I’ve received a few messages about the beauty of our new library location.  Apparently the windows to the garden make it a very peaceful location where our ancestors can shine in on us and light the way to our brickwall-removals.

Or so I hope!

Here are some photos:

And some information from our website about visiting (https://www.californiaancestors.org/directions-and-parking/):

California Genealogical Society Library
1841 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA, 94703
Tel. (510) 663-1358
Open Thursday – Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Non-members are welcome for a daily use fee.

PIC

Entry to the building is through the side yard to the left of the view above.

BART

• North Berkeley Station: Exit on Sacramento St., turn right and walk three blocks to Berkeley Way. Turn left and walk up Berkeley Way 4 blocks to Martin Luther King Dr. The Library is on the left side across from the Trader Joe’s parking garage.
• Downtown Berkeley Station: Exit the station on Shattuck Avenue at the Center Street end. Continue straight on Shattuck for three blocks to Berkeley Way, turn left, and walk 4 blocks to Martin Luther King Drive. The library is across MLK on the right side, across from the Trader Joe’s parking garage.

BUS
There are numerous ACTransit bus routes on University Avenue. Get off at Martin Luther King Drive and walk a block past the Trader Joe’s to Berkeley Way. The library is across Berkeley Way on the left side. You can get more specific routing from your favorite map site or app, or useMoovit, the Bay Area transit guide app.

AMTRAK
The nearest station is Horton St. in Emeryville. The ACTransit 27 bus takes about a half hour from there to University Avenue and Martin Luther King Drive. Alight there and walk one block past the Trader Joe’s to Berkeley Way. The library is across the street on the left.

DRIVING
From the East Bay via CA24 – Take CA24 West to CA13 North. This turns into Ashby Avenue. Continue to Martin Luther King Drive. Turn right on Martin Luther King. The library will be on the left one block past University Avenue, about a mile.
From the East Bay via 580 – Take 580 North to Martin Luther King Drive, exit 19C. Turn right on Martin Luther King. The library is on the left one block past University Avenue, about 2.9 miles.
From San Francisco and the Peninsula – San Mateo or Dumbarton Bridges, use the South Bay directions below. Bay Bridge, take 80 East to University Avenue. Turn right and proceed to Martin Luther King Drive. Turn left on Martin Luther King, the library is one block on the left.
From the South Bay – Take 880 North to 80 (Berkeley). Exit at University Avenue. Turn right and proceed to Martin Luther King Drive. Turn left on Martin Luther King, the library is one block on the left.
From the North – Take 80 West to University Avenue in Berkeley. Head east on University to Martin Luther King Drive. Turn left on Martin Luther King, the library is one block on the left.

PARKING

On-Street Parking: There is limited on-street parking around the library, some metered, some not. There isn’t any on Berkeley Way in front of the library, but there is on the other side of Martin Luther King. Pay close attention to parking signs, especially for street-sweeping days: Berkeley aggressively tickets vehicles obstructing street sweeping.
Center Street Garage: Large parking garage on Center St. between Shattuck and Milvia, about 5 blocks. $3/hour for up to 4 hours, then $25/day. 5:15AM – 1:00AM.
Air Garage: Large parking garage on Alliston St. between Shattuck and Millvia, about 6 blocks. Rates are variable. 7:00 AM to midnight most days.

Note also that Berkeley Way is a short almost cull-de-sac in front of the library: You can enter it eastbound on Berkeley Way (coming from Grant) but you can’t leave it going west.

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/
Tips & Talk: Oakland FamilySearch Center Family History Classes: https://www.familysearch.org/en/centers/oakland_california/classes

I was recently made aware of the intent to close a few National Archives, including our local one in San Bruno, California.  The wonderful Grant Din, who also happens to be a CGS member, is leading the charge to raise awareness. He and others with the Save Our National Archives group have issued a press release encouraging folks to contact their Congressional representatives and NARA.  This is posted below and I hope you will join us in writing letters to our Congresspeople.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Anna Eng, championeerheritagecomm@gmail.com
Grant Din, grant@tonaidin.net

NATIONAL ARCHIVES IN SAN BRUNO THREATENED WITH IMMEDIATE CLOSURE;
ACTION ALERT TO COMMUNITY MEMBERS AND ORGANIZATIONS

Save Our National Archives (SONA) is working to prevent the imminent closure of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) San Francisco center in San Bruno, California and also opposes the closure of its site in Chicago, Illinois. The NARA website states that the San Bruno facility will be closed within three years and we understand the move could begin as soon as this August, 2026. SONA has been involved since 1998 to ensure continued public access to these vital archival documents at the San Bruno location. These are invaluable resources, important to the region and the communities documented in them and should not be removed from the region and moved anywhere, in effect cutting off researchers and public access to these vital sources of American history.

