Blog | California Genealogical Society

by Jennifer Dix (4/10/2021)

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:

April 17: Family Tree Maker – Special Interest Group

Conferences & Workshops:

April 14-17: “Bringin’ It Home 2021” (Ohio Genealogical Society)

April 17: Tom Jones 2021 SCGS Spring Seminar (Sonoma County Genealogical Society)

April 17: “It’s a Sair Fecht!” 31st SAFHS Annual Delegate Conference (Scottish Association of Family History Societies)

April 17: Minnesota Genealogical Society Spring All-Star Virtual Conference

American Ancestors

April 13: “Terror to the Wicked: America’s First Trial by Jury That Ended a War and Helped to Form a Nation” by Tobey Pearl

April 16: “Tartan Tales: Stories from Historic Scottish Houses” by Curt DiCamillo

BYU Family History Library

April 14: “Overcoming the Most Common DNA Problems” by James Baker

FamilySearch Family History Library

April 15: “United States Military Draft Records”

Legacy Family Tree

April 14: “Jewish Genealogy with JewishGen.org” by Deborah Kroopkin

April 16: “An African Canadian Family History Mystery” by Mags Gaulden

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:

April 12: “Ten Databases you didn’t know were on Ancestry.com” by Gena Philibert-Ortega (Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society)

April 14: “Death Certificates and Medical Terms” (Solano County Genealogical Society)

April 14: “The Poverty of Affluence: The Story of the Mariani Family in California” by David Mariani (Cupertino Historical Society)

April 15: “Coming to America: The Ellis Island Experience” by Madeline Yanov (Napa Valley Genealogical Society)

April 17: Local History Trivia Contest (San Mateo County History Museum)

Conference Keeper has 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 a sampling of the coming week’s offerings:

April 12: “The Time Machine: Offbeat Resources for Family Historians” with Dear MYRTLE and Cousin Russ (The Villages Genealogical Society)

April 13: “You Can Do This: Photo Organization and Preservation for Your Genealogical Photos” (Schaumburg IL Township District Library)

April 14: “Black Graves Matter” (Fountaindale IL Public Library)

April 15: “Financing War: 18th & 19th Century Federal Tax Records – They Do Exist” with Diane Richard (Utah Genealogical Association)

April 16: “Home Children Immigration through Niagara and Their Lives” (Ontario Genealogical Society, Niagara Peninsula Branch)

April 17: “Dower and Dowry: Women, Property, and Legal Records” by Judy Russell (Ventura County CA Genealogical Society)

April 18: “Your Next Step: Write Your Family History” (Arlington Heights Memorial Library)

School Girl Murder: The thrills of volunteering for CGS

by Chris Pattillo (4/6/2021)

This blog post tells the story of a San Francisco artist and murderer

By Chris Pattillo

CGS member Jean Alderson has been one of our most faithful and diligent volunteers for the Website Content Committee. She helped with indexing some of the pedigree charts and is now actively working on indexing names for the California Surname Index Phase 2 project. Currently, Jean is working on volume one of Artists in California 1786-1940.

Today she sent me a link to an article about one of the artists, Aleck Goldenson, whom she learned about while working on our project. He ended up convicted of murder and hanged for his crime. This appeared on the blog Murder By Gaslight on July 4, 2020. Who knew volunteering for CGS could be so thrilling?

So far, our volunteers have added over 12,000 entries to the surname index.

Online genealogy, April 5-11

by Jennifer Dix (4/3/2021)

CGS Events:

April 10: (10 a.m.) Monthly Board Meeting – all welcome
April 10: (1 p.m.) “Citations: Easier Than You Think” by Stewart Blandón Traiman

Conferences & Workshops:

April 8-9: 24-Hour Marathon (Legacy Family Tree Webinars)

April 10: Nashi Predky 2021 Spring Conference “East Meets West” (Ukrainian History and Education Center)

April 10: Virtual Spring Conference (Mid-Atlantic Germanic Society)

April 10: Spring Conference with CeCe Moore, the DNA Detective (Greater Omaha Genealogical Society)

April 9 & 10: Annual Spring Conference (Indiana Genealogical Society)

American Ancestors

April 6: “Boston’s Jewish Family Businesses: The Colonial Era to the Present” by Michael Feldberg

April 8: “Jewels that Made History: 100 Stones, Myths, and Legends” by Stellene Volandes

Legacy Family Tree

In addition to the 24-Hour Marathon of webinars (see above), LFT offers these two classes this week:
April 6 & 7: “Four More Sources for New Zealand Family History” by Fiona Brooker
April 7: “DNA for Dog Lovers” by Shellee Morehead

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:

April 6: “Keys to Obituary Research” (Santa Cruz Public Libraries)

April 10: Irish Genealogy Club (United Irish Cultural Center)

April 10: “Dude Ranches … in Sonoma County?” (Sonoma Valley Historical Society)

April 5: “Confederate Pension Records” with Kayla Scott (Alabama Department of Archives & History)

April 6: “What Gravestones Can Tell You About Your Ancestors” (Lennox & Addington County Museum and Archives)

April 7: “Making the Most of Online Sources for Scottish Family History” (New York Genealogical and Biographical Society)

April 8: “What’s in a Name? Deciphering German Given Names and Nicknames” with Gail S. Blankenau (Germanic Genealogy Society”

April 9: “GenChat on Twitter: Trello and Genealogy” (GenChat)

April 10: “Dead Men Talking: Using Probate and Estate Records to Find Answers” (Houston Genealogical Forum)

April 11: “Comparison of Jewish Resources on the Giants: Ancestry, FamilySearch, Findmypast, JewishGen, & MyHeritage” (Jewish Genealogical and Archival Society of Greater Philadelphia)

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!