In Memoriam: Laura Spurrier, 1941-2020

Laura Spurrier (second from left) in 2016, with CGS team
members Jim Robinson, Gloria Hanson, and Chris Pattillo

Our CGS family of volunteers and members were saddened to hear of the passing of Laura Spurrier this past Tuesday morning (June 9). She had been a CGS member since 1996.

She served on our Board of Directors and the library committee and was our librarian for many years. Among her specific services to CGS were:

• Organizing and coordinating the movement of our books to our current library location from our old location at 1601 Telegraph in 2007.

• Securing the funding for, and overseeing the transition of, our library card catalog to digital and making it available on our website.

• Co-leading one of our first research trips to the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana and providing consultations before and after that trip.

• Serving as an editor for the CGS book on the Judge family.

Laura had a masters degree in history from the University of Wisconsin and a master of library science degree from UC Berkeley. She worked as a technical information specialist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory until her retirement. She was able to put her education and experience to good use at CGS and we appreciate, and have benefited from, her involvement. She was always willing to help others with their genealogy questions, especially if they were related to Scandinavian or Quaker issues.

Our thoughts and condolences go to her family. A memorial will be held in Berkeley, once it is safer to do so.

James Sorenson, President

Copyright © 2020 by California Genealogical Society

Laura Spurrier publishes in NEHGS' Western Massachusetts file

Have you heard?  Long-time California Genealogical Society member Laura Spurrier added one of her relatives to the New England Historic Genealogical Society's Western Massachusetts Families database.  For those of you not familiar, it's quite an honor to be included.

Laura Spurrier,
photo courtesy of Kathy Watson, 2010 

Laura says, “NEHGS, the oldest and possibly fussiest genealogical society in the country, decided to start a series on families in western Massachusetts who stayed put instead of migrating further.  Members were invited to write about ancestors who were in Hampshire or Berkshire County in 1790.”

Laura has a long-term brick wall named Oliver Bartlett and over time has looked at many Bartlett families in the Hadley area.  There seemed to be almost a dozen, many using the same given names.  Church records burned and other records are sparse.  

When she learned about the project, she realized she had enough data about one family:  that of Daniel Bartlett, b. 1754.  Ironically, he can't be proven (yet) to be Oliver's brother, and NEHGS requires proof.  

Laura's article, "Daniel Bartlett, Hadley, Hampshire County”, is online on AmericanAncestors' database in the file labeled Western Massachusetts.  You will need to be a current NEHGS member to access it. 

The article will also appear in print as part of Volume 3 of Western Massachusetts Families in 1790, scheduled for publication sometime in 2017.  

Congrats Laura!

Copyright © 2016 by California Genealogical Society

Using Online Library Catalogs - Saturday, June 8, 2013

Saturday June 8, 2013
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

California Genealogical Society Library
2201 Broadway, Suite LL2
Oakland, California 94612

Browsing is fun. We've all whiled away the hours scanning the shelves of our favorite bookstores. But libraries aren't bookstores and browsing a library is not research!

A recent survey of 600 genealogical society members revealed that more than half were not using online library catalogs. If you are a part of that majority, you are missing out on a valuable research tool.

Join California Genealogical Society librarians Barbara Hill and Laura Spurrier for an informative class on using online public access catalogs (OPACs) and how they can aid your genealogy research. Libraries large and small (including our own) have these databases you can access from home. Barbara and Laura will share their expertise so you can search effectively and utilize these powerful tools.

Register online.

This class is limited to thirty participants and is a free benefit of membership. Non-member fee is $20.00 (non-refundable) and can be applied towards membership on the day of the class.

Preregistration is required. Walk-ins will not be admitted. Registration confirmations will be sent to the first thirty registrants. Additional names will be collected and placed on a waiting list in case of cancellations.

Barbara Hill retired after thirty-three years of library work, with experience in a public library, a school library, a small scientific research library, and an academic library. Her last position, at the U.C. Berkeley Library, involved ordering books from all over the world. She ascribes her interest in genealogy to "prenatal influence," as her mother was researching the family tree at the Library of Congress before Barbara was born. Although she did not begin active pursuit of her ancestors until after her marriage, she has been at it ever since. Barbara has been a member of the California Genealogical Society since 1985 and currently serves on the Library Committee.

