Discover the value of tracing your roots

JOHN DODGE

Several years ago at a LOTT public hearing, Lacey's then-Councilman Jon Halvorson polled the crowd of 100 or so attendees, asking how many were born and raised in South Sound.

If memory serves me correctly, three people raised their hands.

Halvorson's point was a simple one: In a rapidly growing county, the fresh faces far outnumber the old ones.

Strong history

Despite this statistical certainty, Thurston County is blessed with a strong sense of history and hundreds of residents -- white and Native American alike -- who can trace their local family ties back to 1852 when the county was formed.

As part of the Thurston County sesquicentennial birthday party, the Washington State Archives and Olympia Genealogical Society are offering workshops this Saturday and March 9 to help county residents trace their family roots.

The workshops are aimed at folks who know or have a hunch that, with a little help, they can reach back to 1852 or 1902 and find family members who were here.

Qualify, and you receive a free "Thurstoneer" certificate.

It's a great way to learn more about your family history and connections to the past.

Participants will help fine-tune our knowledge of Thurston County history, linking people, places, times and events in a more complete way, county historian Shanna Stevenson said.

The Saturday workshop is already full. But registration is open for the March 9 workshop from 10 a.m. to noon at the Washington State Archives, 1129 Washington St. S.E., Olympia.

To register or learn more about the workshops, call 360-786-5222 or e-mail stevens@co.thurston.wa.us.

Ties to the past

Richard Johnson, 70, a member of the Olympia Genealogical Society, will be at one of the workshops, lending a hand and trying to learn more about his great-great-grandparents, Marcus and Elmina C.L. McMillan, who married in Michigan in 1849 and homesteaded at Pattison Lake before the county was formed.

"The Census records at the state Archives is a great place to start," he said.

Kelly McAllister, a habitat biologist for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, will be at the workshop Saturday. His great-great-grandfather, John Wesley McAllister III, settled in the Nisqually Valley in 1852.

"I've been looking into my family history somewhat seriously the past six months," McAllister said. "I want to get the Thurstoneer certificates for my son and daughter, who are sixth-generation county residents."

My story

As a fifth-generation county resident, I've dabbled in my own family history from time to time, never seriously, but always eager to learn more.

One set of great-great-grandparents, George and Isobell Mills, traveled by wagon train in 1862 from Iowa to South Union, south of Tumwater.

"Grandpa worked at a flour mill in Tumwater and commuted by bicycle," my grandmother, Nellie Dodge, recounted in her sketchy memoirs from 1960. "He was also a county commissioner at one time."

County records show a George W. Mills served as a Thurston County commissioner in 1899-1900.

I learned that just this week.

Another set of great-great-grandparents, Richard and Phoebe Amanda Robbins, came by oxen team from Iowa to Olympia in 1883.

Their daughter, Rose, married my great-grandfather, Herbert Dodge, on the trip west. Herbert and Rose Dodge built a home at the corner of Ames-Huntley and Schincke roads in South Bay.

Deeply rooted

The home I own today is less than a half-mile from their old place.

My grandfather, John R. Dodge, once owned seven acres of waterfront on the west side of Johnson Point. There was no road to the property, which he donated to the Olympia YMCA for use as a summer boys' camp in 1924.

Camp Dodge included three bunkhouses, a cook shack, an open-air dining room, plenty of beachfront, a dock and rowboats.

One memorable activity for the boys ages 10 to 16 was to row to Harstine Island to dig for geoducks, according to "South Bay, Its History and Its People 1840-1940," a book rich with history compiled by the South Bay Historical Society in 1986.

My family on occasion has one of those "if only" conversations about the waterfront property my grandfather gave away.

Friends and strangers alike ask me time to time why I've spent the bulk of my adult life living and newspapering in South Sound.

The answer is a simple one: I am deeply rooted in this place.

John Dodge is a senior reporter at The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5444.

For related stories go to the South Sound section.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

back to main Home Page Stories index