"I stalk dead people and hope to connect with their descendants on Facebook"

Even when I was very young, I had an interest in life stories. I recall in elementary school my favorite books were by Laura Ingalls Wilder and biographies of Helen Keller. Fast forward to when my son was in fourth grade in 1997 and assigned a cultural heritage project for class. My daughter was less than a year old at the time. I wanted to keep a consistent schedule for her which meant I was stuck at home during her two hour naps. I was a newbie to the Internet and decided to poke around to see what I could learn about my husband’s and my family history to help with my son’s school’s project. I thought it would be fascinating to discover life stories of people I was related to that might be just as interesting as the pioneer life tales I loved in “Little House in the Big Woods”.
Even back in 1997 it wasn’t hard to add new pieces to the family puzzle using Internet searches. Early sites I remember using were GenForum, Cyndi’s List , and US GenWeb . It was even before the Mormon’s came on-line to the public at Family Search. From my local library I checked out and downloaded a CD Rom of an early version of Family Treemaker. (It didn’t take long before I purchased my own software and have purchased several upgrades since). I was giddy when I discovered a descendant of my Wales born great grandmother’s half-brother just living a few hours north of me in Canada. He seemed as excited as me when I called him from out of the blue to explain who I was and we eventually made arrangements to meet. I found mailing address sites and postally mailed dozens of letters to all the Grenfells I could find living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan because I could learn more about my great, great grandmother from them and could barely contain myself when one came back starting with the sentence “BINGO You have hit the JACKPOT.” I corresponded with him for several years and learned more family stories and connected with additional relatives before he sadly died.

I know many of my friends and family think it odd that I can get so caught up in genealogy. Family history tends to be a passion of the retired and I’ve got a while to go before I reach that milestone. In addition to the above mentioned distant Grenfell cousin that died, there have been a few others I was so glad I connected with before they passed away but I still have regrets of all the stories I didn’t get. Genealogy can definitely be an obsession and sometime I don’t really understand my own drive to turn over every stone to see what lies underneath. And it can be challenging to stay focused. I could absolutely relate to Clue Wagon's "the names have been changed to protect the inocent" blog post here. There is so much to discover! And it always leads to other avenues to investigate!

I have had my genealogy addiction under pretty good control the last couple of years. But Facebook has introduced me to another way to find distant cousins. I absolutely love it but feel it impossible to keep up with everyone I would like to. NBC’s Who Do You Think You Are was a show I avoided for awhile while I kept my obsession in-check but several people kept telling me I would love it. They were right. The first one I DVRd, I intended to get some laundry done while I watched it with one eye. Well, the laundry didn’t get done and I’ve watched every episode since. I definitely enjoy seeing others just as fascinated by the people and stories of those who came before them. As a pretty-darn-blessed-American, I am in awe of all that my children’s fore-mothers and fore-fathers endured. Farming on rocks, mining in dangerous conditions, deaths of their children, difficult ocean voyages, harsh winters, destructive fires and rampant illness to name a few hardships. I feel very lucky for those that survived long enough to give birth to my children’s ancestors! And I want to thank them by remembering them. I hope to share some of their stories here in the future.

Kerry Park view of the Space Needle

The countdown is on to the 50th Anniversary of Century 21 Seattle World's Fair! It goes without saying that the Space Needle is probably one of the most photographed icons in our region. Ground breaking for the Space Needle began April 17th, 1961. A favorite viewpoint of The Needle is Kerry Park on Queen Anne.  One of these days maybe I'll see if  I can collect enough images from this vantage point and create a time-line slideshow of the Seattle Skyline featuring the Space Needle.  Please let me know if someone has already done this (or plans on doing this) because it's something I'd really like to see!

The top photo is my mother's uncle and his family on a trip from Canada to Seattle visiting Kerry Park in 1963.

And the bottom photo is an undated photo I took from Kerry Park - I'm guessing it's about 1978. If you have any ideas to help me date it, please let me know.



"Base Hospital" about 1918?

From Maren Nielsen Andersen's album

Unidentified "Base Hospital" other labels say Barracks, Kitchen, WMCA, Wards, Camp. Any ideas? Pasted in the photo album in about 1918 time frame. **UPDATE** found postcard from relative at Camp Cody, New Mexico!  Can anyone confirm if this is or is not Camp Cody?  Thanks! (click image and look for magnifying glass to enlarge)

Project To Restore The World War 1 Memorial Monument at Bellevue's Downtown Park

(e-mail posted with permission of Robert Shay)
A follow-up to http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/east_king/bel/news/114384354.html A Bellevue Reporter Story

"Lest We Forget"

An account has been established at Bank of America and has been registered with the Washington Secretary of State and the IRS as a non profit corporation.  I work full time and have to complete these tasks between other commitments. I have also been speaking with structural engineers, wood flag pole manufacturers and general contractors to get an idea of the scope and cost of the restoration. I have been working with the Battlefield Monuments Commission and Representative Dave Reichert to locate the graves of the three Eastside men who died in "The World War". To date only the grave of Victor E. Hanson has been located due to some diligent research by my daughter.
Victor E. Hanson, Private, U.S. Army
308th Infantry Regiment, 77th Division
Entered the Service from: Washington
Died: October 12, 1918
Buried at Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, Romagne, France

Thank you for your commitment to make a donation in memory of these three men who made the supreme sacrifice in defense of Freedom.

