A Collaborative Formula For Success

The California Genealogical Society has participated in several collaborative projects with groups, such as: SFgenealogy.com, the Peralta Hacienda and the New England Historic Genealogical Society. But the most successful venture has been a partnership with the Oakland Regional Family History Center started in October 2008. Then-president Jane Lindsey and Marge Bell, Assistant Director of the ORFHC, cooked up a scheme to offer a menu of beginning genealogy classes at both facilities. The classes were offered on Tuesday evenings at the Family History Center or Saturday mornings at the CGS Library which enabled free parking at either venue. The classes were a huge hit and the formula was expanded to intermediate sessions as well.

Jane Knowles Lindsey and Margery Howe Bell

In all, a total of 174 students have been through five sessions of classes: three for beginners and two for intermediate level participants. The classes have led to an increase in membership and volunteerism and have been successful by any measure.

Jane and Marge – keep talking – we're ready for your next good idea in collaboration.


Written for the second edition of the Carnival of Genealogical Societies: Collaboration.

Photograph courtesy of Judy Bodycote, Oakland, California, 3/30/2010.


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

On the Road to the Fremont Family History Center - June 17, 2010

It's time for the annual roadshow!

Thursday, June 17, 2010
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Fremont Family History Center
3551 Decoto Road
Fremont, California 94538

Members of the California Genealogical Society in Hayward and Fremont are invited to join with members of the Hayward Genealogical Society for networking and a presentation.

Program
10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.  Registration and conversation

10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.  Past-president Jane Knowles 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 and Learn – Bring a bag lunch and take part in some small group discussions of special interest genealogy topics. (Reminder: no coffee or tea please)

12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.  Some Brick Walls Are of Our Own Making. 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 "On the Road" get-togethers are a fun way to meet members in the target locale and are designed to help link neighbors who share an interest in genealogy. The programs are open to the public. If you live in the Fremont/Hayward area, please save the date and let us know if you can come.

The society gratefully acknowledges the assistance of member Pamela Lewis who made the arrangements. 

Please RSVP online.


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

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

Field Trip to Sutro California State Library

Wednesday, May 26, 2010
480 Winston Drive, San Francisco, CA 94132

The California State Library, San Francisco, known as the Sutro Library, bills itself as one of the largest genealogical collections west of Salt Lake City – and it is. With over 150,000 books and resources for all fifty states, it is a must-visit place for Bay Area genealogists.

Jack Leibman has written a fascinating history of Adolph Sutro's library: The Saga of Sutro Library which includes this description:

Today the Sutro is a major resource for genealogy research. It continues to gather a remarkable list of historical and genealogical publications from the U.S., Latin America, and Europe. The surviving original collections of Sutro include a wide variety of pre-1900 British scientific papers, a unique collection of Mexican works, and many rare ancient Hebrew texts. A treasure trove of Sutro's voluminous correspondence is expected to provide some fascinating new insights into the history of this brilliant, inventive, and bold avatar of San Francisco.

Ron and Pam Filion of sfgenealogy.com have posted a comprehensive review of Bay Area research facilities, including Sutro.

Dick Rees will lead a group to Sutro on public transportation using BART and Muni leaving from the 19th Street Station in Oakland. Members may also car pool and meet at the library. Library staff will give us a tour. The library's hours are 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Bag lunch recommended.

Register online.


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

Wordless Wednesday

Ethnic Genealogy Series: Chinese Ancestry Workshop I

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Christine DeVillier , Marisa Louie,  Jeanie Low and Kay Speaks

Photographs by Tim Cox and Kathryn Doyle, Oakland, California.

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

Nancy Peterson at The Society of Mayflower Descendants in California San Francisco Peninsula Colony Luncheon

Saturday, May 15, 2010
The Society of Mayflower Descendants in California

San Francisco Peninsula Colony Luncheon
Delancey Street Restaurant
The Embarcadero at Brannan Street
San Francisco, California

Nancy Simons Peterson will be the guest speaker at The Society of Mayflower Descendants in California San Francisco Peninsula Colony luncheon on Saturday, May 15, 2010.

Nancy is Research Director of the California Genealogical Society and the author of Raking the Ashes: Genealogical Strategies for Pre-1906 San Francisco Research, published by the society in 2006 to coincide with the centennial of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. Nancy and the entire research team have been burning the midnight oil to complete The Judge Project – which will result in another publication by the society later this year.

