Blog

One in a series of blog posts about CGS committees and their work
*The committees currently have openings for volunteers. For more information, email Linda Darby.

Pat Bonderud and Linda Darby

I grouped these three committees together because they are related and all three are currently chaired by CGS Member Linda Darby.

From my vantage point, the Manuscript Committee appears to be one of the most interesting committees of our society because this team gets to look at and process one-of-a-kind documents from a family. For a family historian what could be more fun?

Currently, Linda is chair and Laura Jones is a member. Linda has been in that position, on and off, for many years and is ready to step down, but before she does, she wants to recruit another member to help Laura process donated manuscripts and run the committee.

The workload of the committee varies depending on how many and how large the donated collections are. This work can be fascinating because it gives one the opportunity to review an individual family’s recorded history at a micro level.

Some of the work is routine involving placing documents in archival boxes and listing the items in the collection. These lists are posted on our website enabling researchers to know what is in each collection and thereby ascertain if anything might be of value to their research. To see an example, look for the “CGS Manuscript Collection Index” on the Online Resources page that can be found on the Research Tab. For each collection the Manuscript Committee volunteer identifies the geographic area covered in the collection, the time frame, surnames and gives a brief description of what is in the collection.

If you think you might be interested in learning about the Manuscript Committee, please contact Linda at [email protected]

Special Projects Committee

This committee is hard to describe because what they do depends on the nature of each special project, so if you like surprises, this may be the perfect committee for you.

Currently, there are two members of the committee, both co-chairs, Pat Bonderud and Linda Darby. Pat and Linda have been working together on Special Projects for many years and have developed a great friendship …. but one could say that about most of the committee work at CGS.

Linda’s and  Pat’s favorite Special Project was and continues to be processing Vertical Files.

Vertical Files Committee

This committee has been an on-going special project since 2010.   Initially, the committee created the index of our vertical files which can be found on the CGS website.  The committee continues to process new donations that are added to the physical files and the index as they are given to the society.  The Vertical Files consist of over 1,900 files, not including the California and international geographical files.  For each file, the volunteer identifies the geographic area covered in the collection, the time frame, surnames and gives a brief description of what is in the collection. The Vertical Files primarily relate to family histories and can range from a copy of a marriage certificate or a newspaper article to a short family history.