LIBRARY DEDICATION

Our own San Diego Genealogical Society will be celebrating the dedication of its library to the San Diego Public Library on Saturday April 25th at 11am Ninth floor. 

 WE'D LOVE TO SEE YOU ALL THERE!

Two hour free parking. Easy trolley ride. See newsletter or website casdgs.org or attend this Saturday's monthly meeting at St Andrews Lutheran Church for more information on the trolley excursion.

1940 Census Indexing

The release of the 1940 US Federal Census is just 15 days away!

San Diego Genealogical Society is a sponsoring group to help index the census for FamilySearch.org

If you have signed up to index, or if you are still fence sitting, Chris Christensen will be available to give you a hand.

Chris will be available at the San Diego Genealogical Society library during the next two weeks demonstrate the indexing software and assist in getting familiar with it.

If you want a little help contact the library at 858-279-7349 or sdgsinfo@yahoo.com

SDGS Library Catalog Online

We finally have our San Diego Genealogical Society Library catalog online! It was a lot of work on Miriam's and her volunteers part but it is now ready for use. Go to the SDGS web site at casdgs.org and click on the Library link. That takes you to the description page and opens a link to the catalog.

Currently there are 9992 titles available for searching. The database has already sorted 123 categories and 159 locations. The user is also able to do specific searched on all or part of titles, author or call number.

This is an excellent addition to the society and is available to members and non-members alike.

I'd better get back to work

I am back from my summer in Nebraska. I had only planned on being gone for two months but that dragged on to almost four months. My online time was limited to only about 2 hours a day so I certainly didn't spend much of it doing SDGS stuff.

A lot has happened at SDGS during my stay in the hinterlands.

There is a major change coming concerning the people who come to the Rootsmagic Users Group before each monthly meeting.

I don't know if the change in the monthly meeting schedule has been promulgated, but you will get it, unofficially, right here.

Effective with the February meeting we will start the regular meetings at 10 A.M. and be finished by 1 P.M.

That means that the RootsMagic Users Group will not be held before each meeting. We are going to have to come up with some other time and place.

I am considering changing to meeting at the SDGS library at 7347 Ronson Rd, Suite O. That will be a pain for you folks that live in the East County. However it is pretty easy to get to the library.

As for meeting time I am looking at the 4th Saturday of the month. Our monthly meeting is on the 2nd Saturday and several of us go to the CGSSD meeting on the 3rd Saturday. There is a Senior Computer Users group that meets in Mission Beach on the 1st Saturday, I think. I don't know of anything on the 4th Saturday.

I chose Saturday as there is not a lot happening at the SDGS library on Saturday and the freeway traffic is usually lighter than during the week.

Go ahead and post any comments here. I will also discuss this at our November 13 monthly meeting.

This week at the library

It's a slow week.

Wednesday, 24 March 2010
10 a.m. to Noon Class: Brick Walls

Thursday, 25 March 2010
10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Library open to the public

Saturday, 27 March 2010
9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Library open to the public

KPBS interview of Pam Journey

As a filler before one of the "Faces of America', with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. San Diego's KPBS interviewed our librarian, Pam Journey.

A producer and videographer were at the library for about three hours videotaping the interview and our facility. The attached video clip is about a minute and a half.

KPBS generously allowed us to post the video clip on our blog.

This Week at the Library 14 - 20 March 2010

Monday 15 March: Writer's Group 10 a.m. to noon

Wednesday 17 March: Class - England/Wales 10 a.m. to noon

Thursday 18 March: Library open to the public 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Saturday 20 March: SDGS bus trip to Los Angeles Public Library

This week at the library

Wednesday 10 March:
10 a.m. to noon: Computer Basics Class: Scanner Help

6:30 p.m.: Board of Directors meeting

Thursday 11 March:
10 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.: Library open to the public

Saturday 13 March:
10 to 11:30 a.m.: Basic Genealogy class at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church

10 to 11:30 a.m.: Rootsmagic Users Group at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church

12 noon to 2:00 p.m.: Monthly Meeting at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church
Guest Speaker: Wayne Anderson
1. When the absence of information was a clue
2. What we learned on the way to proving something was not true

Wednesday at the Library

From the mailbag:

‘Wednesday at the Library,’ a new series of ongoing genealogy classes, begin February 3rd ( 10 am -12 pm ) at the San Diego Genealogical Society Library, 7343 Ronson Road , Suite O. All members are invited to attend. There is no charge for any of the classes. Donations to help cover the cost of handouts will be accepted.

The following lists of topics are tentative. The SDGS Newsletter and online calendar will have the up-to-date list of class topics.

