Watts House Progress - 8 months later

     Attended the library board meeting on Saturday to present our inventories of the Watts books from the original library in the Watts house. Shared the story of discovering who the third library founder was and her contribution. We also provided a list of the 20+ books that have family signatures in them. The Historical Society is hoping they will be placed in the Watts House Museum for preservation. After that I went to the house and transitioned the picture collection to smaller tubs for ease of working with them. Then all was taken down to the basement. It was great going down there and seeing the progress. From 20 open boxes there are now only eleven smaller tubs that are sorted. The notebooks are labeled for the use of anyone wishing to research their families.

Book Wish List
Reference Books for the Genealogist Wish List
By Susan LeBlanc, BGS/FH, AG®[i]

Genealogy books are plentiful and knowing which ones will be most beneficial in your genealogy education is important. While taking classes through BYU, I made the following list of books used in the various classes or suggested by the instructors. It is certainly not everything on my shelves, which contain over 100 reference books, but it will help to get you thinking about creating your own list. Many of my other books are for specific localities and foreign research. Of the 45 books listed, eleven are still on my wish list. An important feature of creating a list is to mark off the books that you have, so when you go to purchase books you will know which books to add to your individual library. Our local librarian requested the list, as she wants to build our library collection. To keep costs down for the home library one can purchase used books at a fraction of the original price. The most recent publication does not always provide many changes from previous versions. While you may be able to access the book online, having a hard cover copy is nice for leisure reading and ready reference. Being able to mark a book for personal use is something true book lover’s relish.

Who Was Lena Burg?

As noted in past newspaper articles Lena Berg was one of the founders of the Scappoose Public Library in 1929. She worked with Rose Watts and Caroline Dorris in establishing the library in the second floor of the Price/Watts store. There they managed to collect hundreds of books and provided hours of service making those available to the community. They were involved in the rescue of the books from that building before it was destroyed by fire in 1932. The books were moved to the Watts house where they were open to the public until a formal public library was opened in 1959, at the then fire station building. That move occurred shortly after the death of Rose Watts, who was quoted as saying, “there were four to five thousand books at that time.”

Scappoose Library - Fabulous Opal Whiteley

My mother, Yvonne Olsen Barker, loved the book Opal by Opal Whiteley. She left two copies of the book in her large collection of books. The one I kept for myself is a 1976 edition arranged and adapted by Jane Boulton, with 181 pages. The cost of the book was $2.95 after being reduced from $6.95, probably found in a used book store. On the inside front page she left this inscription:

"This book reminds me so much of how your great grandmother was as a child from the stories she told me. I have this same book in my library so I thought you might enjoy reading this one.
Yvonne Olsen Barker 6/5/93."

SLIG 2017 Forensic Genealogy Course

Tricia Oberndorf and I attended the "The Coaching Lab: Forensic Genealogy from Inquiry to Affidavit"
Catherine B. W. Desmarais, CG and Amber Goodpaster Tauscher
were the lead instructors, teaching 14 sections individually and often together supporting the learning of how to use technology in the research process.

100,000 Page Views for Gopher Genealogy

At about 3:30 this afternoon the blog Gopher Genealogy reached 100,000 views. The blog began on April 24, 2011. Then in four years-time on February 28, 2015 it reached 50,000 page views. In less than two years it has now doubled the amount of page views. These views are from all around the world, but just over 59,000 come from the United States. When starting the blog it was a novelty and many other genealogists were doing the same. Geneabloggers has about 3,000 blogs listed at their website. Today the website posted an interview entitled, "May I Introduce You to Susan LeBlanc."

This is a short piece from the post:

Samuel Reed Civil War Soldier

                Samuel Reed is my fourth great grandfather. He fought in the Civil War and died on October 6, 1864 because of dysentery. I found information about him from his burial in Little Rock National Cemetery in Arkansas. Much of the information my family has about him came from his military records. (Military Service) Learning about him helps me to understand the Civil War on a personal level. Samuel Reed is significant to me because he was willing to leave his family and fight for his beliefs.