Message from the Director
by Jim Johnson

Please allow me to introduce myself: I am Jim Johnson, and, as of January 27, 2003, I am the new Director of Heritage Quest Research Library. For the past four years I have been on the HQRL Board of Trustees, and for the last two-and-a-half years, I was Chairman of that Board. I declined to run for re-election to the Board this year, hoping to get involved with the Management Team and the day-to-day operation of the Library. (You have to be careful what you ask for.)

2002 was a great year for the Library. We had an extremely successful Summer Quest, and, despite a slow economy in our region, we finished the year in a stable financial position.

2003 promises to be a challenging year. We have a strong Management Team assembled and are ready to make this the best year ever. Watch for an announcement for the date and place for Summer Quest. We are planning a full day devoted to "Presentation of Your Family Research." We hope to cover Publishing Family Books, Building Web Sites, Scanning and Displaying Family Photographs, Family Quilts, Family Reunion Materials, and possibly other related topics. We are offering great classes in the first half of this year, and we plan even more later in the year, possibly continuing the "Presentation" theme of Summer Quest.

I would like the thank the Management Team for selecting me for this leadership role. I look forward to seeing all of our members at the Library this year. If you have questions about the Library, about our plans for the new year, or if you have any suggestions to improve the Library, please write to me at the Library or e-mail me at: jimatjdsales@comcast.net

Copier Savings Card
by Sally Omo

On February 1st, Heritage Quest Research Library began offering an HQRL Photocopier Savings Card. You can purchase, from the Librarian, a punch card for 40 copy pages on the new Savin Copier. This is a $6.00 value for only $5.00. When you have made 40 copies, you turn in your card to the Librarian and purchase a new card. By purchasing the card you only pay 12½¢ instead of 15¢ per copy. HQRL needs your filled card turned in because the Library pays the sales tax on all copies made in the Library for the patrons. Stop by the Library and check out the new photocopier. It makes wonderful copies!

Field Trip Correction

The field trip to the Auburn Public Library's genealogy section was inadvertently scheduled for President's Day, and the public libraries are closed. Please change your calendars to reflect the new date: February 24. Same time, same place. We've heard great things about this collection, which was donated by the South King County Genealogical Society. See you there!

The Chair Recovers
by Chuck Benefiel, Chairman of the Board

I want to thank the outgoing Board for a great year, and the incoming Board for having the nerve to show up. We had a fantastic year in 2002, and this was because of the many efforts of the membership to make us a great organization. The daily operation of Heritage Quest Research Library by our directors, volunteers, and Management Team, and the success of the in-house and the On the Road Bookstore are a major part of what makes us persevere. The fabulous Summer Quest that we put on, and everyone affiliated with our little Library deserves a GREAT BIG THANK YOU.

This was more than obvious by the results of our Directors Report to all that attended the annual meeting. Attendance at the meeting this year was excellent, and I'm sure it had nothing to do with the free donuts, cookies, and coffee.

We had five great candidates for four positions on the Board in an extremely close election. I wish to welcome our new members to the board, Bob Reeder and Jean McLean, and re-elected members Lee Sherry and Bruce Kennedy. I want to thank our outgoing members Jim Johnson, our Chairman of the Board for the last two years, and Lorain Friberg. Did anyone count how many people were trampled by Lorain's dash for the elevator after the meeting? We still got her on at least one committee before we would let the door open.

I had so much coffee that I needed to take a break and became the new Chairman of the Board while out of the room. Bruce Kennedy was elected Vice Chairman. We asked Vicki Connors to stay on as Secretary, and she said yes. Will she never learn?

Jeanine Barndt and Sally Omo are now our co-chairs for the new Grants Committee, appointed by the board, along with support from Loraine Friberg. The Summer Quest 2003 Chairman is Jim Johnson, and his unofficial co-chair is Jeanine Barndt, and it really looks exciting. I mention these committees to encourage anyone who wants to get involved to please contact the committee chairs to find out when and where they intend to meet. There are lots of good ideas and plans in the works, and the Library is doing well because our membership is strong in support, participation, and direction for the future.

We also passed the Bylaw changes that were proposed, and one of the changes will affect the next Annual Meeting. It will be held on April 17th in 2004, at 9:00 .m., instead of in January. This will hopefully get the Snow Borders (and yes, I spelled it the way I meant to), who run for the borders at the first sign of frost, to attend. The following are the dates for Board Meetings throughout the next year: April 25th, July 25th, October 24th, 2003, and January 23rd of 2004. They will all take place at 7:00 p.m., and the location will be announced later. My vote is for the Stafford Suites, but we have to confirm the dates. What a beautiful facility; it really is impressive.

