California Genealogical Society
and Library eNews
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March 2009, Vol. 3, No. 3
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Just One Week Until the Scots-Irish Research Seminar
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Individual Research Consultations Available for Participants
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 Tomorrow, March 2, 2009, is the last day you can reserve a spot at the Scots-Irish Family History Research Seminar this Saturday, March 7, 2009, at the new Oakland Airport Holiday Inn and Suites, 77 Hegenberger Road, Oakland, California. Please note that there are two Holiday Inns near the airport - this is the new one next door to the Hilton.
Fintan Mullan and Dr. Brian Trainor are coming from the
Ulster Historical Foundation and they are bringing a wide range of books to sell. Oakland is their first stop on this U.S. Lecture Tour so they will have a full selection and it is an opportunity to save shipping charges since their books are not sold in the United States. Their complete catalog can be viewed at the Ulster Historical Foundation Bookstore website.
Program schedule:
-Registration with coffee and book sales
-Welcome and introductions
-"Introduction to Scots-Irish Family Research"
-"18th C. Emigration from the North of Ireland to North America"
-"Records Relating to the Different Churches"
Lunch, break and book sales
-"Scots Irish Research - Not Always at the Bottom of the Pile"
-"Using Gravestone Inscriptions in Ulster"
-"Researching the Farming Community in Ireland"
-"The Ulster Plantation: Sources for 17th C. Families"
Q & A
Individual Research consultations with Dr. Trainor and Mr. Mullan are available on Friday, March 6, 2009, only for those attending the seminar and must be arranged in advance. There may be a few time slots available on the day of the event. The fee is $20 for a 20 minute appointment. Payment is due at the time of the consultation. Please e-mail Shirley Hoye for full details if you are interested in scheduling a research consultation.
Please support CGS and the society's programs. Download the program registration flier and call the society on Monday, March 2, 2009 at 510-663-1358. This is your last chance!
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Pre-1905 Deaths in San Francisco
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83,233 New Names Added to the California Names Index!
by Marianne Frey
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 The most exciting news this month is the completion of the newest CGS online database: Pre-1905 Deaths in San Francisco.
83,233 new names have been added to The California Names Index
which is free and searchable at the CGS website. The Pre-1905 Death records
are those that miraculously survived the devastating 1906 San
Francisco Earthquake and Fire which destroyed most of the vital records
of the city.
Information found in the original records usually includes
name, age (yrs-mos-days), occupation, place of birth, place of death (commonly the residence address), date of death and cause of
death. Since entries also include place of burial and mortuary used, these can become sources of further information.
Records date from 1865-1873, 1882-1889, 1894-1896 and 1901-1904, though some of these years are incomplete. Years that are completely missing were recorded in ledgers that burned in the 1906.
Visit the Lookups pages to search for names of interest. You may order copies of the original records as they appear in the old San Francisco books.
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March Membership Meeting - Author Frances Dinkelspiel
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Saturday, March 14, 2008, 1:00 p.m.
CGS Library, 2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland, California
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The California Genealogical Society is pleased to have local Bay Area author Frances Dinkelspiel as the guest speaker at our March membership meeting. Her book, Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California is a San Francisco Chronicle best-seller which has been getting rave reviews since its publication by St. Martins Press in November 2008.
Frances will share some of the backstory about her great-great-grandfather and the eight years she spent researching and writing the book. Isaias Hellman's story is a page-turner and a must-read for anyone interested in California history. The book is a who's who of the banking world made even more facinating by the tie-ins to today's financial crisis.
It's fitting that Frances lecture at the CGS Library because a bit of her research was done here - a
small bit when compared to the time she spent at the California
Historical Society reviewing some forty cartons of material containing over 50,000 pages of archival documents including letters, receipts, copy books, court cases and newspaper articles.
Dinkelspiel is a fifth-generation Californian who grew up in San
Francisco. A graduate of Stanford University and the Columbia
University Graduate School of Journalism, she spent more than twenty
years in the newspaper business, working as a general assignment
reporter for Syracuse newspapers in upstate New York and the San Jose
Mercury News. She has taught at the Berkeley Graduate School of
Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. Her freelance
work has appeared in the New York Times, People Magazine, the San
Francisco Chronicle, the Miami Herald, the Detroit Free Press and the
Los Angeles Times.
