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CGS member Nick Cimino sent this announcement of his upcoming talk on Irish research:

How To Trace Your Ancestors In Ireland
May 14, 2009 at 7:30 p.m.
Contra Costa Genealogical Society Monthly Meeting
90 minute presentation
LDS Church
3700 Concord Blvd.
(just east of Farm Bureau Road)
Concord, California

I began conducting my genealogical research in 1989 and have traveled extensively for genealogical research in the United States and Canada. I taught beginning genealogy classes for Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno and Pleasant Hill Adult Education. In the last four to five years I have become keenly interested in Irish Genealogy. During this period of research, I discovered that more and more can be done online, quite a bit can be done using LDS Library resources and some work is best done in Ireland.

This was to be my first research trip outside North America. My Irish ancestors presented an intriguing challenge. My wife and I traveled to Ireland in April 2008 and spent time in Dublin and Belfast with five days spent at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. I was able to document many of my family stories in the records at PRONI and came back with many wonderful Irish genealogical souvenirs which will be on display.

The presentation will provide an overview of Sources for Irish Genealogy including:
-census and substitutes
-vital records
-church records
-cemeteries
-Irish Estate records
-maps & land records
-parish histories
-online sources
-paid research
-research in Ireland

In addition to PRONI we spent time at the Ulster American Folk Park in Omagh which is vital to an understanding of the historical context of our Northern Irish immigrant ancestors. Other fascinating cultural sites we visited were the Ulysses S. Grant ancestral home, the walled city of Derry and Belfast Castle where one of my Irish relatives was the gatekeeper.

I am employed with the Administrative Office of the Courts in San Francisco. I am responsible for facilities management of courthouses in sixteen Bay Area and North Coast counties.

For more information E-mail or call Nick at 925-945-6994 or visit the Contra Costa Genealogical Society CCCGS website.

The January – March 2009 issue of the NGS News Magazine (Volume 35, Number 1) features a case study by CGS member Barry E. Hinman about the immigration of his grandfather, Anton Radivoj. “The Immigration of Anton Radivoj” details the difficulties encountered when searching for Croatian names in citizenship and immigration documents and how he was able to find a long-sought record.

Mr. Hinman credits his interest in genealogy to his father’s eldest sister, Vera Hinman McAuliffe, who succeeded her father, Elmore Brown Hinman, her paternal grandmother, Alice Jones Brown Hinman, and her paternal great-grandmother, Betsey Burlingame Hinman as “custodian of the Hinman family memory.”

Anton Radivoj

Barry sent this about his Aunt Vera:

She had in her possession unique family documents concerning the three families involved, which she shared with me as long as I can remember. Among others, there was “The Hinmans of New York” which linked my father to Michael Hinman, born in Connecticut in 1748 [see “The Connecticut Connection: A Family Paper Entitled ‘The Hinmans of New York'” in The Connecticut Nutmegger 22:3 (Dec. 1989):400-403; “Michael Hinman of Roxbury, Washington and York State” in The Connecticut Nutmegger 16:4 (Mar. 1984:707-715; and “Addendum to Michael Hinman Which Appeared in The Connecticut Nutmegger” in The Connecticut Nutmegger 21:3 (Dec. 1988):422-423, all with slight errors in the texts as published].

All of this was interesting to the grammar school boy that I was, but I remember vividly what really got my interest in genealogy started. We were in Aunt Vera’s garage, where she had boxes and boxes of things stored, and she gave me a little notebook. “This,” she said, “was written by your great-uncle Gage. You might find it interesting.” Titled “A Short Memoir of Silas Burlingame” it was a copy of what is essentially an obituary, but contained the following sentences: “Many hair breaths escapes he had. Three times shipwrecked, cast away and lost all but his life … Once taken prisoner by a man of war, made his escape by jumping overboard and swiming to his own ship. Once barely escaped being made a prisoner by a British press gang. He fought in the old French war and also in the American Revolution …”

Who could resist this? Adventures, American history, and my own ancestor. I was hooked.

Barry E. Hinman retired in July 2007 from the Department of Special Collections and University Archives of Stanford University and is now Special Collections Librarian for Cataloging Emeritus. He was educated at the University of Santa Clara (BA), Princeton University (MA) and San Jose State University (MLS). All eight of his father’s great-grandparents and three of his great-great grandparents came to California between 1849 and 1858. His maternal grandparents emigrated from Austria-Hungart to New York City and moved to San Francisco in 1907, the year following the great earthquake. Mr. Hinman has been a member of CGS since 1976.

Photograph of Anton Radivoj courtesy of Barry E. Hinman.

The ninth annual CGS Tour to Salt Lake City came to a successful close with the traditional Saturday night dinner at Lamb’s Grill. Members regaled each other with the stories of their successes and lauded leaders Jane Knowles Lindsey and Nancy Simons Peterson after an exhausting but satisfying week.

Here’s a short list of some of the discoveries:

Jane Knowles Lindsey went back three more generations on her HUND family in Germany.

The 1850 U.S. Census Mortality Schedule of Peoria County, Illinois gave Sandy Jones Fryer insight into why her great-grandmother, Elizabeth Taylor, knew so little about her family of origin. The youngest of ten children, little Elizabeth was only three years old when her parents both died in 1849 of typhoid fever.

Judy Bodycote Thomas traced her Gilbert Cooke family of Leicestershire, England back two more generations.

Shirley Buxton Williams struck gold in German records, finding six generations of her SCHNECKENBURGER family in Baden.

Bill Bryant’s first trip to Salt Lake City was an adventure as he, Jane and Nancy traced his paternal Uncle Gustav through England and France, finally finding his marriage in Constantinople.

Cathy Merrill Paris ventured into German records and located Joseph BALS and learned that the original records have so much more information than the IGI.

Alison Kern Shedd discovered eight pages of bible records for the Clark HALL family of Orleans County, New York.

Bill O’Neil has tracked his wife’s grandfather Wilson from Jacksonville, Illinois to a homestead in Nebraska to Denver Colorado. He finally found him in the 1920 census living with a daughter in Los Angeles.

Susan Nourse Peterson found a physical description of her great-grandfather, Glenn Lamb, in the 1894-1896 Great Register of California Voters: 5’9″ with auburn hair and blue eyes. Susan and daughter Sharon have become regulars on the annual trip.

Gloria Hanson completed her full Norwegian “to-do” list, crossing off the last item on the last day. She also did a bit of research for a friend and learned they may be related.

Laura Spurrier used land records to prove that Richard Spurrier with wife Elizabeth and Richard B. Spurrier with wife Eliza, contemporaries in 19th century Morgan County, Ohio, were two different men. The former couple moved to Iowa; the latter stayed in Ohio and were her great-great grandparents. She also learned more about his middle initial “B” and may have a new clue about an earlier generation.