Some Random Acts of Kindness

If there were an award for "Worst Genealogy Lookup Volunteer," I'm sure I'd be the winner, hands down! With all my computer/Internet problems this spring, coupled with a busy life, I haven't been able to keep up with my lookup requests until recently. Yet I can't blame everything on my busy life; I have a tendency to overcommit, and I'm learning (the hard way) to say no. When a distant cousin on my husband's side asked me if I could build her another website to promote her newest book, I had to turn her down, since I haven't even been able to stay on top of a site I'm currently working on!

All that said, last February, I posted a series on "Random Acts of Kindess" Week, and encouraged my fellow genea-bloggers to post about their contributions. I wanted to report to my readers what I've done, not as a "break-my-arm-in-patting-myself-on-the-back" way, but to give an idea of what giving back to the genealogical community entails. I have been the recipient of so many kindesses, that of course, I want to pay it forward. Perhaps in reading this, others will be inspired to do the same.

First of all, I made a couple of small financial contributions to a couple of favorite genealogy-related websites, because I believe in what they are doing to help out the genealogy community. When I've had to make non-genealogy online purchases recently, I've tried to do them through my fellow genea-bloggers' affiliate stores. I've also tried to remember to click on their various advertisements, although many times, I read blog posts through my Google Reader instead of at the actual blog site.

Secondly, I took some training from Carol Nettles, the volunteer coordinator at the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society. EWGS is creating an index of the Patchen file that will eventually be put on our website. The Patchen file was begun 50 years ago by Lee Patchen, who worked for 20 years, clipping out obituaries from Spokane newspapers and pasting them onto index cards, which were filed in dozens of those old fashioned card catalog drawers. A number of us are adding data from these obits to an Excel file which will eventually allow anyone with Internet access to lookup their ancestor and request a copy of the obituary. So far, I'm about 2/3 of the way through a drawer. I'm a pretty fast typist (keyboardist?) and yet it's taken me about 4 hours to index about one foot of cards (some prep work is involved; there are references to published works mixed in with the obits)! While I have no ancestors buried in this area, I feel this is a great payback to the genealogical community, especially since I've used the wonderful results of such work at the Western Michigan Genealogical Society's databases!

Next, I've taken some random photos of graves at Greenwood Memorial Terrace here in Spokane, and using the Washington State Death Index online at FamilySearch Labs, I've slowly been adding memorial pages to Find A Grave for these individuals. Graves that have caught my eye include Civil War veterans' and the many graves in the old part of the cemetery, which for some reason, is not kept up like the main part. It is very rural-looking, no grass, lots of trees and bushes, and has an old-fashioned feel to it.

Lastly, I've had 11 lookup requests since March 27th, most of which I've fulfilled. Two requested death and cemetery records for Muskegon Co., Michigan (I have access to these on microfilm at my local Family History Center). One of those requests occurred before FamilySearch Labs added images of Michigan Death records from 1867 - 1897 to their site. One of the requests was for a death after the early 1910s, which were not microfilmed, so I gave the requestor the link to the online Muskegon County Death Index and recommended if she found the death listed there, to purchase the record through the county clerk's office, rather than the state department of vital statistics (it's cheaper through the county).

Another individual e-mailed me to ask if I had access to all Michigan marriage records (such as a state index) or just Muskegon County Marriages. I wrote back to tell her it was only the county records. However, just today I wrote again to inform her that Michigan Marriages, 1867 - 1925, are now at the FamilySearch Labs site.

There was a request for four lookups for family members in Greenwood Cemetery in Walker Twp., Kent Co., Michigan. I could not find three that died in 1896 in the index; the death in 1870 occurred before the records were kept (and I believe when the cemetery opened) in 1880. I recommended a local researcher in Kent County who is inexpensive, professional, and thorough, and whom I've used on occasion with excellent results.

Three requests, one through RAOGK and another through Books We Own, asked for burial information at Park Hill Cemetery in Vancouver, Clark Co., Washington. I used to own the burial books for this cemetery, as a large number of my husband's ancestors and relatives are buried there. However, I donated the books to my genie society's upcoming book auction, because the listings are now online. However, I keep my volunteer information available at these websites for this cemetery, because there are many people who are unaware that the burial records are online. I was happy to pass this information on to the three requestors.

