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Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree
Burbank Airport Marriott and Convention Center
June 27-28, 2009

The Southern California Genealogy Jamboree blog is active again as Co-Chairs Paula Hinkle and Leo Myers and members of SCGS gear up for their annual meeting in June.

The 40th Annual Jamboree will be held Friday through Sunday, June 26-28, 2009, at the Burbank Airport Marriott Hotel and Convention Center. The focus of this year’s Jamboree is British Isles research – English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh.

Paula has posted an impressive list of speakers, including CGS members Ron Arons, Stephen Danko, Craig Manson, Cath Trindle and Marston Watson. I’m especially looking forward to seeing old genea-blogger friends and meeting new ones at Saturday’s Summit 2: Son of Blogger.

This year the California Genealogical Society and Library will be sharing a table in the Exhibit Hall with either the California State Genealogical Alliance or the Federation of Genealogical Societies. I’ll be sure to keep you informed as the details are worked out. We’re looking for members to help staff the table so please send me an e-mail if you can help.

For detailed information about schedule, speakers, genealogy exhibitors and more, visit the Jamboree blog.

March Membership Meeting
Saturday, March 14, 2009
1:00 p.m.
CGS Library
2201 Broadway, Suite LL2
Oakland, California 94612

The California Genealogical Society is pleased to have local Bay Area author Frances Dinkelspiel as the guest speaker at our March membership meeting. Her book, Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California, is a San Francisco Chronicle best-seller which has been getting rave reviews since its publication by St. Martins Press in November 2008.

Frances will share some of the backstory about how she learned about her great-great-grandfather and the eight years she spent researching and writing the book. Isaias Hellman’s story is a page-turner and a must-read for anyone interested in California history. The book is a who’s who of the banking world made even more facinating by the tie-ins to today’s financial crisis.

It’s fitting that Frances lecture at the CGS Library because a bit of her research was done here – a small bit when compared to the time she spent at the California Historical Society reviewing some forty cartons of material containing over 50,000 pages of archival documents including letters, receipts, copy books, court cases and newspaper articles.

Dinkelspiel is a fifth-generation Californian who grew up in San Francisco. A graduate of Stanford University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she spent more than twenty years in the newspaper business, working as a general assignment reporter for Syracuse newspapers in upstate New York and the San Jose Mercury News. She has taught at the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. Her freelance work has appeared in the New York Times, People Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Miami Herald, the Detroit Free Press and the Los Angeles Times.

Frances is also the author of a literary blog, Ghost Word: Ethereal Thoughts on Books and Writing
Please note that the short membership meeting starts promptly at 1:00 p.m. Frances’ talk follows at about 1:20 p.m. She will be available afterward to autograph and sell books. Please arrive early.