Washburn County WIGenWeb Project

What Was New on the Washburn Co. WIGenWeb site in 2001

28 October 2001 - A new category, "Genealogies" has been added to the website today. We have kicked off this section with the genealogies of the Masterjohn, Mecure and Isabella families and we have lots more to come. This will also be an interactive area, so if you have Washburn Co. genealogies that you would like to share, let me know and I'll be happy to discuss it with you.

21 October 2001 - The remainder of the Pre-1907 Birth Index has been put online (Surnames K through Z) today. We also have a new school added to our Schools page - you will now find Lincoln School along with a link to a short history. Hopefully we can get more of these school histories as time goes on. In the meantime, there are lots of other good things coming to our website. Stay tuned. Check in often. And don't forget to use our Search Engine, which gets updated with every new addition.

13 October 2001 - After taking a break from the website and going on a "collecting" spree, I'm back and ready to put more good information online. Today's upload includes the beginning of the Pre-1907 Birth Index for Washburn Co. So far the A through J surnames have been put on the website, with more coming soon. I hope you will find these birth indexes to be of help to you in your research! You will find a link to these indexes on the main page's table of contents. Enjoy!

01 July 2001 - Today's update is a big one, even though it only adds one explanation page to our website. The new item is the Message Board, which replaces the old "GenConnect" system that had been utilized and which had previously covered seven (7) topics - Queries, Biographies, Obituaries, Bible Records, Deeds, Pensions and Wills. These old messages have now been combined into one 'board' and there are new topics or classifications to choose from to make for even greater capabilites to share your data. Please be sure to visit our 'explanation page' if this sytem is new to you. You will automatically be taken to this page when you click on the "Message Board" link on our main page. From there, you will find links to the actual message board itself. I hope you will agree, this is a great addition to our site and one that simplifies your abilities to learn more about your family in Washburn Co.

09 June 2001 - The new addition for today is a history of the city of Shell Lake. You will find this history linked from our Communities page under the Shell Lake section of the page. I have also revamped our Reunions page, taking the alumni information off and making a new page called Alumni Board which contains that information. It is a good way to meet up with your old classmates. On the Reunions page, there is now a space to announce your Family Reunions and a space to announce your Class Reunions. If you have either event happening this year for you, please send the info to me to be added to this page. Stay tuned, there's always alot more to add to our Washburn Co. WIGenWeb site!

19 May 2001 - Today's project included new additions to the People Pics page and to the Place Pics page by Ron Jost. With our growing list of photos that have been donated, a need to revamp these pages was also taken care of. I hope you'll like the new layout of our Photo Album pages. Also, Faith Yeager has donated another very good article to our Newspaper Stories section for your reading pleasure -- complete with photos! My thanks to Ron and Faith for this week's donations. This is all excellent material and it is our hope that it will be of help to you in your research, or at least interesting for you to browse through!

28 April 2001 - Today's uploads include some new photos donated by a new volunteer -- Helen Kennedy. Her photos are of her Wood family of Minong and are located on the People Pics page and on the Place Pics page. Make sure you take a look through these new additions as they are great photos! We have also added a new category on our main page. You will see that we now have a Military section to our website. This new section has enabled me to organize the website better and by utilizing this system the previous two military-type links that were on the main page are now listed in our Military section. Plus there is quite a bit of new military info that has been added today, with lots of names to browse through. Or if you're in a hurry, try the search engine for our site. It is being updated as I type this. I hope you will find this new information to be of help to you in your research. There are also some new names added to our Surnames page. Check it out!

21 April 2001 - We took the Easter weekend off but today had more great stories to upload that Faith Yeager donated. These stories were in the same category as the previous donation from Faith and are a very welcome addition to the site. Both stories revolve around the Minong area and it's people, and one was a history of the Northwoods school, so that story is linked both from our Newspaper Stories page and from our Schools page. We also had quite a few new additions as far as Surnames go. Be sure to check all of these new items out and see if there's anything of interest for you.

07 April 2001 - Faith Yeager donated a story written by her Aunt Lyda for the Spooner Advocate column titled "Old Times and Old Timers". This is an excellent story about life in early Minong and my special thanks go to Faith for her donation. This has started the ball rolling for a new topic on our main page -- Newspaper Stories! Be sure to check this new topic out, as there are other stories that have now been added to the list. And if you have a story about early Washburn Co. days or events to share (uncopyrighted, please), just let me know!

