Latest News For Members

Out-of-Area Events

A Trip Back in Time: A History of Cashmere Businesses

Technology meets history! The Cashmere Museum has installed a unique kiosk that traces the development of Cashmere businesses from the town’s beginning. It will show the year the building was built, its location, ownership and occupants through the years, using pictures and newspaper clippings. WAGS will be a special guest of the museum, and one of the first groups to get a custom demo of this modern-day “time machine.”

Monday, September 13, 2021 from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. Cashmere Museum and Pioneer Village, 600 Cotlets Way, Cashmere. Zoom Link:

Topic: WAGS September Meeting
Time: Sep 13, 2021 02:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84443692870?pwd=VmYybndBMDA2MXN6YkxDY3ZFWWRXZz09

Meeting ID: 844 4369 2870
Passcode: September

What’s new at the Central Regional Branch Archives?

We have not scheduled a program with the State Archives in Ellensburg in five years. It’s time we had an update! Brigid Clift, the Regional Branch Archivist, will share her screen and reacquaint us with the archives and digital archives. You’ll want to hear about the work they are doing with Ancestry. Brigid will be looking forward to answering your questions about their research hours and their volunteer-from-home program.

The best part about this meeting is that it will be hybrid! Those who are comfortable with in-person can join us at the Douglas PUD Auditorium, just like old times. And if you’d rather keep on Zooming, you can be present that way as well. (We will post the Zoom information as the meeting gets closer.)

See you on Monday, August 9, at 2:00 p.m.–at the Douglas PUD Auditorium or via Zoom!

JUNE 14th MEETING

An Ounce of Prevention: Making a Genealogy Disaster Plan

Genealogy documents, photographs, mementos, and databases are a family’s most prized possessions. they can be lost in an instant in the event of a disaster. This lecture focuses on how to plan before the crisis occurs, so that loss is minimized and your genealogy legacy is preserved for future generations. Our speaker is Julie Miller, a full-time professional researcher, speaker and writer who lives in Broomfield, Colorado.

ZOOM link to be posted a few days before this meeting. See you then!

Website Goes Officially Live

This website will officially go live on 5/5/21 even though it has been live since it was created. during its construction, some pages were protected from public viewing but as of 5/5/21 those pages will be viewable by the public. Other pages that are for members only will continue to be protected and only members will have access. Poke around on the site and see what we have. If you see any problems as you visit the site, please let us know and we will address the issue (the footer has a button you can use to notify us).

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Read more: Latest News Page

Heritage Quest Research Library – German Genealogy

Welcome in the New Year with a presentation about German Genealogy. Over 40 million Americans have German ancestors, comprising 10 to 15% of the population and forming the largest single ethnic group in the U.S. When researching your German American family history, you will inevitably reach the point where your ancestors crossed the Atlantic. Many people stop when they get to this stage, unsure how to continue researching in Europe.  However, this is not where your journey has to end.

We will show you how to continue tracing your family’s history using German sources, enabling you to track your lineage one or two centuries further back. Our presentation is designed as a starting point for researching your German ancestors and provides an overview of German genealogy.  We begin with a brief history of German immigration to the US, covering routes, numbers and time frames.  Following that, I will guide you through the various sources available in Germany, both primary and secondary, demonstrating how to access and utilize them effectively. This includes passenger lists, censuses, church records, administrative documents, personal registers, and more. One of the most challenging aspects of German American genealogy is pinpointing the exact hometown in Germany from which your ancestor emigrated.  We will share strategies to help you overcome this hurdle, even when American records lack this crucial information. Additionally, I am happy to answer any questions you may have after the presentation.Till Fehmer Co-founder Fehmer Genealogy (2024)
Research Assistant for Professor Andrew Moravcsik at Princeton University (2021-2022)
MSc “European and International Public Policy” at the London School of Economics (LSE) (2020-2021)
Trainee at the European Commission (2022- 2023) 

