Location: 1901 S 12th Ave
The Yakima Valley Genealogical Society was created in October 1967 as a non-profit, non-political, non-sectarian organization. Enjoy the Annual Spring Seminar as well as many other scheduled classes & speakers. Their volunteers are available to help you research your family's history!
From the original membership of 18, YVGS has had over 2,148 people join the society. Today’s current membership is approximately 300, with members from as far away as England.
The Cemetery Project was begun in the spring of 1968. The goal was to copy headstones in all of the cemeteries in Yakima, Benton, Klickitat and Kittitas Counties. Those results saw the beginning of the YVGS Obituary file. From that time forward, all obituaries in the Yakima Herald-Republic have been clipped and added to the collection, believed to be in excess of 50,000 cards as of 2008.
Another Project was created to index all death notices appearing in the earliest issues of the newspaper: 1884-1907. Other extraction projects followed and were published: births, marriages, deaths and probate records.
The first bulletin was printed in January 1969. All back issues are available for purchase.
The Yakima Valley Genealogical Society operates a library open to the public at no charge for genealogical research. The 7,200 sq ft library, considered one of the top genealogical research facilities in the Pacific Northwest, is located at 1901 S 12th Ave, Union Gap, Washington. Besides the main floor of the library there are three archive rooms, a media room for microfilm/fiche research, a work room and a kitchen. Between the bound volumes on the shelf and the massive microfilm/microfiche collection, the library hosts an equivalent collection of 35,000 volumes of genealogical research material covering the all of the states in the United States and a large number of foreign countries. This collection also covers a large amount of published family histories.
LIBRARY HOURS: The library is open from 10:00am to 4:00pm Monday-Saturday. The library is closed on January 1st, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and December 24-25. The library can be opened during closed hours by appointment. Please call several days ahead to make arrangements: 509-248-1328.
More information at: https://yvgs.net/index.php
