eNews March 2013, volume 7, number 3

The March 2013 eNews, volume 7, number 2, has been published and emailed to members and friends. As always, the eNews features timely information about the California Genealogical Society and our upcoming events. Each edition also includes Suggested Links From the Blogosphere and a photo feature: California Ancestors.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, we pay tribute to Irish-born Jennie McCormick Fitzgerald, great-grandmother of member Cathy Paris.

Jennie McCormick Firzgerald (1861–1935)

Past issues of the eNews are available at the eNews archive.

The April 2013 issue will be emailed on March 31, 2013. To receive a copy, please join our mailing list.

Photograph courtesy of Cathy Paris.

Copyright © 2013 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library.

Juan Bautista de Anza Traveling Exhibit: Discover the Diversity of Early California

CGS Vice-president Ellen Fernandez-Sacco visited the de Anza exhibit at Oakland City Hall and sent this report:

A small bilingual traveling exhibit on the de Anza Expedition of 1775-1776 was on view at the City Hall in downtown Oakland. Organized by the National Parks Service and the Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, it also included a film screening of “The Anza Expedition” and a panel discussion by representatives of the Oakland Black Cowboy Association, the Peralta Hacienda Historical Park and the Juan Bautista de Anza National History Trail part of the National Park Service. 

The De Anza Expedition led 240 men, women and children over 1200 miles and was intended to populate and colonize Alta California and establish a supply route between Sonora to the San Francisco Bay. The settlers founded San Francisco and San Jose. The De Anza National Heritage Trail extends from Nogales on the U.S. Mexico border through Southern California, through the Coast region to San Francisco. Native people guided the expedition over their trade routes comprised of trails and landscapes they knew for centuries. Profound changes ensued. 

Eventually, the establishment of the Mission system destabilized and destroyed Native ways of life in California. Settlers and Native people interacted and intermarried to create a unique California culture.

Of particular interest to readers interested in California genealogy and family history are the documents on the National Parks Service Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail website, which includes a 268-page Historic Resource study with a bibliography and an Ethnography of the settlers of San Francisco.

Some primary source documents (original journals) and other resources are on the Web de Anza site.

California Spanish Genealogy at SFgenealogy chronicles the story of the soldiers of the De Anza Expedition.

A free, 22-page downloadable supplement on impact of the expedition on Native peoples along the trail, Native People, the Anza Expedition, and the Settlement of California, was originally published in 2008.


Photographs and links courtesy of Ellen Fernandez-Sacco.


Copyright © 2013 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library.

San Francisco Bay Area Genealogy Calendar: March 2013 Published

March 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 March calendar lists fifty-eight classes and events at various venues around the Bay Area, sponsored by thirty-five societies, archives, and libraries.

The California Genealogical Society will be exhibiting at the San Francisco History Expo at the Old Mint on Saturday and Sunday, March 2-3, 2013, with SFgenealogy.com and the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society.

There are two events of note in Sacramento this month. The 8th Annual African-American Family History Seminar Celebrating 150 Years of Emancipation will be held on Saturday, March 9, 2013 and the Annual Spring Seminar with Thomas MacEntee will be on Saturday, March 16, 2013, sponsored by Root Cellar, the Sacramento Genealogical Society.

If you would like to add your group's events to the calendar, please email the information by the 15th of each month for publication on or before the 25th. (Please include "SFBA Calendar" in the subject line.)

Copyright © 2013 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library.

Lavinia's Report from the Researcher Forum with Bill Mayer at the National Archives at San Francisco

The National Archives at San Francisco hosted a public Researcher Forum on Monday, January 28, 2013, at 4:00 p.m., with NARA Research Services Executive Bill Mayer from College Park, Maryland. Mayer oversees fifteen facilities of the National Archives nationwide, but this was his first visit to our regional facility in San Bruno.

The NARA forum was designed to gather feedback from researchers who visit the San Francisco facility on a regular basis. He came to answer questions and discuss issues related to the National Archives as a whole as well as to the San Francisco archive specifically.

Lavinia Schwarz and Judy Bodycote-Thomas represented the California Genealogical Society. Lavinia sent this report:

Judy Bodycote-Thomas and I attended the public researcher forum at the National Archives at San Francisco (which is actually in San Bruno) with Bill Mayer who was hired in May of 2012 as Executive of Research Services at NARA. 

Mr. Mayer is traveling to meet and talk with researchers and constituents at all fifteen facilities of the National Archives nationwide. The Seattle-based manager of the western NARA facilities was also in attendance as well as the San Bruno staff and a variety of researchers and historians, individual writers including representatives of Angel Island, Chinese genealogists, and others. Judy and I were pleased to represent the CGS. Mr. Mayer began by thanking the staff for its good service and asking for our input on what we would like the future NARA to be. 

Black and White vs. Color 

He told us of ongoing discussions about color vs. black and white digitizations; whether old microfilm should be recopied; concerns about minimal handling of old documents; space limitation of the various facilities (Cape Canaveral data is now being transferred north). Attendees prefered color – especially for maps and building plans which are often color coded. We pointed out that the earlier black and white microfilming was done when color procedures were not yet available, but to fulfill NARA's goal of preserving documents we preferred the preservation of the original color as opposed to changing original documents to black and white. 

