Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What Genealogical or Historical Societies Have You Joined?

For this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, Randy Seaver asks about our membership in groups, something I'll have to think about to answer, at least for the past ones.

Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along; cue the Mission:  Impossible! music!):

1.  What genealogical or historical societies have you joined to pursue your family history research over the years?

2.  Write your own blog post, leave a comment on this post, or write something on Facebook.

I am pretty sure the first genealogical society I joined was the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society.  I found out about it from someone who came to the Oakland Family History Center.  That was way back about 20 years ago.  For several years that was my only membership.  I have stayed a member continuously since joining.

I was a member of the California State Genealogical Alliance from 2006 or 2007 until the group was dissolved in 2017.  In fact, I was one of the board members who voted in favor of and helped with the processing of the dissolution.

I think the next group I joined was the California Genealogical Society, in 2011, after giving a presentation to them about online newspapers.  I remained a member of CGS until I moved to Oregon.  I think my last year was 2018.

Soon after CGS I became a member of the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California (how's that for a mouthful?), in 2012.  That membership also ended when I moved to Oregon in 2017.

I think I was a member of the Southern California Genealogical Society for a couple of years in conjunction with having given presentations at Jamboree, but I can't remember which years.

The first group I joined after my move to Oregon was the Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon.  As I recall, I joined not long after arriving in September 2017.  I had a break in membership for about a year but returned and am currently a member.

I began participating in the African American Special Interest Group of the Genealogical Forum of Oregon also soon after I moved here, but that group is open to the public and didn't require joining officially — until I volunteered to take over as coordinator after the founder of the group stepped down.  To be a SIG coordinator, you have to be a member of GFO.  So I joined and have maintained that membership through to the present.

I was a member of the Oberlin African American Genealogy and History Group in 2020 and 2021, but I forgot to renew for 2022 and they didn't remind me.  Earlier this year I sent a message asking about current benefits of membership but was told that I would find out about benefits only after joining.  I didn't consider that the best way to market the group and still haven't decided if I'm going to renew.

I joined the Jewish Genealogical Society of Long Island in 2021 as a life member, so that's still current.

I was given a membership in the Virtual Genealogical Society because I gave a presentation at its 5th birthday party this year.  Hmm, I don't think I've received any messages from them since then, but it was only a month ago.

I can't recall ever having joined a historical society.

So that makes my current memberships SFBAJGS, JGSO, JGSLI, GFO, and VGS.

Statement of Non-Support: Board of African American Genealogy

Most of my blog readers know that one of my research specialties is Black genealogy.  I started that research about 25 years ago for extended family members.  Since then I have discovred my own Black relatives and the African ancestry that appears in my DNA.

This is to say that I am not new to this field.  Although I am white, I have many years of involvement in the Black genealogy community.  I, along with many others, have often looked for more visibility for the community.

But this isn't the way to do it.

I learned of the Board of African American Genealogy this past Friday, October 9, when I received a message forwarded from Nicka Smith, a genealogy colleague of mine.  We used to serve together on the board of the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California (AAGSNC) and worked together on AAGSNC's quarterly journal, The Baobab Tree.  She is a nationally known lecturer on Black genealogy and the founder and host of BlackProGen Live.

She discovered that the founder and promoter of the Board of African American Genealogy (BOAAG) was using her name and the names of other genealogists prominent in the Black genealogy community to market the new organization, without their permission or knowledge beforehand.  She learned that some of those individuals had contacted BOAAG to try to find out more about what was going on and had either been rebuffed or given the run-around.

Nicka has written an opinion piece about the situation which I recommend anyone interested in Black genealogy read.  It lays out the facts as known at this time.

It is possible that BOAAG actually has the good of the Black genealogy community in mind.  But for now it is taking actions that appear to be more self-serving than beneficial to others, and doing so in a way that is not completely aboveboard.  So I agree with Nicika's assessment and announcement, and I have added my name to those listed with her post.  I do not recommend supporting the Board of African American Genealogy.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: How Did You Get Started in Genealogy Research?

This week's challenge for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun is a story I've told many times, but apparently never for SNGF.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music!), is:

(1) Jacqi Stevens recently suggested, in her blog post "The Networks of Life", the question "How did you get started in researching your genealogy?"

(2) This week, let's tell our "getting started in genealogy research" stories.

(3) Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a comment on this blog post to lead us to your answers.


I started researching my genealogy before Roots appeared on TV, and I've still never read the book.  My journey began at the tender age of 13 with what used to be a common middle school assignment, to research your family tree back four generations.  For some reason that assignment really got me hooked.  I still have the purple mimeographed paper (even though that special scent is long gone).

I interviewed all of my local family members with all sorts of questions, and I still have my notes from those interviews.  I also wrote letters to others who did not live locally.  I have the letter I received from my paternal grandmother, where she responded to my questions about her mother's family.

Over the years I kept adding to the information I had gathered.  Whenever I traveled (I used to average at least one trip per month), I checked to see if I had any family in the area and then arranged to visit.  I asked more questions and offered to share what I had put together.  I've met several dozen relatives this way and become good friends with some of them.

I began to do a lot of volunteer work.  I've been staff at LDS Family History Centers since 2000.  I joined the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society and became the publicity director, then programming director, then ZichronNote editor, and eventually vice president.  I stepped down from the latter position when I moved to Oregon, but I still do all the rest.  I joined the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California, took over editing The Baobab Tree, and was elected to a board position.  I have worked in various volunteer capacities for the California Genealogical Society, California State Genealogical Alliance, Council for the Advancement of Forensic Genealogy, and other sociteties.  I've done transcription and editing work for JewishGen.

