Vote for the 2024 SCGS Board of Directors

Diane joined the Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS) in 2009 and is currently the society’s President and Co-Chairperson of Jamboree. 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 graduating from college, Diane worked for the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO)'s Information Technology Department for 22 years as a programmer and a manager. Later, she worked for the Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center in the Information Technology department. Along the way, she continued her academic studies, earning an MBA degree with an emphasis on information systems from the University of Southern California (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 also a member of the IT Department.

Kathy was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley. She has been searching for her ancestors since 1984, and found them all the way back to the mid-1600’s. On the education front, she 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 ProGen 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. Kathy is a member of NGS, SCGS, APG,  and the So Cal chapter of APG, the DAR, and the DUVCW. She volunteers on the 4th Saturday at the SCGS Llbrary and participates in the German Interest Group. Kathy has BA and MA degrees in Political Science.

Lyn has a lifelong interest in genealogy, writing two columns on her family's ongoing history, "Life After Mother" and "My Recycled Life." She does genealogy because her mother started a family tree, then gave it up, and she took over. Over the years she learned about pedigree and family group charts, color coding, and obtaining vital statistics. Organizing genealogy is an ongoing project--from documenting and preserving, to dealing with side issues and uncooperative relatives.

Lyn has been a freelance journalist since the 1980s. Her byline has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register, the Los Angeles Weekly, and the Los Angeles Reader, among others. Her blog is lynjensen.blogspot.com. Lyn earned a BA in Theater Arts from UCLA .

A native of Los Angeles, Louise has lived in the Baldwin Hills, Palos Verdes Peninsula, LA, and the Valley. She became interested in genealogy when her parents began researching in the 1980s, but only recently learned how to do her own research through Jamboree, talks, and webinars. Both parents traced their lines to the 1100s, in England and Germany. Louise is related to William "Buffalo Bill" Cody! As a Librarian at CSUN and UCLA for over 40 years, Louise was active in automation and cataloging, and was a map cataloger until she retired in 2019. Now she helps the SCGS Library by providing full cataloging for the maps and chairing the Library Ops Committee. She also serves on the Jamboree committee. Other interests include hiking and native plant gardening and she's a member of the California Native Plant Society.

An eighth-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 has been a member of SCGS since 2010. She is a retired graphic designer who worked 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 Cal State University, Los Angeles. Cathy's family research is focused in New Mexico going back to the 17th century and in Zacatecas, Mexico, also going to back tp the 17th century. Cathy serves on the Board of Directors for Genealogical Society of Hispanic America (GSHA-SC) and is also a member of the New Mexico Genealogical Society. Cathy is a resident of Rosemead, California.

Douglas is a congressionally recognized National Historian. As owner of the Paragon Agency, he has published 150 books about America's history. Of those, he wrote one-third; 90% are first- person accounts in the form of letters, journals, diaries, memoirs and interviews. Paragon's books reach back to colonial days. Before publishing, Douglas was a teacher for 20 years, from 4th grade through college. During that time, he ran an industrial training center for a billion-dollar computer company in Tustin. He taught classes in two dozen states, Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Philippines, and Europe.

Douglas also wrote a book on the genealogy of America and published the third volume of Marie Northrop's series on Spanish & Mexican Families of Early California for SCGS in 2004. He taught at the Orange Pioneer Family Search Center and at the SCGS Library. He uses genealogical information in the research for the people in his books. Douglas has an AA in Technology and a BA In Education. In 2016, he was selected for the National DAR Historian Award.

Lynde Su Young was born in South Dakota and later raised in Portland, Oregon, before moving to La Crescenta in 1975. Her career as a hair stylist 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 three children, three 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 built her family tree and matched 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.