Southern California Genealogical Society
ABOUT SCGS - Board Officers & Board Members
Louise RatliffLouise Ratliff - President
A native of Los Angeles, Louise has lived in the Baldwin Hills, Palos Verdes Peninsula, Los Angeles, and the San Fernando Valley. She has been interested in family history since her parents began researching their families in the 1980s, but has only recently begun learning how to do her own research by attending Jamboree and attending talks and webinars. Both of her parents have traced their lines back to the 1100s, in England and Germany. One famous ancestor is William "Buffalo Bill" Cody! As a Librarian at CSUN and UCLA for over 40 years, Louise was active in library automation and cataloging, and was a map cataloger for 12 years until she retired in 2019. Now she helps in the SCGS Library by providing full cataloging for the maps and serving on the Library Ops Committee. She also serves on the Jamboree committee. Other interests include hiking, gardening with native plants, and serving as webmaster for the Los Angeles/Santa Monica Mountains Chapter of the California Native Plant Society.
Debbie Davenport - 1st Vice President
Born in Los Angeles, Debbie is an Registered Nurse and worked in emergency medicine and public health for over 40 years, earning a BSN and a Masters in Public Administration. While pursuing her career in Nursing, she started researching her family at the West LA Family History Library in 1976 and one day discovered the SCGS Jamboree on a flyer at the library. Now retired, her focus is on improving her genealogy research skills while also helping others discover their ancestors and volunteering at the library. She is a member of the SCCAPG, APG, NGS, DAR, DUVCW, National Soc. U.S. Daughters of 1812, Colonial Dames 17th Century, UGA, NYG&B, Georgia Gen. Soc., and No. Carolina Gen. Soc. Research areas of interest: 17th and 18th Century Americas and the Caribbean, Ulster Scots Irish, Colonial Dutch ancestry, and anywhere there is a family story to discover!
OPEN -2nd Vice President

Kathy Holland - Recording Secretary
Kathy is a native Californian—born and raised in the San Fernando Valley. She have been searching for her ancestors since 1984, and found them all the way back to the mid-1600’s. On the education front, s completed the American certificate program at the National Institute of Genealogy (earning the PLCGS certificate), started the German certificate program at the NIGS, and completed the Pro Gen program and the DAR genealogy courses. She has attended the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) every year since 2013, working on German studies and methodology skills. She is a member of NGS, SCGS, APG, the APG virtual chapter, and the So Cal chapter of APG, the DAR, and the DUVCW. She volunteers on the 4th Saturday at the SCGS library and participates in the German Interest Group. Kathy has a BA and MA degree in Political Science.
Diane Adamson - Treasurer
Diane joined SCGS in 2009 and is currently the society’s President and Jamboree Co-Chair. She is a native of Los Angeles and is a graduate of Cal State Northridge with a degree in Business Administration/Accounting Information Systems. After completing college, she worked for the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO)'s IT Department for 22 years as a programmer and a manager. Later, she was employed by the Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center in the IT department. Along the way, she continued her academic studies, earning an MBA degree with emphasis on information systems from USC, and completed enough course requirements from Cal State Northridge to complete a second bachelor's degree in psychology and a master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. Previously, Diane was SCGS's Volunteer Coordinator and a member of the IT Department.
BOARD MEMBERS
Charlotte Bocage
Charlotte M. Bocage has over forty years of genealogy experience. After watching "Roots" in 1977, Charlotte put a name to what she had been doing since she was five years old. A New Orleans native she organizes family reunions for both sides of her family. She worked for Pacific Bell for over 31 years retiring in 2001. As a member of the Telephone Pioneers of America, she chaired the popular Black History Month Sale-A-Bration for over 10 years raising money for future Pioneer community service events. As a former First Vice President for the California African American Genealogical Society Charlotte was part of the fundraising committee raising over $3,000.00 in the first year, tripling the General Fund. As the inaugural president of the Atwater Village Historical Society she worked with, then City Councilman, Eric Garcetti to assemble funding to start the society. Charlotte graduated from UCLA in 1998 with a BA in Communication Studies. While there she chaired the Older Students Program. She teaches Source Documentation 101 for Family Tree University. Charlotte is a guest genealogy lecturer for the UCLA Osher Lifelong Learning Program. She has been a member of SCGS since 1999. As a member of the SCGS Board of Directors, she has served as the Program chair for Jamboree. She is currently the Education Committee chair that directs the Kids Family History Camp and the Lunch and Learn Education program. She also organizes the SCGS Speakers Bureau. Charlotte enjoys the work she provides to our members.
Mark Cross
Mark Cross became interested in genealogy at the age of 12. That’s when he read an unpublished and unsourced family tree by a distant relative, that included a transcribed letter written by an ancestor about his adventures fighting for the Union in the Civil War. After college, he started doing his own research and became hooked. When he discovered a link to a Mayflower passenger and a Revolutionary War Patriot, he decided to get more educated and experienced, and has joined the Sons of the American Revolution and the General Society of Mayflower Descendants. Mark has gleefully attended Jamboree since he first learned of it in 2014, and has also attended the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) and is currently enrolled in ProGen. In addition to SCGS, Mark is a member of the Polish Genealogical Society of California, British Isles Family History Society-USA, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Association of Professional Genealogists, and the National Genealogical Society. Mark is a voice actor and an OSHA Safety Trainer and CPR instructor. When he’s not researching dead people, he’s training on the subject of how to keep people alive.
Adrian Foushee
Born and reared in Washington, D.C. to parents from the Carolinas, Adrian graduated from James Madison University, VA, with a BS in Anthropology. He received his MBA from University of La Verne, CA. In 2012, when the itch finally could not be ignored, Adrian began his genealogical journey. In four years he has gone from a set of names to not only dates and places, but family and local histories, and through DNA, new relatives. He is a member of several genealogical societies in Southern California, North Carolina and the National Genealogical Society.
Rocco Joseph Hindman
Having relocated to Southern California from the Midwest, Rocco sought to stay connected with his family by starting his first family tree in 1999 with the purchase of software advertising a free 90-day trial subscription to the still-emerging Ancestry.com. In those three months, he caught the genealogy bug when he discovered that some of his Ohio ancestors had been pioneers in the Northwest Territory prior to statehood. In more than two decades since then, besides growing his and many other trees, Rocco has served as a researcher and volunteer search angel for adoptees, orphans, and their children seeking information about their biological families. In 2019, he completed Boston University's Certificate in Genealogical Research Program. In addition to the SCGS, he is a member of the National Genealogical Society, the Ohio Genealogical Society, and the Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society. His areas of special interest include Italian, Lebanese, and Midwestern/Mid-Atlantic US research, and he currently serves as the facilitator for the Society's Italian Interest Group. When he is not scouring historical documents, databases, or DNA matches, Rocco is busy operating a talent agency for producers, cinematographers, designers, and editors in the film & television industry.
Lyn Jensen
Lyn Jensen has a lifelong interest in genealogy, writing two columns on her family's ongoing history, "Life After Mother" and "My Recycled Life."

