History of WAGS
The Genealogical Society of North Central Washington was organized on December 31, 1971, with 21 charter members. The genealogy library first operated in a private home. In 1978 it was moved to a storefront on Third Street and Rock Island Road in East Wenatchee (called “The Book Nook”). A year later we moved to the Museum Annex, although we had to be temporarily housed in the North Central Regional Library while the Museum did some remodeling. In 1984 we could finally call the Museum Annex our permanent home. The original goal was to have materials from every state in the USA and many countries in our library. Now we are increasingly finding that North Central Washington resources are our unique contribution to the genealogical community.
The group took trips to the Seattle Public Library and other destinations, borrowing the LDS church van. Early on, we put on yard sales, and sold plant starts and other items at a booth at the mall in the spring. For many years we would gather volunteers for a Nason Creek Rest Area fundraiser. Age took its toll, and it became harder and harder to find volunteers for these extras. In 2014 we began our “No Work” fundraisers. In 2019 we set up a Legacy Fund with the Community Foundation of NCW.
Monthly membership meetings have always been a feature of WAGS. At first, we met downstairs in the Regional Library, the Chelan PUD, the East Wenatchee Water District and the Douglas Fire District #2 meeting room. When speedy wifi became a requirement, we moved to the Douglas PUD Auditorium. And then Covid-19 arrived! We began having Zoom meetings in September of 2020.
In the past, we would put on an all-day seminar once a year with a regional or nationally-known speaker. That lapsed for a number of years. We were just about to revive it in April of 2020 with a DNA seminar, but with the advent of Covid-19 we had to cancel on a few days notice! Before Covid hit, we had an impressive array of interest groups and classes, and we’re hoping to offer these again in the near future.
Volunteers have digitized and organized our databases to make us the go-to resource for North Central Washington research. We are particularly proud of our Civil War Veterans of NCW, and our complete set of local and regional obituaries.
We ventured into the online world with our own website in the mid-90s. That was refined in 2013/14 as we hired a national company as our web host. In the spring of 2021 we unveiled the third incarnation of the WAGS website, created and maintained in-house.
2021 was our 50th year! As we go into the future, we will build on the solid foundation given to us by our founders, and discover brand new ways to collect, connect and protect family histories.