California Genealogical Society
and Library eNews
August 2008, Vol. 2, No. 8
Announcements

Library Closed Labor Day Weekend

Please note that the California Genealogical Society Library will be closed on Saturday, August 30, 2008. It will be open as usual on Friday August 29, 2008.

NEHGS Boston Trip Canceled
 
The NEHGS research trip to Boston which was scheduled for September 21-28, 2008 did not reach the minimum number of sign-ups and has been canceled.

August Workshop: Hints on Publishing Your Family History

Saturday, August 9, 2008, 10:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
CGS Library, 2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland, California

Family History BooksShirley Pugh Thomson, Matt Berry and Jane Knowles Lindsey will present this month's CGS Workshop, "Hints on Publishing Your Family History" next Saturday at the CGS Library.

The workshop will cover the many available options including newer non-traditional, online methods such as blogs. The CGS Library has scores of example of published histories in the collection.

Shirley Thompson, retired owner of Indices Publishing, will present two talks, "Skills Needed to Publish Your History" and "Mistakes to Avoid." Matt Berry will discuss his experience self-publishing using Lulu.com.

The workshop is free for CGS members but is limited to fifteen people. There will be a sign-up fee of $10 for non-members. (This fee can be applied toward membership on the day of the workshop.) There is a sign-up sheet at the CGS Library desk. Please call CGS at 510-663-1358 to reserve a space.
 
The Best of the Internet for Genealogical Research

Saturday, September 13, 2008, 1:00 p.m.
CGS Library, 2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland, California


Ron Arons Ron Arons' Best Bet Web Internet Sites
at the September Membership Meeting


Genealogist and author Ron Arons will explore the many "best bet" Web sites that allow researchers to find materials online, including historical documents, newspapers and articles, living people, maps and photos, foreign language translators and aids and more. He will provide numerous examples of how the Internet has worked for him.

Ron will also slip in some tales from his recently released book, The Jews of Sing Sing, described as "the true story of Jewish gangsters and other shady characters who served time 'up the river' and the New York Jewish community's response." His interest in Jewish inmates started when he discovered that his great-grandfather served four years at the famous prison.

Be sure to read Dick Eastman's glowing review of Ron's book and watch Dick's interview with Ron for RootsTelevision.

San Francisco Mortuary Records Indexing

Records Dating Back to 1850 Survived the 1906 Earthquake

Family Search Indexing Logo In a cooperative effort with SFgenealogy.com, the San Francisco Public Library, the Genealogical Society of Utah and FamilySearch Indexing, the California Genealogical Society announced the start of the San Francisco Mortuary Records Indexing Project. The project is the culmination of two years' work by the entities involved, to bring the digital images of thousands of mortuary records, stored by the Halsted Gray Mortuary in San Francisco, to researchers all over the world. The records are a significant genealogical find because of the richness of their detail and the miraculous way they survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.

The records include the complete holdings of the first mortuary in San Francisco, undertakers N. Gray & Co., from the day it opened - July 1, 1850. In all, the project includes the surviving records, up to 1920, of several mortuaries that merged with either Halsted or Gray, over the years. The records include notations from financial ledgers, cemetery records, removal records and headstone notations. Many have obituary clippings.

Rose Pierson of Family Search Indexing has been working diligently to ready the project for volunteers. The CGS project is now listed on the Current Projects page (scroll down to the bottom and look for the CGS logo.)

The Project Home Page gives three digital examples of how the records look and has a link to project-specific indexing instructions. Please take advantage of the training tutorials located under the "Help" tab.

The project is already more than twenty percent complete after only the first two weeks of indexing by volunteers.

In Memory

Richard Kendall Chapman (1928-2008)

Richard Kendall ChapmanRichard Kendall Chapman died on May 19, 2008. Born in Oakland, he attended Stanford University. A keen coffee taster for family-owned Folger Coffee Company, Richard had been a member of the California Genealogical Society since 1967. In pursuit of gold, Richard's paternal great-grandfather, James Bradshaw Woolsey, rode horseback from Ohio to California. When this did not pan out, he married and purchased 60 acres in Berkeley to enable his ten children to pursue their educations at the newly formed University of California. During the Depression, Richard's maternal grandfather, John D. Kendall, a civil engineer in Modesto, designed the irrigation system for the San Joaquin Valley.  The full obituary appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on May 31, 2008.