I've had three requests for lookups in the microfilmed 1899 City Directory of Washington, DC, which happens to be one of many items on a microfilm that contains Muskegon County, Michigan records. I've fulfilled two of these requests. There is also an unfulfilled request for lookups in the microfilmed Grand Rapids City Directory in the 1860s and 1870s. All of these films are those I've put on permanent loan at my local Family History Center.

Speaking of lookups, Genlighten will soon open has recently opened its website as a place where individuals can connect with low-cost volunteer researchers. Dean Richardson, who Randy mentioned at the Jamboree, has also started a blog for the site. Given my terrible record for looking up records in such an untimely manner, I've not signed up as a researcher, although I am considering it (must finish other commitments, first). I see that DearMYRTLE endorses the site, and I think this will become a wonderful resource for our genealogical community. UPDATE: Dean posted some clarifications and corrections in the comments section of this post. Please take a moment to read these!

I've wanted to do more FamilySearch Indexing, but other commitments, time contraints and my laptop not working well have created challenges in this department.

How am I doing? Not too badly, I hope--except for taking so very long to fulfill lookup requests. I'd like to read posts from other genea-bloggers on their contributions, too, so if you have some, please add your post links to my comments section. Also, be sure to read Renee's Genealogy Blog as she writes about her adventures in FamilySearch Indexing.

This and That

Reading through my e-mail this morning, I came across these little snippets of interesting items to share with my readers:

• *The Dowagiac [Michigan] Daily News has a fascinating article about Verge Hawkins, who is lecturing on African-American history at the Museum at Southwestern Michigan College's spring lecture series. He encourages families to study genealogy together "because if you have different generations, they can focus on some things and tell their story. When you tell your own story, you're a much stronger person."

• *"Today Michigan lawmakers will begin contemplating one of the most heated questions within the adoption community -- should upwards of 20,000 people be allowed to access family information that has been kept secret for decades? Bills in both chambers of the Legislature would allow people adopted between 1945 and 1980 to obtain their original birth certificate. It also would allow birth parents to tell the state whether they want to be contacted, and how. A hearing on the matter will be held today before the House Families and Children's Services subcommittee." My paternal grandmother was one of the "lucky" adoptees whose adoption was finalized in 1940 (when she was 16), so she was able to access her own birth certificate. Thousands of Michigan adoptees have never had that chance. Read more here.

• *From Cyndi's List Mailing List, a website where you can do an Irish placename search, Irish Ancestries.com. The placename finder is on this page.

• *Looking for Michigan newspapers that might carry obituaries online? This list appears to have current--not historical--papers, but some have archived obits, so check it out.

• *From the Oakland County Mailing List at RootsWeb came this terrific news: "Later this year the State Library will be putting digitized death certificates for Michigan on its website. The years covered will be 1900-1910. Granted its not as much as some states but for Michigan that's a major step!"

Evelyn Gladys (McKINNEY) LUDKE (1908 - 2008)

LUDKE, Evelyn Gladys
(Age 99)

Entered into rest on Friday, January 25, 2008. She was born on July 11, 1908 in Spokane, WA to Cora and I.E. (Mac) McKinney. Evelyn was raised with her brother and sister by her grandparents, Diedrich "Richard" and Mary Behrens on their farm in Rockford, WA. After graduating from North Central High School she worked as a beautician. In 1933 she married Harry Ludke. During her life she was involved in numerous clubs and organizations. Evelyn enjoyed being a member of the Phi Sigma Alpha National Fraternity, Gamma Chapter. She enjoyed reading, solving crossword puzzles, golfing and playing bridge. Evelyn also volunteered as an aid in hospitals. When she was in her fifties she graduated from Spokane Community College as a Licensed Practical Nurse. Then for a number of years she worked at St. Luke's Hospital as a LPN. She is preceded in death by her husband of almost 70 years, Harry in 2003; son, Keith: brother, Harold McKinney; sisters, Michel (Mickey) Webb and Mercedes Loffer. She is survived by her son, Gary and his wife, Marlys of Spokane, WA; two granddaughters, Diane (Mike) Midkiff of Spokane and Nancy (Doug) Marks of Aberdeen, WA; seven great-grandchildren, Jennifer (Nathan) Fawbush, David, Rebekah and Kayla Midkiff, Kari, Ali and Chase Marks and one great-great-granddaughter, Evelyn Fawbush, who was named after her. Funeral services for Evelyn Ludke will be held on Tuesday, January 29, 2008, at 1:00 pm, at the Sunset Mausoleum Chapel at Fairmount Memorial Park. The Reverend Greg Carter will officiate. HAZEN AND JAEGER FUNERAL HOME, 1306 N. MONROE is in charge of arrangements.

