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Something unexpected happened last October during Family History Month when the California Genealogical Society teamed up with the Oakland Regional Family History Center to present a Beginning Genealogy series of four classes — people came, lots of people came. A total of fifty students took advantage of the series, surprising organizers – but in a good way!

CGS President Jane Lindsey and Marge Bell, Assistant Director of the ORFHC, were the masterminds behind the joint venture. Marge recalls that Jane came up with the idea during a conversation the two had about ways to get more visitors to the libraries. The ORFHC has hosted lots of classes but Marge doesn’t remember ever having more than 5 or 6 students attend any session.

Jane reported on the success of the Beginners Series to the CGS Board of Directors in November and she brought along a proposal for Intermediate classes in 2009. I recall that it was Jane Hufft, savvy editor of the new California Nugget, who suggested starting the next series of classes right away. Hufft recognized immediately that Jane and Marge had created a winning formula and that the society should piggyback on their success.

Was she ever right! The eight-session Intermediate Series started on January 17 and the response has been overwhelming. Classes are filled to capacity – thirty students on Saturdays at CGS and fifty at the ORFHC sessions on Tuesdays – so a waiting list had to be created. Registration fliers for more classes starting in April are already available for download at the CGS website.

What exactly is behind the success? Jane and Marge aren’t really sure. Certainly the price is right – the classes are free with just a nominal ($15) charge for the series syllabus – especially in this economic environment. And the instructors must be doing something right – more than half of those who took the beginners classes re-upped, and some are bringing their friends.

But I think there’s a bit more going on here. Much has been written about whether the Internet has helped or hurt genealogical society membership but no one disputes the fact that the Internet makes genealogy research seem easy. We know that it isn’t and that at some point all that surfing and collecting will lead to a confused mess, if you don’t know the basics.

In his post “Who Do You Think You Are?” Series is coming – are we ready for it?, Randy Seaver wrote about the potential fascination with family history likely to be sparked by the upcoming NBC television series. First he asked, “What should local and regional genealogy societies be doing to prepare for the anticipated swelling of interest after the series starts? Then Randy gave some answers including: “Have beginning genealogy classes ready to roll after 20 April.”*

You’re right, Randy, classes are the answer, but there is no need to wait – the interest is already out there. The California Genealogical Society and the Oakland Regional Family History Center found that out when we went with the basics.

*The start date for WDYTYA has been pushed back to the summer.

Words like “coincidence” and “synchronicity” crop up rather frequently in genealogy blogs. Usually they are used to describe ancestral finds of the Psychic Roots variety like the ones I’ve labeled serendipity on the CGSL blog. But today I had one of those weird, unexplainable connections with someone I’ve only met once and who lives about 400 miles away.

Pam Wiedenbeck and I met briefly last summer at the California State Genealogical Alliance breakfast on the second morning of the SCGS Jamboree. She started our little journey to the Twilight Zone from her home in the southern end of the state. Pam has been trying to break down one of her French-Canadian brick walls by systematically reviewing all of the pertinent documents and data. She stumbled upon my CGS business card just after reviewing an early San Francisco death and sent me this email:

Hi Kathryn,

We had a fairly lively discussion of death records in San Francisco for times prior to 1905. I had actually had fairly good luck in Salt Lake City finding one of my Michigan ancestors who died in San Francisco in 1902. Since I am working on a family mystery right now, I came across the record. It was in the “Mortuary Book of the City and County of San Francisco”. This must have been indexed. Anyhow, the film number where I found my ancestor in SLC was 0975834. I found this record in 1998 — and it unlocked alot for me. With this record, I was able to get a death certificate from SF County.

Anyhow — thought you would like to know where I found this. If your society is indexing and publishing, this might be a road to travel.

Thanks again for last year’s great discussion,
Pam Wiedenbeck, President, SCGS

What Pam didn’t know is that CGS has traveled this exact road. After months of work, a new database – Pre-1905 San Francisco Deaths – is finally up and running. It’s part of The California Names Index and I’ve been working on a series of blog posts about the CGS Research Committee and this collection of indexed records which can be searched on the society website.

Needless to say, I was surprised at the timing and I wrote back to Pam to ask her to put our new database to the test. I sent her the link to our website’s California Names Index search page.

This is her result:

Joseph Durocher was a wooden ship builder who came to San Francisco to work and was killed in an industrial accident in 1902. Entry 7209 is the record number of the coroner’s entry.

What I learned from Pam is that Joseph left his family behind in Michigan to look for work. He spent his whole life there but he died here. His death record is one of the 83,233 Pre-1905 Deaths that somehow managed to survive the devastating 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire which destroyed most of the vital records of the city.

Joseph’s death record was found by a descendant 96 years later who told me today so I can tell you to go and search The California Names Index. And let me know if you find something unexpected.