In closing, I want to say special thanks to some people. Susan Hudgens for the support and contributions she made as Director in the past and during her most difficult year of 2002, and to Pam Williams for stepping in when called upon to keep things going. I also want to thank Sue Perrault for the excellent job she does as editor of the newsletter, Book Store Manager, and the many extra hours that she and her support group put in for the On the Road Bookstore, and Jim Johnson for his many contributions of classes and hours to the Library. Jeanine Barndt for her great job on Summer Quest. I want to say thanks to them, but I really can't, without saying thanks to their families for putting up with the missed time that their contributions cost at home. Well, that's enough from me, but here's to a great 2003 for Heritage Quest Research Library.

Copyright Laws
Submitted by Sandi Carter

A frequently asked question here at Heritage Quest is how the copyright laws impact genealogists when copying portions of books. Here's what we've found from an article by Donna Potter Phillips written for the Family History Centers Memorandum in February 1990.

United States copyright law reserves to the owner of copyright the right to "reproduce the copyrighted work" and generally prohibits anyone else not specifically authorized by the copyright owner from making copies. You may copy any amount of any work for which you have permission to copy, in writing, from the copyright owner. If you ignore or violate the law, you expose both the library and yourself to lawsuit.

A library can make photocopies, or allow patrons to make photocopies, ONLY IF ALL OF THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS ARE MET:

1. Only one copy is made.
2. The copy is made "without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage."
3. The copy includes a notice of copyright.
4. The copy becomes the property of the patron and will be used only for "private study, scholarship or research."
5. The copy is: (a) no more than a small part of the entire copyrighted work (one article from a periodical and no more than 5-10% of a book or film); or (b) a copy of "the entire work, or a substantial part of it" if you have determined, "on the basis of reasonable investigation, that a copy of the copyrighted work cannot be obtained at a fair price." This occurs when a book is out of print and the only copies available are priced well beyond the usual market price for such a book. This is not the case if the book is in print and/or simply high-priced.

The List
by David Grim

Like many other people I've always wanted to know my family history. A friend was doing hers and said she knew I would enjoy doing my own, knowing that I enjoy traveling, American history, and politics. She was having a great deal of success and was always telling me interesting things, so at a family dinner I mentioned to my mother and brother and his family what I wanted to do. My mother mentioned that she had many old family photos, some unidentified.

I began in October 2001, with the help of the Family History Centers. A few weeks later a co-worker's roommate asked if I knew about Heritage Quest Research Library in Sumner. After stopping by and talking to a nice volunteer and being impressed, I knew this was a worthwhile discovery. Little did I know that I was going to become a volunteer myself. After completing a year of tracing my family, I was asked what my favorite discovery at Heritage Quest Research Library has been so far.

With the help of the Pioneers of Washington book I found on the shelf, I was able to find my pioneer roots in the Kittitas Valley. This is when I discovered the spelling of my last name was different. It changed from Grimm to Grim. I have since found out only my great great grandfather spelled it that way, his parents and family I found in Oregon, having been pioneers on the Oregon Trail. I was able to locate them on the census films we have on file. Gail Edwards-Peterson helped me find even more information on the Oregon state book shelf.

I was able to locate the town in Norway where my great grandfather was born and lived before coming to America with is family. Then there are the cemetery records from Wabash County, Indiana. Sandi Carter pointed out these just sitting there on the New Books shelf. I've always wondered if there were Civil War Veterans in my family tree, and, using the online computer, I discovered there were. So now I have my answer.

There has been no one big important discovery but a series of small ones that all add up. If you had told me a year ago that I could find this much information about my own ancestors, I would not have believed it. I am amazed and pleased with the amount and quality of the information. I hope my second year is as productive. If I had to choose one favorite discovery, it would have to be all the great people I have discovered at Heritage Quest Research Library. I hope you all had happy holidays.

Using the Soundex in Census Research

A Soundex is a way of indexing surnames that sound alike by grouping them together. You then use the code for the surname and search alphabetically for the first name. The Washington Death Index also uses this system.

Here's how Soundex coding works:

1. Coding consists of a letter followed by three numerals (for example, L124, C472, S160).
2. The first letter of a surname is retained and is the letter mentioned in Rule #1.
3. A, E, I, O, U, Y, W, and H are not included in the coding.
4. Double letters are coded as one letter. Jolly becomes J400; the o and y do not code.
5. Prefixes to surnames like 'van', 'Mc', 'Von', 'de', etc., are sometimes disregarded in the coding, so McLean can become L500 instead of M250. If you can't find it with the prefix, try it without.
6. The letters below are coded as the number indicated, unless they are the retained first letter as described in Rule #2.

A Genealogist's Dream Come True
by Sherry Broussard

Imagine hearing for years about a family legend that had been passed down through the generations since the Civil War era. Grandfathers told grandsons; aunts told nieces; and you had heard about a distant ancestor, a Lieutenant George Dixon, possessing a "lucky gold coin," one that actually saved his life be deflecting a bullet in a Civil War Battle. During the Battle of Shiloh in 1862, as the story went, the large coin in Dixon's trouser pocket stopped a Yankee minie ball, saving his leg and probably his life. The account went on to say that wherever the War took him after that day, Dixon always carried the bullet-bent coin on his person. Queenie Bennett, a sixteen year old Alabama Southern Belle, was reputed to have given him the coin.