I do genealogy because my mother started a family tree, then gave it up, and I took over. I went many years before I learned about the basics of pedigree charts, family group charts, color coding, and obtaining birth, marriage, and death records. Add to that how my family is littered with divorces, adoptions, and some eyebrow-raising secrets, and even basic organizing has been quite an adventure! Organizing genealogy is a never-ending project--from the most appropriate ways of documenting and preserving names and dates, to dealing with side issues and uncooperative relatives.

As for my background, I've been a freelance journalist in southern California since the 80s. My byline has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register, the Los Angeles Weekly, the Los Angeles Reader, Music Connection, Bloglandia, Senior Reporter, and many other periodicals. My blog is found at lynjensen.blogspot.com and I graduated from UCLA with a major in Theater Arts.
Linda Mustion
Linda Mustion has been involved with genealogy since 1983; wanting to learn more about her father's side of the family. Linda is also a Military Researcher, Historian and Biographer for Burbank and Glendale's war dead. In 2011, Linda was named the 2011 Patriot of the Year by the Glendale Chamber of Commerce. Currently, she is a member of the San Fernando Valley Chapter, NSDAR and a Find-A Grave Photo Volunteer and a Vietnam Traveling Wall Docent. Linda has been an SCGS Librarian and is currently a fill-in Librarian and the SCGS Historian and on the SCGS board. She has also volunteered at Jamboree in the Tech Zone. She currently serves as the Board Representative to the SCGS Library Operations committee.
John V. Richardson, Jr., PhD
An 8th generation Ohioan, John V. Richardson is a UCLA Professor Emeritus of Information Studies where he has taught "Genealogical Information Resources" for graduate students training to become archivists and librarians. Currently, he's the FamilyTreeDNA volunteer administrator for the Richardson Project.

