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CGS member and Desk Duty volunteer Gaye Lenahan was the lucky winner of a full-tuition scholarship to the Got Genealogy Academy held November 14 – 15, 2008. Lisa B. Lee donated the prize which was awarded at the volunteer reception Thanksgiving at CGS! in November. Gaye sent this report.

The year is 1883. Did you know that was the year The Ladies Home Journal began publication? And the year that Mussolini was born? The Web has many sites with historical timelines to help you add context and interest to your family histories. This is just one small example of the tricks and treats I picked up at the inaugural session of Lisa Lee’ s online genealogy boot camp.

The class began early Friday morning with Search Engines (ever hear of Dogpile or Cuil?) and Search Techniques – soundex versus wild card, for instance. The eight students in attendance were provided a laptop computer, information binder and personal attention. For the computer-challenged (yours truly), there was much to learn. Did you know that Rootsweb has a soundex converter? Very handy!

What a rich world of information Lisa introduced to us! Example: Google Books, where I not only found great references but also mileage to the closest library where the books are located. That’s only the beginning of the richness of this site.

Saturday was devoted to exploring Ancestry. Many of you may be aware that there is more to this site than census data. I was ignorant. I can hardly wait to follow through at a CGS computer. For a student seeking military records, vital records, passenger lists, etc., this class pointed the way. We all found new information about our families that we hadn’t known before. Lisa put the bits and pieces on a CD for us to take home to our own computers.

Lisa Lee is an experienced teacher who uses her humor and energy to keep the class alert and motivated. If you think you know all about online census sources, I respectfully suggest you probably don’t! Lisa’s Got Genealogy? is offering a class in Sacramento in April for those who would like to become census-savvy.

Thanks to CGS for giving me the opportunity to improve my online genealogical skills.

Just one short year ago during our regular monthly meeting, members of the CGS board of directors took a look at the blog I created for the society and gave permission to go live. They were all wonderfully enthusiastic about the idea and have been supportive contributors throughout the year. I sold this experiment as a way to communicate with members and promote CGS at no cost to the society. So far, in my humble opinion, the blog is a success.

A few acknowledgements are in order. First to my blog-mentor, Jasia, who first challenged me to action and who graciously announced the the CGSL blog to the world. Second to Thomas MacEntee of Destination: Austin Family (and his newest offspring, Thomas 2.0) and to Denise Olson of Family Matters – you two took the time to leave welcoming comments on the CGSL blog within a day of Jasia’s announcement. You’ve both been my tech-gurus – thank you for all your help and patience. I count you as the first of the many, many genea-bloggers who have become friends this past year.

A special thank-you to all of the CGS member volunteers who have contributed to the blog over the year, especially to Mary Mettler for the Tuesday Tales of her cross-country trip and to Jane Lindsey, Arlene Miles, Cathy Paris, Judy Bodycote and Dick Rees for their photographs. I’m looking forward to telling more of the CGS member stories in the coming year. Happy Blogiversary, CGS!

Julie Cahill Tarr at GenBlog by Julie started a Thanksgiving meme with the challenge to blog two things for which we are thankful.

That’s an easy one for me.

1. I’m thankful for all of the generous volunteers who are the California Genealogical Society and Library. You are all THE BEST.

2. I’m thankful that tomorrow is the first blogiversary of the CGSL blog. I can’t believe it’s been a year since we started this experiment.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!