be. Turns out that I made a wrong turn a few years ago and missed my chance at mellow sage. The jury is still out on graceful. Genealogy is to blame. It has lead me down the path of madness, intemperate behavior, and distrust of the American educational system. The only reason my computer monitor survives is that I can’t remember the combination of my gun safe, and by the time I find it, I’ve forgotten what I wanted in for. It all started innocently enough when Susie got interested in genealogy and family history. As she proceeded to dig deeper and deeper into her family it became apparent that her family has suffered the same malaise that I found in my family genealogies and histories. What is it you ask? There are a substantial number of extended family members in our lines that are clueless about American History. And science. And logic. Susie has gotten further back in time with her work than I have. She has family that arrived quite early in the settlement of New England. Some of her lines were being born, married, and dying in Massachusetts, New York, or Vermont prior to 1620. When I took American History in 1964-65, 1620 was when the Pilgrims landed and started Plymouth colony. This was the first European settlement that stuck around that neck of the woods for more than a couple of decades. American History, for whatever reason, is not exactly one of the favored areas in the current educational system. (I’m of the opinion that a significant number of posters on Ancestry.com think 1620 was the year that the Dodge brothers found Plymouth Rock and started the Chrysler Auto Group.) Some of these same family trees have young girls and boys, sometimes as young as three years old, being married, having children, and then dying all before the age of 10 years. So much for biology. (I thought it was common knowledge that boys and girls under the age of puberty thought of each other as yucky, even in the 1600’s.) Then there is the case of the mother dying in 1846 and her daughter being born in 1849. Perhaps the person who recorded this fact was chronologically challenged. Who knows, but the worst thing about all of these cases is that they have been accepted and are being added to trees as I type. The source for many of these “fact abuses” are those complied indexes/databases that seem to populate Ancestry.com and other online sites. There’s a reason that the DAR refuse to recognizes these as reliable sources. Please welcome Pam Harrell as the associate editor. She has expressed an interest in assisting with the newsletter, and I’ve needed the help… Pam has a vast amount of genealogical experience and is able to juggle up to eleven different families and bake cookies at the same time. I’m looking forward to working with her. About the cookies… , Mason County Genealogical Society,Mason Logs,Mason Logs,2015,V12 I9 MCGS May 2015 Newsletter.pdf,V12 I9 MCGS May 2015 Newsletter.pdf Page 1, V12 I9 MCGS May 2015 Newsletter.pdf Page 1