California Genealogical Society and Library blog

Wordless Wednesday

2009-07-01T18:00:00.000-07:00

Wordless Wednesday

CGS on the Road in Santa Clara

Santa Clara Central Park Library
Monday, June 15, 2009

Photographs courtesy of Jane Knowles Lindsey and Lavinia Schwarz.

Workshop: Using Land Records in Genealogy - August 8, 2009

2009-06-29T23:55:00.000-07:00

Using Land Records in Genealogy - A CGS Workshop with Pam Miller

Saturday, August 8, 2009
10:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
California Genealogical Society Library
2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland, California

Join CGS member Pam Miller for this practical overview of land and property records and learn why they are absolutely necessary to your family history research. Discover how these often overlooked records can help you solve lineage problems, accurately identify ancestors, correct faulty information and enrich the story of those more distant ancestors.

Lecture topics will include terminology, abstracting, property law, the Public Land Survey System (PLSS, the aliquot system), the metes and bounds system, and the critical information found in deed books.

In addition, the workshop day will include a lunch break and "hands-on" sessions where participants can practice platting and locating specific lands. Bring your own land records to work on after learning how!

Attendees are encouraged to bring laptop computers; the six CGS computers may not all be available for the program. For the practical component Pam will supply graph paper and protractors. Suggested supplies are pencils, erasers and a ruler.

Bring a brown bag for lunch or, if you prefer, there is a nearby deli where you can buy a sandwich and bring it back to the library.

The workshop is FREE for CGS members but is limited to fifteen people. There is a sign-up fee of $10 for non-members. (This fee can be applied toward membership on the day of the workshop.) Download the registration flier. Questions? E-mail or call CGS at 510-663-1358.

Pam Miller, a native of Dallas, Texas, attended Stanford University where she earned a B.A. in Linguistics and an M.A. in Spanish. She was employed as an educator in the Bay Area for twenty-eight years, teaching Spanish and computer science. Pam grew up "walking the family lands" with her parents, inheriting her family's love of maps and developing a severe case of what she calls "Tara Syndrome." She has been a member of CGS since 2005.

Graphic courtesy of Pamela A. Miller.

Fun at Jamboree!

2009-06-28T23:55:00.000-07:00

Three exhausting but fun days at SCGS Jamboree 2009 are behind us. Tim has promised to write a report for the blog so I'll just share a few photos and express my appreciation to everyone who contributed to the CGS table in the exhibit hall.

Special kudos to Tim Cox and Carolyn Steinberg who organized every aspect of space #114 in the hall and who are already planning to make next year's CGS table even better. Heartfelt thanks also to CGS members Ron Fillion, Arlene Folkers, Pamela Storm, Marston Watson and Geri Willinger for helping to staff the table.

Marston Watson and Tim Cox

Marston was a speaker at Jamboree this year. He graciously signed over his table in the hall to CGS and brought two of his Royal Families books to sell.

Pamela Storm and Ron Fillion

Pam and Ron of SFgenealogy.com brought their brochures and magnets and their expertise to the table. (And they wore their special tee shirts!)

Carolyn Steinberg, Steve Danko and Elyse Doerflinger.

Steve Danko of Steve's Genealogy Blog and Elyse Doerflinger of both Elyse's Genealogy Blog and The Graveyard Rabbit Student stopped by. They are both first-name-only geneabloggers since they have universal recognition in the gen-blog world (think Madonna). Steve will be our speaker at the July membership meeting.

Marston, Kathryn and Tim

Thanks, everyone, for a successful California Genealogical Society and Library presence at Jamboree!

"Tip of the Iceberg" Poster Debuts at Jamboree!

2009-06-24T23:52:00.000-07:00

Back in March I reported on an idea based on a conversation between CGS members Lisa Gorrell and Tim Cox that turned into a wonderful graphic designed by Lisa's daughter Elizabeth Gorrell.

The "Tip of the Iceberg" graphic went viral after it was picked up by Dick Eastman who quoted Lisa's wish:

What would be nice is to have a poster of it in every research facility – especially those with computers – to remind them that so little of their research will be found on the internet.

Thanks to the efforts of Tim Cox, Lisa's dream has become a reality and the "Tip of the Iceberg" poster will make its debut on Friday at the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree.