One attendee asked if it is possible to digitize a front page with maximum information and indicate that a certain number of pages follow, e.g., an Angel Island file might have a name, date, photo, and say that the person's file consists of 30 more pages. Apparently, this would be quite hard as the information is dispersed throughout the file so creation of the front page would be labor intensive. 

Another asked why the photos of Pearl Harbor, which used to be housed at San Bruno, have never been returned after they were borrowed while text documents have? Apparently all these docs were sent to Pearl Harbor at one point with the intention of their being returned for permanent housing at San Bruno, but the photos have been retained in a warehouse in Hawaii which is difficult for researchers to get access to. There was discussion of a trio of possible "owners" of the photos – The USS Arizona group, the US Navy, and the US Park Service. Without agreement among them, the photos have not been copied nor returned. This is an ongoing issue.

Another question was why are copies priced by the linear foot? Some maps, plans, Chinese scrolls, etc. are quite long. However, a flat fee, say $5 for simple text might suffice for other items. Mr. Mayer mentioned discussion of having researchers use NARA flash drives to make their copies, and those digitizations being added to the NARA files as they are made. This might be a way to expand the digitization process organically. We were amendable until he mentioned that we'd have to fill out forms as we made our copies. And there were questions about how labor intensive this would be for the staff each day to add the new digitizations to the database. Clearly NARA is trying to figure out how we can help them. 

Mr. Mayer gave us his card and encouraged us to email him with specific suggestions. It was very good  we were there.

William A. Mayer was appointed Executive for Research Services for the National Archives and Records Administration in June 2012 when he was the University Librarian at American University in Washington, D.C. Previously, he served as the Associate University Librarian for Information Technology and Technical Services at George Washington University and as an adjunct faculty member for the School of Library and Information Science at Catholic University. Prior to his twenty-year career in academic libraries, Mayer worked in a variety of occupations, including vineyard management, cattle ranching, and residential construction. His interests include ocean ecology, music, and next-generation learning systems. He earned a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Washington and a M.L.S. from Simmons College in Boston.


Copyright © 2013 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library.

Advanced Genealogy Series with Susan Goss Johnston

April 18, 2013 – May 16, 2013
Five Thursday Sessions
6:30-8:00 p.m.

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

Serious about your family history?

Is this you? You’ve searched census records, military records, and every probate and land record you can find, but still can’t seem to solve that frustrating research problem. If so, you’re ready to enter genealogy’s case-building research phase. This series will give you an opportunity to advance your skills in research methodology and practice the Genealogical Proof Standard.

The five-week course includes homework assignments! Each student will be expected to write a research report and a 1½-generation family history in an approved style.

Instructor: Susan Goss Johnston

SCHEDULE:

• April 18: Context – The Key to Thorough Analysis
• Examine all records in context: historical context, inherent context, logical context, and life context.
• April 25: Transcribe, Abstract, Think, and Plan
• Learn transcription techniques, abstract purpose, identify inferences, and plan your research from every document.
• May 2: The Research Report and Proof Summary
• Begin with a plan, document each step, and write the results in an appropriate research report format.
• May 9: Writing an Interesting Family History
• Study different formats and practice writing: a formal research report, a proof summary, and a 1½-generation family history.
• May 16: Genealogy and the Law
• Legal acts may be record sources and they affect your interpretation of the records. Learn more about the importance of law in your research.

Prerequisites: The student must be familiar with the basic record groups: census, military, vital, probate, and land records - and must have used them all.

Fee: Course is $80 for CGS members; $100 for non-members ($20 will be applied to CGS membership fee, if desired).

Class size is limited to fifteen participants. No walk-ins.
No refunds after classes begin on April 18, 2013.
Pre-registration is required.

Download the series flier for full class descriptions.

Register online.

Students may bring dinner to eat in the library before the class begins. Interested students can also attend half-hour pre-class sessions to discuss the previous week’s assignments. These discussion sessions will be held from 6:00-6:30 p.m. beginning the second week, April 25. After each session, participants will walk together to BART or to their car.

Please note: If you would like more information about the course, or if you're uncertain you're ready to take it, you may contact the instructor before registering. Email Susan Goss Johnston with your questions.

Susan Goss Johnston was a member of Yale University's first undergraduate class of women, earning a B.A. in physics. After graduation, she began working in medical research while studying voice at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. The natural outgrowth of this experience, mixed with two children, led to genealogy, research that didn't require grant writing! She is a frequent speaker in the Bay Area and has been involved in teaching and researching for more than thirty years. Sue is a ProGen Study Group alumna, completing the program in 2011, and she is a graduate of the National Institute on Genealogical Research and the "Advanced Methodology and Evidence Analysis" at Samford University's Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research. Her personal research focuses on families in New England and the Mid-Atlantic region, and she specializes in military records and federal land records.

Copyright © 2013 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library