Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Have You Helped Someone with Their Genealogy?

Oh my goodness!  It was difficult to choose who to write about for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy Seaver!

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.  Have you helped someone (a friend, a colleague, someone you didn't know, etc.) with their genealogy and family history?  Genea-blogger Ellen Thompson-Jennings wrote on this topic last month in Have You Helped Someone with Their Genealogy? on Hound on the Hunt.

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

Helping people with their genealogy is what I do with a lot of my time, and I've been doing it steadily since 2000, when I started volunteering at the Oakland Family History Center (now the Oakland FamilySearch Center).  Since my move to Oregon in 2017 I've been helping at the Gresham FamilySearch Center.  I've also helped people in the various genealogical societies of which I have been a member, including Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon, Genealogical Forum of Oregon, and San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society, which are a few of my current affiliations.

Probably the most interesting time I had helping people was when I worked at the Seismological Society of America and was doing the genealogy of all four people I worked with:  Susan N., Dorothy G., Kathy R., and Bo O.

Susan's family was mostly British Isles people who had been on this continent for a long time.  One of her grandfathers was from Greece, however, and I had fun reading Greek records on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.  One great-grandfather went from Missouri to California for the Gold Rush, and I found him in an early California state census.

Dorothy was always saying that her family wasn't interesting, but I found that her Portuguese line was one of the original settling families in the Azores.  She had a grandmother who lived to be 100 and was feted in San Francisco.  Her parents eloped and then pretended not to be married for a few years because her maternal grandmother did not approve of her mother's choice of husband.

For Kathy I researched both her and her former husband's families, because she was interested in sharing the information with her children.  Kathy had ancestors from Alsace-Lorraine with a surname that originated in only three towns there.  She had always been told that her maiden name was from a Jewish line, and I found her ancestor in Colonial Virginia identifed as a Jew; he even signed documents in Hebrew.

Rumor had it that Kathy's former mother-in-law had had the family history well researched and then thoroughly obscured.  A "family tree" had been created that listed only the male of the line and his wife, going back several generations.  After only a small amount of research (two or three generations) it was clear that the tree had been made up of whole cloth.  It appeared that perhaps part of the reason to hide the real information was that the family might have been scalawags.

Bo had one parent who was Jewish and one who was solidly British, so the research went in two entirely different directions.  His is the only family I am still working on.  I've actually found some of his Jewish ancestors in European records, which is more than I can say for my own family.

Everyone used to comment how I knew more about their families than they did!

Advanced Swedish Genealogy Seminar at the Oakland FamilySearch Library

There's a strong Swedish research contingent at the Oakland FamilySearch Library.  Thursday mornings they even take over an entire computer bank near the windows overlooking San Francisco Bay.  (We have great views in the library!)  And now our local Swedish researchers have organized a Swedish Genealogy Day for Saturday, October 12, from 9:30 a.m.–4:00 p.m.

Topics will include:
• Swedish church records online at ArkivDigital (for which the library has a subscription), taught by Kathy Meade, the North American representative for ArkivDigital
• DIS (Computer Genealogy Society of Sweden) family tree database and EmiWeb (Web archive covering migration to and from Scandinavia), taught by Charlotte Börjesson, DIS board member
• Swedish emigration history and Lantmäteriet (Swedish mapping, cadastral, and land registration authority), taught by Anna-Lena Hultman, emigration expert who helped develop the Emibas CD (predecessor of EmiWeb)
• other Swedish online resources and CD's, taught by Anneli Andersson, from the Melleruds Museum and Genealogy Archive

The speakers are part of SwedGen, a group that does genealogy presentations in the U.S. to Swedish Americans researching family history.

The library computers and subscription databases will be available during a lunch break.  There is no charge for the seminar, but preregistration is required, and there is still room.  To register, send a message to fhcoakland@gmail.com with "SwedGen" as the subject.

The seminar will be held at the Oakland FamilySearch Library, 4766 Lincoln Avenue, Oakland, California.  A flyer for the seminar is available.

Warning:  This seminar is intended for experienced Swedish genealogists, not beginners.  You will have problems keeping up if you have not done much Swedish research before.

