“Strategic Searching” series in June

You may know about FamilySearch, NARA, and other online repositories, but do you know how to find your way once you're on the website? A new series of classes in June will give you an in-depth look at four different research websites, each one invaluable to genealogists. The first class is held Wednesday, June 2, after which classes are held on Tuesdays as follows: 

 

Wed, June 2 – FindMyPast

Jen Baldwin of FindMyPast discusses best practices, different ways to search, and utilizing the site to your greatest advantage.

 

Tue, June 8 – Fold3

Anne Gillespie Mitchell of Ancestry.com offers tips on how to effectively search for the veterans in your tree using Fold3.com. She will also cover some of the lesser-known collections, including photos and FBI files.

Tue, June 15 – National Archives

Claire Kluskens of the National Archives and Records Administration offers a guide to navigating this vast collection of U.S. documents with holdings dating back to the American Revolution.

 

Tue, June 22 – FamilySearch

Oakland FamilySearch Library director Ralph Severson talks about the growth of digitized images, a lesser known feature and hidden treasure of this amazing and popular genealogy resource.

 

You can register for any or all of the classes through EventBrite.

Copyright © 2021 by California Genealogical Society

National Archives Virtual Genealogy Fair

October 21 and 22

The National Archives Genealogy Fair is back and it's better than ever. On October 21 and 22, there will be live lectures via YouTube. Speakers represent National Archives branches from across the country. There will be ten lectures on two different days. 

And this event is FREE!  

For more information, handouts, and a complete description of each lecture, go to the National Archives website. Presentations are suitable for all research levels, from novice to advanced. 

Copyright © 2015 by California Genealogical Society

National Archives 2014 Virtual Genealogy Fair, Oct 28-30

Ulysses S. Grant rejoices about having online access to NARA...

by Ellen Fernandez-Sacco

The National Archives' 2014 Virtual Genealogy Fair has just ended, and presentations will be on YouTube by the end of November.  

But don't despair-- the slides, along with presenter's biographies and handouts are available at http://1.usa.gov/1wL4AD4.

There were 17 presentations in all, with coverage of new collections at Ancestry.com, National Archives in Atlanta, Kansas City, Maryland and St. Louis. Topics ranged widely from World War records, to doing family research with the FBI's Freedom of Information Act records (FOIA), working with Alien Case Files, using Patent Records in genealogy, to Civil War Soldiers and Homesteading. 

Handouts include annotated photographs of sample documents with highlighted information, for easy identification of important details, and can run to well over 20 pages. 

Here are a few of the sessions: 
Session 2, by Mary Lynn Ritznthaler, Chief of the Conservation Laboratory at the National Archives at College Park, MD gave "Preserving Your Family Records" which engaged paper, photographs with guidelines on how to mount and preserve them using archival materials. She also noted that The American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works offer a referral service for conservators in your geographic area.

Session 4, by Jessica Hopkins, Archivist at the National Archives at Kansas City Missouri, is an "Overview of American Indian Records and Resources on Archives.gov"  which featured redesigned  pages and updated record sets with five main portals for better access to Federal records that engage Indian peoples across a wide range of times and locations. Check the revamped site out at:  www.archives.gov/research/nativeamericans/index.html

Session 11, Rick Martinez, Archive Specialist at the National Archives at Denver, Colorado, presented "Wagons West: Land Records at the National Archives." This introduction to Federal land records covers tract books, township survey plats and land entry case files along with online resources for the 30 Public Land States. Federal land records can be accessed at NARA in Washington DC and at regional archive locations.
http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/049.html

Session 15, given by Theresa Fitzgerald, Archivist at the National Archives at St. Louis, highlighted the records that detail Official Military Personnel Files (OMPFs) and civilian personnel records at the National Personnel Records Center.  

Session 16, by Elizabeth Burnes, Archivist at the National Archives at St. Louis presented "Friend or Foe? Documenting Alien Ancestors during Times of War", covers 19th and 20th century record sets with applications, files and lists used by a variety of Federal agencies from the Civil War to World War 2. There are over 3,000 series of records from the 18th - 21st centuries available on individuals defined as 'Aliens' (not a citizen of the US) or 'Enemy Aliens' (citizen of countries involved in conflict with the US). 

There's much to learn about Federal records, and these presentations are a wonderful introduction to working with a variety of sources for filling in details of your genealogy and family history. Dig in!


