Celebrating 115 Years with our Updated Bookmark!

Ancestor photographs courtesy of our members.
Graphics and design by Lois Elling.


Copyright © 2013 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library.

Wordless Wednesday

115th Anniversary Celebration

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Nile Hall, Preservation Park, Oakland, California

Photographs by Kathryn Doyle and Linda Okazaki.

Copyright © 2013 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library.

Honoring Our Past Presidents

Congratulations, members and volunteers!

One hundred fifteen years ago today, on Saturday, February 12, 1898, at 2:00 p.m., the California Genealogical Society was founded in San Francisco.

A half dozen or so San Franciscans interested in genealogy gathered at Dr. Edward Stephen Clark's office at 16 Geary. They pooled their knowledge of family history research and shared the materials they'd separately gathered. In fact, they held the first meeting of what would become the California Genealogical Society, the state's first organization of family history researchers.

Dr. Edward Stephen Clark was elected the society's first president. Today President Jeffrey Valliant is the thirty-sixth to hold the office. Today we honor those who came before.

Past Presidents of the California Genealogical Society

Dr. Edward Stevens Clark     1898–1900
Col. Adolphus S. Hubbard  1900
Mr. Herbert Folger  1901–1903
Mr. Zoeth A. Eldridge  1904
Mr. Herbert Folger  1905–1907
Mr. Orville Dwight Baldwin     1908–1909
Mr. Henry Byron Phillips  1912–1920
Mr. Delmar Leon Thornbury     1921
Mr. George Henry Andruss  1922
Dr. Charles Francis Griffin 1923–1931
Mr. George Arthur Merrill 1932
Mr. Charles Hancock         1933–1941
Mr. Robert T. C. Head  1942–1944
Miss Margaret Griffith     1945–1948
Mrs. Heward Armstrong 1948–1962
Mr. H. Lewis Mathewson 1963–1964
Mrs. Scott Rountree          1965–1970
Mrs. John Peirce  1971–1973
Dr. Albert Shumate     1974
Mr. J. Roger Jobson  1975–1976
Mrs. Charles C. Bowen  1977–1978
Mr. John Hale  1979–1982
Mrs. Constant Vaughn  1983
Mr. David Adams     1983–1977
Mrs. Jane Steiner     1987–1988
Mr. James Schuyler 1989
Mr. David Mason Adams  1990
Mrs. Mary Sweetman  1991
Mrs. Mary Lou Grossberg     1992–1993
Dr. Frederick S. Sherman  1994–1997
Mr. David Wilma  1998
Mr. Vernon A. Deubler  1998–2001
Mr. Glen S. Schimelpfenig  2001–2004
Mrs. Jane Knowles Lindsey     2004–2010
Dr. Stephen Harris  2010–2012

Copyright © 2013 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library.

115th Anniversary Celebration Luncheon with Dr. Andy Anderson

Saturday, February 9, 2013

11:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Nile Hall
Preservation Park
668 Thirteenth Street
Oakland, CA 94612

The California Genealogical Society and Library will celebrate the 115th anniversary of our founding at a special luncheon event. Dr. Andy Anderson, Chief Historian of Wells Fargo Bank, will present The Healing Power of Genealogy. Dr. Anderson has given keynote addresses at both the National Genealogical Society and the Federation of Genealogical Society annual conferences. He is an inspirational speaker and we are honored to have him at our event.

The festivities will include a social hour, used book sale and luncheon buffet. Several of the society's committees will have displays tables. Complimentary parking at City Center West Garage.

Schedule:

11:00 – 12:00 p.m. Social hour

                               Mingle and browse book sale and committee displays

12:00 – 1:00 p.m.  Welcome by President Jeff Vaillant

                               Light buffet lunch (soup, salad, sandwiches)

  1:00 – 1:30 p.m.   A Short History of CGS

                                Introduction of Dr. Andy Anderson, Jeff Vaillant

  1:30 – 3:00 p.m.   "The Healing Power of Genealogy," Dr. Andy Anderson

Seating is limited. Be one of 115 members and friends who will gather to celebrate our 115th anniversary! Tickets are $40, including lunch and parking.

Register online.

If you would like to give a birthday gift to the California Genealogical Society, please round up the ticket price to include a donation to help support our library.

• $115 – One dollar for every year!  ($75 tax-deductible donation)
• $100  ($60 donation)
• $75  ($35 donation)
• $50  ($10 donation)

If you cannot attend but would like to give a birthday gift, please donate online or send a birthday check to The California Genealogical Society, 2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland, CA 94612.

Dr. Andy Anderson

Andy Anderson is executive vice president and chief historian of Wells Fargo & Company. Over the past thirty-four years, he has built the Wells Fargo archives, several history museums and a modern fleet of stagecoaches. He also has managed Wells Fargo’s corporate marketing, advertising, and brand management programs, and the initial development of wellsfargo.com in 1994. He is the author of Stagecoach: Wells Fargo and the Rise of the American Financial Services Industry (Simon & Schuster, February 2002).

Dr. Anderson’s interest in history led him most recently to create the Wells Fargo Family & Business History Center to help families and businesses discover their own history and cultural roots. He believes a family can better manage its legacy into future generations by understanding its past.

Dr. Anderson’s most recent publication is an interactive CD and Internet guide titled: "How to Find Your Family History & Cultural Roots." Copies of this CD are available gratis by contacting any Wells Fargo Wealth Management representative. His favorite quote is the advice Henry Wells offered to a young person who asked, in 1864, what it takes to succeed in business: "There is one very powerful business rule. It is summed up in the word — Courtesy."

Dr. Anderson earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Villanova University, and his Master of Arts and Ph.D. in History from The Ohio State University. He has taught history at Ohio State, Arizona State, and Stanford universities. He received his archival training at the Hoover Institution and the Archives Institute of the National Archives of the United States.

For more about Dr. Anderson's work, please read this 2007 article from the Wall Street Journal: A Bank's Historian Shakes Money From Family Trees


Copyright © 2012 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library