Around 2004 I discovered people could make a living being professional genealogists and decided I wanted to do that.  The general recommendation at the time was that first you should volunteer to do research for friends and extended family and see if you still liked it.  I ended up doing the genealogy of everyone in my office; they joked I knew their families better than they did (and I still do).  In 2005 I placed an advertisement as a professional genealogist and got my first client right away; he was a client for five years.

In 2009 Marge Bell of the Oakland Family History Center sneakily conned me into giving a presentation on using online newspapers, and I've been giving talks on genealogy subjects ever since.  Along with lots of local and regional talks, I've been fortunate enough to have presented at some national conferences, such as RootsTech, the Ohio Genealogical Society annual conference, and several International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies' annual conferences on Jewish genealogy.

And all of this started with one mimeographed family tree.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What Was the First Genealogical Society You Joined?

Randy Seaver is back with a new challenge for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun:

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

(1) What was the first genealogical society you joined?  Why did you join that one?  What other societies are you a member of?

(2) Share your response in a comment on this blog post, in your own blog post (and provide a link in a comment on this post), or on Facebook or Google+.

NOTE:  Thank you to Jacquie Schattner for suggesting this topic in 2016.

Well, the first genealogical society I joined was the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society (SFBAJGS).  I've been a member since 2005.  I've been researching my family history since 1975 and just did stuff on my own.

I really don't remember how I learned about SFBAJGS.  Maybe there was a flyer at the Oakland Family History Center, or I might have heard about a meeting being held at the Jewish Community Center in Berkeley.  I remember I attended meetings for about a year before I officially joined, which I did because at that time I was primarily focusing on researching my mother's side of the family, it was the local Jewish genealogical society, and I wanted to support it.

Over the years I took on responsibilities for the society to support it further.  I became the publicity director in 2008, which meant I became a board member at the same time.  I started handling the program scheduling in 2010.  Also in 2010, I took over as editor of ZichronNote, the society's quarterly journal.  Those are all things I continue to do.  From 2015–2017, I was also the vice president, a position I stepped down from when I moved to Oregon.  And I've presented talks to the society several times over the years.

I am currently a member of two additional societies — Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon (since 2017) and California Genealogical Society (since 2011) — and three professional organizations — Association of Professional Genealogists (since 2005), Council for the Advancement of Forensic Genealogy (since 2012), and Genealogical Speakers Guild (since 2011).  Past memberships include California State Genealogical Alliance (which closed down in 2016), Gesher Galicia, and African American Genealogical Society of Northern California.

My Second Nugget Issue — Finally!

The first issue of The California Nugget after I became the new editor was published in January.  In theory, the second issue should have come out in May, but between my house sale and move to Oregon, and the layout person's busy summer schedule (including a trip to see the eclipse), we slipped.  The finals went to the printer last week, and they should be in the mail by now.  With the issue being published so late in the year, there will only be the two issues this year (which worked better logistically for CGS anyway).

The new column about genealogical methods might look like it's by a different author because of a name change.  Rondina recently married and is now Rondina P. Wallace (and still a CG).  Her column this issue is on things to think about when using derivative records.

The lead article is by Barry E. Hinman and delves into the life of his ancestor Joel Burlingame, the father of the man for whom the city in California was named.  Joel lived during most of the 19th century, and Barry used a family narrative to show how Joel's life reflects what was going on in the United States at the time.  This article is a two-parter, with the second half coming in the next issue.

Another first-run article in this issue is by Bill Chapman of the UK, who has been studying the history of Esperanto.  He found several California residents in the early 20th century who were listed in Esperanto contact directories.  Perhaps you'll find one of your relatives in the list?

The remaining articles are being reprinted from other publications, because they are great pieces and most members of the California Genealogical Society have probably not seen them previously.  Norm Ishimoto wrote a wonderful story about his mother and her career as a professional costumer, which was published in the Froghorn of another CGS, the Calaveras Genealogical Society.  Vinnie Schwarz's article on her discovery that her great-great-grandmother was a woman of color in Louisiana appeared in The Baobab Tree, the quarterly journal of the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California.  (Both of these also are multipart articles that will continue in the next issue.)  And Fred Hoffman's excellent short piece about the perils of relying on machine translation was published first in Gen Dobry!, the monthly e-zine of Polish Roots.

The next issue of the Nugget is scheduled for February 2018, to coincide with the 120th anniversary founding of the California Genealogical Society (CGS).  To help commemorate that milestone, I am particularly seeking articles and short items having to do with people and events in 1898.  If you are a CGS member and someone in your family was hatched, matched, or dispatched (born, married, or died) that year, send a message with the relevant information, and I will include it in a special calendar.  If something significant happened in your family in 1898, consider submitting an article about it.  If you had a relative who was a member of CGS during the society's first few years, let me know who it was and what activities that person was involved in.  Send your submissions and suggestions to Nugget@CaliforniaAncestors.org.

Double Issues for Two Journals

Sometimes real life has an annoying way of intruding on volunteer activities.  That's what happened to me earlier this year, and it's why issues of ZichronNote and The Baobab Tree did not appear in the spring, as they should have.  But I've been dancing as fast as I can, and I managed to catch up.  Both journals have recently been published as double issues, with more pages and stories than usual in an effort to atone for the delay.

In the February/May 2017 issue of ZichronNote (from the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society), Fred Hertz wrote about his successful efforts to contact cousins from other branches of his family tree and his thoughts on the different paths family members took.  Martin Gewing was fortunate to see a torah from the town his mother's ancestors lived in.  Judy Vasos shared a special photograph from World War II, of an entire wedding party in Germany wearing the required yellow stars of David, and shared her discovery of a second photo from that day.  Alan Silverman related one Sephardic family's journey, over several generations, from Spanish expulsion to Dutch sanctuary to British establishment.  In the third article in a series, Kevin Alan Brook described documentation proving that Sephardic Jews resided in central and northern Poland.  Sheri Fenley, the Educated Genealogist, graciously allowed us to reprint her story (with new material!) about David Nathan Walter, an early Jewish pioneer in San Francisco.  One of our members wrote about her pleasant surprise at discovering that her 10-year-old grandniece is actually interested in family history.  And the SFBAJGS Treasurer, Jeff Lewy, went over the society's financial performance in 2016 and explained how we were able to help several genealogy projects around the world.

