Blog | California Genealogical Society

September Membership Meeting: All About the Census

by Kathryn Doyle (8/2/2010)

Joel Weintraub

Saturday, September 11, 2010
1:00 p.m.

California Genealogical Society Library
2201 Broadway, Suite LL2
Oakland, California

We’re talking census on the second Saturday in September. Joel Weintraub will present The U.S. Census: Questions, Confidentiality, and the 72 Year Rule.

Many genealogists think the 72 year confidentiality rule for the United States Census is based on life expectancy, or that the number of years is specified directly in some law. That is not the case, but the history of the 72 year rule, and the debate about opening any census record to the public should be part of every genealogists information base.

Joel will discuss: the growth of questions on the U.S. Census, many of them quite sensitive; when any promise of confidentiality was given to the public for the federal census; and an in-depth look at the debate between the Census Bureau and the National Archives as to the public’s right to know about census population schedule forms, with the resolution of the question in 1978.

Joel Weintraub was born and raised in Manhattan. He is an emeritus Biology Professor at California State University, Fullerton and has won awards for his science teaching. He became interested in genealogy about thirteen years ago, and was a regular volunteer at the National Archives and Records Administration in Laguna Niguel, California (before the move to Riverside). Joel started transcribing streets within census districts in 2001 to help researchers search the 1930 U.S. Census (released in 2002). He was joined in the venture by David Kehs and Stephen Morse in 2002, and together, they have produced a number of online census searching utilities for both the federal and the New York State censuses on the Morse One Step Website.

eNews August 2010, volume 4, number 8

by Kathryn Doyle (8/1/2010)

The August 2010 issue of the eNews, volume 4, number 8, has been published and emailed to members and friends. As always, the eNews features timely information about the California Genealogical Society and our upcoming events. Each edition also includes Suggested Links From the Blogosphere and a photo feature, California Ancestors.

This month our member in Australia, Georgia Cummings, submitted a photograph of her father, Ronald Walter Cummings. Maybe you can help her identify his parents.

Ronald Walter Cummings and his parents

All past issues of the eNews are available for viewing at the eNewsARCHIVE.

The September 2010 issue will be emailed on August 25, 2010. To receive a copy, please join our mailing list.

Announcing: The Ancestry of Theodore Timothy Judge and Ellen Sheehy Judge

by Kathryn Doyle (7/31/2010)

The California Genealogical Society is pleased to announce publication of The Ancestry of Theodore Timothy Judge and Ellen Sheehy Judge: Including the Families of Boland, Roussel, Harman, McMurphy, Kelley, Bohane, Chapin, Freiermuth, Taylor, Moore and Farneman.

Theodore Timothy “Ted” Judge died in Cupertino, California, June 11, 2008. Although neither he nor his late wife Ellen Sheehy Judge left descendants, they shared a mutual interest in family history that they enthusiastically pursued over the years. In his will Ted left legacies to numerous charities and
institutions, including the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley, where he had spent many hours as a student. His bequest required that the administrators of the Judge estate, in conjunction with the Bancroft, arrange for the publication of a Judge and Sheehy genealogy to be distributed to Ted and Ellen’s cousins. CGS contracted to fulfill Ted’s request and this book is the result.

The project consumed the society’s Research and Look-ups committee for months. Judy Bodycote chaired the committee while Jane Lindsey negotiated the agreement and shepherded the project through to completion. The Research team of Judy Bodycote, Lavinia Schwarz and Pat Smith started work in 2009 with the assistance of Dick Rees and Laura Spurrier. Later Judy Zelver, Lorna Wallace and Barbara Dyer joined the research team. Nancy Peterson assumed the final writing responsibilities and Matt Berry took on the Herculean task of formatting (and re-formatting) the book.

The list of major contributors:

Matthew B. Berry – layout, proofing and indexing
Judy Bodycote-Thomas – research, charts and photo editing
Verne Deubler – proofing
Barbara Dyer – research, indexing
Jane Hufft – editing, standardization, meetings
Jane Lindsey – coordinator
Bill O’Neal – maps
Nancy Peterson – writing, proofing
Richard Rees – research
Lavinia Grace Schwarz – research
Pat Smith – research
Laura Spurrier – editing, proofing
Shirley Thomson – proofing
Lorna Wallace – research
Judy Zelver – research

Acknowledgment must also be made to those who stepped up to maintain the research and look-ups services ordinarily done by the committee. Verne Deubler took over much of the weekly look-ups work load and Dick Rees, Pam Miller and others helped with research projects.

Copies may be purchased from Lulu.com.

Additional information on many families mentioned in this book has been archived at the California Genealogical Society, 2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland, California, 94612-3031.

The Ancestry of Theodore Timothy Judge and Ellen Sheehy Judge: Including the Families of Boland, Roussel, Harman, McMurphy, Kelley, Bohane, Chapin, Freiermuth, Taylor, Moore and Farneman.
Pub. 2010 by California Genealogical Society
Softbound, 8 1/2 x 11″ format, 224 pp. ISBN 978-0-9785694-9-5; LOC 2010929198
Price: $25.00.