Tim informs me that an 11 x 17 full color poster will be available at Jamboree for only $10, including taxes and a protective cardboard tube, at the California Genealogical Society and Library table #114. Tim, Carolyn Steinberg and I will be staffing the table with some other CGS members so please stop by and see us. And consider purchasing a poster to donate to your local public library!

Shelf Reading Day - July 22, 2009

2009-06-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

Help Put Our Books in Order!
California Genealogical Society Library
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Marianne Frey sent this notice:

If you've been to the library you probably have admired our books on their nice new shelves (no more mismatched hand-me-downs), clearly marked and easy to find. But - are they perfectly arranged? No. Like cars on the freeway, the books bunch up in one place and are generously spaced in another. And books are occasionally re-shelved in the wrong place. With your help we can get every book in the right place.

Come to the library on Wednesday, July 22, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. for a review of the Library of Congress call number system and a chance to check your shelving skills. Then you can get to work putting the books in order.

We hope to have at least 20-25 people so this project can be completed in one day.

Volunteers who know how to read shelves can come earlier and begin reading at 8:00 a.m. Our librarians will be available for questions as shelves are checked.

Bring your own lunch or purchase one nearby and take a break with other members (dessert, iced tea and coffee will be provided.) Want to have some fun? E-mail Jane Lindsey if you can help!

SCHEDULE
08:00 a.m. Early Bird Shelf Readers - need no orientation
10:00 a.m. Orientation class on shelf reading
11:00 a.m. until done - read shelves, break for lunch, work in teams or alone. Stay as long as you can so we can complete this project in one day.

Announcing The California Nugget

2009-06-19T23:00:00.000-07:00

After months of planning, writing, editing, designing, indexing, sourcing and proofing, The California Nugget, Volume 1, Issue 1, will be arriving in members' mailboxes any day. Its thirty-four pages of original articles - most contributed by CGS members - have been beautifully assembled by Jane Hufft and Lois Elling.

As announced earlier this year, CGS stopped publishing a paper version of the society newsletter and now communicates with members electronically via the monthly CGS e-News and this blog. The change has allowed our publication duo – Editor Hufft and Production Editor Elling – to turn their attention to a revival of the "Nugget" which ceased publication several years ago. As President Jane Lindsey notes in an introductory letter on page one, "We are delighted to be able to bring back a serial publication in a new and up-to-date format."

The inside cover is a goldmine of information about the society and includes the publication's mission statement:

The California Nugget, the magazine of the California Genealogical Society, is published twice a year. Its purpose is to share the unique genealogical material in the CGS library, add to the body of family history information about Californians, offer guidance and timely information to family researchers, and provide a forum for members to share their expertise and findings. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the society. The magazine is distributed free to members and is available to non- members for $5.00 an issue plus postage.

TABLE of CONTENTS
Twenty-First Century Genealogy
What Is a Genealogy Blog and Why Should I Care? By Kathryn Doyle
An Unexpected DNA Journey By Kathy Beals

California Ancestors
My Mallorcan Ancestor: Guillermo Castell Enseñat By Thomas Fox
Martin Bacon and Mary Elizabeth Shepley By Kenneth Haughton
Alfred Guile Thompson By Susan Hutchinson
William Mendenhall, “The Forester” By S. A Mendenhall

For Our Readers
Events Calendar for 2009
Research Trip to Allen County Public Library: Registration Form
Recent Acquisitions in the Library
NEHGS Fall Event: Registration Form
Guidelines for Submissions to The California Nugget
Book Review By Laura Spurrier
Books and Publications Order Form
Salt Lake City Research Trip \
News from the Society
New Members
Index

Please come back to this announcement after you've had a chance to read the first issue and leave your comments for Jane and Lois.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-06-17T21:00:00.000-07:00

Desk Duty Committee Meeting

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Photographs courtesy of Jane Knowles Lindsey.

What You (and I) Missed: Morse and Morse on DNA

2009-06-15T23:18:00.000-07:00

CGS membership meetings are held every other month in January, March, May, July, September and November but this month we had a special presentation by Steve Morse and his daughter Megan Morse on DNA on Saturday, June 13, 2009.

Steve Morse

We had a record turn-out (56!) which meant that I gave up my seat. Fortunately, two of my fellow genealogy bloggers were on hand – Craig Manson of Geneablogie and Steve Danko of Steve's Genealogy Blog. Steve has written up an excellent summary of the talks on his blog: Morse and Morse on DNA.