Colonial Handwriting Was a Big Hit

Tuesday I taught a class on American Colonial handwriting for the first time.  I was the third choice to teach, after the woman who has been teaching it for the past few years (who was unable to do so this year) and the person who was going to substitute for her (whose husband decided he wanted to take her away for a week's vacation).  And then the date was switched on me -- originally the class was supposed to be March 26, but it was pushed back to March 19.  So I was more than a little nervous going in, between being third in line, it being a new subject for me, and having a week less to prepare than I had anticipated!  But the class went smoothly, and the attendees seemed happy with the lesson and the handout.  I discussed how several letters were formed differently than what we are accustomed to, spelling inconsistencies, how words and names could be abbreviated, and even the calendar change of 1752.  I showed several real examples from the 1700's and had people read through them; by the end of the class everyone had a pretty good grasp on it and was able to read the examples fairly quickly.  So I was happy and relieved, and now I have another class in my repertoire.

I have two more new talks I am creating this year.  The programming person at the Napa Valley Genealogical Society read about forensic genealogy and learned that I am a member of the Council for the Advancement of Forensic Genealogy (CAFG), so asked if I could speak to the society on the subject.  Forensic genealogical research is when there are "possible legal implications that involve determination of identity, kinship, legal rights, or distribution of held monies or assets" (from the CAFG Web site).  I will make that presentation in Napa on July 18.

In August, I will debut my newest newspaper talk, on finding and using online historical Jewish newspapers, at the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies conference in Boston.  The conference runs August 4-9 and is being held at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers.

Of course, I have additional newspapers talks coming up.  I am the newspaper queen, after all!  On March 29 I'll speak at the Oakland FamilySearch Library on the subscription newspaper databases available there.  On April 25 I'll be in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the Ohio Genealogical Society conference teaching about online historical black newspapers.  And in October, for Family History Month, I'll present my general talk about using online newspapers for genealogical research twice, at the Family History Day at the California State Archives (October 12) and at the Concord FamilySearch Center's Digging for Your Roots one-day conference (October 19).  All of my newspaper classes cover where to find newspaper databases and how to use effective search techniques.

My other presentation that is popular right now is on research techniques for finding women's maiden names.  I talk about a wide range of resources that can be helpful in finding those elusive names.  I'll be giving that talk at the main branch of the Sacramento Public Library on May 5, the Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society on June 11, and the Concord FamilySearch Center's Digging for Your Roots on October 19 (yup, two classes in one day).

Last but certainly not least, Berkeley Midrasha wants me to return this fall to teach my genealogy class to the high school students.  That was a fun and different experience last year, and I'm looking forward to trying to get more kids hooked on genealogy.

I enjoy sharing my enthusiasm for genealogy through my classes.  I would love to have you join me at one or more of my talks this year.

Black Family History Day, October 13, 2012

The African American Genealogical Society of Northern California and the Oakland FamilySearch Library are presenting the fourth Black Family History Day, this one timed for Family History Month.  It will run from 1:00-5:00 p.m.  The event is free, but you are encouraged to register for a free consultation, either through the Web site or by calling (877) 884-2843.  If we follow the same procedure we used in February, attendees will register, then go to a short introductory workshop for beginners, to assistance in filling out a basic four-generation family chart, to one-on-one assistance in research and looking for information on their families.

At the February 2012 event we had about 125 attendees and 35 volunteer researchers.  The October 2011 Family History Day drew fewer people, but we volunteers were able to give more assistance to each attendee.  We almost always manage to find records for each person who comes.  This year I've invited several friends to come.  I'm looking forward to another great day of introducing people to family history!

Black Family History Day

The African American Genealogical Society of Northern California (AAGSNC) held its third Black Family History Day today at the Oakland Family History Center.  Volunteers were told at the beginning of the event that 125 people had preregistered, and we knew we would have walk-ins.  I have not heard how many people we actually had, but it didn't seem crowded.  The February 2011 event drew between about 175 attendees; the event in October 2011 had 64 preregistered people and only a few walk-ins.  The fact that February is Black History Month probably gives some people more incentive to come.

Besides an introductory workshop for beginners and one-on-one consultations for individual research, today's event also included a performance by a church choir and a lecture on the Roots into the Future Project, given by Dr. Joanna Mountain of 23andMe.  Dr. Mountain's talk was presented twice so that attendees could take turns between the lecture and computer research.

