2015 Genie Awards

 Congratulations to our award recipients.
Thank you, Diana Edwards and Kathleen Beitiks, for hosting an event showcasing our "Behind the Scenes" Volunteers!

2015 Genie Award Recipients
Back Row: Karen Wetherall, Ron Madson, Bill O'Neil, Rich Kehoe Larry Youngman,
Georgia Lupinsky, Phil Hoehn
Front Row: Keith Montgomery, Jane Hufft, Virginia Turner

Diana Edwards, Genie (aka Linda Harms Okazaki) and Kathleen Beitiks

Copyright © 2015 by California Genealogical Society

The Ancestry and Descendancy of Thomas Frost of Hebron, Connecticut

It's always a pleasure to write about the publication of a new genealogy by one of our members and it's especially nice when the member is one of our hard-working volunteers. So it is with double pleasure, and a great deal of amazement, that I introduce the new two-volume work by Larry Youngman,
The Ancestry and Descendancy of Thomas Frost of Hebron, Connecticut.

The two volumes are a culmination of three years work by Larry but also a lifetime of work by his co-author, the late Evelyn Annis Frost Baum Rush. Larry and Evelyn were introduced by a third Frost cousin, Harriette Froid. All three joined forces and expanded their research efforts to include other branches of the Frost family. After Harriette's death, Evelyn and Larry agreed to be joint compilers of this book.

Larry and Evelyn built upon initial research conducted by Josephine C. Stillman Frost whose work, The Frost Genealogy, was published in 1912. Co-author Evelyn Rush devoted her "golden years" to the project and amassed an enormous amount of research material. Over a fifty-year period, hundreds of family members had submitted information to Evelyn who did not live to see the finished work. Prior to her death in October 2010, at the age of 90, Evelyn sent Larry her entire collection of books, source documents, and research – a total of 4,900 lbs. in 185 boxes! Larry combined her research with his, and transcribed all of it into his database.

The result is a fully-indexed, two-volume hard-bound set, with more than 980 pages, documenting the ancestors of Thomas Frost (1718-1798) of Hebron, Connecticut, and his descendants. Included are over 1,000 photos of family members.

In the forward, Youngman reflects back upon the journey "and upon the impact of the marriage of Thomas and Abigail Frost. The result of this union has directly impacted the lives of the over 7,000 descendants during the following 260 years as documented in this work."

Volume I includes: Preface, Introductions, Acknowledgements / Frequently Used Reference Book Titles / Part I - Thomas Frost of the Kennebec / Part II - The Second Generation / Part III - The Third Generation - Thomas Frost (1718 - 1798) / Part IV - The Fourth and Later Generations.

Volume II is a continuation of Part IV – The Fourth and Later Generations. For a complete list of the major surnames in the work, visit Larry’s website: Thomas Frost Family.

Larry Youngman has been conducting genealogy research for over thirty-five years, and has published ten lineage books covering the mid-1400's through present day. He is a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, the Mayflower Society of California, the Association of Professional Genealogists, and the California Genealogical Society, where he serves as the webmaster for their site, CaliforniaAncestors.org. Youngman conducts professional research via his website GenealogyPro.

The Ancestry and Descendancy of Thomas Frost of Hebron, Connecticut is available for purchase at Youngman’s Lulu bookstore.


Copyright © 2011 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library

Honored Twice and Doubly Well-Stated!

The December 2011 issue of Family Tree Magazine arrived and this month's cover is their now annual feature: 75 Best State Websites.

Contributing editor Rick Crume, in the article "Well Stated" (pages 20-26), lists the magazine's 2011 picks for the seventy-five best U.S. state-focused websites for genealogical research.

In selecting this year's best state websites for genealogy, we were looking for databases where you can look for a relative's name. Many of the 75 sites (at least one per state) have indexes, and in many cases, you can even view images of original records.

The Golden State has two picks and the California Genealogical Society and Library is proud to have close ties to both!

The first is our own website CaliforniaAncestors.org.

Click the Databases tab to search more than 350,000 records – including voter registers, probate records, cemetery records and more – in the California Names Index for free. If your ancestor's name appears you can order a copy of their original record for $10. Members have online access to San Francisco church records and newspapers.

The second is the California Digital Newspaper Collection, founded by our newest board member, Dr. Henry Snyder.

Access more than 5 million California newspaper articles from 1846 to 2009.

Henry is the former director of The Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research (CBSR) at the University of California, Riverside, where he led the California Newspaper Project from 1990 through 2009.

I've written before about Professor Snyder and the project which went digital in 2007. In case you missed it, Henry's article The California Newspaper: What Survives and How to Find It was published last year in the Fall 2010 issue of the Nugget. CGS is honored to have such an esteemed historian on our board and we're thrilled that Family Tree Magazine is bringing attention to his work.

This is the second year that the CGS website was chosen. We're honored to be listed among so many fantastic online state resources. Thank you, Family Tree Magazine!

Kudos to Kathy Watson and Larry Youngman and their technology team who work tirelessly for the society to keep our website up-to-date.

Copyright © 2011 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library

CGS Website Honored by Family Tree Magazine as One of the Best!

Woo hoo! Family Tree Magazine has named the California Genealogical Society website – CaliforniaAncestors.org – one of the Best State Websites for 2010.

In the article Heads of State in the December 2010 issue of Family Tree Magazine (pages 20-27), author David A. Fryxell lists their 2010 picks for the 75 best U.S. state-focused websites for genealogical research.

To help you find these outstanding state sites – and to salute their efforts at making genealogical and historical information available online – we've compiled this state-centric Best Websites list.

