Due to the overwhelming demand for this event on Saturday, September 13, we've added extra seating. But this one-day seminar is likely to sell out -- so sign up today!  

The New England Historic Genealogical Society Comes West to Berkeley event will focus on New England and New York records. NEHGS genealogists Chris Child and Alice Kane will discuss resources and tips, with a special emphasis on resources available online. Review the day's schedule. 

An optional dinner will take place at Berkeley's Hotel Shattuck, and NEHGS President and CEO, D. Brenton Simons, will be the guest speaker. (Separate registration for dinner required.)

Items are still needed for the fundraising silent auction. If you'd like to contribute item(s) to it, please contact Jane Lindsey. 

Blog Editor, Ellen Fernandez-Sacco 

• Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research at Samford University (Birmingham, Ala.)
• National Institute on Genealogical Research in Washington, D.C.
• Certificate Program in Genealogical Research at Boston University
• Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy 
• Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh

By Alexa Gregory, member since 2010 

Before the United States officially joined World War I in April 1917, my grandmother, Alexine Mitchell Gregory, and her sister, Marion Otis Mitchell, left Alameda, California, for France to assist the AFFW (American Fund for the French Wounded). This group was organized in 1915 by Anne Morgan and Isabel Lathrop to give support to wounded French soldiers and citizens. 

   

Alexine trained at the San Francisco Presidio and Marion took auto mechanics classes from Heald College, and both had training with the American Red Cross before heading to France. There they drove  (and repaired) supply vehicles, and later Red Cross ambulances. Not many women in the United States in 1916 drove cars, let alone in active war conditions. Both Alexine and Marion were able to tear vehicle engines apart and get them back in service by their own ingenuity.    

Aboard the S.S. Rochambeau traveling to France, Marion was among only a handful of women. Most of the passengers were young men from American Ivy League colleges who had left school for the adventure of driving ambulances in France. Shortly after Marion arrived in Paris in June 1917, the first American troops arrived in Paris. While there are many accounts of the young men who volunteered to help France's war efforts, the story of the American women who volunteered has not been well documented.

 

 

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We enjoy honoring members' ancestors. Please email a photo to Lorna Wallace, along with a short summary about why the ancestor featured is important to you. Photos should be in .jpg format with a file size over 100 kb; photos and text may be edited for space.