Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Nancy Peterson and Judy Zelver

Photograph by Kathryn Doyle, 1/13/2009, Oakland, California.

Jane's Interview with Lisa Louise Cooke

I've reported several times on the successful genealogy classes that have been jointly offered by the California Genealogical Society and the Oakland Regional Family History Center. Things got started October 2008 with the Family History Month Beginners Series, then the Intermediate Series in January and February 2009, a full-day Beginning Genealogy Seminar held in April and a four session Spring Intermediate Series that is half completed.

Jane Lindsey and Marge Bell came up with the idea and since then the two of them have been a couple of whirling dervishes, teaching class after class after class.

Now, thanks to the magic of podcasting, anyone with a computer can sample a taste of what it is like to learn a little genealogy from Jane and Marge. Both of these dynamos have been recent guests of Lisa Louise Cooke on her Family History: Genealogy Made Easy podcast.

Part one of Lisa's interview with Jane was published today as Episode 27: Your Ancestors in the News Part 1. Part 2 will be published next Friday, May 8, 2009. I'm taking Lisa up on this suggestion:"She's a great interview and I hope you'll let your readers on the CGS blog know about it."

Lisa Louise Cooke is the producer and host of The Genealogy Gems Podcast and her blog Genealogy Gems News. Her goal is to provide fun and interesting genealogical education in a variety of mediums: audio podcasts, videos, books, online resources, daily blog and e-newsletter.

Update:
The link to Part 1 and 2 of Jane's interview can be found on Jane's bio page on Lisa's site. (Thanks for the blog link, Lisa.) The bio page for Margery Bell lists several interviews about Family History Centers. Lisa has also featured interviews with two other CGS members: Steve Danko and Cath Trindle.

Wordless Wednesday

Spring Beginning Genealogy Seminar

Saturday, April 18, 2009
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Photographs courtesy of Tim Cox and Jane Lindsey.

CGS On the Road in Santa Clara

Santa Clara Central Park Library
2635 Homestead Road
Santa Clara, CA 95051

Monday, June 15, 2009
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

CGS is adding a lecture to the membership coffees. South Bay members of the California Genealogical Society are invited to join with the Santa Clara County Historical and Genealogical Society for networking and a presentation.

Program
10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Coffee served

10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. CGS President Jane Lindsey will present an overview of the outstanding resources at the CGS Library and share information about upcoming events.

11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Lunch & Learn – Bring a bag lunch or buy a sandwich in the Central Park Library café and take part in some small group discussions of special interest genealogy topics.

12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. “Some Brick Walls Are of Our Own Making.” CGS member Lavinia Schwarz’s spell-binding talk will help you look at your own brick walls with new openness, ideas, strategies and historical insight.

1:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. Questions and closing remarks.

The Santa Clara County Historical and Genealogical Society is located at the City of Santa Clara Central Park Library in the Heritage Pavilion. They have a large collection of genealogy resources and a great historical collection available for public use. Consultants are available to assist with research problems.

Please RSVP by E-mail to woolseyannette@gmail.com or by telephone to Mary Hanel at (408) 615-2909.

A Tale of Ten Computers

Two short months ago the California Genealogical Society learned about an incredible price on computers from Charity Advantage, an association that offers technology solutions at low cost to non-profits. An e-mail plea went out to CGS members and friends asking for donations to purchase replacements for the society's fleet of well-used computers.

Four weeks ago ten refurbished Pentium 4 - 80GB Dell desktop computers were delivered after twenty CGS members came forward to contribute to their purchase. Two additional members pitched in to buy a new laser printer.

This week eight dedicated volunteers spent an exhausting but fruitful thirteen-hour day installing the new hardware.



Steve Harris, Peter Moller, Cathy Paris, Nick Paris and Nancy Servin met Computer Committee members Al Clark, Paul Mayer and Kathy Watson at the library at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, April 20, 2009. The group started by reviewing an installation plan prepared by Peter Moller.



By 10:30 a.m. sleeves were rolled up and the serious work began. Kathy Watson reported "There were a few glitches, but essentially by 10:00 p.m. the work was finished. Any leftover clean up items were completed on Tuesday."

So far, the reviews are positive. Kathy notes that these computers are a significant improvement over our old hardware, almost doubling the speed (from 1.83 GHz to 3.2 GHz) and doubling the memory available for using the programs loaded on the machines (from 448 mb RAM to 1 GB RAM). She also wanted me to thank everyone who participated to make the computer replacement project a huge success.

CGS President Jane Lindsey echoed her gratitude:

We are so appreciative! These computers will not only help patrons and members in the library but also our volunteer researchers, our indexers and our desk duty personnel. Faster computers will also help the hardworking members of our finance, library and membership committees do a better job for CGS.

So what is the message to other societies? Aim high and don't be afraid to ask. In the midst of a tough economic downturn the members of the California Genealogical Society and Library came together and accomplished something fairly remarkable in a short period of time. It's a testament to our members and our volunteers. Great work, CGS!

Photographs courtesy of Cathy H. Paris, 3/20/2009, Oakland, California.