Megan Morse

I did sneak in to take a couple of photos, including this one of Petunia the opossum.

Petunia the opossum

We also took a minute to get a photograph together. (Thanks to Steve Harris for acting as photographer.)

Steve Danko, Craig Manson and Kathryn Doyle

Photographs by Kathryn Doyle and Steve Harris, 6/13/2009, Oakland, California.

Member Spotlight: Marston Watson

2009-06-12T23:48:00.000-07:00

One of the speakers at the upcoming Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree is CGS member Marston Watson who will be presenting "Internet Research: Joys and Pitfalls."

Watson comes from a long line of genealogists and was introduced to the pastime as a very young child when his father created a typewritten genealogy from the hand written notes and pedigree charts of Marston's grandfather and developed a clever way to reveal the next pedigree chart by cutting rectangular bars on each page with a razor blade.

But it wasn't until 1991 when he noticed one of the names on his chart in a book by Frederick Weis, Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists that he was hooked on genealogy forever. He learned about his royal ancestor, Governor Thomas Dudley and began recording his ancestor’s data on an early version of Roots III. Today he uses TMG and his genealogy has grown from about 300 names to over 30,000, including six more royal lines.

His thirst for uncovering his family genealogy led to the discovery of Mayflower lines, colonial physicians, colonial governors, sixteen more Revolutionary War ancestors, and participants in the colonial wars. Each of these discoveries led to his acceptance in the related hereditary societies.

A member of the Sons of the American Revolution since 1967 and past president of the San Francisco Chapter, Watson was one of six compatriots to receive the prestigious Minuteman Award at the NSSAR Congress on Monday evening, July 6 in Atlanta, Georgia. It it their hightest honor and no more than six candidates are selected each year among 28,000 members.

His SAR California membership of nearly forty-two years includes his election as Oakland Chapter (now Thomas Jefferson Chapter) president and state secretary in 1968, state vice president in 1969 and state president in 1970.

Marston and wife Kathy joined the California Genealogical Society in 1993 and have been desk duty volunteers at CGS for many years. Kathy currently also serves on the computer and website committees. They are very much involved at the national level of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion as co-editors of the Journal. They have both been invested into the Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem and traveled to the Holy Land in November, 2007. He is the Grand Editeur of the national journal and she is the Grand Webmaster for the Order.

A native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Watson spent his youth there and in Houston, Texas and completed his last two years of high school in Burlingame, California. He received his bachelor degree from the University of California at Berkeley.

He was a freelance writer for eighteen years with the Contra Costa Times and was a columnist there for eight years on the subject of job search. Marston has contributed articles to a number of national genealogical publications including The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Mayflower Descendant and SAR Magazine. He has written several books on royal ancestry and other genealogical volumes.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-06-10T23:45:00.000-07:00

Wordless Wednesday

First Saturday Free - June 6, 2009
Introduction to Genealogy Class with Lavinia Schwarz

Photographs courtesy of Tim Cox.

Member Book: The Tricking of Freya by Christina Sunley

2009-06-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

Read any good fiction lately? How about some with a genealogy theme?

A few years ago, genealogist-extraordinare Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak wrote a series of articles for the 24/7 Family History blog about her pursuit of mysteries, cozies and other books with a genealogical theme. I haven't yet cozied up to any of Megan's suggestions and lately it seems that everything I read is on a computer (or iPhone) screen but all that may change this week.

On Thursday night I'll be heading to my favorite neighborhood bookstore to meet a new CGS member. Author Christina Sunley will be reading from her first novel, The Tricking of Freya, at A Great Good Place For Books.

What is her novel about? I hope Christina doesn't mind if I let her tell us in her own words. (You can read more at her blog.)

It’s about a young woman obsessed with unraveling a family secret that takes her all the way to Iceland.

It’s about turning your back on the past, then discovering years later that you can’t move forward in life without coming to terms with your own history.

It’s about forgiving the very family members who have hurt you most deeply.

It’s about being influenced by ancestors who died long before you were born.

It’s about writing your way to redemption.

Christina Sunley
The Tricking of Freya

Thursday, June 11, 2009
7:00 p.m.