The Winter/Spring 2017 issue of The Baobab Tree (published by the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California) led off with an article by Patricia Bayonne-Johnson about the Georgetown Memory Project, which grew out of the public revelation that Georgetown University survived an early financial crisis through the sale of slaves.  This article is a follow-up to one Pat wrote in 2008, also published in Baobab, about her family members that were among the Georgetown slaves.  Veola Wortham contributed her hard-learned lesson not to take everything family members tell you as gospel.  In the first half of a two-part article, Ellen Fernandez-Sacco discussed her discovery that her early ancestors in Puerto Rico owned slaves and how her research has changed due to learning that.  Richard Rands eloquently explained why your family tree should be on your computer at home, not online.  Janis Minor Forté didn't let one adverse piece of information define the legacy of her grand-uncle.  In addition to her first article, Veola Wortham also reviewed the book Black Indian Slave Narratives and discussed its relevance to genealogical research.  There is also a review by Sharon Styles of this year's Sacramento African American Family History Seminar, where the keynote speaker was Paula Madison.

That sounds like a lot of interesting genealogical reading, doesn't it?  Wouldn't you love to see how those stories turned out?  All you have to do is be a member of the respective societies, and you can happily receive issues of the journals.  Visit the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society (for ZichronNote) and the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California (for The Baobab Tree) for membership information, and all your problems will be solved.  Well, at least those relating to being able to read the journals.

Another way to obtain a copy of either journal in the future is to have a story published in it.  (In fact, for Baobab, you will receive five copies!)  You do not need to be a member to submit a story.

Have you had a breakthrough in your research, solved a family mystery, discovered a different way to use resource materials, or walked where your ancestors walked?  Do you have an interesting story about your family?  Other people would love to read about it!  Submission guidelines for The Baobab Tree (including deadlines) are online, or you can send me a message regarding a submission to ZichronNote.  Let's talk about it!

The Latest in Genealogy Journals

I realized I have been remiss lately in letting everyone know what interesting articles are being published in the journals for which I am the editor.  And now that I've added a new (to me) journal to the list, there's a wider range of stories!

The most recent issue of ZichronNote came out at the end of November.  Australian Dani Haski wrote about the status of Jewish record books in Egypt, a subject of interest to her because her ancestors came from Egypt.  Susan MacLaughlin discussed her roots trip to Lithuania, which she originally thought was going to be to France.  Vivian Kahn updated our membership on the latest additions to the Hungarian Special Interest Group database on JewishGen.org.  Debra Katz tried to entice people sitting on the fence to jump in the DNA research pool and see what they can learn.  Fred Hoffman wrote about some pitfalls of machine translation, including "swanky oxen" and "fetus farms."  And SFBAJGS President Jeremy Frankel and several other members shared their perspectives on the 2016 IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, which took place in Seattle, Washington in August.

The Fall 2016 issue of The Baobab Tree was e-mailed to members in December (yes, when it was still fall, thank you).  We've had a glitch with the printer, so the print copy has not yet gone out, but it should soon.  The big story in this issue was the celebration of the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California's 20th anniversary, which was held at the September meeting.  Dera Williams wrote about the highlights of the day, and Jackie Chauhan contributed a list of some of the topics the society's speakers have addressed over the course of 20 years.  There's also a lovely photo gallery showing many of the attendees and honorees, including our beloved Electra Kimble Price and the ever-busy Ron Higgins.  Lavinia Schwarz wrapped up her three-part story about the research she did on her 2x-great-grandmother, a free woman of color in New Orleans.  A few AAGSNC members attended the 3rd International Black Genealogy Summit in Arlington, Virginia and had the opportunity to meet the Côte d'Ivoire ambassador to the United States.  And AAGSNC President Howard Edwards presented a plaque of appreciation to the Oakland FamilySearch Library in thanks for all of its support over the years.

My new baby is The California Nugget, the twice-yearly journal published by the California Genealogical Society.  This is my first issue, so there's been a learning curve, finding out about all the people and procedures involved.  It should be published this month.  Two things that will be new with this issue are a message from the president, currently Linda Harms Okazaki, in place of the previous message from the editor (because we all know I hate to write), and a regular column on genealogical methods by Rondina Muncy, CG.  In addition to those, Stella and Linda Allison wrote about their great-grandfather's sister, a Mexican immigrant to San Francisco who moved up economically from her beginnings in Mazatlán.  Scott McKinzie used DNA and old-fashioned paper research to determine who his grandfather was.  Joe Reilly and Tim Cox have stories about relatives who served and died in World War II.  Kathleen Javdani dove into research on her great-grandmother, trying to find if the information in a family narrative matched reality.  And Carolyn Ervin wrote about memories of her own great-grandmother, whom she was fortunate enough to meet shortly before she passed away.

There's a caveat, though.  (Isn't there always?)  To receive these fine journals, you need to be a member of the respective societies.  If you would like to read these articles, visit the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society (for ZichronNote), the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California (for The Baobab Tree), and the California Genealogical Society (for The California Nugget) to join and you can be reading them soon.

There is a way around that membership requirement, at least on a per-issue basis.  If you have a story published in an issue, you receive a copy!

Have you had a breakthrough in your research, solved a family mystery, discovered a different way to use resource materials, or walked where your ancestors walked?  Do you have an interesting story about your family?  We would love to read about it in one of the journals.  Submission guidelines for The Baobab Tree (including deadlines) and The California Nugget (which will probably be updated soon) are available online, or you can send me a message regarding any of the journals, and we can talk about it! 

