The California Nugget, Volume II, Issue 2, Fall 2010

The Fall 2010 edition of The California Nugget has been sent to the printer and should be arriving in members' mailboxes next week. It's another information-filled issue by Editor Jane Hufft and Production Editor Lois Elling.

 

Jane's letter from the editor is a great synopsis of the contents:

Dear CGS Members:

True to the title of our publication, we have a goldmine of articles for you in this issue. In our “Twenty-First Century Genealogy” section, Dr. Henry Snyder, Professor Emeritus of U.C. Riverside, writes about the current state of California newspaper digitization, a topic of enormous importance to anyone conducting research in the golden state. An expert in the subject, he is the former director of the Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research at U.C. Riverside.

Thomas MacEntee, a professional genealogist specializing in the use of technology and social media to improve genealogical research, makes the case for careful and thorough citing of sources, a must for twenty-first century genealogical research. Twenty-first century genealogy also requires that the society embrace the electronic world. As society member Cathy H. Paris explains in her article “Lulu Comes to California Anccestors.org,” we are doing exactly that by using print-on-demand services for our newer books to expedite publishing.

Our “California Ancestors” section features an engaging account from CGS member Janet Brewer Forsburg, whose immigrant ancestor’s successful company was widely known in the Bay Area. CGS manuscript specialists Virginia Turner and Georgia Lipinsky assisted with the preparation of this remarkable story. Kathleen C. Beals, author of many genealogical and history titles, including Early Families of Unity, New Hampshire and San Francisco Marriage Returns, 1850 – 1858, describes how a second look at previously completed research on Simeon Leach unearthed fresh and surprising mate- rial. The 1883 List of Pensioners appears here alphabetically by pensioner which makes this compilation unique.

With winter coming, curl up with one of the new titles reviewed by Marston Watson, a professional genealogist specializing in New England genealogies, and author of three volumes on Royal Families: Americans of Royal and Noble Ancestry.

We have a splendid list of new books, the names of many new members, and a brochure for you to use for ordering any of the society’s publications.

Please note that Part III of “Finding the Laughran Sisters” will appear in the Spring 2011 issue.

Jane Hufft, Editor

TABLE of CONTENTS

Twenty-First Century Genealogy
The California Newspaper: What Survives and How to Find It by Henry Snyder

Family History or Mythology? Why Source Citations Matter by Thomas MacEntee

California Ancestors

Herman Fischbeck and His Queen Lily Soap by Janet Brewer Forsburg 

Taking a Second Look at Simeon Leach by Kathleen C. Beals  

List of Pensioners 1883 compiled by Jane Hufft

For Our Readers

Lulu Comes to CaliforniaAncestors.org by Cathy H. Paris

Recent Acquisitions in the Library

New Members 

Book Brochure

Index

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

Christine In Search of Her Roots

Imagine an intensive internship for young genealogists to learn how to research their family history in America, culminating in a pilgrimage to their far-off ancestral villages.

Fantasy? No!

In Search of Roots is an annual San Francisco program created in 1990 for Chinese Americans aged 17 to 26 with families from the Pearl River Delta region in the Guangdong province of China. More than one hundred interns have visited over 150 ancestral villages, including our own Christine DeVillier.

I recently ran into Christine and saw the gorgeous photo book she created to document her experience. The book had just arrived in the mail and Christine was eager to share it with some genealogy-mad friends. Where better to find some than at the CGS Library?

Ancestral Homes of the Lim - Wong Family documents Christine's amazing trip to Hoisan, Guandong, China in July of this year when she visited the ancestral villages of her maternal grandparents. Christine used MyPublisher's bookmaking software and her photographs to chronicle once-in-a-lifetime moments, like when she met her grandfather's younger sister, Lim Cahn Woon, who had met her brother only once when he returned to China to marry.

 

Christine called her newly found great-aunt "Goo Paw." Goo Paw helped to fill in missing parts of the family tree and led Christine to her grandmother's village and family home using only her memories of the wedding that took place more than sixty years ago.

Christine has been researching her family for almost ten years. She was one of the speakers at the recent Chinese American Family History Conference at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center and she was one of the four creators of the two-part Chinese Ancestry Workshop organized by the California Genealogical Society in the spring.

Thanks, Christine, for sharing!


Photographs from Ancestral Homes of the Lim - Wong Family courtesy of Christine DeVillier.
Photograph of Christine courtesy of Jane Knowles Lindsey, 10/6/2010, Oakland, California.


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

Wordless Wednesday

Board of Directors Facilitated Meeting

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Photographs courtesy of Jane Lindsey and Kathryn Doyle, Oakland, California.



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

Honored to Be Nominated by Family Tree Magazine

The California Genealogical Society and Library blog is honored to be included in the Local/ Regional category of Family Tree Magazine's 40 Best Genealogy Blogs nominees. The magazine will name the Family Tree 40 in the July 2011 issue and they are asking for your help!

The nominated blogs are divided into eight categories:

• Everything
• Cemetery
• Technology
• Heritage
• Research Advice/ How To
• Local/ Regional
• New 
• My Family History

Voting is open until 11:59 p.m. Monday, Dec. 20, 2010. Choose five blogs in each category.


Among the nominees are several other CGS member blogs:

Elyse's Genealogy Blog by Elyse Doerflinger

Little Bytes of Life by Elizabeth O'Neal

The Educated Genealogist by Sheri Fenley

The Internet Genealogist by Leah Allen

We Tree by Amy Cofin


One of the five genealogy blogger panelists who lent their expertise in formulating the blog categories and qualifications (and whose blogs have been excluded from consideration) is "far-flung" (as he calls himself) member Thomas MacEntee, author of Destination: Austin Family and GeneaBloggers. The other Family Tree 40 panelists are Lisa Louise Cooke, DearMYRTLE and Randy Seaver.

Now, please go vote for your favorite blogs!


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

Workshop: Getting Started in German Genealogy with Shirley Riemer

Saturday, January 29, 2011
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

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

Join Shirley Riemer for this informative workshop to get you started with your German research!

This session will focus on the first steps the German family historian must take to gain an understanding of the cultural, historical and genealogical facts essential to German ancestral research. The basics of the Second German Empire as they are relative to German research will be laid out so as to create an understanding of  the basic organization of German and German-American records. A brief overview of German church and civil records, some peculiarities of such records, and several other basic research tools will be discussed.

The workshop is FREE for CGS members but is limited to twenty 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.

A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Shirley Riemer earned her Masters Degree in English from Carnegie-Mellon University. She taught high school English for ten years, then worked in communications for 22 years in Pennsylvania. Following her retirement, her book, The German Research Companion, was published in 1997, followed by a second edition in 2000, now sold out. For the third edition, which appeared in April 2010, she added two additional authors for their expertise: Dr. Roger P. Minert and Jennifer A. Anderson.  In 2001 she co-authored with Dr. Roger P. Minert the book Researching in Germany: A Handbook for Your Visit to the Homeland of Your Ancestors.

For the last 18 years, she has published Der Blumenbaum, the award-winning quarterly journal of the Sacramento German Genealogy Society. For the last nine years she has also published the quarterly newsletter, Mitteilungen, for the Sacramento Turn Verein German-American Cultural Center – Library.

In response to her never-ending awe of the history and culture of our ancestors, Shirley will make her 42nd visit to Germany later in 2011. As the editor of German-interest publications, she has worked extensively with German family history researchers known nationally for their expertise in the field, in order to disseminate information helpful to descendants of German immigrants who are actively pursuing their German family history.


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