Capital Campaign: Help Us Finish Strong

by Chris Pattillo, Capital Campaign Chair

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Today our Sherman-Haughton fund has $384,390 more than it did before the campaign began. Wouldn't it be great if we could reach $400,000 by the time our Capital Campaign ends on February 1st?

The official kickoff of the first ever California Genealogical Society (CGS) Capital Campaign was February 2017, nearly a year ago. The Campaign Committee (myself, Jane Lindsey & Sandy Fryer) reached out to our membership as well as to individuals and philanthropists who have an interest in preserving family history. Our goal was to raise $1.2 million in honor of the 120th anniversary of the society. We did not succeed in reaching this lofty goal but have succeeded in raising an incredible $384,390. This is an amazing number for an all-volunteer organization to raise!

Where does the money go?
Our investment committee has managed our funds prudently, so for the past ten years our portfolio has grown by an average of 9.4% a year. These funds provide financial security for our society, and provide us with the ability to offer more services to our membership.

Why am I sending you another Capital Campaign Appeal?
As you may know, revenue generated from membership fees, seminars, classes, and research trips does not cover our annual expenses. Every year we rely on our members’ generous donations in response to the Annual Appeal and prudent withdrawals from the Sherman-Haughton Fund to supplement the budget shortfall. Our expenses, particularly the rent, continue to increase every year. Have you contributed yet?

Long-term goals and financial stability go hand-in-hand
The Board and Campaign Committee want CGS to continue to be a leader in family history. We want to offer value to our members by providing nationally known speakers and state-of-the-art educational programs for beginning to advanced researchers. We want to do more to enable our long-distance members to have better access to the society by offering participatory webinars and by digitizing our records and making them available online to members.

Here are 2 easy ways to make a donation:

Mail or drop off a check at the library:

2201 Broadway LL2, Oakland, CA 94612-3031

Write checks to: CGS – Capital Campaign

or

DONATE on our website, CaliforniaAncestors.org

Why I believe in this campaign
Family has always been important to me—it’s my anchor and enabler. CGS feels like an extension of my family. I value how being part of the society has helped me with my research—every visit to the society I learn something new from another member. I hope you share this feeling and will support CGS financially today with a donation to the Capital Campaign and always through donations in response to the Annual Appeal. The money donated to the Capital Campaign goes directly to the Sherman-Haughton fund.

Thank you.

Copyright © 2018 by California Genealogical Society

An Aerial Photo Solves a Family Mystery

 
by Cassie Arnold

My mother recounted a funny and puzzling story from my grandmother that just never added up until I found an old aerial photo of Hayward posted in the Oakland History group on Facebook. It’s amazing sometimes what we uncover when we investigate our family’s stories.

Setting the Scene 

My grandmother spent much of her childhood in an orphanage run by an order of French nuns in Lowell, MA. When her family was reunited in Berkeley, she was a very attractive young woman happy to be free of supervision of the sisters. At Berkeley High School she immediately set her sights on the best looking boy in school. They were married in May 1931 when she was 18 and three months pregnant. 

My grandmother's maiden name was Mildred Frazier.
Her married name was Mildred Murphy. She eventually
 married again and died with the name Mildred Klefsky.
However, she always went by the first name “Marie”.
Photo labelled, "Dec 1930, 18 years old".

While my grandmother was still pregnant with my mother, she and one of her sister-in-laws were staying with their mother-in-law. My grandmother was there because my grandfather was off at college; I don’t know why the sister-in-law was there, but probably because her husband was away for work. 

Regardless, they were staying at a house my great great grandfather owned on Lewelling Boulevard in Hayward. Apparently the two girls were bristling under the supervision of their mother-in-law, so one day they over-powered her, tied her to a kitchen chair, took her pin money and rode the streetcar up East 14th Street to 150th. 

They did what?  

My brother-in-law is a pretty good amateur genealogist and history detective. He was intrigued by this story too, so he tracked down some historical maps for us. We couldn’t find anything along the entire length of 150th Avenue that would be of interest to two young women. Well, at least nothing worth risking the wrath of your mother-in-law over. 

I quizzed my mother again, but she insisted it was on 150th Avenue. Hmm...

A Link Provides the Clue to Oakland’s Forgotten History

I was stumped. Then I got a link to these historic aerial photos. At the intersection of 150th and East 14th I found a raceway! The Oakland Speedway had opened in February of 1931 and hosted Indy cars and (I’m sure of more interest to my grandmother) their drivers until 1936. Now the property is the Bayfair Mall. 

Since the girls were spending the summer of 1931 at Lewelling, so the new raceway probably was a very compelling diversion. I’m not sure I would judge it compelling enough to commit felonious involuntary imprisonment, aka tying up my great grandmother, but my grandmother was always a bit wilder than me. 

All’s Well That Ends Well

And apparently there were no significant consequences from the episode. It was already established that my grandmother and great grandmother were never going to be the best of friends, which helped sow the seeds for future genealogy brick walls, but that’s for another day.

The untold story is that my great grandmother might have been happy to be free of the girls for the day! 

About the Author

Cassie Arnold is an Alameda-based business and financial writer as well as a second-generation Oakland native. She is working on a history of Oakland / Berkeley from 1919 to 1941 from the perspective of her maternal ancestors. 

Copyright © 2017 by California Genealogical Society