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Tag: genealogical research

Franklin Kennedy family, c., 100, via Washington State Archives
Archives Spotlight: Find your Washington ancestors in the Digital Archives census collection

Archives Spotlight: Find your Washington ancestors in the Digital Archives census collection

The Washington State Archives’ Digital Archives has an extensive collection of census records from across the state, dating back to 1847 — 42 years before Washington became a state. The Digital Archives’ mission is to make public records easily and freely accessible to the people. To date, well over 200 million records have been digitized. Census records are popular among researchers, especially genealogists. If you have ancestors who lived in Washington, there is a good chance you can find them…

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Browse and search historical publications with the new Washington Digital Newspapers website

Browse and search historical publications with the new Washington Digital Newspapers website

The Washington State Library, a division of the Office of Secretary of State, has launched a new website for the Washington Digital Newspapers program at Washingtondigitalnewspapers.org. The site features new titles in the State Library’s digital newspaper collection, with full-text article search of more than 400,000 pages from the State Library’s collection of historic Washington newspapers. Visitors can interact with the site with the help of text correction features to improve search results on dark or damaged pages, by attaching subject…

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Spotlight on Staff: Kathryn Devine

Spotlight on Staff: Kathryn Devine

Spotlight on Staff: Kathryn Devine When you think of detectives you may think of the hardboiled Sam Spade or perhaps Sherlock Holmes with his deerstalker hat, but working behind the scenes at the Washington State Library is a detective extraordinaire — Kathryn Devine. Kathryn is one of our Public Services Librarians and an expert at deep genealogical research. As her supervisor Crystal Lentz says, “Kathryn has solved many a genealogical mystery for us.” She has a BA in History from…

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Spotlight on Staff: Kim Smeenk

Spotlight on Staff: Kim Smeenk

If the first rule of management is to hire well, then the Public Services group of Washington State Library got off to a good start when reference librarian Kim Smeenk was invited to join the staff over half a decade ago. Kim, who is a specialist in genealogical research and a fine reference librarian as well, is amazingly prolific in answering online queries. This is an especially desirable trait in light of significant loss of librarians the Public Services unit…

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WSL Updates for February 17, 2011

WSL Updates for February 17, 2011

Volume 7, February 17, 2011 for the WSL Updates mailing list Topics include: 1) FREE GENEALOGY EVENT – BING CROSBY’S FAMILY HISTORY 2) WLA ANNUAL CONFERENCE – REGISTER NOW 3) PUBLIC RECORDS & OPEN MEETING FORUM 4) FREE WEBWISE CONFERENCE 5) HOST THE KING JAMES BIBLE TRAVELING EXHIBIT 6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

WSL Updates for January 27, 2011

WSL Updates for January 27, 2011

Volume 7, January 27, 2011 for the WSL Updates mailing list Topics include: 1) FIRST TUESDAYS – INNOVATION AT WTBBL 2) LIBRARY LEGISLATIVE DAY 3) FREE GENEALOGY EVENT – BING CROSBY’S FAMILY HISTORY 4) WASHINGTON LIBRARY SNAPSHOT DAY 5) VIDEO CONTEST – ESPECIALLY FOR TEENS 6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

Tips for Becoming a Better Library Researcher

Tips for Becoming a Better Library Researcher

We in the “librarian” profession are always working hard to better ourselves. We read hundreds of books every week (at least!), we memorize data and statistics for kicks, and we constantly remind ourselves that “Wikipedia is not a primary resource, Wikipedia is not a primary resource …” We do a lot, dear patrons, to educate ourselves on how to serve you better. Happily, now you can return the favor. Ancestry Magazine recently posted an online article, “10 Tips to Becoming…

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Get great answers to tough questions, online and 24/7.

Get great answers to tough questions, online and 24/7.

Your librarians will answer your questions, day or night. Have you ever had a question you couldn’t answer? Has Google left you empty-handed – or overwhelmed? Have you considered asking an expert for help? Your library has professional information specialists (we just call them librarians) who know how to go beyond Google to find you the information you need. And now asking a librarian is just as convenient as searching the Web. Over 60 libraries in Washington State have joined…

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