Laura Spurrier retired from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory after serving as a reference librarian, head of cataloging, and technical information specialist. Among her M.A. degrees, she has an M.L.S. from U.C. Berkeley. Genealogy was the family hobby in the Spurrier household so Laura caught the bug as a teenager. She is a specialist in Quaker research and has lectured on the topic to the society. Laura has been a member of the society since 1996 and currently serves on the Library Committee.


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

The California Nugget, Spring 2012, Volume IV, Issue 1

The Spring 2012 edition of The California Nugget has been sent to the printer and will soon begin arriving in members' mailboxes. Editor Jane Hufft and Production Editor Lois Elling have outdone themselves with another fantastic issue filled with interesting articles.

This is the spring letter from Jane:

Dear Readers:

We have a variety of articles for you, each one an exciting account of significant discoveries. Wayne W. Padgett found a forgotten Civil War soldier in a very unlikely place and uncovered the details of his battle experiences. What started out as a quest to answer a few questions concluded with a moving ceremony involving two countries.

Last spring Chris Pattillo shared with Nugget readers, in her enthusiastic account “Thirty Days of Total Immersion in Genealogy,” what it was like to dive into the sometimes cold waters of family history research. In November 2011 Chris took the next step when she joined other CGS members and friends for her first trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her newest discoveries are recounted in “One Week in Salt Lake.”

Linda Okazaki was on the same trip and she will agree the stars were aligned! The startling discovery of an ancestor’s true name in a San Francisco newspaper account sent Linda’s research in completely new directions, solved a long-standing mystery and provided an astonishing story for descendants.

Without Amy Coffin, many of us would not be aware of what is happening on the frontiers of genealogy. Her insider view of the 2012 RootsTech conference gives an update on the future of family research, and it most certainly involves technology.

CGS President Jeffrey Vaillant tells all in his account of the society’s August 2011 research trip to the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Participants met Library Manager Curt Witcher, found genealogical treasures in the stacks and microfilm collection, and sampled Fort Wayne restaurants and Indiana weather.

Write your stories and send them to us. We’d love to hear about your research, your discoveries, and your aha! moments with technology. There is space reserved in The California Nugget for your family, and, please note, you do not have to be a CGS member to submit a manuscript. Having your family history in print in a journal that is archived in libraries across the United States guarantees permanency for your research. Email me at jhufft@comcast.net for the Submission Guidelines and then take the leap. Make 2012 the year you visit a new library, learn the latest technology skills, and write it all down! 

—Jane Hufft, Editor

TABLE of CONTENTS

Twenty-First Century Genealogy
A Tombstone for Ulrik by Wayne W. Padgett
One Week in Salt Lake by Chris Pattillo
RootsTech 2.0: A Report from the 2012 RootsTech Conference by Amy Coffin

California Ancestors
Who Was Emerson Corville? by Linda Okazaki
1883 Pensioners List: Dorsey, Eliz. Eleanor to Hayes, James Compiled by Jane Hufft

For Our Readers
CGS Visits the Allen County Public Library by Jeffrey Vaillant and Nancy Peterson
Boston, Massachusetts Research Trip Information

At the Society
Book Review by Laura Spurrier
Recent Acquisitions in the Library
New Members
Index

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 to 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.

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

A Visit from KTVU Channel 2

Sometimes a quiet day in the library takes an unexpected turn. That’s what happened yesterday when Volunteer Coordinator Linda Okazaki fielded a phone call from a reporter on deadline.

KTVU’s Maureen Naylor was working on a story about the Miller twins whose remains were found in their Lake Tahoe home.

Gloria Hanson working the case.

Volunteers dropped everything to find additional information and Naylor arrived at the library but spent just a few minutes with her 3:00 p.m. deadline looming.

Naylor’s piece aired on Channel 2 at 6:00 p.m. and footage from the library made it into the final story. Linda had a brief on-camera interview and our gorgeous new sign (created by Judy Bodycote) was featured.

I took a few screen shots but you can view the two minute piece at SAN JOSE: Twins found dead in South Lake Tahoe.

Kudos to Linda Okazaki, Gloria Hanson, Laura Spurrier, Judy Bodycote and Kim Cotton for their efforts to find information on the family. It was great to have some media attention for the library!


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

July Membership Meeting: All About the CGS Library

Saturday, July 9, 2011
1:00 p.m.