A Great Good Place For Books
6120 LaSalle Avenue
Oakland, CA 94611

A-Files Update

2009-06-05T23:55:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, June 3, 2009, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services USCIS and the National Archives and Records Administration NARA held a formal joint signing ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, June 3, 2009, to "designate as permanent the immigration files created on the millions of aliens residing in the United States in 1944, as well as those arriving since then." The NARA press lease described the significance:

These Alien Case Files (commonly referred to as A-Files) document the famous, the infamous, the anonymous and the well-known, and are an historical and genealogical goldmine. The new agreement authorizes the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services/Department of Homeland Security to send A-files to the National Archives when 100 years have passed since the birthdate of the subject of a file. The National Archives expects to receive the first transfer of A-files later this year, and will store the files at National Archives facilities in San Francisco and Kansas City. Researchers will be able to access the files at these two sites, or request copies of files. An index will be available to support research use.

CGS member Jeanie W. Chooey Low has been a tireless advocate for the A-Files and active member of "Save Our National Archives" SONA, an ad hoc group formed in 1998 when the Regional NARA were threatened with closure. Jeanie was concerned that the recent publicity, including the USA Today article, made no mention of SONA's ten years of advocacy nor the major contribution of the late Congressman Tom Lantos, California. She sent this:

After ten years of SONA (Save OUR National Archives) advocating to the USCIS and NARA to schedule the accessioning of the Alien Files (A-Files), those two agencies now have an agreement to transfer custody of these invaluable immigration case files from USCIS to NARA. Then too, a major victory was gained by the NARA agreeing that for all time the Alien-Files in the Pacific Region would be allowed to remain at the NARA Leo Ryan Building in San Bruno, CA.

It is the only A-Files in the nation to have "escaped" consolidation to Missouri, and instead be retained as a permanent collection of the Pacific Region National Archives as a local Bay Area treasure.

ACCESSIONING of the ALIEN FILES
Under the Alien Registration Act of 1940, all aliens in the United States were required to register with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (now known as the USCIS, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service). The Alien Registration Files (A-files) are the detailed evidentiary records collected for each of these registered individuals. The contents within these files may include photographs, birth and marriage certificates, visas, employment records, transcripts of testimony, personal artifacts, and other important biographical and historical information.

Although the A-files were first started in the 1940s, some of the A-files contain much older information that was collected and consolidated from earlier entries back and forth through ports of entry into America. For example, the immigration records (e.g. like those from the Chinese Exclusion Act era) that are currently available for public research and viewing at NARA, San Bruno (known as Record Group 85 case files) go as far back as the late 1800s.

The A-files stored at San Bruno are a valuable collection of historic immigration records from the Port of San Francisco, Honolulu, Nevada and Northwest. These A-files not only include records of Chinese immigrants during the Chinese Exclusion period, but also records of such people as German, Italian, and Japanese WW II alien internees; Holocaust survivors; Filipino Freedom Fighters; WWII “war brides”; immigrants from many different regions of Eastern Europe and the
Pacific Islands.

In 1998, USCIS began consolidating all of its A-files at a non-research NARA facility in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. At that time a group of educational institutions, researchers, history and genealogical organizations, non-profit organizations, and individuals got together to form SONA (Save OUR National Archives). Their original goal was to prevent the closure of local NARA
facilities but it was transformed into a coalition to make sure that the non-current A-files are transferred from the authority of USCIS to NARA so that they can be permanently preserved and made accessible to the public by database. For the past 10 years SONA, under the leadership of former Congressman Tom Lantos (previously representing San Mateo) and others, were able to demand the A-files be stored at San Bruno and never move to Lee’s Summit. Indeed, USCIS has admitted the Pacific Region A-Files are the “lone exception” being the only A-Files that have not been moved to Missouri. However, since the A-files are still under the authority of USCIS, they are not viewable without submission of a formal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and are subject to possible censure to protect the privacy and/or government sensitivities as determined by USCIS officials.

What is so significant about the accessioning of the A-Files from USCIS to NARA is to make them part of the nation's permanent historic records and guarantee their availability to the public for all time. Government documents are not automatically preserved.

When a government agency such as USCIS normally retires its older documents, NARA must evaluate these records for their historical value before they can be considered for inclusion in NARA’s permanent collection. Approximately 98% of all the records produced by our national government are not preserved by NARA and the A-files were among those originally designated for destruction.