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What Are Your Genealogy Goals for 2017?

It's the beginning of a new year, so for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Randy Seaver has us thinking about what we want to accomplish during the year:

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission:  Impossible music):

1) What goals do you have for your genealogy research, education, and writing during 2017?  

2) Tell us about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a comment to this blog post, or in a comment on Facebook or Google+ in response to this post.

These are my goals:

Personal Research

• Find the son my aunt gave up for adoption in 1945, find his descendants, or at least find out what happened to him.  My aunt is 91 years old, and we're running out of time to let her know.

• Determine who the biological father of my grandfather was.  I think I'm close, but I need to find some living descendants and see if they're willing to take DNA tests to confirm my hypothesis.

• Catch up on entering all the information I found in 2016 into my family tree database, including citations.

• Make sure I have uploaded the DNA results of all the family members who have tested to all possible databases.  Spend more time with the DNA databases looking for matches and contacting close matches to share information.  Work more with chromosome mapping; try the Lazarus tool on FTDNA.

• Share all the photos I've been scanning with family members from the appropriate lines and ask for help with identification of as-yet unlabeled photos.

• Look for a group that is planning to pool money for research in the Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine archive and join up, with the aim of finding documents on my Gorodetsky, Kardish, and Schneiderman relatives from Kamianets Podilskyi.

• Stay in better touch with cousins with whom I have already made contact.

• Figure out how to do some sort of research in Punjab remotely, so I can make progress on my stepsons' grandfather's family lines.

• Get back to working on Irish research, so I can make progress on my stepsons' grandmother's family, my half-sister's mother's family, and my friend's O'Gara family from County Roscommon and County Sligo.

• Any time I take a trip, check to see what research I might be able to do in the area while I'm there.

Education

• Go to the Ventura County Genealogical Society's family history event for Black History Month.  I am the featured speaker, teaching two classes in the afternoon, plus I have volunteered to help with general genealogy questions in the morning.

• Attend the Forensic Genealogy Institute in San Antonio, Texas in March.  I'm registered for three days of classes with Judy Russell, the Legal Genealogist!  (Be still, my heart!)

• Attend the annual Sacramento African American Family History Seminar in March, where I will be teaching about Freedmen's Bureau records and also taking the opportunity to attend other classes.

• Attend Genealogy Jamboree in Burbank in June.  I'm teaching one class, but that gives me three days to go to a lot of other classes and learn more cool genealogy stuff.

• Attend (probably) the IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in Orlando, Florida in July.  (No, you are not the only one wondering why anyone would schedule a conference in Florida in July.)  I plan to attend, but it depends on whether I have a talk accepted and therefore can justify the expense of flying cross-country.  It appears I no longer have any relatives living close by Orlando, so I might have to (shudder!) pay for a hotel room.

• Attend the Northwest Genealogy Conference in August in Arlington, Washington, if I have a talk accepted.

• Attend the Federation of Genealogical Societies annual conference over Labor Day weekend, this year in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  I won a free registration, or I wouldn't be able to go.

• Watch Webinars from Florida State Genealogical Society, Illinois State Genealogical Society, Legacy Family Tree, Minnesota Genealogical Society, North Carolina Genealogical Society, Southern California Genealogical Society, and Wisconsin State Genealogical Society, and whatever other ones I hear about.  I average about two per week.

• Attend local genealogy presentations, primarily at the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California, California Genealogical Society, East Bay Genealogical Society, San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society, and Oakland FamilySearch Library.

• Make presentations at local genealogical societies and FamilySearch Centers and Libraries.  So far I'm scheduled for 16 talks, but I usually average about two dozen each year.

Writing

• Stick to my average of about three to four posts per week on my blog.  (I'm not anywhere near as prolific as Randy.  I don't know how he does it.)  I regularly post for Wordless Wednesday, Treasure Chest Thursday, and Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, plus additions to the Wikipedia newspaper archives page and opportunities to help with genealogy-oriented projects.  Beyond that, I write about family stories, research discoveries, the journals I edit, and things I find interesting in the world of genealogy.

• I want to update and expand my article on the research I did on my Cuban cousins.

• I have a translation project and two transcription projects I'm working on that I need to devote more time to.

• Write some book reviews that I'm behind on.

• Finish creating a name index for a book about Niceville and Valparaiso, Florida.

All of this should keep me off the streets and out of trouble!

Ancestry.com Visits the San Francisco Bay Area

After two previous visits to San Francisco, the Ancestry Day event appears to have outgrown the available facilities at the Hyatt Embarcadero, because this year we'll be in South San Francisco.

Space is still available for the 2016 Ancestry Day by the Bay, taking place on Saturday, June 18, from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the South San Francisco Conference Center.  Come for a fun, information-packed day to learn how to research your family.  Ancestry will bring some of its top researchers, who will show how to locate your ancestors and trace your family history using their voluminous resources.  Sign up and learn more today.

This year Ancestry's conference partner is the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (AIISF).  All proceeds from this event go to AIISF's Immigrant Voices Initiative, which tells the stories of immigrants to the Pacific Coast.

There will be a full day of presentations from Ancestry staff.  In addition, representatives from the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society, African American Genealogical Society of San Francisco, California Genealogical Society, San Francisco Public Library, San Mateo County Genealogical Society, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Daughters of the American Revolution will be on hand to tell you how their groups can help you continue your research beyond the basics.

The day's classes will include:
Beginner's basics session
How to get the most out of Ancestry.com's Web site
Using AncestryDNA to further your family research
Sharing your family story

Door prizes, including a gift certificate for genealogy research assistance (donated by me!), will be awarded throughout the day.

