Olaf Skye

Last spring a new family history book was featured at the Waupaca Public Library. My cousin had a copy and ultimately in June we met the author's daughter and she gifted me my own copy.

Olaf Skye came from Norway in the 1890s to Scandinavia, Wisconsin. He and his family interacted with my Norwegian ancestors in that area.

Most exciting, Olaf went to the Klondike with a small group of Scandinavia residents. Part of the book describes his travels there and the search for gold. Olaf and some of his companions wrote letters home that tell about their mostly unsuccessful search for riches. His daughter saved all of their correspondence and this became the basis of the book. 

After returning to Wisconsin, Olaf again became a "wanderer." In 1906 he traveled to Saskatchewan and made a land claim near Dinsmore. Each year he spent six months on his land in Canada and returned to Wisconsin in late November. Again, he corresponded regularly with his daughter describing his life on the prairie. He also became a Canadian citizen before returning to spend the rest of his life in Waupaca County, Wisconsin.

We had two presentations last year: one about an ancestor who went to the Klondike for the gold rush, and another about a grandmother who homesteaded on the Canadian prairie. I would be happy to lend the book to anyone who is interested in either of these portions of Canadian history.

November 21 Workshop

This week we looked at several examples of the types of books available at local public libraries. Many small towns have enthusiastic historians who are interested in local history and write on a particular topic for that area. 

Olaf Skye (more later on him), From the Indian Lands, Rural on the Crystal, Rural Schools of Waupaca County, and Waupaca from Arcadia Publications were a few of the books that we examined.

Annie also provided a brief review of the most efficient steps to use in locating records on FamilySearch. Follow the sequence below!

    Search: Records: Name Field: More Options: Type: Census: Search

    

Family History Library Consultations

Dennis reported that he had a very successful consultation with an Irish research expert at the Family History Library this month. He accessed the Help Center on the FamilySearch website and booked a session for "In Person Help." The session was scheduled for 20 minutes, but Dennis said he was able to ask questions for about an hour. His original problem was resolved, and he learned much more about researching in Ireland.

If you take advantage of this free service on www.familysearch.org, be sure that you have a specific question for their expert.

Genealogy Club News

During Tuesday's meeting Maureen Edwards was elected as our new vice president. Diane Jalbert has stepped up to complete Susan Mavor's term of office, as she left the park last year. Current officers are Diane Jalbert, president; Maureen Edwards, vice president; Dick Rietz, secretary; Bob O'Donnell, treasurer and Annie Rietz, program director.

Our final workshop for 2023 will be December 5, as the park has asked to use the SanTan room on December 12 to set up for Palm Creek's 25th anniversary celebration the following day. 

Topics for the next three weeks include local public library genealogy resources, scrapbooking and genealogy and an overview of the 1931 Canada census.

 

November 14 Workshop

Maureen gave us a great overview of four different digital libraries and included examples of the kind of information you might be able to find.

JSTOR: www..jstor.org stands for journal storage and contains journals, books and primary sources.

HathiTrust: www.hathitrust.org is a collaborative of academic and research libraries.

Internet Archive: www.archive.org offers free access to books, movies and music. At present this site has been sued because of copyright infringement. Books recently published may not be available in the future.

Google Books: http://books.google.com searches the full text of books that Google has scanned.

Maureen suggests trying different search methods, particularly remembering to use quotation marks, at each of these websites to add context to your family history research.

November 7 Workshop

We were happy to welcome several new members as we began the 2023-24 season. The workshop topic included a few suggestions for goals or activities for the coming year. 

Beginners are encouraged to complete (as far as possible) a pedigree chart, contacting possible relatives who might also be working on the family's history. Then they can begin the interesting task of finding ancestors in various census years.

Intermediate level researchers can organize any leftover stacks of paper work, reread notes from previous years, or choose one surname to concentrate work on as we begin the year.

Experienced members can practice focusing their research to use time more efficiently by keeping research logs or timelines. Create a list of brick walls.

Ask a friend for help!