Blog | California Genealogical Society

by Jennifer Dix (1/20/2025)

By Debbie Mascot

To register for an event or for more information, click the link for any event. All times are Pacific Time.
Questions? Email [email protected]

There is so much that California Genealogical Society (CGS) can do for you if you are not a member, but the benefits are tremendous if you are. People often wonder why they would join a genealogical society in a location where they do not have ancestors, but I believe one should join societies in their ancestors’ locations AND their own.

When you become a member of CGS, one of the items you get access to is the quarterly publication, Jukebox Genealogy. This is a fun, interactive publication where the editor, Nancy Cork, choses songs to go with different themes and includes short member stories and anecdotes, as well as surveys, suggestions, and activities

This quarter, the Jukebox Genealogy features a brick wall focus. Members are asked to email a brief description of their research problem in 150 words or less. Combining this with another CGS membership benefit, Member Connections, will allow all of us to work together to try to break that wall down. If you are already a member of CGS, you can find information on the Members drop-down under Member Connections. If you aren’t a member, we have directions for you to join us here: https://www.californiaancestors.org/join-cgs-application/.

If you are a member, please send your 150 words to: [email protected] for a chance to win a private consultation via Zoom with a select panel of CGS genealogists! Your entry must be in by February 8, 2025.

I’m definitely not one to pass up the opportunity for a big bulldozer being butted up against my brick walls, but I’m also not one great at brevity. Yes, I have brick walls, but I aways feel like I have to tell their entire life stories to get to the brick wall part. Asking for just 150 words hurts, but also really helps me narrow down to specific questions, which I appreciate. Assuming a picture isn’t truly worth a thousand words, I’m adding 2 pictures to my submission and calling it 118 words rather than 2,118!

I won’t post my brick wall 118 words here, but I will post the photo that started my brick wall. If you want to know more, please use the membership benefits and crowdsource this for me, my friends!

By the way, to show you how fun this is, there are links to the songs for each month. I got to hear U2’s I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For and it has all new meaning now! I really did think I was going to hear Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall when I clicked one of the jukeboxes, but I loved these selections even more. When genealogy is also fun, magic happens. Thank you for the magic, Nancy!

Helpful Links
Events: https://www.californiaancestors.org/events-and-education/
Special Interest Groups: https://www.californiaancestors.org/special-interest-groups-for-members/
Calendar view: https://www.californiaancestors.org/cgs_calendar/

The Early Bird Gets the Worm

by Debbie Mascot (1/17/2025)

To register for an event or for more information, click the link for any event. All times are Pacific Time.
Questions? Email [email protected]

Please enjoy this interview with CGS President and Melanie L. Proctor, JD about the upcoming Irish Seminar (that you definitely should not miss!). Sign up details are at the bottom of this post and it’s important to note that Early Bird pricing has been extended to midnight, January 31, 2025!

Attendee of the Irish Seminar: Roger Prince

CGS is honored to host the first stop of the 2025 Ulster Historical Foundation’s U.S. tour, with consultations available on 28 February 2025, and a full day of talks on 1 March 2025. CGS President Roger Prince looks forward to attending the conference.

What topic in the conference most interests you, and why?

My Irish 3^rd great grandmother, Ellen Neuman age 30, travelled with 6 others aged 5 to 25 with the same surname from Queenstown to NYC in 1850. I have not found her in Ireland. Her immigration falls within the Irish famine migration period. So, I think the Irish Poor Law talk, the talk on directories, newspapers and more and the session on solving your brick wall will all be helpful. But the other talks should be interesting as well. You never know what you don’t know!

When did you start researching your family history, and how did you discover Irish ancestors?

I began in 1989 when I asked my father who the ancestors were in the box of old framed photos that used to hang in my grandparents’ home. My mother knew her great-grandmother, Catherine Fields, who was Irish Catholic. Catherine’s mother, Ellen Neuman, was clearly an Irish immigrant, but records are confusing as to whether Catherine’s father, Samuel Fields, was an Irish immigrant himself, or a descendant of Irish immigrants.

What information were you able to learn about them from the usual resources (Ancestry, FamilySearch, etc.)?

Ellen Newman’s age and approximate year of birth, when she must have arrived in the US, and that she was Irish. From that I believe I have found her immigration on a ship manifest. That is as far as I have gotten.

Have you done your DNA and if so what does it say about your Irish ancestry?

My latest Ancestry DNA mapping says I am 7% Irish and it all comes from my mother’s side. The range is 3 to 16%. One 3^rd great grandparent, Ellen Newman, would give me only 3% Irish. So it seems possible that my 3^rd great grandfather Samuel Fielding is at least partly Irish (as some records claim) and perhaps some of my mother’s other ancestors farther back are as well. 23andme says I share DNA with other participants in 10 Irish counties, Dublin, Cork, Mayo are the strongest, then Galway, Clare, Kerry, Limerick and Donegal. Finally Tipperary and Roscommon. Because these are mostly in south and western Ireland and my ancestor sailed from Queenstown in Cork, this makes sense to me.