31 March 2001 - Today's additions are a collection of cemetery photos that were donated to our site by Don Hansen. These photos are from the Earl Cemetery (also one from the Long Lake Lutheran Cemetery), and are linked to the burial records for the Earl Cemetery. So when browsing through the cemetery index, you can now click on the link that will show the tombstone photo. Or you can see all the tombstone photos that have been submitted so far by visiting our Tombstone Photo Album. Thanks, Don, for a great job!

11 March 2001 - Today's new additions to our website are donations from three Washburn Co. friends. Mary Gundry has donated family photos from her collection which shows farm settings, and people in the Rylander and Thibedeau families. And Don Hansen has donated a great family photo of the Butenhoff family to our site. You will find these great photos on our People Pics and Place Pics pages within this site. The other new addition is a big project that Mary Wirth has been working on. It is the complete index of the Earl Cemetery, with locations matched to the sexton's records. There is also a map and a history of the cemetery. You will find this new page linked off the Cemeteries page on this site. All of these great people have done some wonderful work. If anything they have donated is of help to you, please be sure to send them a big thank you! Thank you, all, for a job well done!

18 February 2001 - Today's uploads include several town histories. One was donated to our project by Faith Yeager and is of the community of Chittamo. My special thanks to Faith for sharing this interesting history with us. The other was a series of newspaper articles from 1939 about the town of Birchwood. These town histories can be found with in the "Communities" page under the description of each town. Or to make it easier, another category has been added to our main page titled "Town Histories". Be sure to check these out, as they contain alot of names and information about the local vicinity. Don't forget to check out the maps to see where these communities are located!

31 January 2001 - Another photo has been added to our "People Photos" album on the bottom of page 3. This is also from Sharon Pike, who is a very busy lady these days. She promises even more when she's done with her other project. Wow! I'm hoping I can keep up with her! Thanks Sharon for another wonderful example of early life in Washburn Co.

29 January 2001 - We have started up another new page for our photo album. Because of the generosity of Sharon Pike, who has donated more family photos, we have added page 3 to our "People Photos" album. If you have an interest in Curtis and Pike families, or just want to see what the Long Lake area of Washburn Co. has to offer, these photos are in the 'must see' category. Take a look! And a special thank you again to Sharon for donating them!

23 January 2001 - New items for today fall under the heading of "Organizations." This new page and the links that it holds will be reserved for information about the various organizations that may or may not be in existance within Washburn Co. today. This information may be in the form of a short history, the purpose of the organization, or even a listing of members. In keeping with the idea of history and genealogy, I will only be putting up info on older organizations -- none of today's clubs or their membership lists will be posted on these pages. To go along with this new topic, I have added three links to show as an example of what is to come. These links are for the Parent-Teacher Association of Shell Lake, the Lions Club of Shell Lake, and the Scandinavian-American Fraternity, Branch No. 14, also from Shell Lake. As always feel free to browse through this new information. If you have any items of this nature to share with us, just let me know!

18 January 2001 - Today's new additions to the website come once again from Sharon Pike. She has added some excellent photos of the Tombstones from her family here in Washburn Co. And it worked out perfectly since all of them are located in the Madge Evergreen Cemetery. So they are now linked together, with notations made from the cemetery index to the photos. Check it out! I think you will agree that Sharon has done a super job! Thanks again, Sharon! And if you have info or photos to share with us, just let me know!

17 January 2001 - Some restructuring was done today on the website. Previously there had been a topic titled "Miscellaneous" on our site. It contained miscellaneous links for Washburn Co. I have changed the name to "Washburn Co. Links" and have added categories on this page, such as 'Community pages,' 'Genealogy pages that pertain to Washburn Co.,' and 'Miscellaneous Links' (businesses, government, etc.) New links to this page are the Genealogy links, which include Sharon Pike's Curtis - Pike Family History Page and my Denninger family. Thanks to Sharon for the great idea. If anyone else has a webpage that they would like to list on this page, just let me know!

16 January 2001 - Several more photos have been added to our People Photo Album by Sharon Pike. These are excellent photos of the 1908 graduating class of Shell Lake and the Pike Brothers. Check them out! And our newest addition to the site is a cemetery index of Madge Evergreen Cemetery on our Cemeteries page. Sandi Meurer compiled this information while 'fishing' with her husband and has volunteered this index to be added to our pages. This adds her name to our Volunteers list also! Thanks Sandi for a job well done and happily received!

