California Genealogical Society blog: vertical files

29 August 2016

Genealogical Treasures Revealed September 10th: Come see what you’ve been missing!

Posted by Shannon Reese

by Linda Darby

Come to the Library to check out our Vertical Files Grand Opening hosted by Pat Bonderud and Linda Darby, September 10th, from 12pm to 12:30pm. Light refreshments will be served.

Our 2,000 files include newspaper clippings, newsletters, correspondence, reproduced records, compiled family charts, research notes and other interesting items. You never know what you'll find in this eclectic collection.

Photos by Maureen Hanlon

Both members and non-members have contributed the contents of these files over our 100-year history.

To make your search easier, we have an online Vertical File database index that includes: a title (usually a surname), brief description of the contents, time frame, and geographic location for each file. A few examples include:

• 1856 Ogle County, Illinois marriage certificate for Philo Wood and Almira McKinnery.

• 1925 Iowa Adjutant General's Certificate regarding James Strain's (of Crawfordville, Iowa) military service in the Civil War.

• 1911 statement by Mrs. E. J. Grady of New Jersey regarding Alexander Desnoyers, her grandfather, who had resided in Quebec.

• O’Bryant surname: Research material including marriage and death certificates, charts and photographs from Kenneth G. Felton of Castro Valley, Calif. in his quest to find M. A. Bruer who married James Ira Nelson in Dec. 1891.

• Mesa surname: Death certificate and obituary for Frank Mesa (1835-1910); photo of daughter, Lucy M. Mesa (1875-1944) with vital information; Lucy Mesa’s death certificate and wedding announcement; and death certificate for Harry Durand Wilkinson (1876-1946)

• Miller surname: Marriage records of the Miller family, 7 pages. Includes the Miller family Bible records, plus marriage certificates for Clement H. Miller & Alice W. Davis, and Samuel Miller born 1801.

• The History of the Bibber Family at Harpswell, Maine by Rev. Chas. N. Sinnett, Fayette, Iowa [1913].

Please Register for this FREE Event. We hope to see you there!

22 June 2012

More Organizing in the Library: the CGS Vertical Files

Posted by Kathryn Doyle

It's hard to keep up with all of the volunteer projects that go on in the California Genealogical Society Library. Maintaining our collection is an endless task and volunteers step up to keep things organized and ready for our patrons.

One of the library's gems is our Manuscript Collection. Volunteers Pat Bonderud and Linda Darby catalogued and organized ninety linear feet of loose papers, research, and family history material donated to the society over the past 114 years. The manuscript collection is now being maintained by volunteers Georgia Lupinsky and Virginia Turner. The thirty-page inventory in pdf format entitled CGS Manuscript Collection can be downloaded from the society website on the Searchable Databases page.

Pat Bonderud and Linda Darby

Now Pat and Linda have turned their attention to another neglected collection in the library – the vertical files. The vertical files contain small items: clippings, reprints, and other miscellaneous materials. Over the years the two vertical file cabinets became a bit of a "catch all" for holdings that don't fit anywhere else in the library. Most are surname files.

Bonderud and Darby are examining the contents of each and every file. They are curating and creating brief descriptions of the files, including surnames, time frame, and location.

It is painstaking work that they hope to complete in the next few months.