Thus, after 10 years of constant community clamor and support from a wide range of organizations as diverse and far as Australia, the two agencies have finally come to an agreement for the Alien Files to transfer from USCIS to NARA for protection and preservation for future generations of scholars, researchers and family genealogists of many nationalities.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-06-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

Wordless Wednesday
The California Genealogical Society Library

Photograph courtesy of Judy Bodycote, Oakland, California, 2/27/2009.

July Membership Meeting - Steve Danko

2009-06-01T23:52:00.000-07:00

July Membership Meeting
Saturday, July 11, 2009
1:00 p.m.
CGS Library
2201 Broadway, Suite LL2
Oakland, California 94612

Genealogy Gadgets and Gizmos: New Technology to Help in Your Research

CGS is thrilled to have member and noted blogger Steve Danko as our speaker for the July membership meeting.

New hardware, software and online technology make finding, recording and sharing information faster and easier than ever. Many of these advancements have found their way into genealogical research, enabling even a moderately technology-capable genealogist to take advantage of these new gadgets and gizmos. New technology allows genealogists to have access to family history data from anywhere in the world. Researchers can avail themselves of genealogy education at times and places of their choosing, collect documents and information more easily and prepare professional-quality family books without the commercial price.

Please note that the short membership meeting starts promptly at 1:00 p.m. Steve's talk follows at approximately 1:20 p.m. Seating is limited so please arrive early. Meetings are open to everyone but non-members pay a $5.00 users fee to enter the library. (Or come and become a member of CGS!)

Dr. Stephen J. Danko holds a Ph.D. in Botany and Plant Pathology and recently completed requirements for the Professional Learning Certificate in Genealogical Studies (PLCGS) from the National Institute for Genealogical Studies, University of Toronto.

Steve began seriously researching his family history ten years ago, focusing primarily on American, Canadian, and Polish records. He has conducted research on location in Poland and Lithuania and has visited the villages in which his immigrant ancestors lived.

Steve writes a daily genealogy research blog where he posts images of family documents and discusses his genealogical research process. In the course of his writing his blog, Steve has reconnected with lost cousins in Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

CGS in the News: Family Tree Magazine - July 2009 issue

2009-05-29T23:35:00.000-07:00

The July 2009 issue of Family Tree Magazine is out and some CGS researchers are featured in "Changing Gears" an article by Maureen A. Taylor, the Photo Detective, about "reverse genealogy" – finding living relatives to further your research.

Among the five reasons to research forward in time, Maureen counts "grow your family tree" and two of her examples come from the California Genealogical Society. CGS President Jane Lindsey is sited for her use of newspaper research to sidestep San Francisco record gaps after the 1906 earthquake and fire. One of Jane's clients was able to make a Mayflower connection "through the work of researchers on three continents."

CGS example two sites the work that Lavinia Schwarz, Judy Bodycote and Richard Rees did on the Peralta Project and the database they created of some 700 descendants of Luis Maria Peralta.

It's great to see the fantastic research team at CGS acknowledged for their excellent work! Thanks, Maureen.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-05-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

Wordless Wednesday
Intermediate Genealogy Series with Marge Bell
Reading and Transcribing the Handwriting of Colonial America

Photograph courtesy of Tim Cox, Oakland, California 5/9/2009.

Puckerbrushed by Randy

2009-05-25T23:06:00.000-07:00

I was gobsmacked to learn that Randy Seaver included the CGSL blog in his Genea-Musings: My Puckerbrush Blog Awards of Excellence and bestowed The Janice Brown Puckerbrush Blog Award for Excellence. Randy writes Genea-Musings and is the most prolific genealogy blogger, just ask anyone. He's been tremendously kind and supportive and his Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe was a model when I got started in the society blogging business. Thank you, Randy, for the honor.

The award was created in honor of genealogy blogger Janice Brown by Terry Thornton, author of Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi, who explained that "Janice told us all about the word 'puckerbrush' in an article she posted August 27, 2007, at Cow Hampshire. Terry elaborated a bit further in a comment:

On any land allowed to go fallow and left untended, a wild assortment of wild plants grow – in some areas, this wild growth results in such a thicket of plants that it is almost impossible to push your way through the growth.

So it is with the growth of blogs --- so many that it is impossible to read them all. But in the puckerbrush eventually a few plants/trees become dominant and influence all who view them through the thick surrounding puckerbrush.