The closure of the regional national archives in San Bruno and Chicago and the consolidation of these materials at locations such as the caverns of the Missouri NARA center which has no research facilities would not only remove the materials from their places of relevance but would effectively cut off public access. The loss of access to these artifacts and community and genealogical history would be a terrible blow to historians, researchers, families, and students, and ultimately be detrimental to our communities and overall American History.

As stated in NARA’s website, regarding the San Bruno location, “The records contain valuable historical information relating to Native Americans, and Americans of African, Chinese, Hispanic, Japanese, Samoan, and other ancestry. Especially notable are records of the Federal district and appellate courts, U.S. Army, U.S. Attorneys and Marshals, Community Services Administration, Fair Employment Practices Committee (World War II), Farmers Home Administration, Government of American Samoa, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Navy, and microfilmed records of the Bureau of the Census.”

Among these 100,000 cubic feet of documents are hundreds of thousands of immigration and naturalization materials for people from over eighty countries, including extensive Chinese Exclusion case files; German, Italian, and Japanese American internment files; Public Health records; Mexican Land grant cases; Hawaiian Birth Certificates and citizenship cases; and arrival case files for Russian Jews and other immigrants from throughout the world.

https://www.archives.gov/san-francisco/finding-aids/ethnic-reference-paper.html
https://www.archives.gov/san-francisco/finding-aids/holdings-guide-04.html
https://www.archives.gov/research/immigration/aliens#What%20is%20an%20A-File?

Direct access to the physical documents and artifacts often belonging to families and communities in these case files is critical, as are the expert staff in San Bruno who are extremely knowledgeable about the holdings and how and where to locate items. Many of the documents are large and fragile, and digitization is unfeasible and would damage them. Within these archives are personal family photographs, family letters, maps of home villages, original wedding, marriage, and birth certificates from countries of origin, tribal artifacts of Native Americans and Native Hawaiian communities, and other sources of community history.

Long-standing agreements between the National Archives and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services were made to ensure that historical documents and artifacts important to family history will be made available to the public and not moved from the San Bruno location. This must continue to hold true. To make these materials inordinately inaccessible to the American people would be a violation of the Freedom of Information Act and to make them disproportionately unavailable to the communities from whose histories they document would be a violation of the 14th Amendment for Equal Protection under the Law.

With concerns that files may be moved soon, SONA has launched an immediate letter writing campaign to contact the Archives and is asking writers and organizations to CC their Congressional representatives and ask them to take immediate action. (If possible, email a copy of your letter to us at saveournationalarchives@gmail.com).

Please express your opposition by writing to

Edward Forst, Acting Archivist of the United States
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001

NARA should receive substantially greater funding and serve more people, not reduce access to its important documents that tell the history of this country. Please also call your members of congress to oppose this terrible action. Access to documents of our national history is foundational to American Democracy and is at the heart and essence of what we celebrate as we commemorate our nation’s 250th anniversary.

Please Share Widely!
For more information and additional sources, please follow us on: FacebookSONA

“To read a KQED article from June 26, 2026 follow this link.”

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/
Tips & Talk: Oakland FamilySearch Center Family History Classes: https://www.familysearch.org/en/centers/oakland_california/classes

Steven C. Markoff, author, is working on a book project sharing the stories of people over 80. As an octogenarian himself, his newest project is a series of books about the feelings, concerns, fears, hopes and interests of people 80 years or older.

If you fit this demographic, share your short 200-word stories to be published in a book by visiting his website at:

https://importantstories.net/

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/
Tips & Talk: Oakland FamilySearch Center Family History Classes: https://www.familysearch.org/en/centers/oakland_california/classes

Not to steal from our beloved Jukebox Genealogy, but I have to quote the lyrics:

Get Your Kicks on Route 66
By Bobby Troup (songwriter)—my favorite performance is that of Nat King Cole

If you ever plan to motor west
Travel my way, take the highway that’s the best
Get your kicks on Route 66

It winds from Chicago to L.A
More than two thousand miles all the way
Get your kicks on Route 66

Now you go through St. Louis
Joplin, Missouri
And Oklahoma City looks mighty pretty
You’ll see Amarillo
Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff, Arizona
Don’t forget Winona
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino

Won’t you get hip to this timely tip
When you make that California trip
Get your kicks on Route 66

Won’t you get hip to this timely tip
When you make that California trip
Get your kicks on Route 66
Get your kicks on Route 66
Get your kicks on Route 66

This year, route 66 turns 100.  There will be festivals, car shows, neon galore, and a party stretching from… well, Chicago to LA.