Evelyn was the grandmother of my husband's sister-in-law. When my future brother-in-law and his wife introduced me to Evelyn, she gave me a huge hug and told me, "Welcome to the family!" even though I was actually joining the Midkiff--not the Ludke--family. She attended our wedding, and for many years, she was present at the birthday celebrations of my husband's nieces and nephew. I always enjoyed chatting with her. Having grown up in the Spokane area, she had a lot of stories to tell of local happenings in days gone by. I'll miss her.

This and That

I backposted an advent memory, "The Christmas Tree," as I start catching up on some of the posts I missed.

Did you know that T.K. of Before My Time was a cousin of mine? Neither did I, until I read this. She's my 10th cousin, twice removed (she and my maternal grandmother are the same generation!). Randy is also my cousin; I discovered this last September when he was posting his ahnentafel reports. I suppose if you have any roots that go back to Massachusetts in the 1640s, we could figure out that you're my cousin, too!

The grandmother of Tim of Genealogy Reviews Online recalled seeing the Statue of Liberty when she arrived in America, yet her ship landed in Philadelphia. Go here to find out how Tim's amazing discovery at Google Book Search helped him confirm his family's oral history.

Kevin explains how mold has destroyed the entire contents of a Michigan library in the small community where my 3rd-great-grandparents, Sylvester Fredenburg and Cornelia McClellan, were married. How tragic!

What genealogist doesn't love books? Kimbooktu shares a video on an exhibit of some of the world's tiniest tomes.

Want to know the latest news in your ancestral locations? Go here to locate a newspaper from your ancestor's residence, then check out the paper's website to see if they have a blog you can add to your newsreader. I've been keeping an eye on the blogs of The Grand Rapids Press and The Muskegon Chronicle of Western Michigan. That's how I discovered this story. Refdesk is also how I look for obituaries for recently deceased relatives from out of state.

Obituary of Mahala (SAYERS) WILKINSON - 1937

VENERABLE LADY IS SUMMONED BY DEATH AT LUCHINI HOME

Mrs. Mahala Sears [sic] Wilkinson, 89 years old, died at the home of her son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Luchini, 115 Walnut street, at 2 o'clock Wednesday [2 Jun 1937] morning, following a critical illness which began with a heart attack last Saturday.

The aged lady had been in precarious health since July 8, 1936, when she was found to be suffering from a serious heart malady. She got along quite comfortably, however, until last week when the sudden heat wave brought on the condition which resulted in her death.

The body was taken to Whitehall [Muskegon Co.], Michigan, Mrs. Wilkinson's old home, Wednesday morning, and the funeral and burial will take place there beside her husband, and among loved friends and scenes.

Mrs. Wilkinson was born July 8, 1847, at Prince Edward [County], Ont., and came to the States many years ago. She is survived by Mrs. Floyd Luchini, Alma; Mrs. George Lewis, Mrs. A. L. Ainger and John Wilkinson, all of Whitehall, and Fred Wilkinson, of Kelso, Wash. Mrs. Luchini has the sympathy of many Alma friends in her loss.

--from The Alma Record and Alma Journal, Alma, Gratiot Co., Michigan, Thursday, 3 Jun 1937, unknown page.
------------------------
Mahala was my paternal 3rd-great-grandmother, a Canadian immigrant, herself the child of Ulster Scot immigrants from Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland. My paternal grandfather fondly remembered her from his early childhood. She used to run her finger down the slope of his nose and say, "Love is like this," then run it back up, saying, "but marriage is like this!" I had some digital scans of photos of her with my grandfather and his younger brother taken around 1923 in Whitehall, and she appeared rather frail even then. Unfortunately, I did not know enough about re-writable CDs at that time, and those digital scans have been lost. The originals remain with my paternal grandmother in Texas.

This obituary gives me more detailed birth information (date and location) and a complete death date, than what I originally had. A photo of her tombstone in Oakhurst Cemetery, Whitehall, Muskegon Co., Michigan can be found at Find A Grave here.

