Blog

by Chris Pattillo

On June 6^th Jane Knowles Lindsey hosted a thank-you luncheon for the CGS members who volunteered during the recent NGS Conference in Sacramento. Over 100 of our members worked to fill the 700 hours of spots needed throughout the conference to ensure that everything went smoothly.

Our terrific volunteers planned tours and evening events, checked in attendees, sat at our CGS booth in the exhibit hall, served as room monitors during lectures, and more. Many others did pre-conference duties, arranging for a series of talks by representatives from six research facilities near the conference site, and assembled a massive database of genealogical resources for every county in the state. It was a massive effort and none of it would have happened without the creative thinking and motivating efforts of Jane Lindsey, who served as chair of the local host committee.

Jane’s impact on the society has been immeasurable. She served two terms as president from 2004-2010. The NGS conference was not her first big event planning effort. She was also the driving force behind two Ancestry Day events in 2011 and 2013. She has led multiple research trips to Boston, the Family History Center in Salt Lake and to the Allen County Public Library. Jane was the driving force behind our society’s efforts to produce the Sherman Allen Family Ancestry book and the Judge Family Ancestry book. She has given numerous talks for CGS and other societies, and has produced YouTube videos promoting our society. Jane can be credited for much of the success of the 2017 Capitol Campaign, and she was part of the leadership that completed the 2018 Strategic Plan. I could go on but you get the idea. If you are curious, you can search our blog to learn more about Jane and her many contributions to the society.

Jane’s tremendous efforts, that made the NGS a smashing success despite the hurdles of a pandemic, were honored by both CGS and NGS. CGS President Jim Sorenson presented her with an “Outstanding Service Award” commemorative plaque. Jane also was among those presented with an NGS certificate of appreciation at the conference.

Our society is enriched by Jane’s many contributions. Thank you!

Happy July! We hope many of you are anticipating celebrations, vacations or holiday time with family. Don’t forget to set aside some time for genealogy, too! Here are this month’s events:

Saturday, July 2: Intro to Genealogy. Our monthly FREE basics class. This month: “Vital Records (Birth, Marriage, and Death)”

Saturday, July 9: Monthly Board Meeting. All welcome.

Wednesday, July 13: Members’ Roundtable. A chance to chat with other CGS members, share your research, and ask questions of fellow genealogists. Meets 2nd Wednesday every month. See Special Interest Groups to register.

Saturday, July 16: Family Tree Maker Special Interest Group. This month: “Media Best Practices, All-New Way to Sign In, All-New Way to Clean Up Images, and More!”

Wednesday, July 27: RootsMagic Special Interest Group.

Stay tuned for more events in August.

The United Kingdom is by far the most popular area being researched by CGS members

This is the fourth in a series of blog posts that responds to some of the suggestions made in response to the recently conducted Library Committee survey. This post will focus on the comments made regarding source books for other countries. The survey also asked, “Do you ever use the CGS library to research other countries?”

In the previous post, I shared that the top five countries named were Ireland 56, Germany 40, England 39, Scotland 29, Canada 20. Sweden and France tied at 12 votes. 10 people said United Kingdom. Here’s the rest of the results.

Great Britain & Wales 7

Italy, Norway, Denmark 6

Prussia, Netherlands, N. Ireland, Mexico 4

China, Switzerland, Belgium, Poland 3

Australia, Austria, Azores Czechoslovakia, Greece, Romania, Spain, Ukraine 2 and

Belarus, Brazil, Columbia, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Sicily, Slovenia, Turkey each got one vote.

Adding up all the countries that make up the United Kingdom gives us 96 votes – the clear winner – an interesting stand out.

This is helpful information that will help guide new book acquisitions.

Comment: Information on Alsace

Response: Currently we hold 18 books with information on this area of Germany. Given the number of members who are researching in Germany this may be another opportunity to increase our offerings – so thanks to whomever added this suggestion,

Comment: Countries that are listed most in this survey.

Response: Yep, that makes sense to me.

Comment: One member wrote “too many to list,” and another asked for royalty resources.

Response: Our library holds a lot of sources on royalty – 388 items in total that includes several journal articles and 94 print books. Before I checked our library catalog in WorldCat, I guessed that they might all be older books purchased or donated by some of our earliest members; but I was wrong. Our collections include a good number of recently published books on royalty. (They overwhelmingly relate to the royal families of Great Britain, although there are a few books that look at relations with the Spanish crown when California was a Spanish colony.) Here are a few examples.

Blood Royal: Issue of the kings and queens of medieval England, 1066-1399 : the Normans and Plantagenets, published in 1996

The forgotten monarchy of Scotland: the true story of the Royal House of Stewart and the hidden lineage of the kings and queens of Scots, 1998

The blood royal of Britain: being a roll of the living descendants of Edward IV and Henry VII, Kings of England, and James III, King of Scotland, 1994

A final note: In part one of this series, I responded to a request for more online information for UK research and I promised to ask Maureen Hanlon to put her list of links for Irish research on our website. Thanks to Maureen and our website manager Theresa Murphy, that list is now available on our website on the “Research Links” page under the Research Tab. Now, aren’t you glad you took the time to respond to our survey?