15 January 2001 - Today's new additions include some wonderful photos to our collections on our People Photo Album and our Places Photo Album (links to these pages can be found on our main page under "People Pics" and "Place Pics"). These new photos show various scenes of the Long Lake area of our county, and show how fun and relaxing times were back in the "old days." These photos are from the Marion Curtis Pike collection and were sent to us by Sharon Pike. Our thanks to Sharon for this voyage back on memory lane. She has been added to our Volunteers page too!

13 January 2001 - We have added to our list of Volunteers! Today's additions have been donated to our Archives and GenConnect Obit board by Don Hansen, who has been doing extensive research on the Butenhoff, Holt, Thomas, Thomsen, Thompson family lines. Thanks, Don, for these wonderful pieces of information. They are a valuable addition to our site.

11 January 2001 - Today's new addition is a page dedicated to our Volunteers! The people listed on this page have donated materials to our website, for which we all can be thankful for. This is my way of saying "Thanks" to them. Along with their names are the items that they have contributed to our site with a link to that page. Take a moment to see what these friends have donated. And if their contributions have been a help to you, why not email them and tell them thanks too!

03 January 2001 - A new year begins and we are back to work! Today's addition includes a correction to a bride's name in both the Pre-1907 Groom's Index for the surnames beginning with A, and the Pre-1907 Bride's Index for the surnames beginning with M. These indexes are taken directly from the county indexes and, while mistakes can be made when recording events on the county level, I have tried to follow their records as closely as possible. I will be happy to make corrections where needed as I did with this case. Also today, the Watts surname was added to our 'Surname' page. If you have surnames you would like to add, just let me know via email.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!

21 December 2000 - Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas! The little elves have been busy putting some more goodies online for you! Today's new items include the pre-1907 Death Index for Washburn Co. You will find these indexes at the "Death Indexes" link on the main page. You will see when you browse through these new pages that they are a combination of the State Pre-1907 Indexes along with the County Death Indexes. Many of these records were doubled up, so I only put the state records on where they didn't show up within the county indexes. Otherwise, you will be able to get all records through the county level. There is also information on how to order from each level (county or state). I also set up a new Search Engine for our pages. This one is updated as I work on the site, so it will be current and ready to pick up any of those new items that you are searching for. I hope you will enjoy these new goodies.

08 December 2000 - New surnames were added to the Surnames page today. Check it out! If you want to add your surnames just write and send me the surnames, dates, locations and your email address and I will add them for you

06 December 2000 - A very generous offer for doing Hammill genealogy lookups was received today from Jack Hammell. The information for this lookup can be found on the "Lookups" link, which has now been separated on our main page from the WCHS Lookup Policies & Resources link. Thanks, Jack, for your generosity! Good luck to all you "Hammill hunters"!

02 December 2000 - A few more categories were added to the main page of the website today. These include "Biography Board," the "Obituary Board" and the "Query Board". It is my hope that by adding these new links, some of the confusion will be cleared on where these boards are located. These links will take you to our GenConnect page as these boards are part of the GenConnect system and this page will explain how the system works for you.

30 November 2000 - To go along with our new look, we've added a new topic today -- Washburn Co. Marriage Index is now online. This covers marriages from 1883 through 1917 and are broken down into Bride's Indexes and Groom's Indexes. Take a look to see if your ancestors are listed!

29 November 2000 - Our new look has been established throughout all the pages of the Washburn Co. WIGenWeb site. Although we are retaining the concept of the pineries, I am hoping the white background will make your viewing of these pages easier. Not only did we add a new look, but we have also added some new pages (and revamped others). The new pages include this page (What's New) which will be your guide to what is added to this web site. I will give a brief description along with the date of the addition. Also new is the "About Us" page, which gives you an idea of who I am along with what the WIGenWeb is. We have a new Maps page and have added a Communities page also. These two pages work together and provide some good historical info on the area. Be watching for town histories to be added to the Communities page also. Under the heading of Schools you will find the Graduates lists for the Shell Lake and Spooner High Schools has been revamped and will give you an easier view of who graduated when. Of course one of the biggest changes is the layout of the Main page. I hope you will find it to be less cluttered and more easily accessible for you. And there's much, much more to come. So check back often! We're getting things done in Washburn County!