Ireland To Host September Congress

Even while snow and cold weather dictate our comings and goings this time of year and even while the hubbub of Christmas is moving full steam ahead, it’s a perfect time to think about genealogy in 1997.

If you’re planning a genealogy trip to Ireland in 1997, September’s the month to go. The Third Irish Genealogical Congress will be at Maynooth, County Kildare, Sept. 22-28. Lectures on sources, record repositories, society history and records of the Irish overseas will be presented. For more information, write to IGC, P.O. Box 681, Merrifield VA, 22116-0681.

Dale and Clara Brees Phillips will host the Phillips Family Genealogy Swap Meet next August in Chickasha, Okla. It’s a gathering of everyone with a Phillips on their pedigree chart and anyone interested in Phillips genealogy. Attendees are encouraged to bring their research to share. Contact the Brees at 1927 S. Seventh St., Chickasha OK, 73018-6927, for more information.

In other genealogical news: Here’s an update from a column I wrote more than a year ago about the British Isles Genealogical Register, a compilation of family group sheets with data detailing English, Irish, Scotch and Welsh families and how to contact the 17,000 researchers working on those families. Compiling these sheets was the project of many genealogical societies in the British Isles.

Today, there’s an easier way to access that information.

Oz-Tech is a Seattle-based business that will look up your surnames in a consolidated British Isles Genealogical Register. If your names are found, they will provide you with a roster listing them - and the name and addresses of researchers working on your family names.

The company charges $5 per surname (up to two spellings), and there is no charge if nothing is found. Contact them at Oz-Tech, 6016 NE Bothell Way, Suite 169, Seattle, WA 98155.

Parsons Technology has a new CD-ROM disk that will be helpful to genealogists and scholars. The Webster’s Talking Dictionary & Thesaurus is an actual dictionary on CD-ROM, with the big plus of letting you hear how the word is properly pronounced. This $29 IBM compatible disk can be ordered from Parsons at (888) 883-0791. (Example: in the Northeast, it’s creek but hereabouts, that word is more often pronounced “crick.” How do you suppose the talking Webster’s will pronounce it?)

Members of the Fairfield Cemetery Endowment Fund support the cemetery in their small farming town. If your ancestors lived or died in Fairfield, you can help by sending a check to Foundation Northwest, Fairfield Cemetery Fund, 421 W. Riverside, Spokane, WA 99201.

Did you know? When the French were tracing their ancestry, they used the standard family tree to map family lines. A three-pronged symbol imitating the tree came to represent genealogy. Because it looked somewhat like the track of a crane’s foot, the symbol was called pied de grue, meaning foot of the crane. That phrase has come into our language as pedigree.

Queries:

Robert A. Young, 14 Lakecrest Drive, Columbia SC, 29206, is seeking descendants of P.S. and Frankie Hart STEELE Palmer , known to have lived in Spokane County around 1900.

Lisa Snider, P.O. Box 214, Dayton VA, 22821, seeks descendants of George and Amanda RODES. George died July 22, 1945, in Spokane.

, DataTimes MEMO: Donna Potter Phillips welcomes letters from readers. Write to her at The Spokesman-Review, Features Department, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. For a response, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Donna Potter Phillips The Spokesman-Review