Route 66 didn’t start out as one continuous road. In the early 1920s it was a disconnected mix of local dirt tracks and wagon trails, some dating back to an 1857 federal survey for a wagon road along the 35th parallel. Tulsa businessman Cyrus Avery, later nicknamed the “Father of Route 66,” championed linking these fragments into a single numbered highway as part of the brand-new U.S. Highway System. On November 11, 1926, the route was officially commissioned, stretching roughly 2,448 miles from Chicago, Illinois, to Santa Monica, California, and connecting Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California along the way.

I first learned about this because of my dad.  My dad LOVED research.  His favorite place was the library and he often said that you could learn anything you wanted by visiting the library.  I’d question him.  “Even math?”  He’d take me to 510 on the Dewey Decimal system and show me the books.  Once I got him, though… “How do they number the highways?”  We couldn’t find it at the library, but the librarian gave us an address to the California Department of Transportation.  Dad had me (I was 9 or 10) write a letter asking my question.  We got a letter back (6-8 weeks later) explaining that odd ran North-South and even ran East-West.  That’s all I really remember because I quickly asked why 280 was North-South and even and Dad changed the subject.

Ironically, the Mother Road’s (so named by John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath, as it became the Dust Bowl migration route) own popularity helped end it. Rising traffic pushed for wider, faster roads, and President Eisenhower’s Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 launched the Interstate Highway System. Over the following decades, five interstates — I-55, I-44, I-40, I-15, and I-10 — gradually swallowed Route 66’s path, bypassing the small towns that had depended on passing travelers. The last original stretch, near Williams, Arizona, was bypassed by Interstate 40 in October 1984. Less than a year later, on June 27, 1985, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials formally decertified Route 66, and the iconic shield signs came down.

Unlike the unanswered question of 280*, the Route 66 story didn’t end there. Preservation groups, local boosters, and travelers who refused to let Route 66 fade pushed for its survival. Congress recognized the highway’s cultural significance in 1990, and the National Park Service later helped establish the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program to fund restoration of historic motels, gas stations, and signage along the route. Today, an estimated 85 percent of the original road remains drivable, much of it preserved as Historic Route 66 and a National Scenic Byway, still drawing road-trippers from around the world.  The Pixar movie, Cars, reflects the real-life history of our historic highway, which also brought a new generation to love Route 66.

Have you traveled Route 66?

* Side note: Today we have Google and Google helped answer this question of 280.  “Interstate 280 (I-280) is an auxiliary (three-digit) interstate connected to Interstate 80. The name means its route is a branch or loop off the main transcontinental I-80. I-280 connects San Jose to San Francisco on the San Francisco Peninsula. It primarily runs in a North-South direction. However, near the northern end of the San Francisco Peninsula (around Daly City), it makes a nearly 90-degree turn to the East as it heads into downtown San Francisco.  I-280 remains labeled and signed as a North-South highway because Interstate numbering uses a rule based entirely on its main highway (I-80), rather than its physical direction of travel.”

 Sources

• 100 years of Route 66. (n.d.). Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona. Retrieved June 28, 2026, from https://www.historic66az.com/centennial/
• History.com Editors. (n.d.). 8 things you might not know about Route 66. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/articles/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-route-66
• History.com Editors. (n.d.). Route 66 decertified. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/june-27/route-66-decertified
• Lamberg, E. (n.d.). On this day in history, June 27, 1985, iconic Route 66 reaches the “end of the road.” Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/this-day-history-june-27-1985-iconic-route-66-reaches-end-road
• Longfellow, R. (n.d.). Route “66”: The Mother Road. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. https://highways.dot.gov/highway-history/general-highway-history/back-time/route-66-mother-road
• Official U.S. Route 66 Centennial. (n.d.). Retrieved June 28, 2026, from https://www.route66centennial.org/
• Route 66 Centennial 1926–2026. (n.d.). TheRoute-66.com. Retrieved June 28, 2026, from https://www.theroute-66.com/route66-centennial.html
• Route 66, America’s “Mother Road,” readies for its centennial. (2023, June 2). Missouri Independent. https://missouriindependent.com/2023/06/02/route-66-americas-mother-road-readies-for-its-centennial/
• Route 66: America’s highway. (2025, July 28). Rider Magazine. https://ridermagazine.com/2025/07/28/route-66-americas-highway/
• Route 66. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 28, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_66

