This Week's Meeting: SJGS Hosts California Genealogical Society President

Thursday, September 17, 2015

5:45 p.m.

Margaret Troke Library

502 West Benjamin Holt Drive, Stockton

   
"The California Genealogical Society and Library:
Connecting People to Their Diverse Family Heritage"

Presenter: Linda Harms Okazaki, M.A.

As genealogists, we begin by researching our own roots, following our family back to origins in other states and perhaps even other countries whose ethnic customs we've celebrated all our life. But then, perhaps a marriage introduces an entirely new culture—and a different direction for our family history research. Enter a new learning curve as we start to familiarize ourselves with names and places not part of our own heritage.

No matter which countries of origin you've added to the patchwork quilt of your family heritage, you will be interested to hear the experience of this month's guest speaker at our monthly membership meeting.

With one speaker, we offer a double feature. Linda Okazaki, president of the California Genealogical Society and Library, will share with us the scope of services available through CGS and the holdings that can be found at the CGS Library in Oakland.

In addition, because of the diversity of the state of California and the fact that our ancestors came from so many different places, our speaker is passionate about encouraging people to avail themselves of the specialized resources of many different genealogical societies, and will share some of these other useful resources with us in her presentation this coming Thursday evening.

As an example of mounting that learning curve in researching family roots from unfamiliar regions, Linda will delve into her own family's experience—in particular, discussing how she researched her husband's Japanese roots.

Linda Okazaki is a fourth generation San Franciscan whose interest in genealogy began as a hobby but has since grown to a professional quest. Linda is a member of APG, the Genealogical Speakers Guild and DAR. A graduate of NIGR, ProGen and several other genealogical institutes, Linda is passionate about researching, documenting, teaching and sharing the stories of Japanese Americans. We are honored to have her as our guest speaker for this first meeting of our fall season.