Blog | California Genealogical Society

by Jennifer Dix (5/8/2021)

Our weekly roundup of upcoming genealogy events. Numerous associations offer online genealogy classes every week. Most are free. To register for one of the events below, click on the name of the host organization.

CGS Events

May 11: “WWII ‘Internment Camps’ and Mass Incarceration in the U.S.”

May 15: Family Tree Maker Special Interest Group

May 15: Eastern European Special Interest Group

Conferences & Workshops:

May 15: Four-Part Workshop with Judy Russell (Cobb County Genealogical Society)

May 15: “A Day of English Research” with Paul Milner (Seattle Genealogical Society)

American Ancestors

May 12: “Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II” by Daniel James Brown

May 13: “The Story of Jewish Families and Their English Country Houses” by Curt DiCamillo

FamilySearch Family History Library

May 12: “What’s New at FamilySearch”

Legacy Family Tree

May 11: “Latest updates to MyHeritage Genetic Groups” by Daniel Horowitz

May 12 & 13: “DNA Downer: Strategies for Dealing with DNA Fatigue” by Blaine Bettinger

Other Listings

Sutro Library’s Bay Area Genealogy Calendar lists a wealth of Bay Area events and exhibits, including regular genealogical group meetings. This week’s highlights:

May 10: “Getting Ready for the 1950 US Census” by Thomas MacEntee (Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society)

May 12: “Our Portuguese-American Ancestors: From the Azores and Madeira to the U.S.” by Ralph Severson (Oakland Family History Library)

May 12: San Francisco Genealogy Group (San Francisco Public Library)

May 13: “What’s in a Name? Renaming at Stanford” (Stanford Historical Society)

May 15: “Advanced Research in Passenger Arrival Records” by Julie Miller (Sonoma County Genealogical Society)

May 15: Celebrating Our HeART-filled Heritage (Leela Dance Collective)

Conference Keeperhas a large calendar of classes (too many to list) hosted by genealogical organizations around the country and abroad. Lots to explore, and new events are added often, so be sure to browse the entire calendar. Here’s just a sampling of the coming week’s offerings:

May 10: “Stitches in Time: Quilts 1800-1976” (Genealogical Society of Bergen County)

May 11: “Starting Your Family History Journey in Four Steps” by D. Joshua Taylor

(New York Genealogical & Biographical Society)

May 12: “Api’s Berlin Diaries: My Quest to Understand My Grandfather’s Nazi Past” by Gabrielle Robinson (Indiana German Heritage Society)

May 13: “Reverse Genealogy: Finding Cousins and Chasing the Living” by Nicka Smith (Allen County Public Library)

May 14: “A Firsthand Look at Crypto Jewish Research and Sources” (Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research) by Genie Milgrom

May 15: “Reconciling Unsettling Truths About Our Ancestors” by Connie Davis & Wendy (Virtual Genealogical Society)

See our post “Genealogy Learning in the Time of Coronavirus” for links to classes archived online at Ancestry, FamilySearch, RootsTech, and more. Be well, stay safe, and happy learning!

Now online: Documents from the Griffin Collection

by Chris Pattillo (5/4/2021)

By Chris Pattilo

The newest addition to the CGS website is a set of documents from the Griffin Manuscripts Collection. Member Stewart Traiman scanned the material and created a detailed list of the contents, which include marriage, death and other vital records, wills, deeds, personal notes, genealogical worksheets and a few photos for multiple generations of the Charles Griffin family as well as allied lines including Ashfield, Benson, Blatchford, Deboy, Dudley, Haverhill, Maxwell, Taylor and more.

Captain Francis Marion Griffin of
Boston, 1909: from the Griffin Collection

Dr. Charles Francis Griffin was the tenth president of the California Genealogical Society (CGS). He served from 1923 to 1931. He was born 26 April 1869 in Lassen County, California, the son of Francis Marion Griffin and Margaret Malloy Griffin. Griffin attended school in Vallejo, California, and Cooper Medical College in San Francisco. He received an MD degree from Stanford University in 1891, and practiced medicine in San Francisco.

In addition to being an active member of CGS, Dr. Griffin was a contributing member of the California Historical Society. In that capacity he compiled an Index to the Annals of San Francisco which was published in 1935. He was also an officer in the Society of Mayflower Descendants for many years.

Dr. Griffin was killed in a bus accident in Guerneville, California, on 23 December 1950. Upon his death his estate donated his vast collection of genealogical books to CGS.[1]

To browse the Griffin Collection via our website, log in and go to the Research Tab, select “Online Resources” from the pull down menu, and scroll down to Resources Developed by CGS Members, where you will find a link to the Charles Francis Griffin M.D. Collection. Note: These online collections do not include everything held by our library because some items are under copyright. To view the entire collection you’ll need to visit the library when it reopens.

[1]Information gleaned from an article written by A.T. Leonard, Jr. for California Historical Society Quarterly, 1 March 1951, and from previous CGS blog articles.

Online genealogy, week of May 2-8

by Jennifer Dix (5/1/2021)

CGS Events (for the month of May):

May 4: “Remembering Our Ancestors in Asian American Cemeteries.”

May 11: “WWII ‘Internment Camps’ and Mass Incarceration in the U.S.”

May 8: Monthly Board Meeting: all welcome

May 15: Family Tree Maker Special Interest Group

Conferences & Workshops:

May 7 & 8: 2021 Virtual Heartland Family History Conference

May 8: 2021 Virtual Spring Conference featuring Cyndi Ingle (New Hampshire Society of Genealogists)

May 8: Spring Genealogy Conference (Genealogical Society of New Jersey)

American Ancestors

May 3: “Shalom/Salem: Archival Stories from Salem’s Jewish Community” by Stephanie Call

May 6: “Stories from the Archives: Diaries”

May 6: “Names of New York: Discovering the City’s Past, Present, and Future Through Its Place-Names”

BYU Family History Library

May 2: “Discovering Your Ancestors in England” by James Tanner

FamilySearch Family History Library

May 3: “Using the Family Search Catalog”

May 4: “Using the Family Search Wiki”

May 6: “Skimming the Surface: A Look into Ontario Land Records”

Legacy Family Tree

May 4 & 5: “Comparing Australian Content on the Giant Genealogy Websites”

May 5: “Solving a Brick Wall with DNA – A Case Study”

May 7: “Researching the Descendants and Ancestors of the Weeping Time People”

Other Listings

Sutro Library’s Bay Area Genealogy Calendar lists a wealth of Bay Area events and exhibits, including regular genealogical group meetings. This week’s highlights:

May 6: “Your Camera As A Genealogy Research Tool”

May 7: Screening of “The Valley” with filmmaker Saila Kariat (Los Altos History Museum)

May 8: Irish Genealogy Club (United Irish Cultural Center)

May 3: “Akira Toki and the Purple Heart Battalion” (Wisconsin Veterans Museum)

May 4: “Preserving and Digitizing Personal Photo Albums and Scrapbooks” (US National Archives)

May 5: “Using atDNA to Identify an Immigrant’s Place of Origin” (Minnesota Genealogical Society)

May 6: “How to Research Your House” (Thomas Balch Library)

May 7: “Portals to a Jewish Heritage: Researching Jewish Genealogy with a Southern Accent” (Library of Virginia)

May 8: “Genetic Insights into Ancestral Origins: Native Americans and Spanish-Mexican Families in Colonial California” (Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research)

See our post “Genealogy Learning in the Time of Coronavirus” for links to classes archived online at Ancestry, FamilySearch, RootsTech, and more. Be well, stay safe, and happy learning!