But how could even the most skillful and seasoned Family Historian find proof of that legend? And how could descendants of Queenie or George be surenot only of the fact but also the love story about the young lady who gave him the "lucky coin"? Well, there is the saying,"There is a little truth in everything."

On February 18, 1864, the HL Hunley became the first submarine in history to sink an enemy warship, the USS Housatonic, off the coast of Charleston, North Carolina. She then unaccountably vanished and was never seen or heard from again. Our young Lieutenant Dixon was reported to be the commander of the small iron vessel.

Let it be said that Providence, the hand of God in the glove of human elements, sometimes intervenes for the sake of the genealogist. In 1995, divers discovered the doomed little submarine in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, just outside Charleston Harbor, her crewmen and clues to their fate still inside. It took seven years to execute the recovery from the silt that covered it on the ocean floor. In July of 2002, the National Geographic Magazine printed a fascinating article about the raising of the Confederate submarine long considered "lost at sea." When the Hunley had been safely brought to land, archeologists began examining every inch of the amazingly intact old vessel. Every man was still at his post, remarkably preserved in the mud that filled their coffin. The man thought to be Dixon, as to be expected, was at the helm. One of the project's most poignant moments came as Maria Jacobsen, the archeologist in charge of the excavation, was probing Dixon's skeleton in preparation for lifting it out of the sub. Jacobsen was aware of the romantic tale about the $20 gold piece. This fact was strongly etched in her mind as her fingers touched a ridged surface. She knew instantly that it was the edge of a coin. The gleaming gold piece was warped and a portion of one side had been buffed smooth and was engraved. Jacobsen's hand trembled as she read the inscription, "Shiloh~April 6, 1862~ My Life Preserver~ G.E.D.

So the tale was true, but finding the coin did more than authenticate the story. It also removed all doubt as to which skeleton was Dixon's. (The identity of the others remains sketchy.) "Queenie was just 16 years old when Dixon died," said Sally Necessary, the belle's great-granddaughter. "A young girl in wartime, waiting to learn his fate." At last both families could put any doubts to rest and be assured of the truth. It was indeed "A Genealogist's Dream Come True."

Are You Going To Be a Brick Wall?
By Sandi Carter

Someday, when you have walked off into the sunset, will the genealogist in your family's future be able to find anything about you? Most of us lead pretty regular lives and won't leave much of a trail behind us. Now is the time—today, not tomorrow—to make sure that we have recorded events in our lives that we feel have made us who we are. When one of our great great grandchildren takes to the piano or has a real knack for woodworking, are others going to point to him or her and say, "That was just like so-and-so; it must be in the genes"? Unless you were a concert pianist at Carnegie Hall or built the Taj Mahal, they might not know this about you. You should think about your life and where you've been, abilities you are proud of, traits you would like to leave behind, and make a record of them now. Most times our lives are pretty open books, but then when thought of through the eyes of a genealogist "it ain't necessarily so."

I will give you an example. Twin sisters were born as First and Second Twin. When they were less than a year old, their mother changed their last name to Jones, the same as the last name of the man who would be the father of her next three children. (Well, except for one in between, but that's another story.) Now if you were tracing these twins at 10 months, they must have died because there is no further record of them; we all know how sketchy death records are. Now, related to another family, comes along these two twin girls with no record of their birth; we all know how sketchy birth records are. The second twin girls are in a different part of the state and the father has a different occupation from the first one and there appears to be no link. Even the mother can't be traced because she never married the second man and there are no legal papers showing her maiden name. The report cards, vaccination records, talent show cards, school annuals, and everything else bears the twins' second name.

Then, when the girls are in their late teens they get married about a year apart. By this time they have found out what their real last name is, so one decides to use her legal name to marry. The other one, who gets married on the East Coast, doesn't think it matters. So now one of the Jones twins has disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again. Probably dead, we all know how sketchy these death records are. The mother, meanwhile, has re-emerged in a legal marriage. Where was she all those years? The second twin marries and divorces several times, in several parts of the country, and finally settles down with the name of her first husband. Now, only with money, skill, and a whole lot of luck are these twins going to be located again. With most people's money, skill, and luck, these two have put up a huge brick wall. The way this can all be fixed is for one or both of the twins to start a file, or better yet, a book, and record this story and its twists and turns. If we all stop and think back, I'm sure there are similar stories in most families. A twisty-turny one that is.

Drag out your old report cards and make copies of them. Write on the backs of photographs. Tell your kids and grandkids stories to be passed along. The sad ones might be found in newspapers in the form of news or obituaries. But who's going to tell the story about Dad, when he would get a snoot full, dragging out his old harmonica and playing The Hills of Oklahoma? Tell your stories to other genealogists. I'm sure it will jog some memories of their own.

Copyright 2003
Heritage Quest Research Library
All right reserved.