The General Society of Mayflower Descendants was formed in Boston in 1896. The California Society, chartered October 17, 1907, was established in San Francisco as the first Western State society by pioneers drawn to the new land of opportunity created by the California Gold Rush. The San Francisco Penisula Colony meets five times a year to remember heritage, for social time, lunch and a program related to personalities, events or items of Pilgrim or California historical interest. They hold joint meetings with other colonies within the Bay Area, including their important Compact Day each November.

Any person able to document their descent from one of the Mayflower Pilgrims is eligible to apply for membership.

Wordless Wednesday

Frankie Rhodes, Dick Rees and Arlene Miles

March 10, 2010

Photograph by Kathryn Doyle, Oakland, California.

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

Featured on RootsTelevision!

We're so honored and pleased that our YouTube video has been added to RootsTelevision and has been selected as one of this week's New Roots Tuesday picks.

Pub/Mark Committee chair Cathy Paris created Who Do You Think We Are? from blog photos and added captions to describe all aspects of the society and our members. RootsTelevision thinks it's "a great example of how a society can showcase themselves online." We agree! And we thank Roots Television for helping us to spread our message.

Roots Television offers free genealogy and family history videos. Topics include Conferences, How-to, DNA, African Roots, British research, Irish family history, Hispanic roots, Libraries, Archives, Reunions, Photo Restoration and more.

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

Some Nice Press From A Surprising Source

I mentioned last month that advertising our First Saturdays Free "Intro to Genealogy" classes on internet events sites like Yelp, Yahoo Upcoming and Facebook seems to be reaching a new and younger audience. This month's April 3 class, taught by Mary Beth Frederick, included a student who found us on Yelp and who was interested in more than just learning some genealogy.

Brianna Headsten let us know in advance that she was coming and that she would be writing an article about the class for her school newspaper. A communications student at California State University East Bay, Brianna is on the staff of The Pioneer. I was thrilled to receive a copy of her article, All Branches Have Common Roots, published on April 8, 2010, and assurances that she will be back to do more research on her family history.

Thanks so much, Brianna!

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

Hard Drive Organization - Making Use of Your Computer File Folders

Saturday, May 15, 2010
11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

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

After collecting digital images from online sources and manually scanning paper documents and photos for over twenty years, Tim Cox found a management method that works for his digital files. He will demonstrate how to name files for easy identification, how to organize folders that make it easy to find them, and how to properly identify scanned photographs.


This class is a free benefit for members only. Class size is limited to twenty participants. Walk-ins will not be admitted.

Register online.

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

Wordless Wednesday

Intermediate Genealogy: Immigration

Jane Knowles Lindsey

Photograph by Kathryn M. Doyle, 2/16/2010, Oakland, California



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

May Membership Meeting (and a Bonus!) with Jo Ann Rowley-Minhoto

Saturday, May 8, 2010
California Genealogical Society Library
2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland, California

Member Jo Ann Rowley-Minhoto will present two talks on our second Saturday May Membership Meeting day. Please plan to come in the morning for her first presentation, break for a brown bag lunch (or pick something up nearby), attend a short membership meeting at 1:00 p.m., then hear Jo Ann's second talk.

Rootsweb Overview
11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

RootsWeb is one of the free and diverse collections of information that's been available for quite some time and is still valuable. Mailing lists and message boards, online education, surname connections, other data and more, on a world-wide scope. Join us to learn more.

Membership Meeting

1:00 p.m.

Social Networking: What's Available at RootsWeb
1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

After a brief overview of some "Social Networking" terms and examples, we'll focus on what's available at RootsWeb. Mailing Lists, message boards, and blogs at RootsWeb are there to help us interact with others while researching our families and interests.

After a career as system analyst of computer business applications, Jo Ann Rowley-Minhoto turned her attention to genealogy in 1996 and parlayed both into her business, Computer Ancestors. She loves giving presentations, hoping to give someone value in their research. Jo Ann completed the National Genealogical Society's (NGS) "American Genealogy: A Basic Course" in 2004, received a certificate from Dallas Genealogical Society's (DGS) Land Institute in 1999, is a member of Association of Professional Genealogists (APG), and takes clients, both for computer related assistance and assistance in researching one's family history.