And it is those outstanding blogs whose influence spreads beyond just the surrounding rabble of puckerbrush that I'm honoring.

Terry issued this challenge:

Henceforth these awards will be called the Janice Brown Puckerbrush Blog Award for Excellence. All blog authors are hereby challenged to name the ten blogs which have influenced their writing the most and list them as a tribute to Janice --- the Janice Brown Puckerbrush Blog Awards for Excellence.

I see this award as a way to acknowledge the blog authors who paved the way and inspired us to take our own blogging baby steps and to those who continue to influence our work. Here are my ten recipients for the Puckerbrush Blog Award for Excellence:

1.) Steve Danko: Steve's Genealogy Blog was the first blog I ever read. Early in 2007 I stumbled upon his New Year's Resolution list where he pledged to renew his California Genealogical Society membership and help with a society project. Since then he has become a wonderful supporter of CGS and a noted lecturer (he'll be our guest speaker at the July membership meeting.) Steve's blog is the model for what a research blog should be.

2.) Jasia of Creative Gene is my blog mentor and she is the reason I started the blog for the society. Her series Declining Membership in Genealogical Societies should be required reading for every genealogical society board member. As a matter of fact, it's been awhile since I've done a re-read so I'm adding it to my Google Task List. (She always has great ideas.)

3.) Thomas MacEntee of Destination: Austin Family is the king of the GeneaBloggers and one of the most supportive and generous people I know. I am thrilled that we will finally meet at Jamboree. (Summit 2 Son of Blogger is going to be a kick.)

4.) Denise Olson of Family Matters: Tech Support for the Family Historian is my "go-to" person for anything technical and everything macintosh. She is all about helping genealogists into the digital age.

5.) Miriam Robbins Midkiff of Ancestories: The Stories of My Ancestors and the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society Blog has become another blogger buddy. She introduced Scanfest - a monthly online scanning party so genealogists can chat while they digitize photos. Hers was one of the few society blogs out there when I got started.

6.) Linda, the Footnote Maven, and author of the beautiful Shades of the Departed, creates blogs that are as beautiful to look at as they are a pleasure to read. The fact that I ever actually started this blog is a testament to fortitude – hers is a tough act to follow.

7.) Maureen Taylor is an incredibly talented speaker and author who fused her expertise in history, photography and genealogy to become The Photo Detective.

8.) Schelly Talalay Dardashti is the author of Tracing the Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy Blog – a superlative example of what I now know is a niche blog. Whenever I get tempted to go beyond the scope of what the CGSL blog should be I think about Schelley's good example.

9.) Ben Sayer of Mac Genealogist.com is one of my new favorites. He is re-introducing me to my mac genealogy software – Reunion®. I love his QuickTime videos.

10.) Julie Cahill Tarr of GenBlog makes my top ten because I thank her almost everyday. Her post Managing Your Blog(s) is where I learned to create a blog editorial calendar. It's the organizational tool you MUST use if you are writing a society blog. I've just recommended that we create a similar calendar to coordinate our marketing efforts.

There you have it - my top ten, in no particular order. I hope many other gen-bloggers will come forward with their own list of ten influential blog authors.

The Great Lecture You Probably Missed

2009-05-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

Laura Spurrier sent this report on the CGS May Membership Meeting with Jim Terzian:

CGS recently hosted a great speaker on heraldry, Jim Terzian. I almost missed the lecture myself, afraid it would be too stuffy. The opposite was true: Jim turned out to be delightful and not a snob at all. (He’s secretary-treasurer of a society called Descendants of the Illegitimate Sons and Daughters of the Kings of Britain, AKA the “royal bastards.”)

Jim started by explaining how coats of arms began as a means of displaying a person’s status and prestige in mostly illiterate medieval society. They continue in use to this day; the Great Seal of the United States is a heraldic seal. Many of our ancestors may have had coats of arms. Only in the British Isles are they restricted to members of the nobility. They are also hereditary, fathers to sons or in some cases to daughters. The fact that a family with the same name as yours has a coat of arms doesn’t mean you can automatically claim it too.

Jim Terzian taking questions before showing his chart.
For genealogists, coats of arms are a form of visual documentation of family trees. For example, if a man with a coat of arms marries a woman with arms in her own right, their sons bear arms showing half of each. All the little add-ons on either side of a shield have significance too. Jim demonstrated how this works by unrolling a gorgeously colored 44” x 22’ chart of all the arms of one of his ancestors, arranged in family tree form. I was thrilled when I realized that she was my ancestor too.