California Genealogical Society Library
2201 Broadway, Suite LL2
Oakland, California 94612

Join CGS librarians Laura Spurrier and Barbara Hill for So Many Books, So Little Time! Demystifying the California Genealogical Society Library – a discussion of the vast resources at the society's library.

Have you ever wondered...

• Why are there a lot of books on some geographical areas and only a few or none on others?
• What's in the Dorman Room?
• If there's an easy way to find books when browsing the aisles?
• Are there any tips or tricks for using the online catalog?
• If you can still use the old card catalog?
• How to donate genealogy books to CGS?

Laura and Barbara will answer these questions, and will take questions from the audience.

Laura Spurrier retired from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory after serving as a reference librarian and the head of cataloging. Among her M.A. degrees, she has an M.L.S. from U.C. Berkeley. Her interest in genealogy dates from her teenage years, with Quaker genealogy being a specialty. Laura has been a member of CGS since 1996 and is currently volunteers as the chair of Library Services.

Barbara Hill retired after thirty-three years of library work, with experience in a public library, a school library, a small scientific research library, and an academic library. Her last position, at UC Berkeley Library, involved ordering books from all over the world. She ascribes her interest in genealogy to "prenatal influence," as her mother was researching the family tree at the Library of Congress before Barbara was born. Although she did not begin active pursuit of her ancestors until after her marriage, she has been at it ever since, and has been a member of CGS since 1985.


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

Burbank to Oakland: South Comes North For a Visit

A special meeting occurred on Thursday, September 23, 2010, when Jay Holladay and Vieve Metcalfe of the Southern California Genealogical Society paid a visit to the CGS Library. The couple were in the Bay Area for a school reunion and decided to mix in a little gen society business. It was an opportunity to meet with their NorCal counterparts, tour our library and take a look at our operation.

While Jay met with Technology Director Kathy Watson to discuss the website and facility equipment, Vieve met with CGS Librarian Laura Spurrier. Laura provided a tour of Surpass, our catalog software which our neighbors to the south are considering to replace their Access file.

Vieve Metcalfe, Laura Spurrier, Kathy Watson and Jay Holladay

Jay and Vieve are both active members of the Southern California Genealogical Society. Jay currently leads their Information Technology Team and the RootsMagic User Group. He has been a member of the SCGS board of directors since 2008 and he also serves on the Long-Range Planning Committee. Vieve presently serves as librarian, member of the Long Range Planning and Library Operations Committees, and as cataloguer for the CD collection. In the past, she has served as the Jamboree chair.

All genealogy societies face similar challenges but collaborative sessions like this are few and far between. The visit was so successful that it is likely to be repeated again as both societies plan to continue to share their experiences. Thanks, Jay and Vieve, for stopping by!


Photograph courtesy of Kathy Watson, 9/23/2010, Oakland, California.


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

The Great Lecture You Probably Missed

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.

How Do You Do Genealogy? SAASC Tour November 18, 2008

The California Genealogical Society will be hosting members of the San Jose State University Society of American Archivists Student Chapter (SAASC) on Tuesday, November 18, 2008.

Laura Spurrier and Dick Rees will be talking to students about how to untangle family trees and how to help people trace and uncover family histories. Students will take advantage of the CGS Library resources and stay and research their own family histories after the lecture.

Christina Fidler, Library Assistant at the University of California, found CGS in a directory of local libraries. She acts as event coordinator for the northern student chapter of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) at San Jose State’s School of Library and Information Science. Christina arranges group visits as a way to connect SJSU archival students with the "amazing collections around the Bay Area" and to "provide students an opportunity to meet each other outside of their digital classrooms and gain a strong sense of community."

The volunteers at CGS are looking forward to the day!

Come One, Come All - Used Book Sale & Fundraiser for CGS

Attention, bibliophiles!

The California Genealogical Society and Library invites you to come browse our book sale on Saturday, November 8, 2008 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The sale is part of the special Thanksgiving at CGS! event to honor our volunteers.

CGS Library Committee volunteer Arlene Miles reports that there are some great bargains among the wide variety of used genealogy books and periodicals set aside for the sale. Donated books continue to be a welcome source of materials in the library and the society is selling those which are duplicates of items already in our collection and some which do not meet the strict collection policy. Also priced to sell are older editions or printings of books on our shelves that have been replaced by newer versions.

