Just a quick reminder about the great upcoming educational opportunities at the Southern California Genealogical Society. March 11 Lunch and Learn "A Look at Courthouse Records" March 18 German Research Group "Message Boards and other Computer Generated Oddities" March 19 French Canadian Heritage Society of CA "French Heritage DNA Project" March 26 Kid's Genealogy Camp May 5-6 37th Annual Genealogy Jamboree Lunch and Learn Saturday, March 11 12:00 noon - lunch 1:00 p.m. - learn "A Look at Courthouse Records" with Lois Burlo Free and open to the public Lois will give an excellent overview of the types of records found in one of the most important types of brick-and-mortar record repositories. If you have yet to start looking for the hard-copy records of your ancestors, or if you would like to polish your courthouse research skills, this session is for you. The Courthouse handled all land transactions, the buying and selling of the property and the mortgage, if there was one. Because of the system used in Europe to divide an estate, land ownership was of prime importance from the very first settlement on the continent. Land grants were the big incentive to risk life and limb to cross the ocean. Because these records were more apt to survive, along with the tax records, land records are sometime the only way we can trace our ancestors. The courthouse is also keeper of birth, marriage and death records. When a person died, it provided for the recording of the person's will, which in turn contained the names of the heirs; the property the deceased owned - both land and household possessions, where the land was located and who was to receive it. Witnesses to the will may have been relatives or neighbors. Those are the most obvious of the courthouse records, but that's not all. It is rich in genealogy, if you know where to find it. Lois Burlo is an active member of SCGS and an avid researcher. Originally from Wisconsin, Lois has been interested in family history since she was a child. She loves learning new things about family members and visiting newly discovered cousins. The highlight came last fall when Lois and her brother made a trip to Europe to visit the archives, the churches and villages of their families. ---------------------------------------------- German Interest Group Saturday, March 18 1:00 p.m. - "Message Boards and Other Computer-Generated Oddities" Free and open to the public As a follow-up to the February session on formulating effective queries, this session will review the benefits of posting those queries on online Message Boards. The interest generated by using our computers is beyond the wildest dream of those of us who started years ago. We were lucky if we had family, film and books. Message boards, etc. bring us closer to those who are searching the same places and people. It makes for some exciting discoveries. ----------------------------------------------- French Canadian Heritage Society of California Sunday, March 19 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Doug Miller will give a presentation on the French Heritage DNA Project and demonstrate the project website: home.earthlink.net/~djmill/fcdna.html ----------------------------------------------- Kids' Genealogy Camp Sunday, March 26 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Free and open to the public with preregistration What a great way to introduce your children and grandchildren to genealogy. Join us for our first Kids' Genealogy Camp and help infect the kids with the genealogy bug. The program is aimed at students in grades 4 to 6 and will help the junior genealogists start working on their family trees. The session is free, but advance registration is required so that we can get materials to you before the class. Download the flyer and registration from www.scgsgenealogy.com. Space is limited, so register early. ----------------------------------------------- 37th Annual Genealogy Jamboree & Resource Expo Friday and Saturday, May 5 and 6 More than 45 educational presentations by over 30 genealogy and family history specialists. Open to the public; preregistration requested Early Bird registration before April 1, 2006 Everything you need to know about Jamboree can be found here: http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/2006jam-FAQ.htm ----------------------------------------------- The Library is open to the public for research on: 10:00am - 4:00pm Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays 10:00am - 9:00pm Tuesdays 10:00am - 4:00pm on third and fourth Saturdays 10:00am - 4:00pm on first and second Sundays Closed Mondays Activities held at the Southern California Genealogical Society 417 Irving Drive Burbank, California 91504-2408 phone: 818-843-7247 email: scgs@scgsgenealogy.com web: www.scgsgenealogy.com