Genealogy Writing Series Begins Saturday, February 16, 2013

The California Genealogical Society will present an encore of our popular series Writing Your Family History: Start Now. By the end of the course, you will be ready to start writing, or will be already writing, a family history with confidence and style!

Who Should Take this Course?
This course is for genealogists and family historians who are ready to transform their research into a quality family history.

Course Details
This course will meet for a five-hour session one Saturday a month at the library in the Learning Center. Class size is limited to twelve participants. All sessions are on Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. with one hour break for lunch.

The course will provide participants with all the information and assistance needed to get started on writing a family history. The course includes

• a copy of the class text Producing a Quality Family History 
• helpful course materials organized in a binder 
• step-by-step instruction in organizing and writing your history 
• a variety of lecturers on topics to expand on reading assignments 
• experienced instructors 
• editing and writing help 

Session dates:

• Saturday, February 16, 2013
• Saturday, March 16, 2013
• Saturday, April 20, 2013
• Saturday, May 18, 2013
• Saturday, June 15, 2013

The course has been created by a team of dedicated volunteers – Matt Berry, Tim Cox, Lisa Gorrell and Jane Hufft – who have different and complementary skills.

Fee $100*
Non-members $125

Register online.

Registration Requirements

1. Attendance is required at all five sessions.
2. There is no registration for individual sessions.
3. Participants must be willing to commit a reasonable amount of time to the homework assignments, which consist of reading assigned chapters in the provided text and working on individual writing projects.

Last year's course filled very quickly, so please register now!

*All course fees are non-refundable.

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

Workshop: Working with Footnotes and Indexing

Saturday, September 25, 2010
11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

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

Join Jane Hufft and Matt Berry for this two-part workshop to help you cite your research sources and create an index for your family history.

In Part 1, Jane will take the fear out of footnotes and give you the basic information you need to write needed, useful and clear citations for all your research. Learn how to cite your sources with a sense of confidence, using the best models in the field. You will be given helpful examples and a variety of ways to make notations for your family history writing.

Most people don’t read family histories—they look up things in them. In Part 2, Matt will discuss how to create a useful index to your book using the tools available in Microsoft Word 2007. Topics include: what to include in the index, how to create the index, how to format the index, and how to update the index after you make revisions to your book

The workshop is FREE for CGS members but is limited to twenty people. Non-members fee is $20.00 (non-refundable) and can be applied towards membership on the day of the workshop.

Preregistration is required. Walk-ins will not be admitted.

Register online.

Jane Hufft, current editor of the CGS publication The California Nugget and former CGS board member, has written several articles for genealogy journals and continues to work on her own family history research. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband Ron.

Matthew B. Berry is a San Diego native who came to the Bay Area at a young age and grew up in Foster City. He now lives in Livermore with Karen, his wife of seventeen years, and daughter Christa.


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

MS Word Skills for Genealogists – An Encore Presentation

Microsoft Word Skills for Genealogists – Formatting Styles, Footnotes and Indexing
A Publishing Workshop with Matthew Berry

Saturday, October 17, 2009
10:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
California Genealogical Society Library
2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland, California

Join CGS member Matt Berry for this encore presentation of his very popular skills building workshop designed to help give genealogists the practical tools they need to go beyond the basics of Microsoft Office Word. Follow Matt's step-by-step tutorial and learn to create an organized family history with information that is easy to find using:

· Consistent formatting of information
· Footnotes or endnotes to document ancillary information, especially sources
· A comprehensive index and table of contents.

Please note that MS Word 2007 will be used for illustrations and instructions but support will also be provided for MS Word 2003.

The workshop day will consist of lecture material with handout, a lunch break and a "hands-on" session so attendees can practice their new skills. Members are encouraged to bring laptop computers; the six CGS computers may not all be available for the program.

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 a FREE benefit of membership but is limited to fifteen people. Pre-registration is required. There is a non-refundable sign-up fee of $10 for non-members. (This 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 CGS at 510-663-1358 or E-mail CGSLevents@gmail.com to reserve a space.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Microsoft Word Skills for Genealogists
Publishing Workshop with Matthew Berry
Saturday, April 11, 2009

Photographs courtesy of Tim Cox.