Lloyd Jack ROBBINS (1927 - 2007)

Today I received an e-mail from my aunt, who in turn had received a phone call from her aunt informing us that my paternal granduncle, Lloyd "Jack" ROBBINS, had passed away this morning in Florida from pneumonia. No funeral is planned, but I'll be looking online the next few days for a possible obituary. I use RefDesk.com to help me find online obituaries in local newspapers nationwide, whenever I hear of the death of an out-of-state family member.

I have no memories of Uncle Jack; probably the last (if only) time I would have seen him was when I was five years old, when his father, William Bryan ROBBINS, Sr., passed away in Western Michigan. So there isn't a sense of loss as there would be if I had known him well. However, I do mourn that his passing marks that of yet another member of the Greatest Generation; he, like his two older brothers, served in World War II. While they served in the Army Air Corps, he enlisted in the Navy. In fact, only last month, I blogged about a letter my grandfather had written to his parents. In it, he mentioned how glad he was that Jack had joined up.

Uncle Jack was preceded in death by his parents, William Bryan ROBBINS and Marie LEWIS, his brother, Robert Lewis ROBBINS (my grandfather); and his sister, Shirley Marie (ROBBINS) HALL. He is survived by his wife, a son, and three grandchildren, as well as one brother, one sister, and several nieces and nephews. Should I find an obituary, I'll post it here later.

Even More About Sgt. Walter Scott

This afternoon, I had about an hour in the genealogy room of the downtown branch of the Spokane Public Library. I wanted to see what I could find out about Sgt. Walter Scott, even though an hour didn't give me enough time to really do a lot of digging. First, I looked at the microfilm rolls of the Washington State Death Index for 1910 - 1919 and for 1920 - 1929. I was looking not only for Walter, but for his wife Josephine. There were many Walter Scotts listed in the WSDI, and I had to eliminate them by subtracting the age listed at death from the year of death to see if I could come up with a date of (or close to) 1847, the date Craig determined Walter had been born. I found only one Josephine listed in that 20-year-span, and her age was too young to have fit the Josephine found on the 1870 and 1880 Federal Censuses. I finally found Walter listed in the 1920 - 1929 WSDI, age 75, death on 6 January 1923 in the City of Spokane.

From there, I went in search of Spokane newspapers on microfilm for that week. In 1923, the city had three newspapers, The Spokane Press, The Spokane Daily Chronicle (which later became simply The Spokane Chronicle) and The Spokesman-Review, the only one of the three still in existence. Most people in those days did not have obituaries, unless they were prominent citizens or celebrities. Occaisionally, one might find a short "blip" of a paragraph or two tucked away behind the front page, notifying the public of the death of a well-known or beloved person in the community. Births, marriages, deaths, funerals, and cards of thanks were listed with the public notices directly before the advertisements, not unlike today's paper.

In The Spokane Daily Chronicle of Saturday, 6 January 1923, on page 14, column 1, I found Walter's death notice:

Scott - Walter. Age 75 years, passed away a E3604 2d avenue, January 6th. He is survived by his wife, Alice M.; a daughter, Eva M. Petway of Spokane; two sons, Miner [sic] L. of Seattle and Walter of Anaconda, Mont.; also a granddaughter of Portland. He was a member of the K. P. lodge and Reno Post. The body is at Smith & Co.'s funeral parlors.

The Spokane Press had a funeral notice two days later on page 7, column 2:

Walter Scott, Tuesday, 3 o'clock, from Smith & Co.'s. Rev. Johnson, Reno Post of GAR and Knights of Pythias to officiate. Greenwood.

There was nothing found in The Spokesman-Review. I ran out of time to check funeral home records, city directories, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, and a number of records I could have accessed in the genealogy room, Northwest Room, or microfilmed newspaper section. On my To-Do list is to discover when and where Josephine died.

When I got home, I was curious to see what I could find on the Washington State Digital Archives website. I noticed that Walter's wife was listed as Alice M. in the death notice, so I figured he had married again after Josephine's death. My search for Walter Scott turned up many results, most of which were not the man I was researching. However, three were of interest: the 1910 Federal Census of Spokane County; a 1911 Spokane County (historic) marriage record to Alice M. Harris; and a Walla Walla Penitentiary record. The 1910 census listing is actually an index, and does not list other members of the household. Since Craig had already found this information (likely on Ancestry.com), I didn't feel compelled to dig deeper here. The marriage record was definitely a jackpot, because one can view images of these historic records! It confirmed Walter's birth in Ohio, and gave his mother's maiden name: Sophia Hall, born in Kentucky. His father's name was unknown. Alice had much more detailed information, including the fact that she was an octoroon, divorced, and her parents' names and birthplaces. The record contained the Scotts' signatures as well. I could not make out the last name of one of the witnesses: Belle Sear? The other witness was definitely a relative: W. E. Scott. They were married by F. L. Donohoo, elder of the A.M.E. Church in Spokane.