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

Mapping Madness with Ron Arons - Sunday, April 18, 2010

Sunday, April 18, 2010
1:00 p.m. (Doors open at 12:30 p.m.)

Oakland Regional Family History Center
4766 Lincoln Avenue
Oakland 94602

San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society Lecture and Meeting: Mapping Madness with Ron Arons

Member and author Ron Arons will be the featured speaker at an upcoming SFBAJGS meeting. Ron will discuss numerous websites where one can find historical maps and he will review the online mapping facilities provided by the two Goliaths in the field: Microsoft and Google. He will also introduce the audience to several other online mapping facilities, including: Microsoft’s MapCruncher, IBM’s Many Eyes, and Muckety.com

Born and raised in New York, Ron Arons has traced his roots to England, Poland, Romania, the Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania. In researching his book, The Jews of Sing Sing, Ron took a genealogical approach, collecting a variety of original source documents. The book includes biographies of more than a dozen famous gangsters and lesser-known criminals and paints a broad canvas of Jewish criminality in New York City. Ron's newest book is the recently released Wanted! U.S. Criminal Records: Sources and Research Methodology.

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

eNews April 2010, volume 4, number 4

The April 2010 issue of the eNews, volume 4, number 4, 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: CGS Ancestors.

This month we have a mystery man. Can you help member Susan Smith-Bromiley and her cousin, Vicky Whitney Landau, discover what happened to their great-uncle, Joseph B. Mendizábal?

Joseph B. Mendizábal

All past issues of the eNews are available for viewing at the eNews ARCHIVE. The May 2010 issue will be emailed on April 30, 2010. To receive a copy, please join our mailing list.

Wordless Wednesday

Visit to the Library
Tour by Dick Rees
Santa Clara Gen-Study Group

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Photograph by Kathryn M. Doyle, Oakland, California.

Discover Your Swedish Roots Using Genline

Wednesday, May 5, 2010
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

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

Learn how to research Swedish Church records to trace your Swedish ancestry. Peter Wallenskog, CEO of Genline AB and Kathy Meade, Genline’s North American representative, will give a presentation on Swedish genealogy and demonstrate how to trace one’s roots using Genline, an online service that contains digital images of the original Swedish Church Books archive from the 16th century to the 20th century.

In addition, Peter and Kathy will demonstrate Genline’s new exciting initiative connecting the Swedish Church Books to Bygdeband, a site containing historical information about places, where one can gain a deeper understanding of the place where one’s Swedish ancestor lived.

Free to all participants with preregistration.

Register online.



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

Overview: Microsoft Office 2007

Saturday, May 1, 2010
1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

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

Join Tim Cox as he gives a high level overview of the Microsoft Office 2007 Suite of applications, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. You may bring your laptop but it's not required.

This class is a free benefit for members only. Class size is limited to twenty participants.

Walk-ins will not be admitted.

Register online.

Shirley Thomson's Report From Washington, D.C.

Shirley Thomson consented to share this from her recent trip:

I’m just back from a week of research fun in Washington, DC. The relevance of that for CGS friends is that I traveled with Bette Kot. Bette was CGS’s librarian for several years during which time she served the society in many capacities, including board of directors and publication committee. She moved from Walnut Creek to Parker, Colorado, five years ago where she now teaches genealogy and continues to stay busy researching Gorrell family history.

Bette and I traveled with Sandy Aberer, a fellow The Master Genealogist (TMG) software user who lives locally in Diablo, to visit the National Archives, the Library of Congress and the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Library. We enjoyed it all, even with six days of rain and cold weather. The libraries serve a wonderfully rich banquet of information to researchers who all too often get by on crumbs of data and slender tidbits of history.

Shirley Thomson, Bette Kot and Sandy Aberer

The difficult part was deciding how best to use our hours there. In the end, time was about equally divided between the three libraries. Happily, both NARA and the LC offer evening hours.

NARA:  I wanted to find Civil War pension files for two ancestors. Indexes to pension files are available on Footnote.com and at the Archives, of course, for those arriving unprepared.