The CGS Library recently received a donation totaling fourteen boxes of materials from one member. About half of the items are new to the library and will be kept for the society collection. The balance will be sold and I am told by volunteer Librarian Barbara Hill that "there is lots of good stuff."

Arlene, Barbara, Laura Spurrier and Gloria Hanson are to be commended for their efforts. I admit I sneaked a peek at some items that Barbara was processing and I noticed a copy of Pennsylvania Line: A Research Guide to Pennsylvania Genealogy and Local History. This is a classic that went out of print years ago. I'm also told that one batch of donated items on sale is heavy on Virginia and Kentucky.

Please note that all sales are final. First come, first served. See you there!

It's Catching! More Cousins Discovered in the Library...

It seldom happens that you meet someone in person whom you connect to genealogically, although it seems to be happening quite frequently at the CGS Library. First Marianne Frey, Dick Rees and Lavinia Schwarz discovered that they shared New England ancestors, then board members John Moore and Shirley Thomson found that they were fifth cousins, once removed.

Now it has happened again to member Dorothy Koenig, nationally-recognized expert on early Dutch families in New Amsterdam. On Saturday, November 11, 2008. Dorothy volunteered her services as a consultant as part of the California Genealogical Society October Family History Month activities. Laura Spurrier, one of our volunteer librarians, signed up for a one-on-one, members only session with Dorothy. Laura was pretty sure she had a Dutch line but needed help documenting a link in the early nineteenth century. Laura came to the meeting with charts to help explain the problem. Dorothy looked, looked some more, and came to the realization that one of Laura's charts contained her own ancestors! The cousins connect via the Hegeman, Van Wyck, Polhemius and Rapalje families.

The story became even more astounding when another CGS volunteer librarian entered the discussion. Barbara Hill was also in the library that day and connects to both Dorothy and Laura through the early Rapalje line. Just like that – three instant cousins, instead of two.

Dorothy wrote to let me know that the cousins share another coincidence: "All three of us – Laura, Barbara, and I – have retired from our careers at the Library on the University of California Berkeley campus. It must be the genes we share!"

So is there a statistician out there who can calculate the odds of finding a cousin at the California Genealogical Society Library? They're starting to look pretty good to me!

How Call Numbers Work

Books in the California Genealogical Society Library are organized according to the Library of Congress Classification (LCC) system, instead of the more commonly known Dewey Decimal Classification.

LCC is used by academic and special libraries across the United States since the Dewey system is considered suitable only for public and school libraries. The LCC system is criticized as being "U.S.-centric" but it is widely used in this country because of its ease of use and logic.

CGS Librarian Laura Spurrier recently created a hand-out for her talk on the library's holdings which included a section on "How Call Numbers Work." She agreed to let me publish it here. I hope you find it as informative and useful as I did.

How Call Numbers Work by Laura Spurrier

The Library of Congress Classification system divides up the universe of knowledge by one or two letters of the alphabet, followed by numbers up to 9999. Complex subjects are subdivided further. Then they are put in order by author (or by title if there’s no identifiable author) and date. For example, Nancy Peterson’s book about San Francisco research, Raking the Ashes, can be found under:

F – Category for local history subjects
869 – California cities
.S3 – San Francisco
P4 – represents Peterson
2006 – year of publication (tells it apart from the next edition)

The F category covers materials about places in the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America, including gazetteers, church, cemetery and vital records, periodicals, etc. in each country, arranged by:

Region
Each state (or province) within the region
Counties within that state, in alphabetical order
Cities within that state, (capital city sometimes first)
Miscellaneous, including materials about local minority groups

Other call numbers of interest to genealogists:

BX – histories of religious groups
CS (low numbers) – how-to books and genealogical reference books, The American Genealogist, royal descents, compiled genealogies of multiple families
CS71 – genealogies of individual American families, including family newsletters, in order by surname
CS80-90 – Canadian materials (other Canadian materials are at F1001+)
CS420+ – British nobility and county histories, followed by genealogical materials about other European countries
E99+ – books about Native Americans
E184+ – books about immigrants to the U.S. by ethnicity or religion
E255+ – military and some service pension records (D.A.R. Lineage Books are shelved separately.)
Z – reference books, especially resources in other libraries.
The row ends with the American Genealogical & Biographical Index (Rider) volumes.

