San Francisco Bay Area Genealogy Calendar: January 2013 Published

Genealogical societies throughout the Bay Area are gearing up for a new year of meetings and events.

January 2013 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 lists sixty 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.

115th Anniversary Celebration Luncheon with Dr. Andy Anderson

Saturday, February 9, 2013

11:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Nile Hall
Preservation Park
668 Thirteenth Street
Oakland, CA 94612

The California Genealogical Society and Library will celebrate the 115th anniversary of our founding at a special luncheon event. Dr. Andy Anderson, Chief Historian of Wells Fargo Bank, will present The Healing Power of Genealogy. Dr. Anderson has given keynote addresses at both the National Genealogical Society and the Federation of Genealogical Society annual conferences. He is an inspirational speaker and we are honored to have him at our event.

The festivities will include a social hour, used book sale and luncheon buffet. Several of the society's committees will have displays tables. Complimentary parking at City Center West Garage.

Schedule:

11:00 – 12:00 p.m. Social hour

                               Mingle and browse book sale and committee displays

12:00 – 1:00 p.m.  Welcome by President Jeff Vaillant

                               Light buffet lunch (soup, salad, sandwiches)

  1:00 – 1:30 p.m.   A Short History of CGS

                                Introduction of Dr. Andy Anderson, Jeff Vaillant

  1:30 – 3:00 p.m.   "The Healing Power of Genealogy," Dr. Andy Anderson

Seating is limited. Be one of 115 members and friends who will gather to celebrate our 115th anniversary! Tickets are $40, including lunch and parking.

Register online.

If you would like to give a birthday gift to the California Genealogical Society, please round up the ticket price to include a donation to help support our library.

• $115 – One dollar for every year!  ($75 tax-deductible donation)
• $100  ($60 donation)
• $75  ($35 donation)
• $50  ($10 donation)

If you cannot attend but would like to give a birthday gift, please donate online or send a birthday check to The California Genealogical Society, 2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland, CA 94612.

Dr. Andy Anderson

Andy Anderson is executive vice president and chief historian of Wells Fargo & Company. Over the past thirty-four years, he has built the Wells Fargo archives, several history museums and a modern fleet of stagecoaches. He also has managed Wells Fargo’s corporate marketing, advertising, and brand management programs, and the initial development of wellsfargo.com in 1994. He is the author of Stagecoach: Wells Fargo and the Rise of the American Financial Services Industry (Simon & Schuster, February 2002).

Dr. Anderson’s interest in history led him most recently to create the Wells Fargo Family & Business History Center to help families and businesses discover their own history and cultural roots. He believes a family can better manage its legacy into future generations by understanding its past.

Dr. Anderson’s most recent publication is an interactive CD and Internet guide titled: "How to Find Your Family History & Cultural Roots." Copies of this CD are available gratis by contacting any Wells Fargo Wealth Management representative. His favorite quote is the advice Henry Wells offered to a young person who asked, in 1864, what it takes to succeed in business: "There is one very powerful business rule. It is summed up in the word — Courtesy."

Dr. Anderson earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Villanova University, and his Master of Arts and Ph.D. in History from The Ohio State University. He has taught history at Ohio State, Arizona State, and Stanford universities. He received his archival training at the Hoover Institution and the Archives Institute of the National Archives of the United States.

For more about Dr. Anderson's work, please read this 2007 article from the Wall Street Journal: A Bank's Historian Shakes Money From Family Trees


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

Winter Intermediate Genealogy Series Starts January 29, 2013

For the fifth consecutive year, the California Genealogical Society (CGS) is pleased to present a winter series of genealogy classes. The 2013 Intermediate Genealogy Series is designed for the researcher who wants to go beyond the basics.

Be resolute! Class size is limited and expected to fill quickly so reserve your space now.

Ten classes will be held on Tuesday mornings from 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. at the Oakland FamilySearch Library, 4766 Lincoln Avenue, Oakland, California. Classes begin on January 29, 2013 and run through April 2, 2013.

SCHEDULE:

01/29 Probate and Guardianship Records – Susan Goss Johnston 

02/05 Cemetery Records – Jane Knowles Lindsey
02/12 Church Records – Lindsey
02/19 Newspaper Research – Janice Sellers
02/26 Military Records – Johnston
03/05 Finding Country Cousins in Land and Property Records – Johnston
03/12 Seeking City Slickers in Lesser-Known Records – Johnston
03/19 Reading and Transcribing Old Handwriting – Lindsey
03/26 Immigration and Naturalization – Lindsey
04/02 Solving Your Toughest Genealogy Problems – Johnston and Lindsey


PLEASE NOTE:

• Class size is limited to thirty participants. No walk-ins.
• Fee is $50 for ten classes, including syllabus.
• Pre-registration is required. Participants are encouraged to utilize information received in the beginning classes BEFORE enrolling in the intermediate series.
• Free parking at the Oakland FamilySearch Library

Download the series flier for full class descriptions.

Register online.

