The Records Preservation and Access Committee — jointly comprised of representatives from all the major national genealogical societies — has joined in opposing the move: “If a decision is made to sell the property, the National Archives Branch needs to be relocated into another facility in the Seattle area. Each National Archives Branch includes original documents from the region that are available at no other location and have not been digitized. If the Archives Branch were closed and not relocated, it is our understanding the records would be moved to Kansas City, Missouri (1,800 miles from Seattle) or Riverside, California, (1,200 miles from Seattle). Either location would make those records inaccessible to most residents of the northwestern United States.”2

And historians, researchers and others in the Pacific Northwest are just appalled.3

A final decision on this building sale could be made by the Office of Management and Budget as early as this Sunday, January 26th. If there’s any chance for us to be heard, we need to speak out NOW.

The Legal Genealogist would love to tell members of our community concerned about this where to write to express their own individual concerns — and our outrage at this decision and its secrecy. But there’s no clear path to comment on this because of the secrecy.

So here are our options:
1. Write (email) to the head of the Office of Management and Budget, acting director Russell T. Vought. His email is Russell.t.vought@....
2. Write (email) to the agency proposing the sale of the property, the Public Buildings Reform Board. Its email is fastainfo@....
3. Contact the National Archives via its contact page at https://www.archives.gov/contact.
4. Contact your United States Senators (find the contact info for your two senators at https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm) and your member of the House of Representatives (find the contact info for your representative at https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative).

The one option we do not have is to stand silent.

Access to our heritage is at stake.

On Feb 1, 2020, at 12:49 AM, Valorie Zimmerman <valorie.zimmerman@...> wrote:

Hello friends,

As you know our 2020 Seminar is rapidly approaching. One of the ways we want to spread the word is through Facebook. One of our Board members (thanks, Michele!) has taken the time to compile a list of Facebook groups of genealogy societies and similar groups who might have members interested in attending. Here is the idea:

We'd like to post a message on many Facebook pages and groups in our tri-state area spreading the word about our Seminar to those who may want to make hotel reservations and other arrangements in advance. Diahan Southard is a respected DNA expert and we'd love to have a large audience to learn from her in June.

We have the text written; all you will need to do is copy /paste it into the Facebook pages or groups in your list. Please respond and tell us how many groups you can do. We have about 377 groups to send to, so if 15 people volunteer to do 30 each, we can have this done soon! I think this can be easy; 5 or 10 groups as you are watching TV.

You can reply here or privately as you prefer.

Valorie

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From: New England Historic Genealogical Society <weeklygenealogist@...>