Laura J. Spurrier, M.A., M.A., M.L.S., 9/08

Baby Samuel: Some Answers, More Questions

A team of researchers at the California Genealogical Society joined forces this week to give Elizabeth O'Neal some new information in her quest to solve The Mystery of Baby Samuel. In just a couple of days Dick Rees, Laura Spurrier and Lavinia Schwarz found several new leads for her to pursue.

As with any genealogical research, answers often reveal more questions, and this is certainly the case with the information found in the Danish work previously described.

The Danske I California og California Historie contained two biographies of interest. This is Laura's translation:

Brothers Jens and Peter Nielsen, born in Udby Sogn, Holbæk Amt, came to California in the 1860s. They worked in the gold mines, and Peter Nielsen for a while ran a rooming house in San Francisco. They last resided in Kansas where they homesteaded. Two grandnephews, brothers Ejlert and Lars Mortensen, live in Riverside, California.

Mrs. Samuel K. Swartz (Inger Anna Nielsen), sister of the previously mentioned Nielsen brothers, came to San Francisco in 1906. She was president of the "Zion" society, under the auspices of the Ansgar Church, and she also active in the Danish Ladies' Aid Society.

Dick Rees visited the San Francisco Public Library and pulled microfilm in the Herb Caen Magazines and Newspapers Center to look for obituaries. He was unable to find one for Samuel K. Sr. but he did find this:

The Rees-Spurrier-Schwarz team all expressed some concern about the apparent age difference between Inger and her elder brothers. Dick's comment was "I found it interesting that the brothers Nielsen arrived in the 1860s and sister Inger wasn't even born until 1883. I'm hoping Father Nielsen had at least two wives!"
Vinnie commented on a problem that Elizabeth already discussed, "Inger's age and Samuel's birthdate, as well as daughter Irene's birthdate don't add up well. Sam is a late baby, but possible. Irene's birthplace seems off." The married name for Irene in the obituary provides some new clues.

Laura offered this:

Danske i California, though very, very useful, is not infallible in my opinion. I would look for the dates of naturalization for Jens and Peter in the 1890 Great Register of California, then find their naturalization papers. I'd also try to find their ages at death. I would try to find Inger's own immigration records and her marriage record. The records of St. Ansgar Lutheran Church in San Francisco should be checked. Raking the Ashes states that St. Ansgar merged into St. Francis Lutheran Church but doesn't say if the records are extant. If Inger didn't reach San Francisco until after the '06 quake, relevant records might still be there -- certainly the record of her funeral if she remained a member. Inger may have been a daughter or niece of one of the Nielsen brothers, not a sister. Another possibility is that Inger was the grandmother of Baby Samuel and the records were fudged in order to cover up an illegitimate birth. Sources in Denmark, may shed some light too.

We all wish Elizabeth much luck if she chooses to continue her research of Baby Samuel's family. Happy birthday, Elizabeth!


Sources:

1. Sophus Hartwick, Danske I California og California Historie: Beretninger om de Danskes liv og Virke Fra de Tidligste Pioner Dage [Danes In California and California History, a Report on Danish Life and Work from the Earliest Pioneer Days], 2 volumes, San Francisco, 1939, p. 658. Chapters in the work are arranged by county. The Nielson Brothers biography appears in the Los Angeles County chapter, translated by Laura J. Spurrier, M.L.S.

2. Sophus Hartwick, Danske I California. p. 840. Inger Swartz's biography appears in the chapter on San Francisco.

3. Inger A. Swartz Obituary, San Francisco Chronicle, microfilm, Monday, 28 May 1973.

Part 1: Baby Samuel: A Few More Clues About Mom

Baby Samuel: A Few More Clues About Mom

Yesterday I had a full day of meetings at CGS but I thought I would sneak in a little research time for a friend. I planned to noodle around in some San Francisco city directories to see if I could find any new information about the SWARTZ family for Elizabeth O'Neal of Little Bytes of Life. On Tuesday she reported on The Mystery of Baby Samuel and how she had become strangely obsessed with his short life.

When I got to the library, I discovered that the crack team of researchers at the society were already on the case. Since Elizabeth had done the basic census work, CGS "Look-up Maven" Lavinia Schwarz, did what anyone who has San Francisco ancestors should do. She searched the California Names Index on the California Genealogical Society Web site.