Frances is also the author of a literary blog, Ghost Word: Ethereal Thoughts on Books and Writing.
Please
arrive early for the short membership meeting which starts promptly at 1:00 p.m.
Frances' talk follows at about 1:20 p.m. She will be available
afterward to autograph and sell books.
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Can You Help?
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A LIMITED-TIME OPPORTUNITY AT A GREAT PRICE
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 An incredible offer for the CGS library is available this week from Charity Advantage, an association that offers technology solutions at low cost to non-profits.
They have new Intel Pentium 4 - 80GB Dell Desktop Computers at a special sale price of $249.00 - a fantastic bargain for the society.
Computer Committee member Kathy Watson notes that these computers are a significant improvement over our present
hardware, almost doubling the speed (from 1.83 GHz to 3.2 GHz) and
doubling the memory available for using the programs loaded on the
machines (from 448 mb RAM to 1 GB RAM). This is an opportunity for the society to replace our present computers (which are showing their age) with newer, faster, state-of-the-art machines at a fraction of the usual cost.
Under our present financial constraints, we can only take advantage of this offer if it is fully funded by our members. If you are interested in helping CGS to underwrite the purchase of ten new replacement computers for members to use at the library, please email Jane Lindsey.
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CGS on the Road in 2009
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Santa Clara - Monday, June 15, 2009, 10:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
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 South Bay members should mark their calendars for a CGS program at the Santa Clara City Library on Monday, June 15, 2009 in the Central Park Library Redwood Room. CGS President Jane Lindsey and our Lookups Maven, Lavinia Schwarz will present two talks. Check back next month for complete details on the program.
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Fort Wayne, Indiana Tour August 16, 2009. Sign Up Now!
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Allen County Public Library - August 16-23, 2009
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 The fourth CGS Research Tour to the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, is set for August 16-23, 2009. Join CGS President Jane
Lindsey for a week-long trip to the best public genealogy library in the United
States.
Whether you have visited before or this is your first time, you will benefit from Jane's individualized attention to your research goals. Pre-planning meetings can be arranged by phone or in person prior to the trip.
Space is limited to the first fifteen participants who send in their $200 deposit. Several people have already contacted Jane to express interest, so please download the tour brochure from the society website and send in your deposit today.
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In Memoriam
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Helen Julian Hawkins (1917-2009)
Long-time CGS member Helen Julian Hawkins died in Van Nuys, California on January 24, 2009. Her full obituary was published in Los Angeles papers on January 29, 2009.
Dorothy Fowler (1927-2009)
Late word was received Saturday of the death of Dorothy Fowler, author of A Most Dreadful Earthquake,
on Thursday, February 26, 2009. Her niece, Lisa Fowler, informs us that
at Dorothy's request there will be no service and memorial donations
should be sent to CGS. Her obituary will be
published in the San Francisco Chronicle the weekend of March 6-8,
2009. Plans for an informal gathering at the CGS Library to remember Dorothy will be announced next month.
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CGS Ancestors
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Photo Tributes to the CGS Family
Edited by Cathy H. Paris
This month's CGS Ancestor Photo was submitted by Cathy Paris:
 This summer I received a precious surprise in the mail -
an old family album. In the back of the album were three tintypes,
including this month's photo tribute to my great-grandfather, Gilbert
Samuel Merrill (1846 - 1915).
I had been searching for a photo of
Gilbert for the past eight years.
Gilbert is sitting on the left but
who is the black man resting his hand on Gilbert's shoulder? I am
hoping to discover the identity of this mystery man and to uncover the
story behind the photo.
The
1870 U.S. Census depicts Gilbert as a 24-year-old farmer, single, and
living with his step-father, mother and sister in Cumberland Centre,
Maine. By 1880, Gilbert is 34, living with his second wife,
Margaret Carroll, and working in a paper mill in the thriving
industrial town of Franklin, New Hampshire. I believe
this photo was taken in the intervening years, closer to 1870 than to
1880. As far as the family knows, Gilbert did not serve in the Civil
War.
If you have any suggestions for uncovering the story, please send me an email.
-- Cathy Paris
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If you would like to see your CGS Ancestor pictured in a future edition
of the CGS e-News, please email your image
and a brief narrative.
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Did you miss these posts in the CGSL blog?
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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 website, blog and online catalog. |
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