Please send your donation checks to the address below. I do appreciate your help with this project, so please e-mail when you put your contribution in the mail. Please feel free to forward this e-mail to friends and family that you think might be interested in our project. If they are not in the Pacific Northwest, they may make contributions at any Bank of America branch. If they have any questions they may contact me via e-mail.

Make checks payable to: Project To Restore The WWI Memorial

Please mail to:
Robert Shay
610 123rd Ave. NE
Bellevue, WA 98005-3140

Robert Shay

Project To Restore The World War 1 Memorial Monument
In Bellevue's Downtown Park
A Washington State Chartered Non Profit Corporation
206.478.0505

Current Memorial

A proposal to add a doughboy granite figure

More information here

Search 161.7 million cemetery records at by entering a surname and clicking search: Surname:

1985 Fremont

Our first apartment was at 807 N. 40th in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle.  We lived across the street from BF Day Elementary (on the Linden Ave. side) and I loved walking in that old building when it was time to vote.  I wish I had taken more photos while we were there but I just came across the ones I DID take and wanted to share them.

1987 Puget Sound Aerials

My parents took me along when my dad was hired to take aerial photos of Factoria Square in early 1987. We had a beautiful day!
Facing northwest. Seattle's Rainier district, Kingdome, Columbia Tower, Puget Sound, Olympic Mountains:


I-90 facing east. Eastgate, Lake Sammamish, Cascade Mountains.


Facing West. I-90, Mercer Island, Lake Washington, Seattle, Puget Sound, Olympics


Seattle Skyline

Factoria

I was never very fond of the sound of the name but I grew up in Eastgate to the east of it until I was eleven and then lived in Woodridge to the north of it the rest of my childhood.

In the very early 70’s I remember being at Sunset Elementary (now Puesta del Sol) and students in true hippy fashion taping up protest signs and laying in front of excavation equipment at the edge of school property in hopes of stopping the cutting down of trees for development in the Factoria area.

I remember going to the drive-in theater (wasn’t that called Sunset, too?) and playing in the playground waiting for it to get dark so the movie could start. My parents even took us when they went to see M*A*S*H even though it was rated R since my sister and I would probably fall asleep in the back seat (I think I peeked and saw the shower fall down revealing Major Houlihan)

Before Factoria Mall was built I remember an old house standing alone on that property. The land was said to be too soggy to build on. The old house was used as a haunted house at Halloween a couple of times by a radio station. Sadly about 1974 a Newport High School teen accidentally hung himself – he had a rope around his neck and was standing on a box; he lost his footing. The way I remember it told, no one realized it wasn’t part of the scare so he didn’t get help. I've been told his name as Brad Lundgren who was a sophomore at the time :-( .

There was a very small grocery store – looking at the very few old Factoria photos I can find on the internet, I guess it was called Sunset Super Market. But I thought we called it Harry’s (anybody remember this?). My mom wouldn’t let us walk there by ourselves and I don’t think she felt comfortable going in there in the early-mid 70’s either. As kids, we were pretty excited when 7-11 was built sometime in the mid 70’s! We were allowed to walk there and I remember buying long, stale, sticks of green-apple bubble gum. Watermelon was also a popular flavor-du-jour. Safeway opened shortly thereafter but going there for candy with mom certainly wasn’t the same as walking with a group of friends to 7-11.

Here are some of the stores I remember and what they’ve been replaced with if I know – I haven’t been in there recently. Thank you to those who have helped me remember more stores - Please help me remember more.
Safeway (still there)
Pay-N-Save: I won a Black-and-White TV in a contest from their photo department! (now Rite Aid)
Lamonts (now TJ Maxx and DSW Shoes I think)
Ernest Hardware (now Old Navy and others)
Bean Pod (now Red Robin)
DJ Sound City (I think)
Hallmark Cards
Squire Shop
Kinney Shoes
Hot Dog Emporium
Tux Shop
B. Dalton's Books

**UPDATE** Thank you to Laura over at Facebook's "You know you're from Bellevue" for sharing this ad which helped me remember a whole lot more!

From Bellevue 1979

My first real job was at Pizza Haven – it was in a separate building behind Factoria Mall in Phase 2. It opened late summer 1978.

Phase two was leveled years ago and they built a new wing that is connected to the mall for Nordstrom Rack. In the parking lot behind Phase 2 was a restaurant called Barnaby’s. The Kentucky Fried Chicken in the parking lot is still there I believe. SeaFirst Bank was in the NorthEast corner of the Factoria Mall


My Dad and Mom took Santa Photos at Factoria in the early to mid 80’s. I was an Elf. I’ve always credited them with setting the standard for having really awesome looking Santas with real beards at Factoria. Factoria still has an awesome Santa and for my Christmas present every year my son takes my daughter for Santa photos with the both of them there.








Below are some interesting sites with Factoria history. I always assumed with the name they gave it, they wanted it to become an industrial area – but I never knew about the stove factory that never built a single stove nor the successful rabbit meat and fur industry.

Wikipedia Factoria, Bellevue, WA

Sledghammer’s blog Malls of the Seattle Area – A Tour of the Factoria Mall

City of Bellevue “Factoria Subarea Plan” (history on page 2 of document but print page 134)

Factoria “Back in the day”

Also - if you haven't seen this awesome video of old Bellevue, Check it out. Over the Bridge to Gracious LivingPlease share your Factoria stories. And photos if you have any!