The German Collection is pleased to announce it is now in SCGS’s modified Dewey order.

All books that have been catalogued by SCGS are now shelved in order and ready to join the normal shelf reading review to keep them that way. We are also excited to join this coming year’s general collection inventory which identifies lost works.

All books not in the SCGS catalogue have been segregated together … a whopping four bookcases!

What does this mean to researchers? If it’s in the catalogue, you should be able to find it. This “sprucing-up” project may cause some short-term frustrations as some researchers may expect to find uncatalogued works on a certain shelf. This brings us to the next phase of this project – a concentrated effort to catalogue those four bookcases of uncatalogued works.

Join the effort!

Help us ready books for cataloguing. It’s easy! Join us any Thursday (Germanic Research Team), the third Saturday of the month (German Interest Group – next meeting January 16th), and now, the first Tuesday evenings of the month (4pm to 9pm). Our first workgroup is this Tuesday, January 5th. No German language skills necessary. Even one hour will make a big difference.

We’d like to thank Lin LaRochelle for helping us ready the space, Maureen Schoenky for dedicating hours to sorting the old GGSA materials, and Lois Burlo for her enthusiasm. And a very special thank you to Joel Fritsche and Denny Ertsman for providing the muscle and donating 6 hours on a beautiful “I’d rather be outside” Saturday.

With Best Wishes for the New Year,

Heidi Zeigler (member SCGS Board & Librarian first Tuesday evening of the month)
Lynne Parmenter (member Long Range Planning Committee & German Interest Group)

Welcome to the New SCGS Board Members

We welcome the Board members who were elected for three-year terms in the recent election:

Charlotte Bocage
Louise Calaway
Jay Holladay
Heidi Ziegler

Three other candidates were invited to attend the January 2010 Board meeting, at which time they may be considered for appointment as Directors at Large:

Jim Beardsley
Marilyn Heck
Steffani Walther

Thank you to all of these devoted SCGS supporters for their willingness to lead the organization.

Periodicals Survey - Please Participate

We are asking for feedback about our two quarterly periodicals, The Searcher and The News & Notes. The Board is facing financial and editorial decisions on these publications, and the decisions will affect every SCGS member. We need to hear your opinions now.

The survey should take no more than 10 to 15 minutes of your time, depending on your answers. If you would like, you may temporarily pause the interview and finish it later.

Your comments will remain confidential and your responses will be reported to the Strategic Planning committee only in summary form, combined with other respondents' answers. Click on the following link to take the survey:

http://www.surveyconsole.com/console/TakeSurvey?id=575375

Thank you in advance for your participation.

Jamboree Audio CDs Available

JAMB-Inc. audiorecorded nearly 80 percent of the sessions that were conducted at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree in June 2009. The CDs are now available for purchase from the JAMB website. The cost is $12 per CD, or $11 each with the purchase of 10 or more CDs. You'll need to know the session number to place your order. The sessions are listed in the August issue of The News & Notes and a list is also available on the JAMB-Inc. website.

Order your tapes at JAMB-Inc.

Write Your Family Names on Our Virtual Surname Wall

You are invited to add your family surnames to the Southern California Genealogical Society's Virtual Surname Wall.  Use this valuable service to help connect with online cousins everywhere.

There is no charge for this service, and the offer is open to the public. We encourage you to forward this invitation to your cousins, genealogy-related email lists, society members, your genealogy acquaintences, or other family historians.

Although this project is being sponsored by the Southern California Genealogical Society, we welcome family information from any geographic area, not just California. You may submit up to 10 surnames. We plan to allow for more surnames to be added and will let you know when we are able to accept more names.

Participants will be asked for the following information. You may wish to have your family group sheets, pedigree charts, or genealogy database available for reference.

1. Your family surnames (including spelling variations).
2. The geographic area in which they lived, or the migration path.
3. The associated period of time.

Your participation in the Virtual Surname Wall project is completely voluntary. Surname Wall information will be maintained by SCGS and may be included in printed or a searchable free online database that would be accessible on the SCGS website at www.scgsgenealogy.com. Your participation in the project is your authorization to include your surname information in any printed or searchable online databases that may be developed.

Of course, we have instituted steps to protect your privacy. Your contact information will not be displayed, either in print or online. You will have the option of asking SCGS to serve as intermediary, or authorizing SCGS to release your contact information should we receive an inquiry regarding a possible family connection.

Click here to add your names to our Virtual Surname Wall.

Download the flyer here.

SCGS on YouTube.com

Take a virtual tour of the SCGS Family Research Library compliments of www.YouTube.com. Many thanks to Doug Miller, who arranged for a videographer to record the tour and who appears on camera to give the tour. View the tour at http://youtube.com/user/SCGSgenealogy and let us know what you think.

Thanks Doug! Great use of technology to spread the word about SCGS.

Ancestors Gallery Memorials

What is the Ancestors Gallery?

The Ancestors Gallery is a special feature that will be included on the SCGS Website and in the 2007 Genealogy Jamboree syllabus. The program has been developed to give genealogists and family historians a new outlet to honor ancestors and relatives. The traditional genealogy query of details about the individual will be accompanied by a vintage photograph of your family member to create a memorial that will appear online and in the Jamboree Syllabus. Fees for Ancestors Gallery listings are nominal and are based on the size of the listing and the number of photographs. To read more about the program, see here.