When: Thursday January 2, 2025

Time:   11:00 AM to 12:00 PM

Where: ZOOM & limited in-person (8)

Cost:   $20 members,
            $25 non-members, Sign-up and Payment:

ZOOM
Go to HQRL Store at hqrl.com (sign in as a member to get the discount)

In-Person (8 only):
Call: 253-863-1806 or
Come into the library at
2102 E Main Ave. Ste 105
Puyallup, WA 98372

3.4 Billion Records Extracted From Historical Newspapers Were Added to MyHeritage

The publication of four huge new collections of names and stories on MyHeritage, extracted from newspaper pages on OldNews.com. The collections contain 658 million records from Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi; 998 million records from Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Nebraska; 1 billion records from Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania; and 651 million records from North Carolina, South Carolina, and District of Columbia.


The new collections are searchable on MyHeritage, with the full images of the newspaper pages available on OldNews.com via direct links from MyHeritage.

But wait, there’s more!


This treasure trove of genealogical information is just the beginning: these are the first four of 16 similar collections that we are planning to publish in December 2024. The full suite of collections, covering the entire United States and several additional countries, will collectively add more than 10 billion records to MyHeritage’s historical database, expanding it by 50%!

As part of this update, we’re also thrilled to share that OldNews.com now hosts more than 300 million newspaper pages!

Search the new collections now:

Search Names & Stories in Newspapers from Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi

Search Names & Stories in Newspapers from Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Nebraska

Search Names & Stories in Newspapers from Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania

Search Names & Stories in Newspapers from North Carolina, South Carolina, and District of Columbia

But wait, there’s even more!

Now I don’t normally go into such detail with these announcements, but I wanted to explain that the structured records in the new collections were extracted from nearly 200 million English newspaper pages using cutting-edge AI technology developed by the MyHeritage team.

The new collections allow MyHeritage users to uncover rich information about their ancestors that was previously out of reach. This is because they are indexed and structured, so they can be searched using imprecise names, nicknames and synonyms; whereas searching in newspapers that are not indexed is typically done using keywords and requires the user to write the name exactly as it appears in the newspaper. 
This AI is designed to extract not just names from the newspaper articles but also the relatives of every person mentioned, as well as additional fields such as occupations, residences, travel from one location to another, and more.

Last but not least, every record includes a useful summary of the article, generated automatically by AI.

This AI technology is unrivaled by any other genealogy company, as MyHeritage continues to lead the pack in utilizing AI to advance genealogy. We hope that these collections lead to incredible discoveries for our users, allowing them to find the stories that shaped their family’s history.

Tacoma-Pierce County Genealogical Society DNA Special Interest Group Meeting

Tuesday, November 26, Starting at 7:00 pm via Zoom

At this meeting we will be discussing the recent updates to Ancestry DNA Ethnicity Estimates. Please read the following blog post by Roberta Estes: Ancestry Updates Ethnicity, Renames Features, and Rearranges the Room. All questions welcome!

Calendar reminder: TPCGS DNA Special Interest Group Meeting

Every month on the Fourth Tuesday beginning at 7:00 PM Pacific Time

Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.

Monthly: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/tZYqdeyrrz0iEtx-c_J3gNfcI8mebT1zajLo/ics?icsToken=98tyKuGqqTkvGdWTuBGPRpwQB4joZ-nzmCFHj7dF0RzaKXNUTAX1H7pPN7BLQcLR

Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82725316888?pwd=MDc3UEZrUVJNbmxmK2ZORmw5YzdDdz09

Meeting ID: 827 2531 6888
Passcode: 811780

One tap mobile:
+12532050468,,82725316888#,,,,*811780# US
+12532158782,,82725316888#,,,,*811780# US (Tacoma)

Dial by your location:
        +1 253 205 0468 US
        +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
Meeting ID: 827 2531 6888
Passcode: 811780

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kIKCyZLQy

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