Copyright © 2014 by Ellen Fernandez-Sacco, California Genealogical Society and Library.

Lavinia's Report from the Researcher Forum with Bill Mayer at the National Archives at San Francisco

The National Archives at San Francisco hosted a public Researcher Forum on Monday, January 28, 2013, at 4:00 p.m., with NARA Research Services Executive Bill Mayer from College Park, Maryland. Mayer oversees fifteen facilities of the National Archives nationwide, but this was his first visit to our regional facility in San Bruno.

The NARA forum was designed to gather feedback from researchers who visit the San Francisco facility on a regular basis. He came to answer questions and discuss issues related to the National Archives as a whole as well as to the San Francisco archive specifically.

Lavinia Schwarz and Judy Bodycote-Thomas represented the California Genealogical Society. Lavinia sent this report:

Judy Bodycote-Thomas and I attended the public researcher forum at the National Archives at San Francisco (which is actually in San Bruno) with Bill Mayer who was hired in May of 2012 as Executive of Research Services at NARA. 

Mr. Mayer is traveling to meet and talk with researchers and constituents at all fifteen facilities of the National Archives nationwide. The Seattle-based manager of the western NARA facilities was also in attendance as well as the San Bruno staff and a variety of researchers and historians, individual writers including representatives of Angel Island, Chinese genealogists, and others. Judy and I were pleased to represent the CGS. Mr. Mayer began by thanking the staff for its good service and asking for our input on what we would like the future NARA to be. 

Black and White vs. Color 

He told us of ongoing discussions about color vs. black and white digitizations; whether old microfilm should be recopied; concerns about minimal handling of old documents; space limitation of the various facilities (Cape Canaveral data is now being transferred north). Attendees prefered color – especially for maps and building plans which are often color coded. We pointed out that the earlier black and white microfilming was done when color procedures were not yet available, but to fulfill NARA's goal of preserving documents we preferred the preservation of the original color as opposed to changing original documents to black and white. 

One attendee asked if it is possible to digitize a front page with maximum information and indicate that a certain number of pages follow, e.g., an Angel Island file might have a name, date, photo, and say that the person's file consists of 30 more pages. Apparently, this would be quite hard as the information is dispersed throughout the file so creation of the front page would be labor intensive. 

Another asked why the photos of Pearl Harbor, which used to be housed at San Bruno, have never been returned after they were borrowed while text documents have? Apparently all these docs were sent to Pearl Harbor at one point with the intention of their being returned for permanent housing at San Bruno, but the photos have been retained in a warehouse in Hawaii which is difficult for researchers to get access to. There was discussion of a trio of possible "owners" of the photos – The USS Arizona group, the US Navy, and the US Park Service. Without agreement among them, the photos have not been copied nor returned. This is an ongoing issue.

Another question was why are copies priced by the linear foot? Some maps, plans, Chinese scrolls, etc. are quite long. However, a flat fee, say $5 for simple text might suffice for other items. Mr. Mayer mentioned discussion of having researchers use NARA flash drives to make their copies, and those digitizations being added to the NARA files as they are made. This might be a way to expand the digitization process organically. We were amendable until he mentioned that we'd have to fill out forms as we made our copies. And there were questions about how labor intensive this would be for the staff each day to add the new digitizations to the database. Clearly NARA is trying to figure out how we can help them. 

Mr. Mayer gave us his card and encouraged us to email him with specific suggestions. It was very good  we were there.

William A. Mayer was appointed Executive for Research Services for the National Archives and Records Administration in June 2012 when he was the University Librarian at American University in Washington, D.C. Previously, he served as the Associate University Librarian for Information Technology and Technical Services at George Washington University and as an adjunct faculty member for the School of Library and Information Science at Catholic University. Prior to his twenty-year career in academic libraries, Mayer worked in a variety of occupations, including vineyard management, cattle ranching, and residential construction. His interests include ocean ecology, music, and next-generation learning systems. He earned a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Washington and a M.L.S. from Simmons College in Boston.


Copyright © 2013 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library.

The National Archives and Archives.gov

Marisa Louie

Saturday, March 9, 2013
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

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

Archivist Marisa Louie of the National Archives at San Francisco will speak about resources of genealogical interest found at our local National Archives facility in San Bruno and at locations nationwide. Learn how to get in touch with archivists, how to navigate the archives.gov website, and what is – and what isn't – in the holdings of the National Archives.