The optional luncheon includes a presentation by speaker Paula Williams Madison, former NBC Universal executive and author/producer of the book and film Finding Samuel Lowe, about the search for her Hakka Chinese grandfather's story.  Paula Williams Madison has African, Chinese, and Jamaican ancestry.

Angel Island Day

There is also an Angel Island Day on the island on Friday, June 16, featuring speakers Zack Wilske, from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and former National Archives staff member Marisa Louie, talking about the resources these organizations offer.  A few tickets are left for the whole package (ferry, shuttle, lunch, Immigration Station admission).   If sold out, you can make your own transportation arrangements and still enjoy the program.

Find out more about both of these exciting days here.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: My Genealogy Life

Uh-oh, this could get scary.  This week for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, Randy Seaver asked how much of your time is spent on genealogy:

For this week's mission (should you decide to accept it), I challenge you to:

1)  Tell us about your "genealogy life."  How much genealogy and family history work do you do, on average, each week?  What tasks do you routinely perform every day, every month, every year?

2)  Share your genealogy life in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or on Facebook or Google+.

Ok, here's mine:

On a weekly basis, I probably spend between 60+ hours on genealogy in some form.  An average week with no other obligations:

• Doing research averages between four to six hours every day.  This encompasses research for clients, volunteer work, and my own family and extended family when I can fit it in.  This time includes data entry, report writing, and information sharing.

• Reading the blogs I follow on a regular basis takes about one to two hours every day.

• Social media suck up a lot of my time, even when I try to restrain myself.  I check genealogy-related content on Facebook daily and two to three times a week on Google+ and LinkedIn.  This runs to about 10 hours a week.

• I wish I wrote faster.  As it is, writing for my blog takes me at least 5–8 hours a week.  When I'm working on Who Do You Think You Are? posts, it can go as high as 15+ hours, because I spend so much time looking for the sources used on the programs so that everyone can see them.

• I usually watch three to four Webinars each week, for another 3–6 hours.

• Volunteer work is my other big time sink.  I'm on the boards of three organizations and the editor of three publications, I have a regular volunteer shift at the Family History Center, and the last time someone asked me to write down everything I do the list had more than 20 commitments.  Volunteer work easily takes at least 10–15 hours every week.

Monthly and yearly stuff:

• Attending meetings of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society and African American Genealogical Society of Northern California averages about 7 hours each month.

• I attend meetings of other genealogical societies as often as topics and time allow.  This is probably another 6–9 hours each month.

• I give on average two presentations each month.  Creating and updating the files and handouts and giving the talks comes to about 10–20 hours each month.

• I would like to attend more institutes and conferences, but I have neither the money nor the time to do so.  I usually manage to travel to two or three conferences out of state each year, and three or four local events.  This year I went to SLIG and I'll be attending Jamboree, the IAJGS Jewish genealogy conference, and the International Black Genealogy Summit.  Locally, I was at San Francisco History Days, the Sacramento annual African American Family History Seminar, and the CSGA spring seminar in Fresno, and I will be going to the local Ancestry Day in June, the CSGA fall seminar in Oakland, and the Contra Costa County Genealogical Society's October seminar featuring John Philip Colletta.  And as Randy said, these are in addition to my regular commitments.

Yes, genealogy is my life.

San Francisco History Days at the Old Mint

For the past five years several thousand people have enjoyed the San Francisco History Expo, celebrating the history of many different aspects of San Francisco and its residents.  This year the history celebration is back with a slightly different name — San Francisco History Days — but with the same great mix of historical and ethnic organizations, museums, libraries, genealogical societies, and historical reenactors.

San Francisco History Days will take place on Saturday and Sunday, March 5 and 6, at the Old Mint, 88 5th Street, in San Francisco.   (Powell Street is the nearest BART station if you, like me, don't like to drive in downtown San Francisco.)  Hours are 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. on Saturday and 11:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. on Sunday.  The event is free and open to the public.  This year the event is being hosted by the City of San Francisco's Mayor's Office and NonPlusUltra, Inc., the current tenant of the Old Mint and also the event's underwriter.

Some planned highlights of the weekend include presentations by local historians on uncovering the mystery of the origin of your house with tips on researching its past, how to understand Victorian architecture, collections of rare and newly digitized photos and film footage, the roles of community archives, and tips for organizing your personal archives.  Transit aficionados can learn about historic ships used during the height of the maritime era.  Experts will discuss treasures such as the murals of Rincon Annex and Coit Tower, the Golden Gate International Exposition, and the visual histories of San Francisco’s neighborhoods.

A new feature for this year's event will be Education Day, a day exclusively for students on Friday, March 4.  Interested educators can reserve a two-hour look at the Old Mint and meet a dozen History Days exhibitors with their school groups.  Reservations must be made as soon as possible.  For information on reserving a space for your class of students on Friday, contact Patty Pforte at educationday@sfhistorydays.org.

Mini theaters will be set up in the ground-floor vaults of the Old Mint and will feature four views on various aspects of San Francisco’s past through moving pictures.  Special meet-up tables for social-media history geeks as well as for alumni of San Francisco high schools will be available.  Guided tours of the building will be offered.  Dozens of authors will be on hand to discuss and sell their books.

Participating genealogical groups are the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California (AAGSNC), California Genealogical Society, San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society (SFBAJGS), SFGenealogy, and Sutro Library (the genealogy branch of the California State Library).  You'll find me helping at the AAGSNC and SFBAJGS tables.

For more information about History Days, and to see the list of exhibitors and the presentation schedule, visit http://sfhistorydays.org/ or contact info@sfhistorydays.org.  And if you feel like volunteering (we can use more volunteers!), send a message to participate@sfhistorydays.org.