Share a little about when you joined CGS.

I moved to California in 1985 and began doing genealogy in 1989, but didn’t really consider visiting or joining CGS early on. I was raised in New England and all my ancestry was in New England, New York and the British Isles. But after attending several CGS events as a non-member, Jane Lindsey persuaded me that there were many people in CGS with non-California roots and that I could learn a lot from joining. She was right! Many CGS members do not have California ancestors, including many with Irish roots. I joined in 2012 and have been on the CGS board since 2022.

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Upcoming Events

San Francisco Special Interest Group (SIG)

San Francisco has so many nuances to genealogical research that it helps to know an expert. Join this SIG to meet several! It doesn’t matter if you are new to genealogy or an old hat, find your family story in the City of Love.

When: Saturday, January 18, 2025 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Where: Virtually via Zoom

Cost: Free to CGS members

How to Register: Contact [email protected]

Family Tree Maker Special Interest Group (SIG)

Are you using the popular Family Tree Maker software to keep track of your genealogy findings? Are you new and looking for a program to use? Are you just wanting to know more about it? Join this great SIG for a plethora of topics this January, including a new release, and all things cemetery, including citations (which some may find more frightening than a cemetery!).

When: Saturday, January 18, 2025 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Where: Virtually via Zoom or in person at the CGS Library

Cost: Free to CGS members

How to Register: Register through the FTM-SIG website

Roots Magic

Description: Users of RootsMagic will meet to discuss helpful hints for using the software. Group will review their experience in updating to version 8. Topics include review of various screens and functions of RootsMagic with group suggestions on best usage and practice.

When: Saturday, January 22, 2025 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Where: Virtually via Zoom

Cost: Free to CGS members

How to Register: Register through the Roots Magic sign-up page

Special Event:

2025 All Ireland Genealogy Seminar

California Genealogical Society will host the first stop of the 2025 Ulster Historical Foundation US Tour. You can register for a 30-minute consultation and/or attend a day of lectures.

Consultations

When: Friday, February 28 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Where: CGS Library

Cost: $50.00 per 30-minute consultation

How to Register: https://ulsterhistoricalfoundation.com/events-courses/oakland

Lectures

When: Saturday, March 1, 2025 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Where: Preservation Park, Oakland, CA

Cost: Purchase before January 31, 2025 $100 for CGS Members and $125 for non-members

How to Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2025-all-ireland-genealogy-seminar-with-the-ulster-historical-foundation-registration-1100184514499

Meet the President (and Vice President)

by Debbie Mascot (1/15/2025)

To register for an event or for more information, click the link for any event. All times are Pacific Time.
Questions? Email [email protected]

The votes are in and a great time was had by all at the CGS Annual Membership Meeting!

Last week we had a post about what each position means on a Board and this week, we want to start the introductions to the new team! Today you will learn about Roger Prince, CGS President, and Rudiger “Rudy” Wolf, CGS Vice President.

CGS President, Roger Prince

Roger Prince, our prior Vice President, worked as a geological oceanographer at Oregon State University, the University of Rhode Island, and Brown University, where he went on numerous research cruises, published more than a dozen original research papers and a nine-sheet color bathymetric map series of the Peru-Chile trench, and earned a PhD in geophysics. He joined Gulf Oil as an exploration geologist in 1983 and worked in Angola, Papua New Guinea and other international locations. He moved to the Bay Area in 1985 and later worked in IT systems. He and his family spent five years in Bangkok and Singapore before returning to San Ramon in 2004. He spent the last few years of his career working on IT Reliability/Planning, before retiring in 2011. Roger became interested in family history when he asked his parents who all the ancestors in the unlabeled pictures were. He has published two papers in the NEHGS Register. He’s also served as a CGS facilities chair and wrote the blogs for the 2022 NGS conference.

CGS Vice President, Rudy Wolf

You may have read about our new vice president in the Genealogy Jukebox (our interactive newsletter for members that you should not miss out on!). I’m reposting that introduction here:

Rudy Wolf is a relatively new member of the California Genealogical Society, but he is an old hand at helping people discover their family history. As the current director of the Oakland FamilySearch Center (OFSC) with his wife, Laurie, Rudy recognizes how important it is to people everywhere to know their family history. He feels that the knowledge we gain from discovering our family stories – truly understanding the experiences our ancestors have had, and how they overcame adversity – can give us and our children and grandchildren a strong foundation for the future. During his time at the OFSC, Rudy has been impressed with the number of CGS members who regularly volunteer there, either leading a Special Interest Group, teaching a class, or assisting patrons with their research or with the center’s resources. He is looking forward to volunteering at CGS, and indeed, Rudy would like to see more genealogical societies and organizations support each other in the goal of helping people with their personal family discoveries. Rudy has been a CGS member since 2023, and is currently on the CGS Board of Directors