Ms. Louie was one of the presenters at our Chinese Ancestry Workshop in 2010. She is a fantastic speaker and we are thrilled to have her back.

Marisa encourages attendees to include any questions you might have about the National Archives when you register for the class. You can also leave your questions here in the comments and I will forward them to her.

Register online.

The class is limited to thirty participants and is a free benefit of membership. Non-members fee is $20.00 (non-refundable).

Preregistration is required. Walk-ins will not be admitted. Registration confirmations will be sent to the first thirty registrants. Additional names will be collected and placed on a waiting list in case of cancellations.

Marisa Louie has been on staff at The National Archives at San Francisco (located in San Bruno, California) as an archivist since September 2009. She primarily works with Asian American genealogists and family historians interested in case files created by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (Record Group 85). She is also the project archivist for the Alien Files ("A-Files") transferred to her facility. Marisa holds a B.A. in American Studies and Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is a past participant in the "In Search of Roots" program.


Copyright © 2013 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library.

A-Files Opening Ceremony and Dedication of the Tom Lantos Research Center

As chief blogger for the California Genealogical Society, I've been to many family history events and reported on lots of genealogy achievements, but none have been as moving and significant as today's A-Files Opening Ceremony and Dedication of the Tom Lantos Research Center at The National Archives at San Francisco.

Jeanie W. Chooey Low

For more than a decade, CGS member Jeanie W. Chooey Low has been a tireless advocate for the Alien Case Files. She and her colleague, Jennie Lew, co-chairs of SONA "Save Our National Archives," a coalition of more than thirty community non-profit and academic organizations and interested individuals, worked closely with the late U.S. Representative Tom Lantos to save the files from scheduled destruction. In early 2008 SONA achieved their two goals:

1. Having the A-files re-designated as records of permanent historic value.
2. Keeping local records at the San Francisco NARA.

In June 2009, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services USCIS and the National Archives and Records Administration NARA held a formal joint signing ceremony in Washington, D.C. to "designate as permanent the immigration files created on the millions of aliens residing in the United States in 1944, as well as those arriving since then."

Today, three years later, NARA-SF officially opened over 40,000 of the case files and dedicated its research room to the late Tom Lantos.

Congresswoman Jackie Speier

Taking part in the ceremony was U.S. Representative Jackie Speier, who continued the work of Tom Lantos after his death in early 2008 and her election to his seat. Among the other speakers was CGS member and San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society President Jeremy Frankel.

Commemorative plaque presented to the grandchildren of Tom Lantos.

Other CGS members in attendance were Christine DeVillier, Grant Din, Nancy Peterson, Kay Speaks, Laura Spurrier, and Cath Trindle. Cath has written two reports on the day for the San Mateo Genealogical Society Blog and the California State Genealogical Alliance Blog.

 

Three researchers were the first to view their ancestors' A-files.

What are the A-Files?
The immigration files, known as “Alien Files” (commonly referred to as “A-Files”), were transferred from U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). They are among the first of millions of case files that will eventually be opened to the public.


In 1940, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the predecessor of USCIS, started issuing Alien Registration Numbers to resident aliens in the United States.  On April 1, 1944, INS began to assign these numbers to a new series of immigration case files called A-Files. A-Files are a genealogical wealth of information, containing documents such as photographs, personal correspondence, affidavits, vital records, interview transcripts, and visa applications.

A first look at an A-File.

How can one access A-Files for genealogical research?
A-Files may be viewed in person by appointment or copies may be ordered for a fee. Researchers may contact National Archives staff at AFiles.SanBruno@nara.gov to search A-Files holdings for a particular file. Beginning Tuesday, May 29, 2012, an online database will be available through the National Archives at San Francisco website at http://www.archives.gov/pacific/san-francisco.

The National Archives at San Francisco is one of twenty-two facilities open to the public nationwide where the public can access Federal archival records in person. Its holdings total over 60,000 cubic feet of historical records dating from the 1850s to the 1990s, created by more than 100 Federal agencies and courts in northern and central California, Nevada (except for Clark County), Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa and the American Territories. The facility is located at 1000 Commodore Drive, San Bruno, CA 94066. The National Archives at San Francisco is open Monday-Friday 7:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. (until 5:30 p.m. on Wednesdays.) Appointments are strongly encouraged.


Photographs by Kathryn Doyle, San Bruno, California, 5/22/2012.


Copyright © 2012 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library