About 35 volunteers (including me!) from AAGSNC, the California Genealogical Society, and the Oakland Family History Center were on hand to assist attendees.  Almost everyone found some information on their families.  In one way we were victims of our own success when we had so many people searching databases at the same time that the FHC server slowed everything to a crawl.

Last year I helped a friend of mine find herself in the 1930 census as a two-year-old girl.  I didn't have any results that dramatic this year, but I did help one woman find her grandmother in the California birth index under her birth name (she was informally adopted in the early 20th century).

It's great that these events get so many people to come and work on their family history, but I have noticed that very few of the attendees return to the Family History Center to do more research.  I hope they're working on it at home!

Price Increase for Family History Library Films

I don't know about you, but I still use microfilm from the Family History Library on a regular basis.  It will still be several years before everything in the mountain is digitized and available online.  A message went out to Family History Center directors today that prices to rent Family History Library films will increase as of February 15, 2012, due to increases in the prices of microfilm stock, decreasing availability of the stock, and higher shipping costs.  The new prices for the United States and Canada will be:

Short-term film loan:  $7.50  + tax = $8.12
Short-term film loan extension:  $7.50 + tax = $8.12
Extended film loan:  $18.75 + tax = $20.30

The cost for microfiche will remain at $4.75 + tax = $5.14.

Black Family History Day, February 11, 2012

The African American Genealogical Society of Northern California (AAGSNC) and the Oakland Family History Center will host another Black Family History Day in celebration of Black History Month.  The event will take place Saturday, February 11, from 1:00-5:00 p.m. at the Oakland Regional Family History Center, 4766 Lincoln Avenue, Oakland, CA 94602.   It is free and open to the public.  Feel free to bring a family member or a friend with you!  Everyone is welcome, but AAGSNC is requesting that attendees register online beforehand.

Volunteer genealogists (including me) will again be available to answer genealogy questions and provide individual research assistance.  A free DNA test kit will be given to each attendee.  I was told that a speaker will give a presentation about DNA twice during the afternoon, but there is no information on the AAGSNC site about that.  Perhaps it will be posted soon.

For more information, call (877) 884-2843 or send a message.

Second Black Family History Day

The second Black Family History Day put on by the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California (AAGSNC) and the Oakland Regional Family History Center was very successful.  We had 64 participants this time, as opposed to the roughly 175 people who attended in February, but we had three times as many volunteers as last time, and we were able to give much more focused assistance to the people who came (but we still could have used more volunteers and more time!).

Nicka Smith of AAGSNC had organized a good flow for the attendees.  They went from registration to a short introductory workshop for beginners, to assistance in filling out a basic four-generation family chart, to one-on-one assistance in research and looking for information on their families.  (I already warned Nicka that I am going to borrow her ideas for the Jewish genealogy open house being planned for November 13.)  I heard that a couple of people were not able to find any records, but most people found something -- I saw lots of census records, some draft registration forms, and a few additional records.  I helped four attendees in the one-on-ones and lent back-up assistance to a few others.

Nicka plans to continue to have these family history days twice a year, in February for Black History Month and in October for Family History Month.  I'm looking forward to the next one, and to seeing these new researchers come back to the Family History Center to continue their research.  I hope they don't put their new finds on a shelf and wait until February to take the next steps!

October Is Family History Month

It's easy to tell that Family History Month is here -- several special genealogy events are happening in the San Francisco area this month, complementing the regular meetings and lectures hosted by local genealogical societies.  Events I will be participating in:

Northern California Family History Expo, October 7-8:  This two-day event will take place at San Mateo County Event Center, 2495 S. Delaware Street, San Mateo, CA 94403.  Paid registration is required, and many classes are being offered.  On October 7 I will teach a class on using newspapers for genealogy research.  I will also be blogging from the Expo.

Black Family History Day, October 8:  The African American Genealogical Society of Northern California and the Oakland Regional Family History Center are presenting this event, which runs from 2:00-5:00 p.m. at the Family History Center, 4766 Lincoln Avenue, Oakland, CA 94602.  This is a follow-up to the family history day that was held in February.  The event is free, but you can reserve a consultation time.  I will be available for consultations and to assist with research.

Family History Day at the California State Archives, October 15:  This free event is presented by Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society and the California State Archives.  It runs from 8:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m. at 1020 O Street, 4th Floor, Sacramento, CA 95814.  I will be teaching a class on newspapers here also and will help at the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society exhibitor table.