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/
Tips & Talk: Oakland FamilySearch Center Family History Classes: https://www.familysearch.org/en/centers/oakland_california/classes

I recently read an article (https://news.findagrave.com/2026/05/18/back-to-the-beginnings/ ) about Find a Grave and it got me to remembering about when I first used it.  I browsed it a lot, but I finally got the nerve to ask someone to take a picture for me and boy oh boy was I surprised. My third great grandfather was married with some OTHER WOMAN!  Great grandma had died in 1880 and he died in 1920 and my assumption (I know…) was that he was sad the rest of his life and was buried with her.  Nope.  New wife, new grave.

If you don’t know about Find A Grave, it started in 1995 as a hobby.  Founder, Jim Tipton, liked to visit the graves of famous people and set up the site so that he and others could log gravesite information for the famous around the world.  It grew to be the largest website of gravesite information in the world.  It’s now owned by Ancestry, but it seems to still be run the same way in its crowdsourcing.

Take a moment to check out Find A Grave.  Is the cemetery down the street from you listed with all graves?  If not, instead of taking your morning stroll through the neighborhood of the living, maybe stroll through the graveyard with your camera and upload to Find A Grave at teatime!

I may do this one morning at my local cemetery and blog it for all of you.  I did one row with my children when we first moved here, but haven’t been back.

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/
Tips & Talk: Oakland FamilySearch Center Family History Classes: https://www.familysearch.org/en/centers/oakland_california/classes

Do you remember when I ordered homestead records (https://www.californiaancestors.org/check-all-the-things-and-how-to-order-land-records/)?  Well, guess what came?!?!

HOMESTEAD RECORDS!

Had I not started years ago with his military service, this would have been a gold mine in that department.  The entire first half is proving his military service—twice, because apparently once it was lost (and later found and added to the file again).  Beyond that, the below was the most exciting to me.  Bare minimum proving of the land (must build a 12×12 structure) and some chickens!  Having grown up on a chicken ranch, I love that my Miles Price also had some chickens.

Here are some family photos of that homestead (not from the file, but from my grandfather’s photos that I inherited):

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/
Tips & Talk: Oakland FamilySearch Center Family History Classes: https://www.familysearch.org/en/centers/oakland_california/classes

At my recent writing retreat in Wyoming, someone shared this YouTube clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dCx2XCw8tU

4,094 ancestors

Thought it was a fun share and made me again realize that my struggles are not new.  Those 4,094 that came before me also had struggles.  It’s the struggles that make the story.

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/
Tips & Talk: Oakland FamilySearch Center Family History Classes: https://www.familysearch.org/en/centers/oakland_california/classes

When I was a child, there was a Toys R Us catalog that came out before Christmas every year.  This was pre-Excel, but if I had known what spreadsheets were, I would have spreadsheeted the heck out of that catalog.  Wish lists continue to be my thing.  I actually have an entire journal that I just use for wish lists.

Now it’s your turn.  We need to know what books you want in our new CGS Library.  We’ve been given a gift of $600 and the Library Committee’s wish list needs to be bulked up!

What do you want to see in the library?  Is there a genealogy book on YOUR wish list that you think would benefit others?

Put together your top five and comment here or send to cpattillo@californiaancestors.org.

Here is mine:

1. Your Stripped Bare Guide to Citing & Using History Sources by Elizabeth Shown Mills
2. Who Do Your Think You Are? By Megan Smolenyak
3. 300 Questions to Ask Your Parents Before It’s Too Late by Shannon Alder
4. Reading Early American Handwriting by Kip Sperry
5. The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy by Blaine T. Bettinger

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/
Tips & Talk: Oakland FamilySearch Center Family History Classes: https://www.familysearch.org/en/centers/oakland_california/classes

During our drive to Wyoming, we got to stop at all these great places for my husband (a photographer) to take pictures.  My one ask was to take a picture of the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, UT.  Not only did I get to do that, but I got to visit each of the 5 floors so that when I go one day for weeks at a time, I know what to expect.

The first floor we visited, I grabbed 10 books from a county my grandfather lived in.  In the first book, I found this about my 2nd great grandfather:

I had never seen that before.

I can’t wait to go back and find more stuff!  I am hoping not to have to wait until I retire, but we shall see….

Have you found treasures at the SLC FamilySearch Library?

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/
Tips & Talk: Oakland FamilySearch Center Family History Classes: https://www.familysearch.org/en/centers/oakland_california/classes