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

The California Nugget, Fall 2012, Volume IV, Issue 2

The Fall 2012 edition of The California Nugget has been sent to the printer and will soon begin arriving in members' mailboxes. Editor Jane Hufft and Production Editor Lois Elling have created another information-packed issue for your reading pleasure.

Here is Jane Hufft's letter from the editor:

Dear Readers:

Too much family history piled up in the garage? Denise Levenick will make you feel better about all of it. Still looking for that elusive female ancestor’s family? Alison Shedd shares her strategies in “Finding Carrie Seigle.” Ever wonder what good a genealogy society does? Read Virginia Turner’s “The International Congress of Genealogy, 1915, San Francisco.” To this day stories and excerpts from that significant, founding event are discussed and archived on the internet. Need new places to look for information? This issue of the California Nugget has a mini-theme of specialty libraries: The Maritime Museum in San Francisco, described by Gina Bardi, is a local treasure; in Boston, the New England Historic Genealogy Society’s library and the Archdiocese Archives of Boston, more commonly called the Catholic Archives, both maintain unique collections, as does the Leo Baeck Library in New York City. Oh, and don’t miss the list of family surname newsletters we have at the library. Is your surname there?

New research opportunities continue to come to light. In their article on the Alien Case Files, Jeanie Low and Jennie Lew describe an amazingly rich and valuable resource at the National Archives, only recently made available to the public. More newspapers appear online; see “Historical Portuguese Newspapers of California Digitized.” Society-sponsored research trips always yield fresh discoveries, as you will read in “Researching the McKinley Family in Boston.” This fall the CGS library acquired a wealth of new books, an event documented by Henry Snyder in “Generous Gifts Enrich the Library.”

No matter how quickly you read through the following pages, don’t miss the wonderful family photograph shared by Cynthia Gorman, a treasure from by-gone era.

—Jane Hufft, Editor

TABLE of CONTENTS

Twenty-First Century Genealogy

I’m Rich! I’ve Inherited My Grandmother’s Stuff! by Denise May Levenick
The Maritime Museum Library in San Francisco by Gina Bardi, Reference Librarian
The Alien Case Files at the National Archives in San Bruno by Jennie Lew and Jeanie Low
The Story of SONA, “Save Our National Archives” by Jeanie Low
Researching the McKinley Family in Boston by Alison Kern Shedd

California Ancestors

Cynthia Louisa Capron by Cynthia Gorman
Finding Carrie Seigle’s Family: Tracing a Female Ancestor by Alison Kern Shedd
The International Congress of Genealogy, 1915, San Francisco by Virginia Turner
1883 Pensioners List: Isaacs, Alf. S through Miller, Isaac Compiled by Jane Hufft

For Our Readers

Historical Portuguese Newspapers of California Digitized by Henry Snyder
Jewish Archives Now Online 

At the Society

Generous Gifts Enrich the Library by Henry Snyder
Family Surname Newsletters at the Library Compiled by library staff
Research Trips With the Society 

The California Nugget, the magazine of the California Genealogical Society, is published twice a year. Its purpose is to share the unique genealogical material in the CGS library, add to the body of family history information about Californians, offer guidance and timely information to family researchers, and to provide a forum for members to share their expertise and findings. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the society. The magazine is distributed free to members and is available to non-members for $5.00 an issue, plus postage.

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

Member Blog Roll: No Longer a Lonely Place

CGS Member Blogs are listed at the bottom of the right sidebar. From the time the blog started in November 2007, this space was reserved for links to blogs authored by members of the California Genealogical Society. For the first couple of years genealogy blogging was in its infancy and the member blog roll was a very lonely place. Five years later we are proud to feature fifty member blogs!

As I recall, blogs by Jennifer Regan and Lois Elling were some of the earliest listed.

Three of our members, Lavinia Schwarz, Chris Pattillo, and Craig Siulinski, started their blogs after attending a "how-to" workshop by Thomas MacEntee and Craig Manson in October 2009. In early 2011 Craig Siulinski taught his own blogging workshop and several more members started blogs.

Many of the first to be added weren't new blogs, they were well-established by well-known genealogy bloggers who became CGS members. Thanks to my blogging buddies for your membership in the California Genealogical Society: Amy Coffin, Sheri Fenley, Denise Levenick, Thomas MacEntee, Craig Manson, Elizabeth O'Neal, Cheryl Palmer and Kim von Aspern-Parker.

Three of our directors have blogs listed in the roll.

I know of two blogs started by members in 2012.

Quesnell & Poole Families in South Africa is about the research Mary Beth Frederick has done on her husband's family. Blogging is a way for her share information with family without writing a formal printed family history which she feels is "too daunting – and it's bound to be full of mistakes that can't be corrected until the next edition."

Linda Harms Okazaki blogs about her family, genealogy, and gardening in Linda's Orchard. I've really been enjoying her recent entries about her husband's Japanese ancestry and their trip to Japan.

Please take the time to explore the blog roll and enjoy reading the genealogical discoveries of your fellow society members.

Have I missed anyone? I'm sure there are more members of the California Genealogical Society who are blogging. If you are a member and your blog isn't listed, please leave a comment and the url so I can add your blog to the list.


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