Time To Revisit A Helpful Friend

The German Genealogical Digest was featured in this column once before, but since it’s getting bigger and better with each issue, I thought you should hear about it again.

The quarterly digest has been around for 12 years, teaching those with German ancestors how to do research in Germany, how to read the records, where to write for information and provide a forum for surname and information exchange.

For instance, the Spring 1996 issue featured “Cities Along the Rhine and their Records.” Many German-speaking people traveled down the Rhine River to emigrate to America, and records in these cities reveal sources documenting that movement.

Departments in the magazine include “Surnames, Sources and Places,” “Microfilm Update” (new German filming acquisitions in the Family History Library), “Book Reviews” (German history, resources and references), “Ancestral Search” (queries from readers), and “Ask the Experts,” a section in which readers can submit tough research problems to be answered in print. My favorite section features specific geographic areas.

One of the magazine’s all-time popular article is now available as a reprint: “Writing to Germany,” by Horst A. Reschke, is available as a booklet for $6, postpaid.

Back issues of the GGD can be ordered for $8. Some of general interest include: Volume 11, No. 1 with its 24-page article on “Church Records in Germany.” Volume 9, No. 1, carried an article titled “Using the Meyers Gazetteer.” Volume 5, No. 1 told about “Locating German Places of Origin in American Church Records.” Volume 11, No. 2, spotlighted “German Military Records.”

The fully indexed German Genealogical Digest averages 35 pages with each quarterly issue printed in a bold, easy-to-read style. Subscriptions are $24 per year. Send inquiries, subscriptions or periodical orders to the GGD at 245 North Vine, Suite 106, Salt Lake City UT, 84103.

If you have German roots - and census population figures reveal that about one-fourth of Americans do - then you will surely benefit from a study of the German Genealogical Digest.

The Genealogy Section of the downtown Spokane Public Library contains many of the back issues.

Richard Hobbs, regional state archivist for the Washington Division of Archives and Records Management, had good news to share when he spoke to the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society about the Lincoln County Courthouse fire.

His glad news for genealogists: 50 percent of the records were undamaged in any way, 40 percent sustained some water and fire damage, and only 10 percent of the county’s records were totally lost.

Luckily, some Lincoln County records were in Olympia awaiting microfilming, and therefore were saved.

Hobbs voiced the hope that Eastern Washington would soon get its much-needed new archives building. Our region is the last in the state to own a regional archives facility.

The Eastern Washington Archives is currently squeezed into the basement of the Kennedy Library on EWU’s Cheney campus.

Hobbs said we can help the process of achieving a proper building by letting our state senators and representatives know that we support a new regional state archives in Spokane.

Today’s Laugh: Every family tree has some squirrels and some nuts - even yours.

, 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