Writing Your Family History: Start Now!

The California Genealogical Society is offering an intense writing course to help you begin writing your family history. By the end of the course, you will be ready to start writing, or will be already writing, a family history with confidence and style!

Who Should Take this Course?
This course is for genealogists and family historians who are ready to transform their research into a quality family history.

Course Details
This course will meet for a five-hour session one Saturday a month at the library in the Learning Center. Class size is limited to fifteen participants. All sessions are on Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. with one hour break for lunch.

The course will provide participants with all the information and assistance needed to get started on writing a family history. The course includes

• a copy of the class text Producing a Quality Family History
• helpful course materials organized in a binder
• step-by-step instruction in organizing and writing your history
• a variety of lecturers on topics to expand on reading assignments
• experienced instructors
• editing and writing help

Session dates:

• July 7, 2012
• August 25, 2012
• September 15, 2012
• October 13, 2012

The course has been created by a team of dedicated volunteers – Tim Cox, Lisa Gorrell and Jane Hufft – who have different and complementary skills. Events Chair Tim Cox is the organizer and leader. He also  a vast store of feedback data collected after every class at the library. Tim knows what members want! Board Recording Secretary Lisa Gorrell has taught several course and has curriculum experience. California Nugget Editor Jane Hufft brings her experience as an educator, writer, and editor.

NOTE: This course will NOT focus on research techniques or evidence procedures.

Course Fee*
CGS Members: $50
Non-CGS Members: $75

Register online.


Registration Requirements
Attendance is required at all four sessions.
There is no registration for individual sessions.
Participants must be willing to commit a reasonable amount of time to the homework assignments, which consist of reading assigned chapters in the provided text and working on individual writing projects.

This course is expected to fill very quickly, so register now!

*All course fees are non-refundable.

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

Private Tour of Mountain View Cemetery Sunday, June 3, 2012

Sunday, June 3, 2012
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Mountain View Cemetery

5000 Piedmont Avenue
Oakland, CA 94611

Member Gaye Lenehan will lead a special Sunday tour of an Oakland gem. Docent-led walking tours of Mountain View Cemetery are normally held on Saturday mornings so this is a great opportunity for those who have had a conflict with the usual schedule.

The tour will start promptly at 1:00 p.m. so come in time to find the meeting place.

Come the main gates of Mountain View at the end of Piedmont Avenue and bear right around the fountain and continue up the main drive. On your right will be the Main Mausoleum (a large building) where the group will gather on the front steps of the Mausoleum.

Map:  http://goo.gl/maps/mSy9

Gaye Lenahan leading a tour in 2010.

Founded in 1863, Mountain View was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, renowned landscape architect of New York City's Central Park. The historic, not-for-profit cemetery is nestled in the foothills of Oakland and Piedmont. Gaye will tell a bit of history of the cemetery and lead the group past the final resting places of some interesting people. She's including a climb up the hill to Millionaires' Row.

Please note: Walking shoes are recommended; the tour covers almost two miles on hilly terrain. It is not suitable for those with walkers, canes or the need to sit down frequently. There is plenty of parking along the roads in the cemetery.

Photograph courtesy of Jane Knowles Lindsey, 3/24/2010, Oakland, California.


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

Wordless Wednesday

Aging and Disability Technology Summit

San Francisco City Hall

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Photographs by Kathryn Doyle and Shannon Reese, San Francisco, 5/15/2012.


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

San Francisco Bay Area Genealogy Calendar: June 2012 Published

June 2012 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 June calendar lists fifty classes and events at various venues around the Bay Area, sponsored by thirty societies, libraries and archives.

If you would like to add your group's events to the calendar, please email the information by the 15th of each month. (Please include "SFBA Calendar" in the subject line.)

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

Day Four: NGS 2012 Family History Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio

President Jeff sent his last conference report. Thanks so much!

National Genealogical Society Annual Conference Day Four
12 May 2012 Cincinnati, OH

A Saturday which means a change in the shuttle service between Covington, KY and Cincinnati, OH or a minor chance to miss the first 8:00 a.m. class! Yep! It means the opportunity to walk from Kentucky to Ohio, which is what I did to catch the 9:30 a.m. class by Harold Henderson Indirect Evidence: What To Do When Perry Mason Isn’t on Your Side. Harold suggested that we might be better off using Sherlock Holmes as our model since this fictional character could take small bits of information to solve cases. 

Then from this crowded room it was on to another packed room for Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FASG, FUGA, FNGS presentation Information Overload? Effective Project Planning, Research, Data Management and Analysis which included links to her papers at the BCG website. Work samples posted for all to read are at: http://www.bcgcertification.org/skillbuilders/worksamples.html 

The FamilySearch luncheon proved to be the weakest of any attended. It seemed like a long commercial rather than the topic Discover Your Ohio Ancestors Online, so I got up and left about halfway through, as did some others. 

I went for a last visit to the trade show floor and will bring back some goodies for use in the CGS Library. One of the groups with a booth was the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War whose local Camp footed the bill. I observed they were busy all four days of the conference, informing attendees about the SUVCW. As the conference winds down it is possible to talk with vendors without the crowd (unless a raffle is being held!)

The afternoon session was with Thomas W. Jones, who spoke on Solutions for Missing or Scarce Records and he cited several cases which can be found at the NGS website. One must be a member of NGS to read articles published in the last 100 years.

Then it was time to hit a Cincinnati highlight called Skyline Chili which opened in 1949 by a Greek immigrant; however, it was only the Greek salad that one might find to be “Greek” as the menu has chili in a variety of forms.

It was a GOOD conference, which I recommend to those who have not attended. It is interesting that the conference in 2013 will be in Las Vegas, Nevada. A video about NGS conferences can be found at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/video_conference. 2014 will be in Richmond, Virginia (7-10 May) and 2015 in St. Charles (outside St. Louis), Missouri (13-16 May). Now it is time to write up the other two days of research done before the conference began, pack for the return trip and reengage with CGS. Thank you for reading.

—Jeffrey Vaillant

Read the entire series:
Report #1: 2012 NGS
Report #2: 2012 NGS
Report #3: 2012 NGS
Report #4: 2012 NGS
Report #5: 2012 NGS

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