Digging for Your Roots, October 15:  This is presented by the Concord Family History Center.  It runs from 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. at the LDS Church, 1590 Denkinger Road, Concord, CA 94521.  Registrations are still being accepted, but a syllabus is no longer guaranteed.  I will be teaching two classes:  newspapers for genealogy research, and a case study on researching when you start with almost no information.  The schedule shows that I will teach the newspaper class twice, but the 3:30 class has been cancelled.

Just looking at the schedule makes me tired already!  I'll have a couple of weeks to rest up, and then more big events are coming in November.  It's a good thing I love what I do!

Researching City Residents

New York City, 1872

Last Tuesday I attended "Finding Country Cousins in Land and Property Records", the first class in a pair presented by Susan Goss Johnston as part of the Intermediate Genealogy Series presented by the California Genealogical Society and the Oakland Regional Family History Center. This week she presented the companion class, "Seeking City Slickers in Lesser-Known Records." This time her message was that because so many city residents do not own their residences, you will need to use something other than property records to track your relatives. She discussed city directories (later these will be phone books), maps, tax lists, voter registrations, membership lists, and petitions.  I was familiar with most of these, but petitions were something I had never considered for family history research.

Using city directories and phone books, you can follow a family year by year and find clues about children, marriages, deaths, and relocations. Many city directories have been scanned and are available free at the Internet Archive. Footnote.com and Ancestry.com also have significant collections of directories.

Voter registrations are another good way to track a person through time.  Registrations used to be done every two years.  The registration commonly included name, age, address, occupation, and party affiliation.  Some include birthplace and naturalization information.  The Family History Library has filmed some voter registrations, and Ancestry.com has a small collection, including California voter registrations ranging from 1900-1968.

After you have addresses for where your relatives lived, you can locate them on maps. Current and historical maps may also show nearby churches, schools, and cemeteries, which could be sources of more information. Fire insurance maps, such as the Sanborn series, can tell you building dimensions, composition, number of stories, and more. Many of the Sanborn maps are now digitized and available online, such as the collection available through the San Francisco Public Library (viewable at home with an SFPL card).

Even though your relatives may not have owned real estate, you might find them on tax lists for personal property, poll/head/voting, income, and occupation.  Taxes could be collected at the local, state, and national levels.  Tax records can provide direct evidence of occupation and property ownership, and indirect evidence of age, marriage, death, relationships, and moves.  Most tax records are not available online, though some may be found on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org.  The Family History Library has filmed many county tax records, however, which can be ordered and viewed at a local Family History Center.  Tax records may also be found at state archives, state and county libraries, and county courthouses.

You may also find your relatives on membership lists -- fraternal organizations (Masons, Knights of Columbus), veterans groups (Grand Army of the Republic), lineage societies (DAR, UDC), alumni directories, ethnic societies.  Society records may include applications, biographies, photographs, memoirs, and activity reports.  Many groups now have Web sites; some have instructions online for how to order copies of their information.

Petitions are lists of signatures from people who wanted to change something.  The lists can document residence, military service, and land ownership.  They can indirectly show age and family relationships.  The National Archives has thousands of original petitions.  State archives can hold local petitions.

Your relatives should show up in at least one of these resources, if not more.  And with each additional piece of information you find, you build a better picture of your family in the context of their time.

Always More to Learn

1866 Map of Mississippi

Tuesday night and Wednesday night I attended genealogy classes.  I firmly believe there is always more to learn, and more knowledge never hurts when doing research.

Tuesday's class was "Finding Country Cousins in Land and Property Records", by Susan Goss Johnston.  The class was part of the Intermediate Genealogy Series presented by the California Genealogical Society and the Oakland Regional Family History Center.  The emphasis in the class was that land records can often be used to prove family connections when no other records are available.  Several types of property records were discussed, including federal lands, state lands, and existing claims.  We looked at the differences between metes and bounds, and townships and ranges.  Case studies showed how looking at who bought (or acquired) land when, where, and from whom can help you figure out relationships, migration patterns, and life cycle events such as marriages and deaths.  I've done some property research, but not in complicated cases, so it was interesting to see how you can connect family members through the transactions, and I did learn a lot.  Next week's class is "Seeking City Slickers in Lesser-Known Records."  I think it will be a good one also!

