Blog

By Chris Pattilo

The newest addition to the CGS website is a set of documents from the Griffin Manuscripts Collection. Member Stewart Traiman scanned the material and created a detailed list of the contents, which include marriage, death and other vital records, wills, deeds, personal notes, genealogical worksheets and a few photos for multiple generations of the Charles Griffin family as well as allied lines including Ashfield, Benson, Blatchford, Deboy, Dudley, Haverhill, Maxwell, Taylor and more.

Captain Francis Marion Griffin of Boston, 1909: from the Griffin Collection

Dr. Charles Francis Griffin was the tenth president of the California Genealogical Society (CGS). He served from 1923 to 1931. He was born 26 April 1869 in Lassen County, California, the son of Francis Marion Griffin and Margaret Malloy Griffin.  Griffin attended school in Vallejo, California, and Cooper Medical College in San Francisco. He received an MD degree from Stanford University in 1891, and practiced medicine in San Francisco.

In addition to being an active member of CGS, Dr. Griffin was a contributing member of the California Historical Society. In that capacity he compiled an Index to the Annals of San Francisco which was published in 1935. He was also an officer in the Society of Mayflower Descendants for many years.

Dr. Griffin was killed in a bus accident in Guerneville, California, on 23 December 1950. Upon his death his estate donated his vast collection of genealogical books to CGS.[1]

To browse the Griffin Collection via our website, log in and go to the Research Tab, select “Online Resources” from the pull down menu, and scroll down to Resources Developed by CGS Members, where you will find a link to the Charles Francis Griffin M.D. Collection. Note: These online collections do not include everything held by our library because some items are under copyright. To view the entire collection you’ll need to visit the library when it reopens.