Ethnic Series Workshop - Primeros Pasos: How to Look for Your Latino Ancestors

Saturday, June 19, 2010
10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

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

The society's ethnic series continues with a workshop for beginning genealogists who need assistance with research in Spanish speaking countries. Join Ellen Fernandez-Sacco as she presents three talks.

10:15 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.  Brief History of the Spanish Empire’s Government and Its Influence on Other Spanish Speaking Countries.

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.  Researching Catholic Church Records.

12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.  Break for lunch. Bring a brown bag or purchase at a local restaurant.

1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.  Searching Websites and Other Resources.

The workshop is open and free to all. Preregistration is required. Please note that seating is limited to the first fifteen who register.

Register online.

Ellen Fernandez-Sacco’s involvement with genealogy started in 1999, when she began researching the oral history of her family in Moca, Puerto Rico. She has traced her background to Mallorca and Galicia, Spain and is also of Taino Amerindian descent. She has a Ph.D. in Art History and is a co-founder and chair of Sociedad Ancestros Mocanos, a Yahoo! Group, whose focus is the genealogy and oral history of Northwest Puerto Rico.


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

eNews May 2010, volume 4, number 5

The May 2010 issue of the eNews, volume 4, number 5, has been published and emailed to members and friends. As always, the eNews features timely information about the California Genealogical Society and our upcoming events. Each edition also includes Suggested Links From the Blogosphere and a photo feature: California Ancestors.

This month, in honor of Syttende Mai (17th of May), the holiday celebrating Norway's independence, we honor the Norwegian ancestors of member volunteer, Gloria Hanson. By good fortune and hard work, Gloria has photographs of seven of her eight great-grandparents.

All past issues of the eNews are available for viewing at the eNews ARCHIVE. The June 2010 issue will be emailed on May 31, 2010. To receive a copy, please join our mailing list.

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

Salt Lake City Successes: 2010 Edition

Lamb's Grill was the site of the traditional wrap-up dinner of the Tenth Annual Salt Lake City Research Tour. Most of the thirty three attendees at this year's trip joined in the celebration of a successful week at the Family History Library. Here are a few of the accomplishments reported.

Laura Lee Johnson Karp went back two more generation with her German GANSERT and VETER lines.

Jim Sorenson had nothing but praise for the library's collection and had success with Swedish church records.

Gary Willcuts reported he is on the "right track" tracing his MIDDLETON line from Los Angeles back to Scotland.

Bill O'Neil located a photograph of ancestor Jacob Frederick and learned of the work of a cousin, Arlene Gable, at Frederick Family Tree.

Pamela Wardall Lewis was tickled to find her own immigration record (and that of her mother and brother) on Find My Past.

Alison Kern Shedd found SEIGLE estate records in Porter County, Indiana.

Cynthia Peterson Gorman located an lithographic image of Nathanial Templeton being burned at the stake after capture by Indians at the Battle of Sandusky Plains.

Gabrielle Kojder put all the pieces of the puzzle together and located her Slovenian village.

Cathy Paris made progress with research of her ancestors in Scotland, particularly with Henry  WEBSTER.

This was Carol Levison Glesser's first trip to Salt Lake and she had considerable beginner's luck going back five generations with her LEVISON, MAXWELL and MASON families.

Thanks, Jane and Nancy, for another great week in Salt Lake City!

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

Wordless Wednesday

Tenth Annual Salt Lake City Tour
April 21 – 28, 2010

Jane Knowles Lindsey and Nancy Simons Peterson

Photographs by Kathryn M. Doyle, Salt Lake City, Utah.

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

Jacob Workman Gesner of New Brunswick and Massachusetts

Inevitably, no matter the geographical region or ethnicity of interest, every genealogist comes to the same fork-in-the-road dilemma: keep researching or publish? When is the right time to stop the hunt and just start writing?

For Tom Gesner, the decision was helped along by some of his colleagues at the California Genealogical Society. Tom attended Hints On Publishing Your Family History, presented almost two years ago by Shirley Thomson, Jane Lindsey and Matt Berry. Tom concluded then that writing a book was something he could "really do."

The tangible result is Jacob Workman Gesner of New Brunswick and Massachusetts: His Ancestry and Descendants Through Three Generations. Jacob (1835-1920) was Tom's great-great grandfather. Tom estimates Jacob has hundreds of descendants.

A donated copy of the book sits on the shelves of the library and in it Tom has written, "In appreciation of the many helpful suggestions by CGS members, Tom Gesner, 15 Oct 2009." Tom told me that he  also found Matt Berry's Microsoft Word Skills for Genealogists workshops extremely useful and he acknowledges Verne Deubler's support and helpful information.

The CGS Library holds one other GESNER title: The Gesner Family of New York and Nova Scotia: Together with Some Notes Concerning the Families of Bogardus, Brower, Ferdon, and Pineo by Anthon Temple Gesner. Written in 1912, Tom notes that the book details the story of the "progenitor of the North American Gesners" Johann Heinrich Gesner, who arrived at New Amsterdam in 1710.  Tom's book is a continuation of one branch of the family.

Jacob Workman Gesner of New Brunswick and Massachusetts: His Ancestry and Descendants Through Three Generations, Thomas G. Gesner, Emeryville, California : Brookside Publishing, 2009.
ix, 112 p. : ill., ports., maps ; 23 cm. An account of the migration of Jacob Gesner and his children from New Brunswick to Fall River, Mass. $25. Available from Tom Gesner, P.O. Box 99281, Emeryville, CA 94662.


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