1st Wednesday of each month – genealogy research topics

1. Making a plan (Feb 3)
2. Record keeping / Organizing (Mar)
3. Bibliographies / Indexes (Apr)
4. Church records / cemeteries (May)
5. Passenger lists (June)
6. County History books (July)
7. Land / Homestead Act (Aug)
8. Probate records (Sept)
9. Military records (Oct)
10. Newspaper research (Nov)

Other possible topics: Genealogy research libraries, PERSI / Periodicals, timelines, Patriotic Societies

2nd Wednesday of each month – general computer use topics (led by Dave Tooley, assisted by Lance Dohe )

1. Computer file management (Feb 10)
2. Scanner help
3. Moving data to CDs
4. Backup systems
5. Browser basics / e-mail
6. Printer controls
7. Mac users
8. Image keeping
9. Understanding Microsoft basics
10. How to deal with Tech help

3rd Wednesday of each month – location specific genealogy research (how to get started with genealogical research in this area)

1. Germanic peoples (Feb 17)
2. English / Wales
3. Canada
4. America Indian
5. Czech-Slovakia
6. Spain / Mexico / Hispanic
7. Denmark / Sweden / Norway
8. Ireland/Scotland
9. San Diego County
10. Poland / Russia / Hungry

4th Wednesday of each month – tearing down ‘brick walls’ together

Attendees are encouraged to bring one ‘brick wall’ they want help with. After a ‘round robin’ of describing the research problems, a facilitator will lead a discussion, with suggestions for solving specific problems. Time for using the SDGS library materials will be available. People with similar problems can work together. Hopefully, some problems will be on their way to being solved.

Input from members about other desired class topics is welcome and solicited.

To sign up for any class, call the SDGS library, (858) 279-7347, or e-mail sdgs@att.net . Please include your name, telephone number, e-mail, and the class you are interested in attending. Enrollment is limited to 15 people per class.

Members with expertise in any of the subject areas are encouraged to share their knowledge by teaching one of the classes. Please contact me about this if you are interested.

We encourage your participation in these ‘Wednesday at the Library’ classes. Please feel free to sign up for all of the classes that interest you, bring a friend, make use of the San Diego Genealogical Society ’s wonderful library and resources, and have fun!

See you on ‘Wednesday at the Library.’

Sincerely,

Pam Journey
Library Director

Library Grand Opening

The San Diego Genealogical Society had its members only Grand Opening today. We had about 120 members and guests come out to check out our new digs. There were library volunteers available to show everyone the layout and introduce them to the layout. A few of the members weren't aware of our computer capabilities or the web access.

Refreshments were available for the event. Just a note: All refreshments were consumed outside! When the library is fully operational patrons will be limited to eating at the tables in the rear of the library. Absolutely no food or drinks in the book stacks or computer work stations. Orders of the librarian.

Marna, the society president, and Pam, the librarian, along with all the volunteers who are doing the grunt work are looking forward to the public Grand Opening on Saturday, 21 Nov 2009, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

There are a few photos at SDGS Web Albums. (If you look at the pictures, ignore the created date. For some reason it is listed as 4 Nov instead of 15 Nov.)

SDGS Library Grand Opening 15 Nov 2009

Don't forget the new Library Grand Opening on Nov 14, 2009. This event is for SDGS members only and is from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m. The location is 7343 Ronson Rd, Suite O, San Diego.

The ribbon cutting will be at 1:00 p.m. so don't show up at 1:05 expecting to see the big event.

A big gala with ribbons, balloons and cookies is planned. (Well ok, maybe not a big gala event, but gala anyway.)

If you haven't been to the library in a while come see the new one. We have lots of books and periodicals, over 10,000, microfilm, microfiche, and data on CDROM. There are two computer work stations with net access. Hopefully in the near future we will have an account with Ancestry.com for the library. If you have your own account you can access that at the library.

Looking forward to seeing a lot of people.

Oh dear, Another time waster!

I just added a small photo album to the Picasa Web Albums site. This first album is very small because I was just testing to see if it was easy enough for me to do.

Since I am mentioning it, I was able to create the account and upload some images. I hope to be able to upload pictures from upcoming SDGS events. Since I don't attend every event I will need our members to help by sending me pictures.

All of this is just to make you, dear reader, waste more time.

Check the album SDGS Library at Picasa Web Albums

Catalog Update

Just a quick note to let you know that I just uploaded the latest and greatest edition of our library catalog.

I'm sure that every reader of this blog has used or regularly uses the catalog on the SDGS Website. The link to the catalog is in the left hand column. ( Oh heck, here's the direct link to the Catalog Page.)

For our readers who have just found us, the catalog is several, fourteen for you nitpickers, pdf files. Each file primarily covers a section of the United States, based on the Dewey Decimal Classification. There are also files for patriotic associations, U.S. history, Canada/Mexico, genealogy books and the rest of the world. The only reason it is split in this manner was to keep the file sizes fairly manageable. The catalog is a static series of files. We do not have a searcheable database.

Take a look and spend a few minutes looking for the specific source you haven't been able to find. We just might have it!

At the library

If you don't want to hassle with driving to the downtown San Diego Public Library but need to do research in the San Diego City and County directories, consider using the volumes at our library.

We hold the following volumes: 1908-9, 1911-12, 1916, 1924-25, 1931-32, 1934-36, 1939, 1942, 1952-58, 1960-65, 1968, 1971-74, 1976-79. We also have a 1929 San Diego City Telephone Directory that helps fill that blank.

If you are a society member you have 24 hour access to the library. If you are a non-member consider joining the society, or use our library when it is open to the public. In January 2010 we will have the library open to the general public on Thursdays. That gives us a couple of months to get things fully organized.