Thanks For Coming Along On Journey

Dear Readers: This is goodbye.

This is the final Heritage Hunting column to flow from me to you. But do not fear, the column will continue.

When it first appeared on April 4, 1986, it didn’t even have a name. The headline for that first little column was “Doing things right is a matter of forms.” But within a few months it became a weekly Heritage Hunting column in The Spokesman-Review.

I am proud to say that in all these years I have not missed nor repeated a column. Topics have been repeated, of course, but never verbatim. I have attempted to be timely and informative, and to offer help to all Spokane-area genealogists.

With the column I followed a self-imposed plan to alternate teaching basics with teaching about references and resources. I tried to order the columns so that if you felt you didn’t gain new information one particular week, that you still would be eager to read the next column.

My goals were twofold: to teach family history and to cause you to think that you could do it.

Because of you, I have learned much more about doing genealogy than if I had just worked on my own lines.

I learned about Cornish and Cajun genealogy, about resources in New Mexico and Newfoundland, and in order to tell you about them, I had to read a wide variety of research books that I otherwise would not have made time to read.

You caused me to stretch, and I thank you for that motivation to learn.

Thank you for all your letters, and they have been many over these 14 years. You have written to share your success stories, to share research tidbits and resources and to ask my help. I sincerely hope that I have helped whenever you asked.

My favorite letter was from an old gent who wanted to know which library had the book on his family. He felt he was aging fast and didn’t have much time for normal research procedures. “ I don’t even buy green bananas anymore!” he told me. I still smile about that one.

Thanks to all you members of genealogy societies outside of Spokane, for asking me to visit with you and talk to your groups. It was always wonderful to see everybody, far and wide, get carried away in the spirit of family history.

I have shared with you stories of my family and my genealogy. I told you all about Henry Joseph and Magdalena Regner who came from Alzey, Germany, to meet and marry, and live and die in Columbia County, Missouri.

I told you about my father who flew in the Berlin Airlift. Remember the column about my mother appearing on April Fool’s Day, before her birthday?

When I began in 1986, I had two grandsons. Now I have seven grandsons and one granddaughter. Aleena Christine is now 9 years old; I wrote about her birth.

The columns from 1986 to 1996 were published by Heritage Books, which can be ordered for $23 (Call 800-398-7709). Since then, I have published yearly booklets; give me a call if you want a copy.

I bid you fond adieu, dear readers. I thank you for all the memories, and I turn you over to the pen of my good friend and capable editor, Beverly Vorpahl, a talented and dedicated genealogist.

Please, now, give her your support.

Eastern Washington Genealogy Society welcomes visitors to its meetings at 1 p.m. on the first Saturday of every month, except July and August, in the Salvation Army Administration Building, 222 W. Indiana.

Visit the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society’s Web site at www.onlinepub.net/ewgs