Name Our Newsletter contest!

Newsletter title competition!

Our newsletter editor, Sara Hayden, thought it would be nice to have an official title for our SMCGS Newsletter.  Can you suggest something which would reflect our California/Bay Area interests, or perhaps our SIGs, or our library at Cañada College?  Something special about San Mateo and its heritage?  

The San Mateo Historical Society journal is called "La Peninsula".  How about "La Redwood City Mud Flats"? or "Digital Diggings"?  No?  Roots Cellar and Der Blumenbaum are already taken.  

I'm sure you can come up with something suitable for us.  Post your answers here in "comments" or send them to publications@smcgs.org.

You wrote the stories!

Thirteen of you - a lucky number - wrote stories about your ancestors and childhood memories.  We heard about churchyard records and DNA surprises, vigilantes and treasured grandparents, moonshiners and sheriffs pursuing them, domestic implements and those who sold them, the Chicago fire and getting lost just walking around the block, traveling on the underground railway, and traveling by roller skate...and trying not to travel at all during a hurricane. 

I hope some more of you will be inspired to write stories of your own to share with family and friends. Or - who knows - publish it and send it out to the world.
Here are the stories:

  

Arden Anderson: A Graveyard Secret
Millie Clough: A Different DNA Surprise
Paul Council: Vigilantes
Marjorie Daehler: One of My Favorite Relative
Judy Darland: Hannah Ellena Hilden
Judy Darland: Everett L. Hobbs
Mike Davis: The Luck of the Draw
Carole Ford: A Tale of a Simple Sewing Needle
Leslie Friedman:  From Galicia to Missouri
John Shellabear Gleed: Grandpa Was There!
Esther Lucas: Look Both Ways
George Miller: Discovering the Path to Freedom
Pamela Lee Wong: skates
Pamela Lee Wong: green
Pamela Lee Wong: hammer
Sally Wood: The Great New England Hurricane of ‘38

Fall Seminar with Diahan Southard

 

SMCGS Fall 2021 Seminar

2021 Fall Seminar -- Making Sense of Your DNA Matches

Presenter: Diahan Southard

Saturday, November 6, 2021, 8:30 am - 1:00 pm (social time 8:30 - 9:00 am)

Via Zoom -- the link will be sent via email to registered participants

Diahan Southard is a well-known speaker on using DNA to help solve genealogical mysteries. She is the author of Your DNA Guide—The Book and producer of Your DNA Guide—The Academy, an online learning experience. In this half-day seminar, she will speak on three intermediate-level DNA topics:

• Three Key DNA Strategies for Finding Ancestors
• My 1000+ DNA 4th Cousins
• Connecting Your DNA Matches
  

An online Silent Auction, with one-year subscriptions to Ancestry World Explorer, Fold3, and Newspapers.com, plus an Ancestry DNA Kit will be part of the Silent Auction. For registrants living in the area, there will be bags of mystery books on a variety of topics for sale. The seminar will be held via the Zoom web conferencing system. Links for the seminar and the Silent Auction will be sent via email to registered participants several days before the seminar.

Pricing is $30 for SMCGS members and $40 for non-members. If you join SMCGS now, you may register for this seminar and next year's seminars at the member rate.

You may register online via our secure payment system or by filling out a paper registration form and mailing it to us. For a seminar flyer, including a mail-in registration form, click here. If you register by mail, please do so by October 22, to make sure we receive your registration in time to send you the links to the seminar and the silent auction.