The penitentiary record was probably not this Walter, but may have been his son. A Walter Scott, Negro, was convicted of Grand Larceny in King County (Seattle) in 1915, and served time in Walla Walla.

There are certainly many more things I could research on this family. Currently, my curiousity has been satisfied. Perhaps having this information online may bring about a result for a descendant Googling Walter Scott's name.

Research Log - TUINSTRA and VALK obituaries

In the last two weeks, I have received a stack of obituaries, thanks to two tireless volunteers. The first is Donna Rogers, whose husband is a relative of a step-ancestor, Jitske "Jessie" (TYSMA) DeGROOT TUINSTRA. She has sent me a number of TUINSTRA obituaries, including all the ones available in the Grand Rapids, Michigan newspapers for the brothers and sisters-in-law of my great-grandmother, Agnes (TUINSTRA) VALK - a total of eleven obituaries! An interesting coincidence occurred when she happened to sit across from a gentleman in the Grand Rapids Public Library who was researching city directories...turns out he was my uncle who was working on some DeVRIES-related information to send to me!

Evelyn Ehlert, a Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness volunteer, sent me copies of obituaries of my step-ancestor, Ida Eva (LAMBRECHT) SCHADLER VALK and Elmer MEYERING, first husband of my grand-aunt Bertha Wilma (VALK) MEYERING KRAMER.

These will keep me busy analyzing and entering into my database for quite a while!

Analysis of an Obituary

I spent over an hour yesterday analyzing and entering data into my computer which I found in the obituary of my grandaunt, Bertha Wilma (VALK) MEYERING KRAMER. I read every single fact, finding much new (to me) information, which rather surprised me, as I thought I had quite a bit of information on her already. One of the things I love about the family tree software that I have--RootsMagic--is that is has something called a SourceWizard. After I've added or edited a fact, I can then click on the SourceWizard button, and a window pops up in which I can choose one of 34 different types of sources, ranging from electronic resources such as FamilySearch.org's Ancestral File to "typical" genealogical sources like a will. Choosing a source then generates a form specific to that source. For instance, when I chose "obituary" as a source, a form opened up with the following fields: Name of the deceased person, Title of the newspaper (i.e. Los Angeles Times), Publish date of the newspaper, and Page and column number of obit (example: page 7, column 1). Because the obituary I used came from the Internet, I could also have chosen "website" as my source, but "obituary" served my purposes better, and I used the URL where I found the obituary in place of the page and column number.

The great thing about the SourceWizard is it creates three types of citations: the regular (long), the short, and the bibliography version. You then can choose to edit the citation by listing the quality of the source (primary, secondary, questionable or unreliable), as well as type either the corresponding text from the source and/or your comments on the source itself.

You can also choose to enter information manually (without using the SourceWizard) for those times when your source doesn't seem to fit any of the 34 options. It's then that I pull out my copy of Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family History by Elizabeth Shown Mills as my guide.

While analyzing and entering data (32 new or edited facts!) I realized something: Bertha's surviving brother's wife, Gladys, was not mentioned in the obituary, although her widowed sisters-in-law were. I took a gander over to RootsWeb's Social Security Death Index and discovered that this sister-in-law had passed away in 2001, something I had not noticed when I analyzed the last obituary of this family (Granduncle Bob VALK, 2003).

After entering all of Aunt Bertha's information (which included data on her first and second husbands, as well as her children, step-children, siblings and sisters-in-law), I entered all the information found on Aunt Gladys' SSDI listing. If Gladys had been a direct ancestor, or someone whose personal information might lead to the tearing down of a brick wall, I would have ordered a copy of her Form SS-5, the form she filled out when applying for her Social Security number. This would give me her birth date and place and parents' names, among other things. However, as she is a spouse of a step-relative, I did not want to pay $27 for information I can probably obtain through family sources. I left a Post-em (an electronic "sticky note" with a message and my contact information) in case another distant family member goes searching for her name in the SSDI, and then went over to Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness to request a copy of her obituary.