California has two sites listed:

Online Archive of California <www.oac.cdlib.org>
Recently redesigned to take advantage of new technologies, the OAC opens the golden gate to more than 170,000 digital images and documents and nearly 20,000 collection guides.

California Genealogical Society and Library <californiaancestors.org>
You can search the library catalog and find answers in Research FAQs, or search the 350,000 names in the California Names Index. Get a hit? Just $10 will buy a lookup in the original source.

We're honored to be chosen and to be listed among so many fantastic online state resources. Thank you, Family Tree Magazine!

Congratulations to the Kathy Watson, Larry Youngman and the other members of the Website Committee and to all the volunteer members who have contributed to the California Genealogical Society website.

Kudos also to our volunteer librarians - past and present - whose hard work culminated in our online catalog and to the many members who have contributed to the California Names Index. We have the best volunteers in the world!



Copyright © 2010 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library

Our New Look

Whew! It's taken almost two years but the dust has settled and I've just checked a big "to-do" off my list. Welcome to the new and improved California Genealogical Society and Library blog. Do, please, let me know what you think!

First, you should know that this is more than just a blog remodel. Our new look extends to all of the locations that the California Genealogical Society sponsors across the web. We've come a long way since 2000 when the society put up its first web page. I was able to find an image thanks to the wonders of the Wayback Machine.

For many years it was our sole home on the net until things changed in 2007 when we published the first edition of the eNews and started the blog. With the addition of a Facebook Page in 2008 and Twitter in 2009, it became apparent that we needed to think about coordinating our look – to create a "brand" – to present a cohesive message to the world.

The one piece that has remained at the center of our look has been the seal of the California Genealogical Society. Who created it is lost to history but it was certainly commissioned under the auspices of the New Englanders who founded the society on February 12, 1898.

 

Some call it a "logo" but our former recording secretary, Shirley Thomson, set me straight. It is a seal and the library is still in possession of the hand crimper that is used to emboss the image onto paper. The digital image has been cleaned up a bit as evidenced by this photo I took of the front page of The California Register, Vol. 1, No. 1, April 1900. As you can see, the original seal was quite a bit more detailed. It has been prominently used by the society since our earliest days.

We had a couple of false starts with the "branding project" but things came together last July at a meeting of the Publication and Marketing Committee when Cathy Paris pushed us to think of a "nickname" for the society. She was concerned that our domain name, calgensoc.org, was difficult to remember and in a brilliant, collaborative session CaliforniaAncestors.org was born.

It is fitting that 112 years after its founding, the California Genealogical Society is once again following the lead of the New England Historic Genealogical Society which has been using NewEnglandAncestors.org for several years. The Website Committee, under the leadership of Kathy Watson and the technical skills of Larry Youngman, took care of all the details and coding involved in switching to a new domain and changing the masthead and colors at the website.

Cathy Paris created a mock-up of a banner and we turned things over to our wonderful graphics volunteer, Lois Elling. Lois works for CGS behind the scenes but her work is everywhere. She is the production editor for The California Nugget and it was she who created the cover for our magazine. Lois's first clever idea was to use that old Ted Turner trick and add color to the seal.

Lois has been a patient and tireless artist, taking in MANY suggestions, and tinkering with colors and fonts to come up with what we now proudly display as our new masthead. (I especially love the outline of the state and yes, the blue field on the far left IS the ocean!)

So now you know the backstory of our new look. We aren't Coke™ or Nike™ so there won't be any Superbowl ads. We did this on a shoestring budget thanks to an army of society volunteers. And we are putting our best face forward in time for what we hope will be a surge in interest in genealogy with the premier of Faces of America on February 10 (PBS) and Who Do You Think You Are? (NBC) on March 5, 2010.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday
Website Committee Meeting
Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Photographs courtesy of Kathryn M. Doyle, Oakland, California.

CGS is Going Green

The California Genealogical Society entered a new era of paperless communication after mailing the last official issue of the CGS News to members in December. Following the lead of many other societies, the CGS Board of Directors made the decision to "go green" and use electronic means as the major way to communicate with membership. The society will use four online avenues to stay in touch with members: the CGS e-News, the CGSL blog, the CGS website and the CGS Google calendar.

The CGS e-News, e-mailed to members and friends on the first of every month, is in its third year of publication. (I took over as editor in January 2008.) The monthly electronic newsletter features news about upcoming society meetings and events, suggested links, timely announcements and "CGS Ancestors" – a member-submitted photograph with accompanying family story. Up-to-the-minute society news is always available here at the CGSL blog. CGS member volunteers Larry Youngman and Marianne Frey are working hard to keep the CGS website updated with the latest information on upcoming events and program offerings. CGS Events volunteers Carolyn Steinberg and Tim Cox keep the online CGS Google calendar up-to-date. Detailed information about each entry is just one click away.

"Going green" freed up funds in the society budget to allow the reintroduction of a more scholarly journal. Newsletter editor Jane Hufft will turn her attention to the launch of The California Nugget which will be published twice a year beginning with the spring 2009 issue. Hufft has announced that her "goal is to provide a quality publication that will have something of interest for every member." The California Nugget will carry in-depth articles about California genealogy, contain help and guidance for those just beginning their research and provide book reviews. Hufft gave this list of the type of content she plans to feature: "Brick-wall stories, Hispanic research connected to California families, unique unpublished indexes, research highlighting early Bay Area settlers and 'cite-your-sources' articles."

Jane is soliciting manuscripts for The California Nugget from members. Precise submission guidelines will be made available in the first issue. Contact CGS or email Jane Hufft directly with a description of your manuscript.