Wednesday night I attended the monthly African American Research Workshop held at the ORFHC.  This month's topic was location-based genealogy -- looking at how the physical geography of the area in which people lived affected the ways in which they interacted with other people and with the world around them.  The first thing we talked about was Tobler's First Law of Geography:  "Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things."  For genealogy, this means that people are more likely to marry people who live close to them.  We then watched the first two parts (there's a third part, but we didn't see it) of Bernie Gracy's "Breaking Down Walls with Location-based Genealogy" on YouTube (Part 1, Part 2).  He demonstrates with maps the factors that led to families living close to each other and shows in censuses the results of those close relationships and how he tracked down family members.  I've used some of the logic and techniques he discusses, but I never had a name for the method before.  The videos are available on YouTube for anyone to view and learn from, which is very generous of Gracy.

Now all I need to do is find some research where I can put this new information to use and shift it to long-term memory ....

AAGSNC Black Family History Day

Wow.  I am exhausted.  I was one of the volunteers today at the first AAGSNC Black Family History Day, hosted by the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California (AAGSNC) and the Oakland Regional Family History Center (ORFHC).  Electra Price, the organizer of the event and a well known and beloved researcher, expected about 75 people to come.  We had between 150 and 175 participants.  We were thrilled at the turnout but were kept busy every single minute.

Before the open house actually began, we had a surprise thank you ceremony and cake for Electra, who recently retired from coordinating the monthly African American Research Workshops at the ORFHC.  She appeared to be totally surprised and was self-effacing as always.  After we all told her how much we appreciated her, she reminded us that we had to get to work!

People began arriving well before 2:00, excited about the opportunity to get an overview of family history research and to have assistance in getting started.  We had several volunteer genealogists lined up to help, and we were fortunate to have Lisa Lee of GotGenealogy.com show up as an extra volunteer.

Writer and historian Antoinette Broussard, author of African American Celebrations and Holiday Traditions, spoke at 3:00 and 4:00 p.m. about her great-aunt Dr. Nettie J. (Craig) Asberry.  She is completing research for a memoir about her great-aunt, who earned a doctoral degree in music in 1883 and was likely the first black woman to earn a doctorate.  From what I heard, it was an excellent presentation.

I had a special surprise of my own.  A dear friend of mine whom I had not seen since I lost my job last May came to the open house.  I was able to help her find herself in the 1930 census with her parents and her seven sisters.  She promised to come back and continue her research.

Most of the participants found at least one record relating to their family, whetting their interest to come back and look for more.  No one wanted to stop, but we had to close so we volunteers could get home and reclaim the remainder of our Sunday.  Everyone enjoyed the open house, and we're already talking about when we'll hold the next one.

Black Family History Day 2011

The African American Genealogical Society of Northern California and the Oakland Regional Family History Center are working together to present an open house to celebrate black genealogy, culture, and tradition in honor of Black History Month.  The open house will take place on Sunday, February 20, from 2:00-5:00 p.m. at the Oakland Regional Family History Center, 4766 Lincoln Avenue, Oakland, CA 94602.  It is free and open to the public.

Writer and historian Antoinette Broussard, author of African American Celebrations and Holiday Traditions, will be a featured speaker at 3:00 and 4:00 p.m. in the Visitors’ Center theater, upstairs from the Family History Center.  Volunteer genealogists (including me) will be available to answer genealogy questions and provide individual research assistance.

To receive a free consultation for a four-generation ancestry chart and for further information, call (877) 884-2843.

FamilySearch.org and the Importance of Transcription

At the Sunday, February 13, meeting of the SFBAJGS, Margery Bell of the Oakland Regional Family History Center talked about FamilySearch.org in the past, present, and future.  She gave an overview of some of the site's history, demonstrated tools that are currently available, and talked a little about what is anticipated for the future.

FamilySearch.org is in a state of transition.  Several different sites, including the old site and some beta sites, are being combined into one super-site.  The site has free educational resources, historical records, and family trees.  There is already a wealth of information available, and more is being added daily.  Some of the ideas for the future are linking documentation to individuals in order to substantiate facts, and the capability of uploading scans of personal documents and photos of family artifacts to share them with other researchers.  It is exciting to have so much available, and for free!  You should check back on a regular basis to see what has been added and what changes have been implemented.