Jim Terzian unrolled his 22 foot chart for all to see.

Detail of the chart.

Photographs courtesy of Tim Cox, Oakland, California, 5/9/2009.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-05-20T21:50:00.000-07:00

Wordless Wednesday
CGS Past President Verne Deubler

Photograph courtesy of Tim Cox, Oakland, California, 5/9/2009.

Report #4: NGS 2009 Family History Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina

2009-05-17T10:56:00.000-07:00

Jeffrey Vaillant concludes his reports from Raleigh with this one from Saturday, May 16, 2009:

The day began with another brisk walk to the Convention Center, passing by the State Capital monuments “To Our Confederate Dead” and “To Our Confederate Women”. My abolitionist-unionist brain struggles with the reminders of the Civil War, or as is called here, "The War of Northern Aggression."

This day's learning started with Locating and Interpreting Naturalization Records presented by Gladys Friedman Paulin. Two more morning sessions followed: Order in the Court: Ancestral Trials and Tribulation by Sharon Tate Moody and Okay, I “Got the Neighbors”…Now What do I do with Them!!! by Elizabeth Shown Mills.

I skipped lunch and walked back to the hotel to type up my experiences since I had fallen behind. When I left for the afternoon program I was greeted with a rain downpour and some Southern hospitality in the form of a helpful stranger with an umbrella. Speaking of weather, it has been warm and humid - afterall, this is the South.

The final two lectures were Our National Treasure: The Library of Congress by Pamela Boyer Sayre and What Is a Reasonably Exhaustive Search? by Laura Murphy DeGrazia. Wow, what a lot of learning!

Back to the room to conclude the notes and to start digging in to all the great ideas gathered over the last four days. The NGS will be in Salt Lake City next year starting in late April. It is a great learning experience well worth the time and expense. Thanks for reading and see you at the next CGS meeting – I’ll be the guy with the dark circles under his eyes.

Read the entire series:
Day One: NGS 2009 Report
Day Two: NGS 2009 Report
Day Three: NGS 2009 Report
Day Four: NGS 2009 Report

Report #3: NGS 2009 Family History Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina

2009-05-16T23:56:00.000-07:00

CGS member Jeffrey Vaillant continues his reports with this one from day three, Friday, May 15, 2009:

After a very full Thursday, Friday dawned bright and early, but I confess, I missed the dawn and the 8 a.m. session. I hustled to the Convention Center to gather in Thomas W. Jones’ presentation Problem Solving with Probate, followed by Barbara Vines Little’s session Tax Records: A Wealth of Information.

The Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) lunch speaker was Dick Eastman who spoke about The Organized Genealogist which he admitted he was not. He did give hints about using Google, RSS, digitizing and backing up as tools of efficiency and perhaps to have time to be more organized.

After lunch, Patricia O'Brien Shawker presented Getting the Most Out of Vital Records then Alison Hare from Canada gave an excellent account, John Green: Whose Father Was He?

I spent some time on the tradeshow floor learning what was new with familysearch.org and ancestry.com and scored on the familyseach pilot site when I found the record of my grandfather’s third marriage in 1907. Now I have to figure out what happened to that one since he married my grandmother in 1909. For every fact there seems to be three questions.

The NGS Banquet featured J. Mark Lowe and Lesson Learned from a Carolina Traveler. It turned out to be a roast of Helen Leary, CG, FASG, FNGS, who was pleasantly surprised. Her two sons were present to enjoy the event.

Tomorrow, Saturday, will be another big day.

Read the entire series:
Day One: NGS 2009 Report
Day Two: NGS 2009 Report
Day Three: NGS 2009 Report
Day Four: NGS 2009 Report

Report #2: NGS 2009 Family History Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina

2009-05-15T23:00:00.000-07:00

CGS member Jeffrey Vaillant sent this report on day two, Thursday, May 14, 2009:

This proved to be a very full day which got me behind in reporting. The day started with a brisk walk from the Clarion Hotel to the Conference Center (about one mile) past the State Capital built between 1830-35 and some beautiful limestone constructed churches – a pleasant walk before the humidity sets in.