2016 Black Family History Day

This is the sixth year that the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California and the Oakland FamilySearch Library are partnering to to offer a Black Family History Day in honor of Black History Month, with this year's event taking place on Sunday, February 20, 2016.

The family history day is scheduled for 1:00–5:00 p.m. at the Oakland FamilySearch Library, 4766 Lincoln Avenue, Oakland, California.  There is no charge to participate, but we encourage you to preregister, so that we will have a better idea of how many attendees to expect.

A short introductory workshop will be the first stop for new researchers, who will then receive help in creating their initial family tree information.  After that they will enjoy one-on-one assistance in learning how to do research and and look for documents about their family members.  More experienced researchers will have the option of going through the workshop or heading directly to the one-on-one research stage.  It's a good idea for all attendees to bring copies (please leave your originals safely at home!) of any documents you already have with you, so they can be used as references during your searches.

I will be one of the AAGSNC volunteers helping people with one-on-one research.  I'm looking forward to assisting attendees in doing research and hope we make some wonderful discoveries.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your 2016 Genealogy Education Plans

What a coincidence!  Tonight, right after I returned from a week of genealogical education at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG), Randy Seaver asked about genealogy education for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun:

1) What are your genealogy education plans for 2016?  Local society meetings or seminars?  Regional or national conferences?  Weeklong institutes?  Genealogy cruises?  Podcasts?  YouTube videos?  Webinars or Hangouts on air?  Magazines?  Web sites?  Blogs?

2) How much time do you invest in genealogy education?  Why do you do it?

3) Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post.

1.  My genealogical education plans for 2016:

* I started out by attending SLIG this past week.

* I will almost definitely attend a local Ancestry Day that is being planned.

* I will be at San Francisco History Days (the revitalized version of the former San Francisco History Expo).  Though it is not specifically focused on genealogy, learning about history is very important for genealogy research.

* I will be giving a talk at Jamboree and plan to attend several sessions there.

* I will be giving talks at both the spring (hosted by Fresno County Genealogical Society) and fall (hosted by California Genealogical Society) meetings/seminars of the California State Genealogical Alliance, but each will also have other speakers, and I'll have the opportunity to learn from their presentations.

* I plan to attend as many of the presentations offered by the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society and the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California as I can.  I am a board member of both societies and attend as many meetings as is possible and practical, but sometimes I have schedule conflicts.

* I often go to talks presented by other local genealogical societies and our local Family History Center.  (In fact, I'll be learning about mortuary records at the next meeting of the East Bay Genealogical Society.)

* I listen to as many Webinars as I can fit in my schedule.  It's very convenient to have learning opportunities you can do at home.  I regularly watch Webinars from Illinois State Genealogical Society, Legacy Family Tree, North Carolina Genealogical Society, Southern California Genealogical Society, Wisconsin State Genealogical Society, USCIS, and a few other organizations.

* I usually take one or two online courses each year.

* I have subscriptions to Avotaynu and the Association of Professional Genealogists' APG Quarterly.

* I read about two dozen genealogy blogs on a regular basis and several dozen others less often.

* I hope to attend this year's IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy and International Black Genealogy Summit, but whether I will be able to depends heavily on at least one of my submitted talks being accepted by each.  I would like to attend another institute, but I don't know if it will be possible, due to costs.  (I need to earn another scholarship!)

* I give about two dozen genealogy talks during an average year, and they are an opportunity for me to learn from other genealogists as much as they are for me to share what I know.

2.  I probably spend an average of one to two hours each day on some form of genealogical education.  I do it because there is always something new to learn, and it is an investment in both my professional work and my personal life.  I try to apply what I learn to my work, my volunteer activities, and my own research.

Hump Day at SLIG

I'm more than halfway through my first Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG), and I'm working on processing what I've learned so far.  The class I'm attending is "Swing through the South", which was originally going to be taught by J. Mark Lowe, but he unfortunately was not able to come.  Kelvin Meyers took over coordination of the course, and our other speakers are Dr. Deborah Abbot, Anne Gillespie Mitchell, and Michael Hait.

I chose this course about the South because it supports my volunteer work with the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California, where I am a board member and editor of the quarterly journal.  My volunteer work is how I earned a scholarship to attend SLIG this year.

There's no question that the best session so far has been Kelvin Meyers' talk about church records in the South.  This is obviously a subject dear to him, and his enthusiasm was clearly evident.  He discussed the First and Second Great Awakenings in religion in the United States and talked about prominent leaders in several religions.  He then explained which religions were predominant in each of the Southern states (though there were a couple of omissions).  He also supplied a fairly comprehensive listing of archives for those religions.  This presentation had a great amount of information I'll be able to use in future research.

The plenary session on Monday night, "Genealogically Speaking" by the Rev. Dr. David McDonald, was entertaining and enjoyable.  He had everyone laughing as he related family stories and reminiscences but became serious when he explained that recording and sharing those stories are so important.

Wednesday night the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen) sponsored classes, consultations, and light refreshments at the Family History Library for SLIG attendees.  I went to a fantastic talk on religious migrations to the United States, by David Dilts.  It was really interesting to see a timeline of how a round of religious dissent led to a religious split, and again, and again, and then how those disaffected migrated to this brave new land.  And his handout was jam-packed with information I'll be rereading to make sure I understand it all.  The night at the library was a new event for SLIG this year; it seemed to be very successful.

One of the really fun things at SLIG has been networking with the 350+ other genealogists gathered here in Salt Lake City to learn more about researching family history.  I've made some wonderful connections with people, and I'm looking forward to collaborating and sharing information with them in the future.

Of course, since I'm in Salt Lake, I planned ahead for some research at the Family History Library.  My big score has been finding the birth record for my paternal grandmother.  I learned she was born a year earlier than all of her later records indicate, which isn't that uncommon for someone born in the 1890's.  I was surprised and disappointed to see that her mother's name wasn't listed on the record, but at least it showed that her mother was born in England, so I'm sure it's the right person.  I did a little genealogy happy dance in my seat when I found her on the microfilm.