Most genealogists are probably familiar with FamilySearch.org's massive ongoing project to transcribe and put online the LDS church's vast collection of microfilmed records.  (Personal rant:  The church calls this indexing, but the volunteers aren't actually creating indices.  They are *transcribing* information from records, and those transcriptions are compiled by programmers into searchable databases, which are the indices.)  Thinking about the church's transcription project reminded me of other items that should be transcribed.

The importance of transcription goes beyond public records of the types that have been microfilmed by the church.  Families often have historical items -- diaries, letters, family bibles.  Those items should be transcribed also, and the transcriptions shared with family members, at least.  Having only one copy of something increases the risk of losing the information.  Old paper is suspectible to ink bleeding, ink fading, and paper dissolution.  Items can be lost or stolen.  Fire and water can damage precious items.  Even if you still have the item, the paper in a diary can become so fragile that you can no longer turn the pages, or the ink can fade so that you cannot read it.

Monday night I was watching Antiques Roadshow.  One of the items appraised was a signal book used by the guest's great-great-grandfather during the U.S. Civil War.  This was the signal man's handwritten notes of the orders he was given and to whom he sent the information.  Pages were dated 1863; there were orders that had come from General U.S. Grant.  The appraiser, Rafael Eledge, said he had never actually seen a signal book in the 20 years he has been working with Civil War artifacts.  But that book is probably just sitting in a drawer in its owner's home again, the information locked inside it.

I wrote to Antiques Roadshow once through their Web form after a similar appraisal of paper items.  I asked why they didn't encourage the appraisers to suggest to guests that they transcribe the written information so that it can be shared, not only by family members but by scholars and researchers.  Not surprisingly, I received an autosponder e-mail:  "Thank you for your inquiry.  Many questions can be answered by visiting our FAQ page.  Blah blah blah."  So much for that idea, I thought.  But then a day or two later, an actual person from AR sent a message telling me what a great idea it was and that he was going to pass it on to a producer.  Unfortunately, nothing seems to have come of it, because I have not once seen an appraiser say anything about transcribing.

What family artifacts do you have that you haven't transcribed?

Introduction

I have been doing family history research since I was 13.  My interest was sparked by what at the time was a fairly standard assignment in junior high school -- do your family tree back four generations.  I still have the purple mimeographed handout.  I even have my original notes from interviewing several family members.  That assignment got me hooked on genealogy.

Since then I've researched all branches of my family, including collateral lines (I definitely believe in whole-family research).  I've taken trips just to meet family members, including one trip to New York and New Jersey when in five days I put 700 miles on my sister's cars and drove through all five boroughs of New York City, plus the two counties on Long Island.  I used to share copies of updated research with all the relatives I was in touch with, until I had three major surgeries in less than four years.  I'm working on getting back up to speed on that.  Not only is it nice to get feedback from people about the work I'm doing, it also ensures that more than one copy is out there.

When I became interested in doing research professionally, I took the advice of several people and volunteered to do research for a few people.  I ended up working on the family history of everyone in my office, my half-sister, my aunt, and several friends.  Oh, yeah, I was hooked!

My professional experience turned out to be a good background for going into this work.  I've worked as an editor for more than 20 years, and I'm also an indexer and translator.  My college degree was in foreign languages (French major, Spanish and Russian minors).  I've done research of various kinds for many years, and I always want to find the answer to a puzzle.

I hung out my shingle in 2005.  My very first ad led to a client, who stayed with me until health problems changed his priorities last year.  Through all of this I now have experience with general American, black American, English, German, Greek, East Indian, Irish, Jewish, Portuguese, Russian, and Scottish ethnic research.  My specialty is Jewish research.

I do a fair amount of volunteer work.  I've been on the staff of the Oakland Regional Family History Center for more than ten years.  I'm the publicity director, programming person, and newsletter editor for the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society and the editor of The Galitzianer, a quarterly journal for Jewish genealogical research in the former Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia.  I have been the treasurer of the California State Genealogical Alliance and the representative of the Northern California chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists.  I've worked on several transcription projects, several of which were posted on RootsWeb.

In my blog I plan to talk about projects I'm working on, information I find that I think other people will find useful, and different directions research can take you.  I hope you enjoy my take on things!