Through the years, CGS volunteers have indexed a wide variety of state, county, and local references, creating an enormous and unique database of the library's holdings. The California Names Index currently contains over 265,000 entries. Search results yield a full name and an Index Code that tells the source type of the information.

These are the results that come up after a search for "Swartz."


The bottom listing is for Baby Samuel's parents: "Swartz, Samuel K. (I. Nielsen) BIO $10.00." The three letter code "BIO" indicates that some biographical information is available in our collection of more than 50 California state, county, and local histories. $10.00 is the charge for copying and sending the information. (Elizabeth, this one is on us!)

Lavinia recognized the source for the Swartz biography as one she had consulted for several previous look-up requests. It is a two volume set and it is in Danish.

Danske I California og California Historie: Beretninger om de Danskes liv og Virke Fra de Tidligste Pioner Dage is: Danes In California and California History, a Report on Danish Life and Work from the Earliest Pioneer Days, according to Google Translate.


Author Sophus Hartwick was once an owner and publisher of the San Francisco Danish Newspaper Bien (the Bee), the only Danish newspaper west of the Rockies when it began in 1882. The paper is still being published, a bi-weekly printed every other Thursday. Another interesting coincidence: the paper's local editor at its Solvang office is a Nielsen!

The biography is actually for "Mrs. Samuel K. Swartz" and it names her Inger Anna Nielsen. Luckily, CGS's Library Committee chair, Laura Spurrier will be able to translate the passage for us. Stay tuned.


Part 2:  Baby Samuel: Some Answers, More Questions

Feedback on the Scandinavian Workshop

Cynthia Peterson Gorman sent this report on the last Saturday's Scandinavian Research Workshop:

All three presenters were so well prepared and had spent a great deal of time organizing their talks and materials. We had a great group - more than expected and it was definitely worth attending. We also all gave our email addresses so we can continue to share questions and information. It was nice to have a facilitator to keep the group 'on agenda.'

Events coordinator, Carolyn Steinberg, reports that there was a "full house" - seventeen attendees - plus the three specialists, Laura Spurrier (Danish), Pat Smith (Swedish) and Gloria Hanson (Norwegian). Carolyn also noted:

There was some lively conversation amongst attendees as they contributed their knowledge and asked questions. Three of the four non-members who attended joined CGS on Saturday. Cynthia Gorman brought a number of books to share and to demonstrate the resources available. Rick Sherman also assisted with information on church records and brought up an Online Web site for anyone interested after lunch. A new member who joined Saturday was also able to contribute based on his knowledge and experience being Swedish-born. Our speakers had also brought in some books from the library to show the resources available in the library. Pat, Laura, and Gloria all deserve to be commended for a job well done! CGS is very fortunate that these three members rose to the occasion, providing a very informative, lively, and interesting workshop for us.

Carolyn is compiling the lessons learned from this workshop and the Eastern European one held in April. She would appreciate additional reviews from those who attended on Saturday. Please share your comments here or send an e-mail to Carolyn.

Do you have a suggestion for the next workshop? French-Canadian? German? Do you have expertise in researching another location? Let us know!

Workshop: Scandinavian Research - June 14, 2008

When: Saturday, June 14, 2008, 10:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Where: CGS Library, 2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland

The second in a series of CGS Research Workshops will focus on ancestors from Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

Please join our specialists: Laura Spurrier (Danish), Pat Smith (Swedish) and Gloria Hanson (Norwegian) as they examine Scandinavian research. Topics will include: border changes, census, church books and immigration information - where immigrants settled in the U.S. - and more. Handouts will be provided.

The workshop day will include a panel discussion, lunch break and informal work session so attendees can share ideas, do some computer research and consult one-on-one with Gloria, Pat and Laura. Members are encouraged to bring laptop computers; the six CGS computers may not all be available for the program.

Reservations are required; no walk-ins will be permitted. The workshop is free for CGS members but is limited to 15 people. There will be a sign-up fee of $10 for non-members. (The fee can be applied toward membership on the day of the workshop.) There is a sign-up sheet at the CGS Library desk. Please call (510) 663-1358 to reserve a space.

Don't miss this opportunity to learn new strategies and meet other members with similar research interests.

Salt Lake City Success

Another CGS Tour to Salt Lake City came to a close on Saturday night with the annual dinner at Lamb’s Grill. Special guest and CGS member, Steve Danko, took time out from the United Polish Genealogical Societies Biennial Conference to join us.

