“Tips & Talk” at Oakland FamilySearch Center

CGS and OFSC volunteers host a series of fun, informal discussions on a variety of topics. These free gatherings, available in-person at the Center or via Zoom, are held on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Come to the FamilySearch genealogical library, meet other family history researchers, and learn to use the library’s databases, scanning and digitizing equipment, and many other resources!

December topics:

• Wednesday, December 6, 11:00 am: “Orientation to Scanning Options at OFSC"—Hands on help from OFSC Volunteers Discover what devices OFSC has to assist you in saving photos, recordings, videos, scrapbooks, and more. These memories can be uploaded to your FamilySearch family tree and Ancestry.com (among other websites and programs). They can be shared with your family and friends through emails and social media. They can be used to create books about your family. Stay and do some scanning or make an appointment to use the equipment on another day.
• Tuesday, December 12, 11:00 am: “FamilySearch Skills 7" with Laurie Wolf. Limited to 14 hands-on students; registration via Eventbrite is encouraged. Seventh session topics: Merging—Since the FamilySearch family tree is a collaborative effort, unknowingly I can add an ancestor and my 4th cousin once removed might also add the same ancestor. This creates a duplicate of that ancestor. And this happens all of the time. But the goal is to have only one version of each ancestor. Merging is the process that takes those two and combines them into one. Great care must be taken to make sure the right ancestors are being merged. This class will discuss how to determine if the two ancestors are really the same and then, if so, how to merge them and clean up the collaborative family tree.

2024 SCHEDULE

January Topics:

• Wednesday, January 3, 11:00 am: "Getting the Most from a Visit to OFSC" with Jane Lindsey. Start the New Year by reviewing the free subscriptions available to you at the Oakland FamilySearch Center (OFSC). Jane will also review the abundant records available in the FamilySearch Catalog, the Images tab and Wiki to help expand your research. A long time CGS member, Jane also volunteers at the OFSC. She loves helping patrons and hopes many CGS members will come for a visit in 2024.
• Wednesday, January 3, 6:30 pm: "Gearing -up for 2024: Use Free Subscriptions and Records at OFSC" with Jane Lindsey. What’s new at OFSC to help you with your research? Learn what free database subscriptions are available at OFSC as well as what records are new plus info about the new catalog.
• Tuesday, January 9, 11:00 am: "How to Series: Scotlands People" with Roger Prince. Scotland’s People is the official government website for all public, Scottish, people-related records. It is an excellent site, but with minor exceptions, it is not free to view an original record. However, the indexes contain a lot of useful information and continue to be improved. I will cover strategies for getting the most information you can from the indexes. In some cases, you may decide you don’t need to buy the original record. But if you do decide to purchase, we’ll discuss methods for minimizing the risk that you will pay for the wrong record. At $1.80 per record view, you don’t want to make too many mistakes. We’ll look at strategies for triangulating in on the right record using more than one search and using the sort function on the search results. We’ll do a live demo and a handout will be provided. Roger Prince has been doing genealogy since 1989 when he asked his father who all those people were in the box of old photographs from his grandmother’s house. His Scottish grandmother has led him to spend many hours and many dollars on Scotland’s People. He has also made two trips to Edinburgh where you can look at the records for free at Register House (you still have to pay to get a copy of the image).
• Wednesday, January 17, 11:00 am: "Adding Historical Information to Enhance and Understand Your Family Genealogy" with Esta Weaver. Esta will provide examples from her research to show how historical information and artifacts enhance your family genealogy and stories. Understanding the history helps to bring your ancestors into focus as “real people”. Esta has been researching her family for more than 50 years, especially her Norwegian, Swedish, German and English roots.
• Wednesday, January 17, 6:30 pm: "10 Million Names Project https://10millionnames.org" with Evan Wilson. American Ancestors is spearheading a massive project called 10 Million Names whose goal is to document the 10 million people of African descent enslaved in what is now the United States. Evan Wilson is the liaison between the California Genealogical Society and 10 Million Names. Join us to learn what the project is about and how societies such as CGS can help out. Evan is a professional genealogist based in Oakland, California who specializes in Southern US research and land records. He can be reached at [email protected].
• Tuesday, January 30, 11:00 am: "How to Series: Searching Images on FamilySearch" with Laurie Wolf. When you search for historical records on FamilySearch, most often you are only looking at the "indexed" records. But over half of the records available at FamilySearch are "not indexed". So how can you find your ancestors in those records? Come to this "How-to" session to learn easy and effective ways to search these "not indexed" records. You may find that elusive birth, marriage, or death record that you have spent years searching for! Laurie has been “touched” by the genealogy bug for several years and has been volunteering at the Danville FamilySearch Library as well. Her husband now shares her passion for this work and together they’ve recently become the Directors of the Oakland FamilySearch Center. She also loves spending time with her family and her newly acquired kittens!"
• Wednesday, January 31, 11:00 am: "Introduction to 20th Century Immigration" with Linda Okazaki. This very basic class will introduce you to a complex subject. You will learn about laws and events that impacted 20th-century immigration to the U.S. from the Pacific, and the Atlantic, through Canada, and Mexico. Basic records will be reviewed. Suitable for beginners. Linda Harms Okazaki is a fourth-generation Californian who is passionate about teaching people of all ages to research, document, and share their family histories. Her areas of interest include the western U.S., upstate New York, England, Australia, Japanese Americans, and the use of DNA in genealogy. Linda has been researching her husband’s ancestry since 2012, documenting his family in the internment camps and in Japan. A charter member of the Nikkei Genealogical Society, and a consultant for Ancestry’s Progenealogists and Densho, she is also a featured columnist for the Nichi Bei News. Her column, "Finding Your Nikkei Roots," is published bimonthly. Her guide to "Finding Your Japanese Roots" was updated in 2023. Ms. Okazaki is the author of numerous articles, including the National Genealogical Society’s "Paper Sons and Picture Brides," which was co-authored by Grant Din, and "Japanese American Research," published in the New York Researcher. She is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, the Genealogical Speaker’s Guild, and the Daughters of the American Revolution. Linda is a past president of the California Genealogical Society, a former board member of the Nichi Bei Foundation, and the current president of the Northern California Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists.

February topics-COMING SOON!

The Oakland FamilySearch Center is located at 4766 Lincoln Avenue. OFSC Directions and Parking

For more information, call 510-531-3905 or email [email protected].

Note: Separate registration required for each session.

 CGS Members and Non-Members are free.

Register for each session separately.

You can purchase a $45 one-year CGS Basic membership when you check out. To sign up for other membership options go to our web page: CGS Membership application

Host or Publisher California Genealogical Society