Our Society

Roger Prince

President

Roger Prince 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.

Second Term (2024-2025)

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Rudger Wolf

Vice President

Rudiger Wolf is also Director of the Oakland Family Search Library.

First Term (2024-2025)

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Chris Pattillo

Investment Officer, Past President

Chris Pattillo’s interest in genealogy was piqued during a visit to the Oakland Mormon Temple when it opened in 1964. Since then she has researched and published four family history books and has a family history blog. She has been a member of CGS since 2004. In addition to serving on the board, Chris was society President 2022-2024, chaired the Website Development Committee in 2018-19, the Strategic Planning Committee in 2017-18, and the Capital Campaign 2016-17. She also chaired\ the Development and Member Services Committee. She is currently the chair of the Library Committee. Chris is a frequent contributor to the CGS blog, the Watauga Newsletter in Tennessee, and has taught classes and given talks for CGS, and other genealogical societies.

Fourth Term (2025-2026)

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Cindy Kim Thomson

Treasurer

Cindy Kim Thomson was born in Hawaii and is descended from Korean immigrants who arrived there in 1904.  Her childhood interest in family stories morphed into an obsession with genealogy (particularly over the past 15 years) and annual visits to repositories, cemeteries, plantations and churches (as well as family) in Hawaii. She has been a volunteer on the CGS Desk Duty and Events Committees, and is a member of NGS. Reflecting the roots of her multi-ethnic extended family, her research has focused on immigrant sugar plantation workers in Hawaii, East Asian immigrants to Hawaii and California, and Japanese-American World War II internment. She has a B.A. and M.A. from the University of California, San Diego, and is a retired Commerce Department economist.

Third Term (2025-2026)

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Evan Wilson

Recording Secretary

Evan Wilson grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, where his love of genealogy was ignited by his grandmother’s stories and dedication to research. After completing a PhD in English and Medieval Studies at UC Berkeley in 2019, he decided to work toward becoming a professional genealogist. His passion is the intersection of genealogy and social history—studying the ties within families, but also between families and others in their society. His own research is heavily Southern, but he’s also dipping his toes into California history and research these days. Other things he gets fired up about include genealogical writing and education, oral history, and the stories of marginalized people and communities.

Second Term (2024-2025)

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Grant Din

Corresponding Secretary

Grant Din has been interested in genealogy ever since a cousin told him forty years ago that he was in the 36th generation of Gongs! Since that time, he has researched his and many families’ immigration histories including when he was on the staff of the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation. He has worked in the Bay Area nonprofit sector his entire adult life and has extensively volunteered his genealogical services. Grant moderates a Chinese American family history email group and has spoken at many libraries and genealogical societies. He completed Boston University’s Certificate Program in Genealogical Research in 2015 and enjoyed being a part of the team that researched the six Chinese seamen who survived the Titanic for the film “The Six”.

Fourth Term (2025-2026)

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Ron Madson

Ron Madson Ron’s relationship with family history was ignited a decade and a half ago by a photo of his great grandparent’s family. He quickly developed a passion for family history and teaching genealogy related topics having taught more than 70 courses in the past 5 years, primarily for CGS. He has a BS & MS in Math and is a USMC veteran. He had an IT career beginning in the mid-1960s and retired from his final career building custom homes in Silicon Valley and coast side. He served as educational coordinator for the largest international IBM computer users’ group for 7 years and for 10 years he was the technical education coordinator for an international insurance company. Ron is the founder and co-facilitator of the FTM-SIG, chair of the Digital Historian Committee, and served as Eventbrite coordinator for several years.

Third Term (2025-2026)

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Keith Montgomery

Keith R Montgomery has been a member of CGS since 2015. He sits on numerous CGS committees, including Technology, Digital Archives, Education and Events, Reopening, and Finance and participates in many CGS SIG groups, especially those involving computer technology. A former editor of the newsletter for Clan Montgomery Society, he helps other members with genealogical records, and has been administrator of the Montgomery Genealogy Facebook page for the past 13 years. He’s active with DNA research on family and helps others in their work. Now living in Albany, CA, Keith grew up in New Mexico and attended the University of Colorado. He’s a retired Hotel Controller and worked in downtown Oakland for many years. He’s passionate about traveling as much as possible and enjoys taking five-mile walks along the bay with friends.

Second Term (2025-2026)

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Carly Morgan

Carly Morgan is the owner of Family Tree Notebooks, a shop that sells digital genealogy worksheets for people looking to organize their family trees. Her family has been in the Bay Area for almost two centuries and she has strong ties to the Chinese population of San Francisco, although she lives in Salt Lake City. A former attorney, Carly has been working as a marketer and content creator for more than ten years. She is the chair of the Marketing Committee.

Second Term (2024-2025)

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Robert Trapp

Robert “Bob” Trapp was born in Hayward, a 3rd generation Californian, but grew up in Southern California. He graduated from Long Beach City College with an Associate of Science Degree in Electronic Technology. He was first introduced to family history when he was about 4 or 5. His Grandparents would tell him stories of when they were growing up and who their parents and grandparents were, including what they did for a living. He got into real research in the mid-1980’s. He has traveled to England and the Netherlands in search of family. His United States research stretches from New England south along the Atlantic seaboard, to the deep south, the mid-west and to the west coast. On the Mayflower he has 26 ancestors, in Jamestown one and many early Quakers with William Penn. He has been a member of CGS since the 1990’s. He has been a presenter at the CGS seminars on classes for census research and military research. He has also presented talks on various topics to different organizations around the Bay Area. He has been a member of the Mayflower Society since 2005. He has held several offices in the Alameda Colony, He is the past Deputy and Colony Governor and currently the Co-Colony Membership Chair. Currently he has been on staff at the Oakland Family Search Library for the past 34 years. He has shared several booklets with family members on different branches of the family back across the pond to their ancestral homes and lives in the Old World.

First Term (2024-2025)

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