Workshop: Guidelines for Writing Your Family History 11/20

Saturday, November 20, 2010
10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

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


Join Don Edwards for this informal interactive workshop to help you write creative family stories, professional reports and clear articles. Bring your current genealogical writing projects to discuss.

Schedule
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Interactive lecture.
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.  Break for lunch. Bring a brown bag or purchase at a local restaurant.
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.    Writing activities.

The workshop is FREE for CGS members but is limited to ten people. Non-members fee is $20.00 (non-refundable) and can be applied towards membership on the day of the workshop.

Preregistration is required. Walk-ins will not be admitted.

Register online.


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

CGS Website Honored by Family Tree Magazine as One of the Best!

Woo hoo! Family Tree Magazine has named the California Genealogical Society website – CaliforniaAncestors.org – one of the Best State Websites for 2010.

In the article Heads of State in the December 2010 issue of Family Tree Magazine (pages 20-27), author David A. Fryxell lists their 2010 picks for the 75 best U.S. state-focused websites for genealogical research.

To help you find these outstanding state sites – and to salute their efforts at making genealogical and historical information available online – we've compiled this state-centric Best Websites list.

California has two sites listed:

Online Archive of California <www.oac.cdlib.org>
Recently redesigned to take advantage of new technologies, the OAC opens the golden gate to more than 170,000 digital images and documents and nearly 20,000 collection guides.

California Genealogical Society and Library <californiaancestors.org>
You can search the library catalog and find answers in Research FAQs, or search the 350,000 names in the California Names Index. Get a hit? Just $10 will buy a lookup in the original source.

We're honored to be chosen and to be listed among so many fantastic online state resources. Thank you, Family Tree Magazine!

Congratulations to the Kathy Watson, Larry Youngman and the other members of the Website Committee and to all the volunteer members who have contributed to the California Genealogical Society website.

Kudos also to our volunteer librarians - past and present - whose hard work culminated in our online catalog and to the many members who have contributed to the California Names Index. We have the best volunteers in the world!



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

Burbank to Oakland: South Comes North For a Visit

A special meeting occurred on Thursday, September 23, 2010, when Jay Holladay and Vieve Metcalfe of the Southern California Genealogical Society paid a visit to the CGS Library. The couple were in the Bay Area for a school reunion and decided to mix in a little gen society business. It was an opportunity to meet with their NorCal counterparts, tour our library and take a look at our operation.

While Jay met with Technology Director Kathy Watson to discuss the website and facility equipment, Vieve met with CGS Librarian Laura Spurrier. Laura provided a tour of Surpass, our catalog software which our neighbors to the south are considering to replace their Access file.

Vieve Metcalfe, Laura Spurrier, Kathy Watson and Jay Holladay

Jay and Vieve are both active members of the Southern California Genealogical Society. Jay currently leads their Information Technology Team and the RootsMagic User Group. He has been a member of the SCGS board of directors since 2008 and he also serves on the Long-Range Planning Committee. Vieve presently serves as librarian, member of the Long Range Planning and Library Operations Committees, and as cataloguer for the CD collection. In the past, she has served as the Jamboree chair.

All genealogy societies face similar challenges but collaborative sessions like this are few and far between. The visit was so successful that it is likely to be repeated again as both societies plan to continue to share their experiences. Thanks, Jay and Vieve, for stopping by!


Photograph courtesy of Kathy Watson, 9/23/2010, Oakland, California.


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

Wordless Wednesday

CGS Table in the Exhibit Hall at the California Family History Expo

October 8-9, 2010

Photographs courtesy of Tim Cox, Pleasanton, California.

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

Tuesday Tales: Visiting iBrat in Illinois

Mary's back with another edition of her Tuesday travel adventures.

Doesn’t everyone have an iBrat? Daylene Goetz, a young woman who was beginning to research the KENTs, found me in August 2009 through my Tuesday Tales in Dorset, Vermont. Since she was a beginner, I tried to send her as much as possible – the direct line from the first Kent to our mutual Kent, some tombstone pictures, some town records and a few sources. She was going to write up the entire Kent family line as a Christmas present for her mother-in-law. Needless to say, I couldn’t believe she had a chance of finishing anything worthwhile by Christmas. Oh, my goodness, was I mistaken!  She is a wizard at using the internet and incredibly well organized and disciplined. Her mother-in-law and my fifth cousin, Sherry Goetz, was overwhelmed by the extraordinary 149-page book on the Kents, which she received for Christmas. My contribution was only a tiny part of what Daylene created.

Since her work on the book, Daylene and I have continued to email and to get to know each other. She asked me if she could adopt me as her iMom (Internet Mom). I loved the idea of having an iDaughter, but she much preferred to be called iBrat. She is a very good cook and sent me three cookie cans full of homemade goodies for Christmas – pecan turtles, peanut brittle and fudge. I sent her a big box of Meyer lemons from my tree.

She has researched and found tough-to-find information for me on Cephas Kent, Sr. and his son, Cephas Kent, Jr. I am writing a chapter on each of them for a book on Revolutionary War Patriots, which will be published by  group of us next year. Her sharp eye has edited them for me before they go off to the official editor. Thus, what I thought was an act of kindness turned into a fruitful genealogy partnership!

When she found out that I was driving back east, she graciously invited me to stop in Illinois and stay with her and her family – her husband, Todd, who is my fifth cousin, once removed, and their daughter, April. I spent a weekend with them and had a wonderful time. Todd’s parents, Sherry and Steve, came for dinner and we thought of Cephas Kent (1725-1809),  a strong-willed and very religious man, who often proclaimed, “Verily, I will have it so.” We all laughed and were sure we heard his voice in approval of our gathering!

iBrat Daylene Goetz and iMom Mary Mettler

Thank you, CGS, for posting my blogs and introducing me to a very fine genealogist and an inspiring new friend!

Your Roving Reporter,
Mary Mettler

Photograph courtesy of Mary Mettler.

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