President Jane Lindsey thanked all of the participants and gave an overview of the upcoming society events. Before the annual group photograph was taken, several members shared their research success stories.

Jane was doing the genealogical happy dance after finding the marriage record of Magdelena GERTH and Valentine HUND in Renchen, Germany.

Mother-daughter team, Penny Pollock and Faith Hazelton have attended the SLC trip for all eight years. Penny got closer to proving a Mayflower line through George SOULE; Faith proved one last year.

Mary White Limosner, equipped with new knowledge obtained during the Eastern European Research Workshop, finally had success finding her BUDNICK family in Polish records.

Arlene and Ted Miles enjoyed their first trip and found information on their Brooklyn ancestors and Ted's Kentucky MILES family.

Rick Sherman was finding elusive Danes online in his hotel room.

Pat Smith and Laura Spurrier took advantage of the Danish talks offered this week at the Family History Library. Pat applied the knowledge to her Swedish ancestor Johan WIDMAN and found a probate record from the late 1700s.

Betty Barnard Walker found her BIERMANN ancestor in German passenger records from the mid-nineteenth century.

Bill O’Neil finally found the documentation he needed for his French Canadian DRINKWINE/BOIVIN and MITCHELL/MICHAUDs.

And last but not least, Cathy Paris and CGS librarian, Laura Spurrier, discovered that they are MERRILL sixth cousins.

SLC Tour group 2008

Photograph courtesy of Cathy Merrill Paris.

CGS Library Committee

What better place for a group of genealogists to spend National Library Week than the Family History Library in Salt Lake City? I'm going to put a little twist on genea-blogger Lori Thornton's summons and write a tribute to the California Genealogical Society Library Committee and librarian volunteers.

The Library Committee is composed of several volunteers with years of experience in all areas of librarianship. They are experienced genealogists as well, who know how to catalog, locate new publications and out-of-print books, keep good records and, best of all, freely give their time and expertise. Past and present committee members include: Gloria Hanson, Barbara Hill, Arlene Miles and Laura Spurrier.

L to R: Laura Spurrier, Arlene Miles, Gloria Hanson. Not shown: Barbara Hill

Gloria Hanson has experience in libraries from Korea to St. Louis. After obtaining her Masters in Library Science (M.L.S.) from the University of Southern California, Gloria decided to "see the world" and worked as a civilian employee for the U.S. Army in Korea where she ran three libraries. Stateside she has worked as a cataloguer for the St. Louis Public Library system and retired from the San Francisco Public Library as a branch district manager. Now Gloria puts her experience to work for CGS primarily in periodical processing and cataloging and receiving books.

Barbara Hill has a total of thirty-three years of library work experience, including time in public, school, technical and academic libraries. Her favorite jobs involved working in library acquisitions which is her focus for the CGS Library Committee. She often humorously ascribes her interest in genealogy to "prenatal influence" since her mother was pregnant with Barbara while researching the family at the Library of Congress. (It probably influenced her career choice as well.) Barbara and her mother collaborated on the family's U.S. and Canadian research for many years until her mother's death.

Arlene Miles is a retired library technician who has acquired an eclectic resume in specialized libraries, including air quality management, law, environmental as well as volunteer work at an electric railway museum. Arlene joined CGS in 2007 intending to do family research but she couldn't resist keeping her fingers "in the library pie." She soon set to work on the uncataloged periodicals, setting up a spreadsheet to organize incoming titles, identify missing issues and process subcription renewals.

Laura Spurrier chairs the Library Committee and acts as head librarian. Her credentials include masters degrees in history and East Indian Area Studies from the University of Wisconsin and a M.L.S. from the University of California, Berkeley. Laura worked for fifteen years at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where she retired as a technical information specialist. Genealogy was the family hobby in the Spurrier household so Laura caught the bug as a teenager. She is a specialist in Quaker research and has lectured on the topic to the society.

Please join me in honoring the CGS librarians for the valuable work they do.

Photograph by Kathryn M. Doyle, Salt Lake City, Utah, 4/16/2008.

Copyright © 2008 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library.