The session started with a three-hour seminar for the Board for Certification for Genealogists (BCG) process lead by Laura Murphy DeGrazia, Alison Hare and Thomas W. Jones. Since I intend to be certified, this was a most helpful session and when combined with two portfolios at the BCG booth gets the battery charged up.

Next up was Elizabeth Shown Mills” presentation on Finding Females: Wives, Mothers, Daughters & Paramours.

Then it was time for the BCG Luncheon and speaker Kathy Gunter Sullivan's talk Late Night Ruminations. The lunch left a great deal to be desired but I did not come for the meals.

Afterwards there a bit of time to visit the trade show floor with its 150-200 vendors and all kinds of genealogical goodies. The biggest booths belong to ancestry.com and familysearch.org.

Back to class on the run to hear Thomas W. Jones’ Strategies for Finding “Unfindable” Ancestors, followed by Elizabeth Shown Mills’ Finding Origins and Birth Families: Methods That Do or Don’t Work. I was definitely on information overload by this point and loving it.

Then time to meet up with other Professional Genealogy Study Group members to walk to the Big Easy for dinner and conversation. There were fourteen of us gathered from each of the three groups. It was good to see the faces behind the e-mails and instant messaging, but not much time to relax before we had to head back to the Conference Center.

Ancestry.com had an hour presentation on what they are doing domestically and internationally with content additions and their daily struggle between content and quality.

Summing up day two: I am tired and glad to have had all these experiences and only half way through the conference. I'm already thinking about the APG/FGS meetings in Little Rock in September.

Read the entire series:
Day One: NGS 2009 Report
Day Two: NGS 2009 Report
Day Three: NGS 2009 Report
Day Four: NGS 2009 Report

Report #1: NGS 2009 Family History Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina

2009-05-14T21:00:00.000-07:00

CGS member Jeffrey Vaillant took time out of his busy schedule to send this report from the NGS 2009 Family History Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina. Thanks, Jeffrey!

The conference opened Wednesday, May 13, 2009 with what appeared to be about 1500 people in attendance. The Opening Session included a significant announcement – the recognition of Thomas W. Jones as a Fellow in the NGS. He was pleasantly surprised. The opening presentation was an entertaining event with Ira David Wood III sharing his theatrical experience with his family history using the Romeo and Juliet line: "Romeo where art thou?" which he read as "Romeo who are you?"

There are 250 sessions of information to choose from. I am basically being a Thomas W. Jones and Elizabeth Shown Mills groupie. Their presentations are fantastic, combining methodology theory with practice research examples. You can view the full conference program online at the NGS website.

At 5:00 p.m., thirty-two genealogy societies, primarily from North Carolina and Virginia, set up tables to display their wares. There were lots of tempting books to purchase. That was followed by presentations at 7:00 p.m. I attended the one by the Trading Path Association on trails in North Carolina in the 1600-1700 period. It was a full day to be followed by another.

Read the entire series:
Day One: NGS 2009 Report
Day Two: NGS 2009 Report
Day Three: NGS 2009 Report
Day Four: NGS 2009 Report

Wordless Wednesday

2009-05-13T03:00:00.001-07:00

Wordless Wednesday
May Membership Meeting
Saturday, May 9, 2009
CGS Vice-President Steve Harris

Photograph courtesy of Tim Cox, Oakland, California, 5/9/2009.

Book Repair Workshop Returns June 12, 2009

2009-05-11T23:30:00.000-07:00

The California Genealogical Society is taking reservations for the popular Book Repair Workshop to be held on Friday morning, June 12, 2009, from 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Taught by Book Repair Committee Chairman, Bill O'Neil, the workshop is limited to ten enrollees.

Book Repair Committee Chairman Bill O'Neil

Workshop participants learn book repair techniques by creating a book for themselves. Pages are provided and the pupils create the binding. The finished product will be a copy of a "how to" pamphlet written by the late Dick Thrift, founder of the CGS Book Repair Committee. Everyone goes home with a self-made instruction book and souvenir of the day.

PLEASE NOTE:
• Workshop is limited to ten.
• $25 charge for materials.
• Reservation form and pre-payment of fee required.

Download the registration flier and mail with a check for $25 to CGS. Questions? Call CGS at 510-663-1358 or E-mail CGSLevents@gmail.com

Photograph by Kathryn M. Doyle, Oakland, California, 1/13/2009.