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Another CGS Tour to Salt Lake City came to a close on Saturday night with the annual dinner at Lamb’s Grill. Special guest and CGS member, Steve Danko, took time out from the United Polish Genealogical Societies Biennial Conference to join us.

President Jane Lindsey thanked all of the participants and gave an overview of the upcoming society events. Before the annual group photograph was taken, several members shared their research success stories.

Jane was doing the genealogical happy dance after finding the marriage record of Magdelena GERTH and Valentine HUND in Renchen, Germany.

Mother-daughter team, Penny Pollock and Faith Hazelton have attended the SLC trip for all eight years. Penny got closer to proving a Mayflower line through George SOULE; Faith proved one last year.

Mary White Limosner, equipped with new knowledge obtained during the Eastern European Research Workshop, finally had success finding her BUDNICK family in Polish records.

Arlene and Ted Miles enjoyed their first trip and found information on their Brooklyn ancestors and Ted’s Kentucky MILES family.

Rick Sherman was finding elusive Danes online in his hotel room.

Pat Smith and Laura Spurrier took advantage of the Danish talks offered this week at the Family History Library. Pat applied the knowledge to her Swedish ancestor Johan WIDMAN and found a probate record from the late 1700s.

Betty Barnard Walker found her BIERMANN ancestor in German passenger records from the mid-nineteenth century.

Bill O’Neil finally found the documentation he needed for his French Canadian DRINKWINE/BOIVIN and MITCHELL/MICHAUDs.

And last but not least, Cathy Paris and CGS librarian, Laura Spurrier, discovered that they are MERRILL sixth cousins.

SLC Tour group 2008

Photograph courtesy of Cathy Merrill Paris.

One hundred two years ago today, at 5:12 a.m., the earth shook in San Francisco and Sarah E. Phillips was “awaked by a most dreadful earthquake.” Thus began a series of letters Sarah wrote to her fiancé in Schenectady, New York, chronicling the days and weeks of the aftermath.

Almost one hundred years later, a ribbon-bound packet of forty faded letters, still in their original envelopes, was found in a misplaced box at the California Genealogical Society, with little to identify the writers or explain how the letters came there.

Author Dorothy Fowler, a researcher and long-time volunteer at the society, happened to be on hand when the letters turned up. She took on the challenge of researching and editing the letters and was the sole author of a book published by the society to coincide with the earthquake centennial. The vast number of hours required in researching and writing the book were contributed by her to the society.

Dorothy is a gifted writer with long experience in various publications. Much of her work life was spent in research, writing and administrative jobs, mainly for the state of California. She is now retired and lives in San Francisco.

Two years ago when promoting the book, Dorothy was a guest of radio personality John Rothmann on his KGO Radio 810 AM talk show. Dorothy did several readings from A Most Dreadful Earthquake: A First-Hand Account of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire before Rothmann closed with these remarks:

“I’m going to tell you that every April 18th, for as long as I live, I’m going to pick up your book, and I’m going to re-read it. And the reason I’m going to re-read it is because of the vivid, powerful expressions. You’ve given us a great gift… and you’ve preserved history. And for that we are all very grateful, Dorothy.”

We are indeed. Mr. Rothmann, have you done your reading this year?

What better place for a group of genealogists to spend National Library Week than the Family History Library in Salt Lake City? I’m going to put a little twist on genea-blogger Lori Thornton’s summons and write a tribute to the California Genealogical Society Library Committee and librarian volunteers.

The Library Committee is composed of several volunteers with years of experience in all areas of librarianship. They are experienced genealogists as well, who know how to catalog, locate new publications and out-of-print books, keep good records and, best of all, freely give their time and expertise. Past and present committee members include: Gloria Hanson, Barbara Hill, Arlene Miles and Laura Spurrier.

L to R: Laura Spurrier, Arlene Miles, Gloria Hanson. Not shown: Barbara Hill

Barbara Hill has a total of thirty-three years of library work experience, including time in public, school, technical and academic libraries. Her favorite jobs involved working in library acquisitions which is her focus for the CGS Library Committee. She often humorously ascribes her interest in genealogy to “prenatal influence” since her mother was pregnant with Barbara while researching the family at the Library of Congress. (It probably influenced her career choice as well.) Barbara and her mother collaborated on the family’s U.S. and Canadian research for many years until her mother’s death.

Arlene Miles is a retired library technician who has acquired an eclectic resume in specialized libraries, including air quality management, law, environmental as well as volunteer work at an electric railway museum. Arlene joined CGS in 2007 intending to do family research but she couldn’t resist keeping her fingers “in the library pie.” She soon set to work on the uncataloged periodicals, setting up a spreadsheet to organize incoming titles, identify missing issues and process subcription renewals.

Laura Spurrier chairs the Library Committee and acts as head librarian. Her credentials include masters degrees in history and East Indian Area Studies from the University of Wisconsin and a M.L.S. from the University of California, Berkeley. Laura worked for fifteen years at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where she retired as a technical information specialist. Genealogy was the family hobby in the Spurrier household so Laura caught the bug as a teenager. She is a specialist in Quaker research and has lectured on the topic to the society.

Please join me in honoring the CGS librarians for the valuable work they do.