Book Recommendations from Steve Danko

CGS Librarian, Laura Spurrier, sent word that new books were ordered for the CGS Library in anticipation of the workshop this Saturday, April 12, 2008, "Eastern and Central European Genealogy." Specialist Steve Danko of Steve's Genealogy Blog suggested several titles. These are now available at the CGS library:
In Their Words: a Genealogist's Translation Guide to Polish, German, Latin and Russian Documents, Volume I: Polish by Jonathan D. Shea and William F. Hoffman.

In Their Words: a Genealogist's Translation Guide to Polish, German, Latin and Russian Documents Volume II: Russian
by Jonathan D. Shea and William F. Hoffman.

Avotaynu Guide to Jewish Genealogy
edited by Sallyann Amdur Sack and Gary Mokotoff.

















Where Once We Walked : A Guide to the Jewish Communities Destroyed in the Holocaust, revised edition, by Gary Mokotoff and Sallyann Sack with Alexander Sharon.

Additional books on Polish, Ukrainian and Galician genealogy have also been ordered.

The workshop is free for CGS members and there are still a few slots open. Reservations are required; no walk-ins will be permitted. There is a sign-up fee of $10 for non-members. (The fee can be applied toward membership on the day of the workshop.)

Please call (510) 663-1358 to reserve a space.

Book Donations Build the Library

The donation of books accounts significantly for the growth in holdings of the California Genealogical Society Library over the past 100 years. The reliance on the generosity of members and others dates back to 1906 when the society, founded in 1898, lost everything in the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. In order to rebuild, CGS actively sought and received book contributions from many individuals and organizations from around the country. The CGS archives hold a formal, printed announcement dated 20 June 1908:

Donations of books, histories and other genealogical matter, are solicited for the new library of the CALIFORNIA GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY to assist in a measure to replace those destroyed in the great fire of April 18-20, 1906, when the library of over three hundred volumes, charts of members and archives of the Society were lost.

According to early records, in 1913, the Newberry Library in Chicago gifted several cartons of its duplicate books which were from the library of the late Lieutenant Governor Murphy of Pennsylvania.

The History of the California Genealogical Society, written in 1998 by long-time member, Dorothy Fowler, lists several of the larger donations to the library:

Henry Byron Phillips, CGS president 1912-1920, left his comprehensive research on the New England Phillipses to the CGS archival collection following his death in 1924.

Dr. Charles Francis Griffin, CGS president 1923-1931, left his genealogical library to CGS upon his death in 1950.

Margaret Griffith, who served as the Society’s first woman president, 1945-1947, donated books and a great deal of manuscript material when she died in 1965.

Mrs. Wm. J. Lindenberger, an active member of CGS and the California Historical Society for over 30 years, provided literally hundreds of books to the genealogical collection, many of them especially rare and valuable. Her name is prominent on bookplates throughout the collection and in old records of the Society.

The largest single gift to the library was the collection of George R. Dorman, added in 1984. Mr. Dorman, a CGS member for 47 years, served in various capacities on the Society’s Board. A dedicated genealogist, his research on the signers of the California Constitutional Convention was published as a long-running series in the Society’s newsletter and later in The Nugget. The Dorman Collection is housed in a separate room in the library.

Throughout his membership with CGS from 1972 until his death in 1995, Stanley Ross steadily and without fanfare provided books to strengthen specific parts of the collection. For example, he donated a total of almost 200 books to the New York and New Jersey sections alone and also contributed the microfilms of the Kentucky vital records.

The offering of materials to the library continues today. In fall, 2007, five boxes of books were gifted from member Joan Soo. Electra Kimble Price donated some of her African-American and Native-American collection. Theresa Smith sought out the society seeking a good home for her late mother's books. Theresa's not interested in genealogy herself so we are grateful that the four boxes of books on early California during the Spanish era, especially southern California, have found their way to the CGS bookshelves.

The most recent gift comes from long-time member, Dorothy A. Koenig, an expert on early Dutch settlers in "New Netherland" in the 17th century and editor of the quarterly journal, New Netherland Connections. Dorothy has donated volumes 1-14 of the set Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York, Procured in Holland, England, and France by John R. Brodhead and others. They were published in Albany, New York, 1853-1883.

CGS Librarian, Laura Spurrier, notes: "The reason they're important is they contain the authorized transcriptions of original documents about the founding of New Amsterdam and later English-controlled New York. And, they're indexed, making the volumes accessible for genealogists."