While there, I requested copies of obituaries of Aunt Bertha's first husband, Elmer MEYERING, and her mother, Ida Eva (LAMBRECHT) SCHADLER VALK. The last two are indexed in the obituary database of the Western Michigan Genealogical Society, although it took me months of searching for Ida's obit, since she's mistakenly listed as Ida "Vale" instead of "Valk."

After an hour of work, I had to move on to "real life" chores, but my to-do list includes adding Aunt Bertha's obituary to my website, editing her siblings' obituaries to include her name (I edit living person's information on my website, for privacy's sake), and creating a new GEDCOM and uploading it with all its new data to my online database at RootsWeb's WorldConnect. Not all the new data I entered will be visible to others; all information on living persons is filtered out, again for privacy reasons. I also need to contact Bertha's children for missing data, such as the specific locations where she and her first husband died (all I know is "Michigan"), their marriage location, the date and place of her second marriage, and birth information of her second husband. I will also invite them to submit family group sheets of their own families and, of course, share with them our VALK family history, as well as what I've found on the LAMBRECHT family (my step-great-grandmother).

This exercise was both revealing and frustrating: revealing because, as I've always discovered in analyzing my information, I came across so much more than what first meets the eye; but frustrating as I realized how much time went into citing things properly. As I've mentioned in the past, my older brand of family tree software did not have very user-friendly format for entering sources, so I chose to use the Note feature to record my sources. This was before I knew about proper citation format. I tried to always include the who, what, where, when, and sometimes why of each source, but nevertheless, I have a lot of cleanup to do to make my research meet proper genealogical standards. Even using the SourceWizard (which will cut time considerably), I have thousands of hours of work ahead of me! Well, as they say, Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither, I suppose is a family tree!

Bertha Wilma (VALK) MEYERING KRAMER (1924 - 2007)

I received an e-mail today from one of my mother's cousins, informing us of the death of my grandaunt, Bertha Wilma (VALK) MEYERING KRAMER. She was the eldest child of the marriage of my maternal great-grandfather, William James VALK, and his second wife, Ida Eva (LAMBRECHT) SCHADLER. The widowed William and Ida brought a total of eight children to their marriage (seven were his [one other died in infancy], one was hers), and then proceeded to have eight more children, five of whom survived infancy. Bertha's death leaves only two children remaining of this household: Ida's son from her first marriage, and their youngest daughter.

I don't ever remember meeting Aunt Bertha, who was my maternal grandfather's younger half-sister, although it's possible I may have met her as an infant or very young child on one of our frequent visits to Michigan from Alaska. Bertha's obituary can be found online at the Grand Rapids (Michigan) Press.

Update: I've analyzed Bertha's obituary here, sharing the discoveries I made.

Obituary of Fredericka WILKINSON

I received an obituary of Fredericka WILKINSON which I requested via e-mail June 15th from the Everett Public Library. I have posted it on my obit page on my website; it's the entry at the top. The obit provided me with a complete birthdate and location, as well as confirmation that Fredericka and Frederick only had one known child. Unfortunately, it did not list her maiden names, or the names of her surviving siblings.

Grave Photos for Raymond Edwin VALK and Frederick WILKINSON

This morning I had a nice surprise when I opened up my e-mail. Two different Find A Grave photo volunteers had fulfilled photo requests. One was for Raymond Edwin VALK, younger half-brother of my maternal grandfather, William VALK. Uncle Ray's grave is in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Cathy Shows took the time to find the grave and photograph it, along with Uncle Ray's wife's marker (she is still living, but her marker is next to his, and gives a birth date, which I did not have).

Frederick WILKINSON was the younger brother of one of my paternal great-great-grandmothers, Mary J. WILKINSON. He and his wife, Frederica, came out west about a hundred years ago, first to Oregon, and then later here in Washington State, settling on Whidbey Island, in or near Freeland. They are buried in Bayview Cemetery, and Nancy Robinson kindly took 10 photos of Frederick's grave and the cemetery itself (Frederica's grave apparently never got a marker). I was able to find the online cemetery records again, and noticed information on the webpage regarding the name of the funeral home. A quick trip over to Dex Online, and I was able to find the current address and phone number of the funeral home. I hope to call or write within the next few days to see if I can obtain more information. I also e-mailed the Everett Public Library with a request for obituaries. I'm not sure if that is the correct library system (it's in a different county), but both the local genealogical society and the public library system seem to be joint county (Island County and Snohomish County).