Do you have Washington State ancestors or distant relatives that you are researching? Well, you're in luck, because the Washington State Genealogical Society is producing the free! online! Washington State Genealogical Resource Guides to help researchers find the resources they need in nearly every county in Washington. This ongoing project was started by Kathleen Allen O'Connor of Gonzaga University (Spokane) and has been taken over by my fellow EWGS blog team member Charles Hansen, and currently has guides for 34 out of 39 counties.
When completed, each guide (in .pdf format for easy downloading and/or printing) will list the following information, many with hours of operation, physical address, mailing address, phone number, fax number, e-mail address, and website address:
1. Historical overview of that county
2. Names of counties/states that border it
3. County seat
4. Chambers of commerce
5. County government information
6. Genealogical societies
7. Health department
8. Historical societies
9. Libraries - academic, public, and special
10. Museums and Historical Sites
11. Selective bibliography: a long list of printed resources and published works that are available within that county that are useful for research, such as atlases, city directories, census records, land, military, and probate records, etc.
Now don't you think this is a treasure trove of genealogical goodies? Be sure to check them out...and please be patient if the guide for your county of interest is incomplete.
Thanks Miriam, I do have an outline for the missing counties and am looking for volunteers to update the phone numbers and addresses so they can go online. Also contact me with any corrections or changes in the posted information.
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