His Die Weber Familie (ITA Press, 2020) about the Weber family who left Germany in the early 19th century won the Ohio Genealogical Society's 2021 Harrison Prize. He is a member of The General Society of Colonial Wars of the State of California, Sons of the American Revolution, and Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War plus many other genealogical societies.
Cathy Romero
Cathy has been a member of SCGS since 2010. She is a retired Graphic Designer after working for Kaiser Permanente Southern California Regional Offices in Pasadena doing desktop publishing and web support for 34 years. She has a BA in Design from CSULA.

Her family research is in New Mexico going back to the 17th century and in Zacatecas, Mexico, also going to the 17th century. She is a board member of the Genealogical Society of Hispanic America and a member the New Mexico Genealogical Society. She lives in Rosemead, California.
Lisa Taylor
A native Southern Californian, Lisa Hallett Taylor grew up in Covina and is a graduate of Cal Poly, Pomona. A longtime writer and editor, Taylor has been on the staffs of a newspaper, magazines, KCET, and written for the Los Angeles Times, Emmy Magazine, Westways, and the websites About.com and TheSpruce.com. She earned a Certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University in 2019 and will complete ProGen in December 2021. An enthusiastic researcher, her book, Lost Amusement Parks of Southern California: The Postwar Years, was recently released and she is currently working on another book. Like many, her interest in genealogy has grown from a hobby to a passion as she explores documentary and DNA evidence of ancestors from many family trees. Her American roots can be traced to early Connecticut and New York settlers. For years, Taylor has chipped away at a brick wall encountered by her father's first cousin (her 1C1R) in the 1970s and is determined to break it down. Through her studies, she has learned that it helps to become proficient in both genetic and traditional genealogy research and that you can never take too many courses or workshops.
Douglas Westfall
I am a Congressionally recognized National Historian and have published 150 books on America's history now for three decades. Of those, I have written a third and 90% come from first person accounts in the form of letters, journals, diaries, memoirs and interviews. Our books reach back to colonial days. Prior to this I was a teacher for 20 years, from 4th grade through college and for half that time, I ran an Industrial Training Center for a billion-dollar computer company in Tustin, CA and had teachers working for me in 26 US States and 34 Countries. I have taught classes in two dozen states, Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, Philippines plus ten cities in Europe.

As well, I wrote one book on the genealogy of America and published the third volume of Marie Northrop's series on Spanish & Mexican Families of Early California -- for the SCGS back in 2004. I have given classes at the Orange Pioneer Family Search Center and once at the SCGS library in Burbank. I continually use genealogy information in the research for the people in our books and hold an AA in Technology, a BA In Education and have a life-time secondary teaching credential. I was selected for the 2016 National Daughters of the American Revolution Historian award.
Lynde Su Young
Lynde Su Young was born in South Dakota and later raised in Portland, Oregon, before coming to La Crescenta in 1975. Her career as a hairdresser and business owner for over 50 years taught her problem solving, organizing skills, understanding the power of visualization, and learning through listening to people and their stories. Married to a motion picture technician who is also an avid pilot, they have 3 children, 3 grandchildren, and five great grandchildren.

In 2016, Lyn caught the genealogy bug when she discovered Ancestry DNA matches that were previously unknown to her. Since her retirement she has worked building her family tree and matching cousins by both DNA and paper trails. At SCGS she is a member of the DNA and German Interest Groups and volunteers at the SCGS Library, working as a Librarian Volunteer helping visitors with their questions and research. She is a member of the Library Operations Committee; and she looks forward to helping with the development and planning for the future of SCGS.
APPOINTED OFFICERS
Fran BumannFran Bumann - Corresponding Secretary
Fran Bumann is a native of Los Angeles, born to parents who were also Los Angeles natives. She's began family research over 40 years ago so she could learn about those "cowboy" ancestors. Fran is a graduate of Cal State Northridge with a degree in cultural anthropology. She has worked over the years in both the education and investment fields. She has been married to Virg, an aerospace engineer for 50+ years and they have a son Eric and a daughter Tamara. Family history pursuits have taken her across the U.S. and Canada as well as to Scotland, Wales and Germany. In the course of her 40+ year membership in SCGS she has volunteered in many capacities and is currently coordinator of the Research Team. As Director of the Society's US Research Team, Fran provides professional genealogical services on behalf of the Society. As corresponding secretary, she directs e-mails to appropriate officers and responds to queries from our patrons and members. She is also a member of the Book committee. In the past, Fran has served as librarian, has worked on the membership team, served on the Board of Directors and held the offices of Recording Secretary and Treasurer.
Peggy Schulz
OPEN - Financial Secretary