Tell a Story, Hear a Story, Read a Story

CGS President Jane Lindsey has been a busy lady lately. Besides the time she spends teaching beginning and intermediate genealogy classes and administering society business, Jane's calendar includes representing the California Genealogical Society at speaking engagements and at an upcoming workshop at the Contra Costa Library Reading Festival.

On April 7, 2009, Jane spoke to a group of residents at San Francisco Towers, an independent living retirement home in the city. CGS member Barbara Bentley, who recently served a three-month stint as acting recording secretary for the board (thank you, Barbara!), made the arrangements. They were expecting fifteen to attend but drew an audience of forty-seven residents interested in learning more about genealogy.



The Unitarian Universalist Church on Franklin Street in San Francisco was the venue for an introductory genealogy workshop that Jane presented on Thursday, April 16, 2009, to RSVP of San Francisco and Alameda Counties, a proactive volunteer-placement organization that recruits and connects individuals age 55 and over with a variety of volunteer opportunities throughout the community. The audience was smaller but two of the nine attendees signed up to attend the Spring Beginning Genealogy Seminar held at CGS two days later.

Jane will be spreading more genealogy cheer next month when the Lafayette, Moraga, and Orinda libraries host the second annual Reading Festival, May 3 – 9, 2009. Jane is presenting Research the Stories of Your Family on Saturday, May 9, 2009 at 11:00 a.m. at the Lafayette Library. The program is free and open to the public and is part of a series of events to celebrate reading at the Contra Costa County Library that include the magic of memoir writing, live readings, a puppet show and special story times for children. This year's theme is "Hear a Story, Tell a Story, Write Your Story."