Workshop: Microsoft Word Skills for Genealogists - April 11, 2009

Microsoft Word Skills for Genealogists – Formatting Styles, Footnotes and Indexing
A Publishing Workshop with Matthew Berry

Saturday, April 11, 2009
10:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
California Genealogical Society Library
2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland, California

Join CGS member Matthew Berry for this skills building workshop designed to help give genealogists the practical tools they need to go beyond the basics of Microsoft Office Word. Follow Matt's step-by-step tutorial and learn to create an organized family history with information that is easy to find using:

· Consistent formatting of information
· Footnotes or endnotes to document ancillary information, especially sources
· A comprehensive index and table of contents.

Please note that MS Word 2003 will be used for illustrations but instructions will also be provided for MS Word 2007.

The workshop day will consist of lecture material with handout, a lunch break and a "hands-on" session so attendees can practice their new skills. Members are encouraged to bring laptop computers; the six CGS computers may not all be available for the program.

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 will be a sign-up fee of $10 for non-members. (This 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 CGS at 510-663-1358 or E-mail CGSLevents@gmail.com to reserve a space.

Matthew Berry is a San Diego native who came to the Bay Area at a young age and grew up in Foster City. He received his B.A. and M.S. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and M.B.A. from Santa Clara University. His first career was as a satellite systems engineer at Lockheed Martin for fifteen years; he is now Project Manager at Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco. Seeing what he calls "a cool computer program" for entering family information at a family reunion in 2003 sparked an interest in genealogy, which was subsequently fueled by a desire to consolidate the genealogical work of several other family members. Matt lives in Livermore with Karen, his wife of 15 years, and daughter Christa.

Feedback From "Hints on Publishing Your Family History"

Altogether, twenty-one potential authors attended last Saturday's "Hints on Publishing Your Family History" workshop presented by Shirley Pugh Thomson and Matthew Berry. Past-president, Rick Sherman, shared these comments, "I thought the publishing workshop was outstanding. I bought myself a Chicago Manual of Style that very afternoon! I was especially impressed by the good "cast chemistry" among the speakers, and by the good behavior of the audience. There were lots of valuable contributions from the audience, but no one tried to take over the session."

Shirley sent this: ""For my part, Saturday was quite a surprising day. First, I found it very hard to believe that such a large number of interested people wanted to come out for our workshop on a fine weekend day. Then, there was the high level of interest! Those writers and researchers were interested in all aspects of the process to convert good research and writing to printed and bound pages of a book. The participants, it seems, were all historians and genealogists determined to see their research, their families’ histories, their loved ones’ memoirs and papers or other writings preserved in publications to be made available to a wider family circle or to the public. The many wide-ranging questions indicated serious plans were already being considered."

Matt said "For me, Saturday’s event was my first time participating in a CGS event and I had a wonderful time meeting and talking to people. I was happy to see so many people attending and asking great questions. I am now looking forward to participating in other CGS events."

Workshop: Hints on Publishing Your Family History

Saturday, August 9, 2008
10:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
CGS Library, 2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland, California

There are still a few spaces left in this Saturday's workshop - "Hints on Publishing Your Family History" at the CGS Library.

At some point, it is time to put a stop to the research (at least temporarily) and create something tangible that can be passed down to the next generation.

Shirley Pugh Thomson, Matt Berry and Jane Knowles Lindsey are ready to share their experience and help you explore the options available, including newer non-traditional, online methods, such as blogs. The CGS Library collection has scores of examples of traditionally published histories for you to peruse. Our panelists will choose a few so workshop attendees can see some prime examples.

Shirley Thompson, retired owner of Indices Publishing, will present two talks, "Skills Needed to Publish Your History" and "Mistakes to Avoid." Matt Berry will discuss his experience self-publishing using Lulu.com.

The workshop day will include a lunch break so bring a brown bag. There is a nearby deli if you prefer buy a sandwich and bring it back to the library.

The workshop is free for CGS members but is limited to fifteen people. There will be a sign-up fee of $10 for non-members. (This 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 CGS at 510-663-1358 to reserve a space.

Photograph courtesy of Jane Knowles Lindsey.