Danelle Miller Farias (1937 - 2008)

CGS member, Danelle Miller Farias, resident of Moraga, died March 27, 2008. She was born in Long Beach, California and attended the University of North Carolina. Her obituary was published in the Contra Costa Times and San Francisco Chronicle on April 1, 2008.

October Family History Month Activities

Series for Beginners Planned with Oakland Regional Family History Center


Oakland Regional FHC art CGS is teaming up with the Oakland Regional Family History Center to present a four week Beginning Genealogy Class during Family History Month.

Beginning October 4, 2008, each class will be offered twice, on Saturday, at CGS, from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. and on the following Tuesday, at the Family History Center, from 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Classes will be free but there will be a $10 charge for a notebook containing the syllabus of the four classes. Free parking is available at both locations. The Oakland Regional Family History Center is located at 4766 Lincoln Avenue, Oakland, California.

Additional information will be made available as it is finalized.

Can You Help?
 
Did you know that CGS is a 100% volunteer organization?  A variety of opportunities exist for you to be involved in an ongoing position or just occasionally, when you have time. Let us know your areas of expertise or interest and we will find a job that you will love that fits into your busy schedule. If you are able to come to the library once a month, our Desk Duty Committee needs volunteers. We also have jobs that can be done from home. Please contact CGS and join our volunteer team.

Suggested Links from Nora Hickey

Irish Research

This is a collection of the links recommended by Nora at "A Day of Irish Information."

Genuki: UK & Ireland Genealogy

Valuation Office, Dublin

General Register Office, Ireland

National Library of Ireland

The National Archives of Ireland

Irish Family History Foundation Website

The National Archives of the United Kingdom

PRONI - Public Record Office of Northern Ireland

Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations (CIGO)


Eneclann   A Trinity College Dublin campus company providing a range of professional services in the historical, heritage, archive and records management sectors.

Irish Origins   $$ site with Griffith's Primary Valuation of Ireland records.

Please note: Nora specifically warned against using the CDs that are available because she has found them to be incomplete.  Late this week Dick Eastman recommended a new site for Griffith's. It has not been vetted yet by Nora but we will contact her for an opinion and let you know next month:

Ask About Ireland


Irish Journals and Series

Irish Genealogical Research Society  Publisher of The Irish Genealogist.

The Irish Manuscripts Commission  Publisher of the Analecta Hibernica.

Archivium Hibernicum  A refereed history sources journal, published annually by the Department of Modern History, National University of Ireland.

The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland  Publisher of the journal of the same name.


No Irish?

And for the couple of you poor souls without Irish ancestry:

Family Tree Magazine's 101 Best Genealogy Web Sites for 2008


CGS Ancestors

Photo Tributes to the CGS Family


This month's CGS Ancestor Photo was submitted by Lorna Wallace:


Marthe Bohn
"On the back of the photo is written "Aunt Martha, sister to mother's father."  My best guess is that this is my immigrant great-grandmother's aunt, born on the Danish island of Bornholm in 1823. (Great-grandma emigrated to the U.S. before 1870 while a teen, and she kept a strong contact with her relatives back home.)

I love the "snapshot" of her surroundings -- the wallpaper, the wood floor, the elaborate heater, the peek through the door at the curtained bed with what looks like a little "trapeze" over it (maybe to help one get up?) -- and even her slippered feet.  It is certainly NOT a studio portrait!

Marthe's sister married a photographer in town, so I think that may be why I have a good number of family photos from the late 1800's."


 Aunt Martha verso















Aunt Martha postcard


If you would like to see your CGS Ancestor featured in a future edition of the CGS e-News, please email your image to [email protected] and include a brief description.

Did you miss these posts in the CGS blog?
California Genealogical Society and Library
A Northern California Genealogy Resource
Oakland, CA 94612-3031

Founded February 12, 1898 in San Francisco, CGS, a non-profit, all-volunteer organization that seeks to aid, educate and encourage research in family history, is presently located in Oakland, California. The society maintains a library, gathers and preserves vital records and disseminates information through publications, meetings, seminars, workshops, its Web site, blog and online catalog.