One of my men was listed with both an invalid pension and a pension for minor children at his death. The other’s record also contained two—an invalid application and certificate and a widow’s pension application and certificate. Armed with the numbers, I submitted “pull requests” to the Archives staff. They pulled the files from the vast collection of archived records and made them available in about an hour.

Taking my newly issued researchers’ ID card (acquired on the first visit there) and some money for copies, I went to the secure reading room to pick up the envelopes and settled at a comfortable desk to read and copy records. Papers in the files included information about the soldiers and their families from neighbors, friends, doctors, fellow soldiers from those long-gone days, and the applicant too of course. Reading them was a spiritual event.

Civil War pension records are a fraction of what’s there, of course, but they’re not available anywhere else. While pension papers for soldiers of the Revolution are now available on Footnote.com, such records for those who served in the Civil War and War of 1812 are not.

Library of Congress:  After registering for our “reader cards,” we attended an LC orientation session and spent the majority of our time there in the Local History and Genealogy Reading Room. While satisfying for sure, we were just nibbling at the edges of offerings on that menu.

The LC catalog is on the Internet, of course, and it goes on forever, since it has just about everything ever published in the USA—or close to it. Time spent on the on-line LC catalog before arrival there is a good investment.

NSDAR Library: Here I thought I’d prepared reasonably well at home using the library’s catalog on line. But I found it hard to work methodically once I could meander through the open stacks midst vast numbers of family histories, local histories and periodicals. There, also, was that immense collection of DAR-generated records—copies of everything the society has collected and published over the years—and much of it searchable on the library’s computers.

What a week! It was pleasurable travel with friends to libraries offering glorious possibilities. Perhaps Washington—along with Salt Lake City, Fort Wayne and Boston—would be a good destination for a future CGS group research trip.

Photograph courtesy of Shirley Thomson, 3/16/2010, Washington, D.C.

San Francisco Mortuary Records – 2010 Update!

There is exciting news for researchers with San Francisco ancestors! The San Francisco Mortuary Records Project is moving forward on two fronts with new records available for indexing at FamilySearch and the announcement of a database update at SFgenealogy.com.

In case this record set is new to you, the project was initiated by the California Genealogical Society and Library and is a cooperative effort with SFgenealogy.com, the San Francisco Public Library, the Genealogical Society of Utah and FamilySearch Indexing. It is the culmination of several years' work to bring the digital images of thousands of mortuary records, stored by the Halsted Gray Mortuary in San Francisco, to researchers all over the world. The records are a significant genealogical find because of the richness of their detail and the miraculous way they survived the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire.

The records include the complete holdings of the first mortuary in San Francisco, undertakers N. Gray & Co., from the day it opened - July 1, 1850. In all, the project includes the surviving records of several mortuaries that merged with either Halsted or Gray, over the years. The records contain information from financial ledgers, cemetery records, removal records and headstone notations. Many have obituary clippings.

Rose Pierson of FamilySearch Indexing informed us that the next batch of U.S., California, San Francisco - Mortuary Records, 1850-1917 are up and are ready to be indexed. If you want to participate you better hurry. It is a small batch and the work will be completed quickly. If you are already signed up to be a volunteer indexer, just sign in. If not, you will need to register at the site.

I also received this press release from Ron Filion of SFgenealogy.com: 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

The free, online San Francisco Mortuary Records 1911-1974 Database at SFgenealogy has been updated.

San Francisco, CA - March 25, 2010
SFgenealogy.com has completed the second phase of indexing for the San Francisco Mortuary Records Database. The second phase has added records from the Martin & Brown (A.W. Martin) mortuary to the previous Halsted & Company collection. The collection now spans from 1911 to 1974.

The database includes over 179,000 digitized images and over 70,000 unique names. The searchable index also includes advanced surname search options such as Soundex and Metaphone, and wildcard searching.

The current Halsted N. Gray - Carew & English, Inc. mortuary has merged and acquired various mortuaries throughout the years. It is one of the oldest and largest mortuaries in San Francisco. FamilySearch and the California Genealogical Society are indexing their earlier records.

Contact:
Ron Filion or Pamela Storm.

Wordless Wednesday

Mountain View Cemetery Tour
Gaye Lenahan
Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Photographs courtesy of Jane Knowles Lindsey, 3/24/2010, Oakland, California.