Subject: The Weekly Genealogist, February 5, 2020

Date: February 5, 2020 at 2:46:07 AM PST

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The Weekly Genealogist  Edited by Lynn Betlock, Jean Powers, and Valerie Beaudrault  Vol. 22, No. 06, Whole #986, February 5, 2020 Author Event: The Role of Fast Food in Black America Catching up with Vita Brevis Database News Spotlight: Whidbey Island, Washington The Weekly Genealogist Survey Readers Respond: Major Inheritances and Windfalls You Can Help Educational Programming Stories of Interest Leveraging DNA in Your Family History Research Author Event: The Role of Fast Food in Black America On Tuesday, February 11, author Marcia Chatelain will discuss her new book, Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, with Leah Wright Rigueur of Harvard Kennedy School. Taking us from the troubled years after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination to the conflict in Ferguson, Franchise explores the connections between McDonald's, civil rights, and black capitalism. Marcia Chatelain is a professor of History and African American Studies at Georgetown University, and a leading public voice on the history of race, education, and food culture. Leah Wright Rigueur's research expertise includes 20th-century U.S. political and social history and modern African American history, with an emphasis on race, political ideology, and civil rights. At 3 p.m. that day, Callie Crossley of WGBH News will interview Professor Chatelain at the WGBH Studio at the Boston Public Library. You can watch the live stream on our Facebook page.  Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America Tuesday, February 11, 6-7 p.m. American Ancestors Research Center, 99-101 Newbury Street, Boston Return to Table of Contents Catching up with Vita Brevis by Scott C. Steward, NEHGS Editor-in-Chief Vita Brevis, the NEHGS blog, offers essays by the Society's expert staff on their own research as well as news of the greater genealogical community. Here's a roundup of blog posts for January: Danielle Cournoyer began the month with one of the year's twin themes: 2020 marks the 175th birthday of NEHGS as well as the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Mayflower at Plymouth. Danielle's post considered the enormous change between the Beacon Hill of 1845, when NEHGS was established in in Court Square, and the Boston of 2020. James Heffernan offered the first Mayflower post of the year, contemplating his extensive Mayflower ancestry and wondering why almost none of his Plymouth forebears strayed far from Cape Cod; Michael Dwyer took up the challenge of a genealogical identification that keeps (ma)lingering at Wikipedia; Jeff Record finished his three-part consideration of a Victorian great-great-great-aunt whose first and last names changed via marriage and by choice; Georgiana Day told the story of the early NEHGS President Marshall Pinckney Wilder, famous for both his horticultural and genealogical interests; Chris Child continued his series of Billington vignettes with more on the hapless Francis Billington; Pam Holland ventured between New York, Marburg (in Germany), and Cleveland in search of her Dauber great-great-grandfather; Helen Herzer recalled the visionary efforts of NEHGS volunteer Neil B. Todd in saving the Massachusetts vital record indices; in an echo of Michael Dwyer's post earlier in the month, Alicia Crane Williams lamented the tenacity with which certain Mayflower "facts" remain current, even after repeated debunking; Eileen Pironti described the career of NEHGS's first elected member, the Rev. Dr. Lucius Robinson Paige, an important nineteenth-century scholar as well as the oldest living member of NEHGS at the time of his death in 1896; Hallie Borstel compared modern iterations of seventeenth-century ships, on some of which she has crewed (and none of which could be as uncomfortable and cramped as the original Mayflower); Amy Whorf McGuiggan tracked the movements of the young Peter Ourish, only nineteen when he died of his wounds in 1864 following the Battle of Totopotomoy Creek (in Hanover County, Virginia); Jennica Bayne described some of the history of the NEHGS Committee on Heraldry, founded in February 1864; and I looked for some college records to add biographical elements to the lives of earlier generations of my family.  Return to Table of Contents Database News by Molly Rogers, Database Coordinator This week we're highlighting updates to two of our journal databases. We've added Volume 63 (2014) to Mayflower Descendant, an essential source of information on many New England families, not just those with Mayflower lineage. We've also added Volume 40 (2015) to Rhode Island Roots. This publication features Rhode Island records including cemetery and tax lists, General Assembly petitions, civil and military records, and genealogical articles. Return to Table of Contents Spotlight: Whidbey Island, Washington by Valerie Beaudrault, Assistant Editor Whidbey Island is located in Puget Sound, north of Seattle. It is the largest island in Island County, Washington. The Genealogical Society of South Whidbey Island's website provides a number of research resources under the "Island County Data" tab.  Island County Data  This section provides local census data for 1870, 1871, 1883, 1885, 1887, 1889, 1890, and 1892; Island County death certificate information (1907-1952); and indexes to five local history books. Business Bios  This database of transcribed biographies of business men and women is drawn from the 1933 Farm Bureau News, a publication of the Island County Farm Bureau. Island County Obituaries  More than 23,000 obituaries of Island County residents published in local newspapers from 1890 through 2010 can be searched or browsed by last name. Click the name link to view the obituary. Island County Cemeteries  The nearly 11,000 cemetery records in this database can be searched by last name. Data fields in the search results include cemetery name, grave location, the deceased's name, date born, date died, and inscription. Click the "Sel" (select) and then "View Gravesites in the Same Section" for neighboring graves. The main page provides a list of all Island County cemeteries included in the database. Click a cemetery name to learn more about it.  Return to Table of Contents Free Webinar An Archdiocese of Boston Catholic Records Project update. Learn More Table of Contents Featured Podcast A lively discussion of genealogical news and discoveries. Learn More Table of Contents NEHGS Program   Learn from our experts at Genealogical Boot Camp. Learn More Table of Contents The Weekly Genealogist Survey Last week's survey asked if anyone in your family received a major inheritance or windfall. 