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August 2010, Vol. 4, No. 8
Extended Summer Hours!
Library Open Thursdays Until 8:30 p.m. in August
Continuing through August 26, 2010, the CGS Library will be open from 9:00 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. on Thursdays. In addition, informal evening discussions are being held from 6:30 p.m. - 8:15 p.m. Participants of all levels of research experience are welcome to network and join the conversation. For the full schedule and list of topics, read more at the blog.


Workshop: Using Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 for Your Genealogy Presentations
Saturday, August 7, 2010, 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
CGS Library, 2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland, California

PowerPoint 2007 is a powerful tool that allows you to create professional looking presentations and have fun doing it! Let Kathy Watson show you how in this workshop designed for beginners to intermediate users.

Workshop: How To Conduct Oral Histories
Saturday, August 14, 2010, 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
CGS Library, 2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland, California

Nancy ThompsonOakland native and award-winning oral historian, filmmaker, and writer Nancy Thompson will conduct a three-hour interactive workshop on how to conduct oral histories.

Discussion topics will include interviewing techniques, transcribing and editing tips, using photographs and other family memorabilia, incorporating relevant social history, using different multimedia options (book, CD, video, DVD, websites), and archiving oral histories.

Learn more at the blog.
 
Register online.


Fall Book Party! You Are Invited! Come Leaf Through the New Publications!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010, 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
California Genealogical Society Library, 2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland

Join us for "An Autumn Celebration of Books" as we launch our three new titles and celebrate the resurrection of our periodical, The California Nugget.

Are you a member author with a new title of your own? Come celebrate with us. Learn more at the blog.


September Membership Meeting: All About the Census
Saturday, September 11, 2010
CGS Library, 2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland, California
We're talking census in September with two lectures.

10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - The Census - But we don't spell our name that way! with Dick Rees
12:00 - 1:00 p.m. - Break for lunch.
1:00 - 1:15 p.m. - Membership meeting
1:15 - 2:30 p.m. - The U.S. Census: Questions, Confidentiality, and the 72 Year Rule with Joel Weintraub

 
Workshop: Working with Footnotes and Indexing
Saturday, September 25, 2010, 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
CGS Library, 2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland, California


Join Jane Hufft and Matt Berry for this two-part workshop to help you cite your research sources and create an index for your family history. The workshop is FREE for CGS members but is limited to twenty people. Non-members fee is $20.00

Register online.
 
Coming in October
Save These Dates!
Mark Your Calendar
10/2:  Using Microsoft Outlook 2007 as Your Email Source for Genealogical     Correspondence with Kathy Watson

10/8 - 10/9: California Family History Expo - Pleasanton Fairgrounds

10/16:  Book Repair Workshop with Bill O'Neil

10/30:  Seminar: Google with Lisa Louise Cook



Editor's Picks: Suggested Links From the Blogosphere


The Five Most Advanced Search Engines On The Web by Tina

For Those Who Go Down to the Sea in Ships by Carolyn L. Barkley

Resource: Atlas of Historical County Boundaries by Thomas MacEntee

Unnaturalized Affection: 1918 German Aliens by SFPL_6th_Floor_Blogger

Family Tree Magazine's 101 Best (Free) Genealogy Websites for 2010! by Diane Haddad


A Centennial Celebration of a Historical San Francisco Landmark by SFPL Magazines and Newspapers Center






California Ancestors: From Here, There and Everywhere!
Photo Tributes to the CGS Family
Edited by Cathy H. Paris

This month's photograph comes from a member Down Under. Georgia Cummings honors her father, Ronald Walter Cummings, and his parents, whose names we have yet to discover. The story starts in the U.S. and moves across the waters to Australia.


Ronald Walter Cummings

My father, Ronald Walter Cummings (the name we know him by), was born in 1906 in Oakland, California. He told me his mother was Spanish and a dancer and his father was in show business. After Dad died in Sydney, Australia in 1981, we did some searches of San Francisco records and found nothing. Dad is pictured in the photo on the left, and his parents are shown in the photo on the right.

Dad used to reminisce about San Francisco, Seattle, and Vancouver. His parents put him into a Catholic boarding school while they toured in vaudeville. The nuns tied his left hand behind his back to try and make him write with his right hand. He came to Australia as a young man and we think he was a seaman or ship's hand and possibly worked in the kitchen. He never returned to the United States. In the 1930s, before my parents met, dad was an amateur boxer and had worked at the ski slopes around Mt. Kosciusko and at other alpine resorts. When I was a child, he took me to every musical that came to Sydney, the earliest of which was Showboat. My father had a lovely singing voice and was a very snappy dresser. He used to subscribe to the Saturday Evening Post when we were children.

I guess I will never find out my origins, but I wanted to share my story.

- Georgia Cummings

[If you have any information for Georgia, please email her directly.]


Call For Submissions  - Are you member with a great family photo that is scanned and ready to be shared? Do you have a wonderful family story and a photo to go with it? If you would like to pay tribute to your ancestor in a future edition of the eNews, please email Cathy Paris and send your image with a brief narrative.


Did you miss these posts in the California Genealogical Society & Library blog?


Will You Join Us on Thursday Night?
CGSL blog

Uniquely Ours: The California Names Index
San Francisco Bay Area Genealogy Calendar: August 2010 Published

Announcing: The Ancestry of Theodore Timothy Judge and Ellen Sheehy Judge

Jeffrey Vaillant's Reports From the 2010 Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR)


Member Book - The California Snatch Racket: Kidnappings During the Prohibition and Depressio
n Eras



Kathryn Doyle, eNews Editor
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