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CGS will celebrate our 125th anniversary in 2023

It’s a new year, and almost time for our Annual CGS Membership Meeting! We hope many of you will join us, whether in person or via Zoom, on Saturday, January 14. Business will include a short recap of the National Genealogical Society Conference in Sacramento, for which CGS was the host organization. We’ll also invite a motion to approve the minutes from last year’s annual meeting, present our financial report, and vote on the slate of Board candidates. We’ll also share our plans for celebrating our 125th anniversary in 2023.

Following the business portion of the meeting, speakers will describe recent innovations at the Society. Stewart Blandón Traiman discusses the newly created Member Connections, which offers CGS members a way to share common interests and help one another with research. Ron Madson will report on the work of the Digital Historian Committee and their work digitizing our unique resources.

Please register to let us know you will attend, whether virtually or in person!

Please note: An earlier draft of this post went out by mistake last night with the wrong date for the Members Roundtable. It is Wednesday, January 11.

Hard to believe, but it’s almost 2023! The library will reopen January 4. Hours are Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., and the 3rd Saturday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sign up here to arrange your visit. (Members are welcome to visit on Fridays without pre-registering.)

We kick off the new year with our Annual Membership Meeting on Saturday, January 14! Also in January, CGS past president Linda Harms Okazaki leads a class on Organizing Your Family History Research. Our regular Special Interest Groups (SIGs) also resume. More details below.

Finally, the following recorded presentations may be viewed online through this week:

Social Media for Genealogy – 3 videos, available through Dec. 31.
Using Photoshop Elements for Genealogy – available through Dec. 31.

January Events

Sat., Jan. 7: Intro to Genealogy. This month: Genealogy Basics.

Wed., Jan. 11: CGS Member Roundtable: Contact Lisa Gorrell  [email protected] or Jacqueline Henderson [email protected]

Sat., Jan. 14: 2023 CGS Annual Membership Meeting. Hybrid: Members may attend in person at the CGS library, or via Zoom. Please pre-register so we know how many to expect.

Sat., Jan. 21: FTM SIG. Hybrid: in person or online. This month: “Media Fixes + Filtering Power.”

Wed., Jan. 25: Roots Magic SIG

Wed., Jan. 25: DNA Skills SIG. Contact Mark McLaren: [email protected]

Tue., Jan. 31: Organize Your Family History Research. CGS past president Linda Harms Okazaki shares strategies to help you start your research, keep track of your findings, and establish naming conventions for both digital and paper files. (Presentation will be recorded and available for 30 days after the live event.)

All our events are listed on our website under Events and Education.

Don’t forget to visit our YouTube channel!

To all our friends and members, we give our sincere thanks for your support. We’ve come through the difficult COVID epidemic, reopened the CGS library to visitors, and have begun to hold in-person events. We will celebrate our 125th anniversary in 2023, and are planning a number of special events with opportunities for members to reconnect.

The new year is almost here, and some of you may wish to take advantage of tax benefits by making a donation before year’s end. The Annual Appeal letter recently went out to members, recapping some of the things we’ve been able to accomplish this year with your support: hosting the NGS Conference in Sacramento, creating Member Connections to further help our members connect and collaborate, digitizing CGS library resources, participating in outreach events, and of course hosting a wide variety of classes, lectures, and other educational opportunities.

If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution, you may return the enclosure found in the Annual Appeal letter, or you can view all the giving options at our website: https://www.californiaancestors.org/supportCGS/

Thanks as always for your support, and best wishes for the coming year.