Mary Mettler's Best Christmas Gift Ever

Mary Mettler shared this story of her best Christmas gift ever. Thanks, Mary, for a great story and another idea for where to look for information about ancestors.

Two years ago, I was puttering on my computer, when I received an email from my grandniece, Anna Lindemann, then a senior at Yale. “Aunt Mary, go to this website and find seventy-nine pictures I took for you. You have two weeks to download them. Merry Christmas!” I have no idea how long it took her to locate and take pictures of 79 documents in the Yale University Archives, all of my father who is also her great-grandfather and a 1915 graduate of Yale. These were a treasure trove of information!  I never would have thought to look for anything other than the University yearbooks; however, Yale, and probably other universities, kept a close watch on their graduates and have rich archives of information.

There were birth and marriage announcements for him and his children, newspaper clippings, pictures, a history of the class of 1915 reunions, a questionnaire given to the graduating seniors, and questionnaires for most years from his graduation to his death in 1955. The senior questionnaire was really fun! I learned that he coveted a “Y” in track more than a Phi Beta Kappa key, had the Scott-Hurtt scholarship, loved to watch football and to participate in track, had been to twenty states and was nicknamed “Monty.” (He was born and raised in Kalispell, Montana.) His favorite prose writer was Rudyard Kipling; his favorite poet, Alfred, Lord Tennyson; and his favorite historical character, Julius Caesar. It also included where and with whom he lived each of the four years, what classes he had taken and much more. The annual questionnaires showed every address change, each job and job title he had, the dates he served on various boards, what his sons did in World War II, what charitable work he had done and even the charities to which he donated. 

I doubt that I will ever receive a more memorable Christmas present! My father died, when I was seventeen; but I learned so much about him from these documents. Even if you don’t have relatives attending colleges of your ancestors, please do add college archives to your list of valuable genealogical sources. Thank you, Anna, for the best Christmas present I ever received!

Image from Yale University Archives courtesy of Mary Mettler.  

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

San Francisco Bay Area Genealogy Calendar: January 2011 Published

January 2011 events have been published on the San Francisco Bay Area Genealogy Calendar – a collection of local genealogical society classes, workshops and meetings within a 75 mile radius of San Francisco.

The January calendar includes forty-none events at various venues around the Bay Area, sponsored by twenty different societies and genealogy libraries. The Commodore Sloat Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, are holding their 30th Annual Ancestor Roundup – an all-day genealogy conference – on Saturday, January 22, 2011, at the Monterey Family History Center in Seaside.

If you would like to add your group's events to the calendar, please email the information by the 20th of each month for publication on the 25th. (Please put "SFBA Calendar" in the subject line.)


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

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