January 14, 1893, <no name> Gaunt, female, father Thomas, mother born in England

Two more days of classes are coming up, plus the closing banquet on Friday evening, when Judy Russell (The Legal Genealogist) will speak about researching children in your family history.  And I don't leave Salt Lake until Saturday night, so I have all day for more research at the library.  I still have a lot to look forward to!

Two Genealogy Journals Finished and Sent to Members

I'm a little behind on announcing that the latest issues of ZichronNote and The Baobab Tree have been finished and distributed to members of the respective genealogical societies.  As usual, I think I found a good mix of topics for the journals, and I learned something from each article.

In the May 2015 issue of ZichronNote, two articles, by John Althouse and Jeff Lewy, address the problems and pitfalls of spelling as it relates to finding our relatives in indexed records.  Not only should we take into account the education levels, languages, and writing skills of both the people reporting the information and those recording that information, the talents of whoever creates the indices we use in our searches have a huge effect on our possibilities of success.  Daria Valkenburg wrote about displaced persons' camps in Europe after the end of World War II.  SFBAJGS member Rebecca Elliot contributed an article about how she discovered and met her half-brother; until recently, she had not even been sure he was still alive.  Krzysztof Bielawski, the man behind the Kirkuty Polish cemetery Web site, gave us a little bit of history on how the site came to be.  And I (the person who hates to write) was moved to write about my encounter with Leonard Nimoy (z''l) after his recent passing.

The Spring 2015 issue of The Baobab Tree has a fantastic lead story:  AAGSNC board member Nicka Smith discovered that her grandparents knew Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, during the short period the Kings lived in Chicago.  Following that is an excellent resource article from Eric Johnson on how to look for black soldiers in early U.S. Army records.  Angela Williams Brown, who has just recently started family history research, talks about some newbie lessons she has already learned.  Betsy Monroe enlightened us as to early black settlements in the Capay Valley area of California.  And Jackie Chauhan, the AAGSNC historian, wrote about the 10th anniversary of the Sacramento African American Family History Seminar, which was held this past March.

All you need to do to receive these journals when they are published is to be a member of the respective societies.  So if these articles sound interesting to you, visit the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society (for ZichronNote) and the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California (for The Baobab Tree) to join and you can be reading them soon.

The other way to receive the journals is to be a contributing author.  I could be promoting your article here!  Have you had a breakthrough in your family history, solved a family mystery through painstaking research, discovered a better way to use resource materials, or walked where your ancestors walked as part of a heritage trip?  Do you have an interesting story about your family history in the San Francisco area?  We would love to read about it in one of the journals.  Submission guidelines for The Baobab Tree, including deadlines, are available online, or you can send me a message regarding either journal, and we can talk about it!

I'm Going to SLIG!!

I am again a very fortunate person.  The genealogy gods are smiling on me.  I received the news tonight that I have earned a scholarship to the 2016 Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy!

I have wanted to attend SLIG for several years, and I'm already looking forward to this great educational opportunity (even if it does take place in Salt Lake City in January!).  The class I'll be attending is "Research in the South", coordinated by J. Mark Lowe.  I chose this class primarily because of my volunteer activities with the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California and the Alameda County Youth Ancestral Project, both of which have large numbers of people with family roots going back to the South.  I look forward to sharing what I learn about research resources and techniques, particularly regarding lost and missing records, a common problem in Southern research.

I'm also looking forward to some research time in the Family History Library.  I didn't accomplish nearly as much as I hoped to when I was in Salt Lake City in February for RootsTech.

Doing the genealogy happy dance around the house . . . .

A Recap of Tony Burroughs for the AAGSNC Meeting

At today's meeting of the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California, those members who had presented talks the previous Saturday at the Sacramento African American Family History Seminar were invited to give short synopses of those talks.  My talk had been on how valuable of a resource the Freedmen's Bureau records are in black family history research, particularly in identifying the last slave owner before Emancipation.  But I also gave that talk to AAGSNC last November, so I didn't think everyone wanted to hear it again so soon.  Instead, I chose to give a recap of the keynote from the seminar, which was delivered by well known genealogist and author Tony Burroughs.  Mr. Burroughs' points were well taken, and I think they bear repeating.

The title of the keynote was "The Next Phase of African American Genealogy."  Burroughs began by explaining the six phases we have already been working through:

• oral history:  Collect stories from family members and record that information to preserve it and to share it with future generations.

• research family history to 1870:  To research family members who were enslaved, it is necessary to find them in 1870, almost always the first census in which former slaves were enumerated by name.  Their locations in 1870 become the springboard to search for them in pre-Emancipation records.

• identify the last slave owner:  Identifying the last slave owner is critical, because then you know where you should look for records that mention the family member by name.

• research the slave owner:  Researching the slave owner and his family helps place your ancestor in time.  You want to learn when your ancestor became associated with the owner, what happened to him, where he was before that, and whatever else you can find.  You may be able to identify family units.  Researching slavery can sometimes help you undertand why an owner might have moved with his slaves, might have hired his slaves out, why one owner treated his slaves differently than another owner did, and more.  Gaining a better understanding of the institution helps you understand how all the players acted in it.

• back to Africa:  Not everyone will be able to accomplish this, but with more original manifests of slave cargoes being discovered and publicized, some people have been able to identity their ancestors on specific manifests and definitively learn their original names and from where they came in Africa.

from the Library of Congress

• research the Caribbean:  More than 90% of Africans kidnapped for the slave trade went to the Caribbean and South America.  Many/most of the slaves who came into North America came here from the Caribbean, not directly from Africa.  Understanding how the slave trade and migration routes worked will help inform your research.