3,684 responses were received. The results are: 38%, Yes 49%, No 13%, I don't know.   This week's survey asks about your connection to fraternal or sororal organizations. Take the survey now!  Want to share your thoughts on the survey with us? We are always happy to hear from our readers. Email us at weeklygenealogist@.... Responses may be edited for clarity and length and featured in a future newsletter. Return to Table of Contents Readers Respond: Major Inheritances and Windfalls By Lynn Betlock, Editor Last week's survey asked if anyone in your family received a major inheritance or financial windfall. Thank you to everyone who replied. Below is a selection of reader responses. Marcy Fuller of Westbrook, Connecticut: When Louis T. Lehmeyer died in a charity hospital in Manhattan on November 21, 1923, everyone thought he was penniless. Imagine the surprise of my grandmother, Elizabeth R. Wurthmann, a 21-year-old schoolteacher, when his will revealed that she had inherited over $500,000. Louis had been the best friend of my grandmother's grandfather back in Germany. This news made the front page in New York City and elsewhere for weeks. Donna Mack of Columbia, Maryland: My mother-in-law received a small financial bequest from her first cousin. This cousin died owning land in Los Angeles but had no immediate heirs. A company traced all the possible heirs and my mother-in-law received a share of the inheritance. She and my father-in law used the money to take a cruise. The company shared all the genealogical data they collected with the heirs. Years later, a woman who shared DNA with my husband contacted us looking for her biological mother. Having this data helped us to identify her mother, who was the cousin who had died in L.A. The cousin was unmarried when she became pregnant and had been thrown out of her home. An aunt agreed to take her in but not the baby, so the baby was given up for adoption. We gave this new cousin photos of her mother and uncle as children and information on her mother's burial site. We are so happy to know this cousin. The connection is far more precious than any monetary inheritance. Tracy Ellis of Edmond, Oklahoma: My husband's ancestor, Charles Monroe Ellis, was supposedly set to inherit millions in a lawsuit against the Trinity Church Corporation in Manhattan. The local Sedan, Kansas, newspaper reported in 1890 that Charles and other relatives filed suit that year. Lawsuits by others have continued to the present. Charles was supposedly a distant relative of Robert Edwards, a pirate who was awarded 77 acres in Manhattan by Queen Anne (1665-1714) for disrupting Spanish sea lanes. Edwards wanted to remain at sea, so the land was leased for 99 years to brothers John and George Cruger, who leased it to Trinity Church. Trinity Church has fended off many lawsuits through the years by countless Edwards descendants who were hampered by lost documents, corrupt lawyers, lack of funding, and the statute of limitations. Ah, the windfall! So close . . . yet so far. Roger Hinckley of Morton, Pennsylvania: I laughed about this survey! As I am the family member doing genealogical research, I am constantly asked whether anyone left us any money. My pat answer is, "No, but I have been contacted by bill collectors!"    Return to Table of Contents You Can Help Educational Programming Our free webinars, public lectures, and outreach programs bring the knowledge of our experts to the world. Your support has enabled us to introduce high school students to genealogy, to teach new and curious researchers how to begin their family trees, and to host the brightest genealogists of our time in free programs.  Your gift to our Annual Fund supports this important work. Help us share the joy of family history with researchers of all ages and levels by supporting American Ancestors' educational programs today! Thank you.  Return to Table of Contents Stories of Interest Open Since 1641... Judy Russell, "the Legal Genealogist," describes a new proposed Massachusetts house bill and reports that "public access to vital records in Massachusetts is under attack." The proposed changes are also explained in a Boston.com article, "Charlie Baker Wants to Restrict Access to Birth, Death, and Marriage Records."  The Monumental Undertaking of Moving into an Old Masonic Temple "The 20,000-square-foot house requires endless renovations, but the ceiling is high enough to fly a drone inside." Thoughts on the Past -- and the Future -- from Nine 100-Year-Old Mainers To launch their yearlong celebration of 200 years of Maine statehood, Down East Magazine teamed up with Maine Public Radio to interview some Maine centenarians.   Archaeologists Unearth Trove of Medieval Artifacts in London Cesspit "Excavations at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London have revealed a nearly 15-foot deep cesspit littered with roughly one hundred artifacts dating to the 14th and 15th centuries." The Belgrade Book Collection That Survived War, Fascism, and Neglect "One family has kept it going -- and growing -- since 1720." It Started with a Signature in a Children's Spelling Book Author David Hampshire was intrigued by a signature in an 1862 speller acquired at a used book sale. He decided to research the booklet's original owner.    Return to Table of Contents Leveraging DNA in Your Family History Research Not too late to register!  Whether you're completely new to DNA testing or you have already taken a DNA test, this online course will provide you with the knowledge, tools, and strategies to interpret your results, make important genealogical connections, and take your family history research to the next level. Register today! It's in the Genes: Leveraging DNA in Your Family History Research Presented by Christopher C. Child and Pam Holland Wednesdays, 1/22, 1/29, 2/5, 2/12, and 2/19, 6-7:30 p.m. EST Access recordings, handouts, slides, and more until May 31, 2020. Return to Table of Contents American Ancestors by New England Historic Genealogical Society To advance the study of family history in America and beyond, NEHGS educates, inspires, and connects people through our scholarship, collections, and expertise. Call us: 1-888-296-3447. Email us: WeeklyGenealogist@.... Visit us online: AmericanAncestors.org Copyright ©2020 New England Historic Genealogical Society. All Rights Reserved

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