Before Burroughs moved on to the next phase, he talked a little about what he says is not research, and I have to say I agreed with every point.  He finds that too many people are not actually doing research nowadays:  They're just following twitching little leaves and hints on large Web sites and taking them at their word.  People are relying too heavily on online information only and don't look offline in archives and other repositories.  Others are taking DNA tests and letting the results define who they are related to, even if they can't tell you what the relationship is.  According to Burroughs, if you don't analyze the documents you find and take the time to understand what those documents are saying about your ancestors, you aren't doing research.  If you have a DNA "cousin" but don't know how you're related, that doesn't count as research either.  He even mentioned "Skip" Gates — apparently DNA tests show they're related, somehow, but they don't know what the connection is.  So is that research?  A resounding no!

I found his comments about the DNA companies to be spot on.  He pointed out that the information we receive from those companies when we have them test our DNA is not peer reviewed, so nobody but the people selling it to us vouches for it.  (How much do you trust salesmen?)  He explained that only population geneticists are doing research that is actually valid in describing how ethnic groups are related.  And he didn't make exceptions for any of the consumer DNA companies, not even African Ancestry, the one often touted as being the only "reliable" one for people with ancestry going back to Africa.  His commentary resonated with me and made me think yet again of Judy Russell's use of the phrase "cocktail party conversation" as the best description for the autosomal results these companies send us.

So what is the next phase?  The big one is to collaborate with historians.  People did not act in vacuums.  They were part of what was going on around them.  We need to gain a better understanding of the historical circumstances and situations that occurred during our ancestors' lives in order to understand how our ancestors fit into their times, and also to help us determine what the records from those times can tell us about our ancestors.  Studying history can also help us make better decisions on what we can take as "next steps" and where we might be able to find more information.

As a corollary to working with historians, his second comment was that we need to study slavery more, and in particular to study slavery before starting to research ancestors who were enslaved.  We really need to understand this institution, how it worked differently in different areas, how people worked with and against it.  Understanding why actions were taken again helps us make better decisions when directing our research efforts.

Burroughs then told us the records he has on his wish list to be digitized.  Though he had earlier commented that too many people rely on finding everything online, even he had to admit that having information more easily available to more people can improve research.  The list was:
• historical black newspapers (hooray for newspapers!)
• plantation records
• slave trader records
• Caribbean migration records
• Cuban archival records

All of these records tend to be difficult to find and use.  Having them digitized would logically help many, many people make serious advances with their research.  But on a practical level, I suspect it will be a long time before any of them are digitized on any significant level.

As he was wrapping up his talk, Burroughs made a couple of interesting observations.  The first was the benefit of doing real research versus relying on oral history, which many people do when building their family trees.  I have seen people discount historical records because they didn't agree with what Grandma had said.  He talked about research conducted on traditional African griots, the keepers of oral history for many tribes.  After some quantitative study, it was learned that the best trained griots, those who were the best at their work, could reliably remember information going back 125 years.  For Americans with slave ancestry, 125 years does not even take you back to Emancipation.  So relying strictly on the oral history in your family can't get you all the answers you want.

The other interesting tidbit was almost a throw-away right before the end of the talk.  Burroughs said that in all the research he has conducted, he has found that only about 15% of former slaves took their former owners' surnames.  Only 15%!  So if you are trying to find the former slave owner by looking for everyone in the county with the same last name as your ancestor, 85% of the time you will not be successful.  I don't like those odds myself.

Keep in mind, these are my take-aways from Burroughs' talk.  I admit that in my case he was preaching to the choir, because I agreed with almost all the points he made.  But I found the talk educational and inspiring, and I know I'll keep it in mind during my research in the future.

2015 San Francisco History Expo

Are you ready for some San Francisco history?  That's right, the San Francisco History Expo is back for the fifth year!  Once again held at the historic Old Mint, this year's event will have more than 60 exhibitors, all of them looking forward to sharing history with attendees.  We'll have historical and ethnic organizations, museums, libraries, and of course genealogical societies!

An important theme for this year's expo is the 100th anniversary of the Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), which was held in San Francisco.  Three speakers will cover different aspects of the exposition:  Laura Ackley, a well known expert on the PPIE, will talk about the people who made the event happen; Mike Phipps and Don Holmgren, directors of the Cable Car Museum, will unveil the story of the cable car designated specifically to convey people to and from the PPIE; and John William Templeton will explore the life of Wesley Johnson, a notable black American who came to San Francisco in 1915 for the PPIE.  These presentations, along with films and other talks, will be held on the vault floor at the Mint.

Living history re-enactors in period costumes will circulate throughout the expo and mingle with visitors, giving impromptu performances of well known individuals from San Francisco's Gold Rush and Barbary Coast eras.  (I've heard rumors that Emperor Norton will again grace us with his presence.)  New this year will be singers from the San Francisco National Maritime Historical Park, who will regale the crowds with sea shanties (songs) about San Francisco from the time when it was an infamous port city.

The genealogy groups participating will again be the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California, California Genealogical Society, San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society, SFGenealogy, and Sutro Library (the genealogy branch of the California State Library).  AAGSNC, CGS, and SFBAJGS will be in the same room as last year, but SFGenealogy and Sutro may be in other locations.  Come talk to us about your family, and we'll do our best to give you tips to help with your research.

The Expo will be held on Saturday and Sunday, February 28 and March 1, at the Old Mint, 88 Fifth Street, San Francisco.  (Powell Street is the nearest BART station.)  Hours are 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Saturday and 11:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. Sunday.  The admission fee is $5.00, children under 12 are free, and no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

For more information about the Expo, and to see the list of exhibitors and the presentation schedule, visit http://sfhistoryexpo.org/ or call (415) 537-1105 x100.