Tuesday, December 29, 2015


January 2, 2016
IOOF Hall,  520 Dana Street 
San Luis Obispo  
Session 1 begins at 12:15                  Session 2 begins at 1:45

Session 1: The Hidden World of Facebook Groups for Genealogists: Finding Groups to Help Your Research by Mary Adler Hansen.
Want a document translated? Have a question about Grandma’s hometown? Need someone to identify the weird object on Uncle Ron’s desk? Join a group on Facebook and find your answer! Learn how to access the hidden world of Facebook genealogy groups!
Mary Hansen is a native of San Luis Obispo who has been researching her family tree for over a decade. She enjoys connecting with family and finding cousins through Facebook. She receives notifications from several major genealogy sites on a daily basis, which helps her stay on top of what classes are offered online, and the latest news in the genealogy world. Mary is the Social Media Chair for our society.

Nancy Loe
Session 2:   Managing Your Digital Research by Nancy Loe. 
Lost in a sea of digital files and paper? Can’t find the records you know you have? Searching for a better way to organize your work? This presentation uses the techniques and principles of professional archivists to organize your genealogical research. Topics covered include using controlled vocabulary to organize and retrieve your records, file-naming conventions for scanned documents and downloads; file folder structure; and authority files. More info: http://slocgs.org/#jan2016
Nancy Loe is a professional archivist, librarian, and genealogist, with master's degrees in American History and in Library Science. She was director of special collections and archives at Cal Poly for nearly three decades. Nancy has appeared on PBS's "American Experience" and "California Gold," and at Rootstech and the SoCal Jamboree. Her website, Sassyjanegenealogy.com, was featured in the Jan-Feb 2014 of  Family Tree Magazine's “Social Media Mavericks: 40 to Follow.”


Coming up on February 6, 2016:
Session 1: Dating Photographs by Eva Ulz, Curator of the SLO History Center. 

Session 2: Hidden legacies: Rescuing the past of two San Luis Obispo’s pioneer families who ‘vanished’ from our region by Dan Krieger. 

Wednesday, November 4, 2015


Saturday, November 7, 2015

IOOF Hall, 520 Dana Street, San Luis Obispo  
Session 1 begins at 12:15                  Session 2 begins at 1:45
Session 1: Rapid Fire Genealogy by Cafi Cohen and others.

Bring your questions to our first Rapid Fire Session. Write a genealogy-related question on a piece of paper to be placed in a drawing box. Questions may relate to a specific ancestor or be more general in nature. Questions will be addressed, first by the audience, next by moderator(s), accessing the expertise of everyone in the room. 
You will go home with new techniques and resources to build your family tree. 
Any topic welcome! Examples: immigrant origins, Chicago research, locating vital records, DNA testing, censuses, best subscription websites, German research, computer programs, genealogy education, online family trees, free genealogy online, local resources, and so on. 
Attend either Group I (for novices and intermediate researchers) or Group II (for advanced researches, defined as those who can list the elements of the Genealogical Proof Standard and who have written at least one source-cited narrative). 


Session 2: Publish Before You Perish by Janet Solverson Thatcher. 

In academia, aspiring professors must "publish or perish" if they hope to advance to full professor status. Family historians must think of ways to be certain their "finds" and the conclusions they've reached about their family ancestry will live beyond them. Janet will give us all ideas for different ways to go about this.

Janet Solverson Thatcher has been researching and writing about her family for twelve years. She is a member of San Luis Obispo County Genealogical Society and an Emeritus Professor of Finance at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. 

See you on January 2, 2016 at our next monthly meeting! 

Session 1: The Hidden World of Facebook Groups for Genealogists: Finding Groups to Help Your Research by Mary Adler Hansen

Session 2:   Managing Your Digital Research by Nancy Loe. 

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

                                           Saturday May 2, 2015
                                     IOOF Hall, 520 Dana Street, San Luis Obispo       
                                         Session 1 begins at 12:15                  Session 2 begins at 1:45

             Lisa Lee, Professional Genealogist
Session 1: Why You’re Probably Missing a Mother Lode of Information From City Directories and How To Turn it Around and Strike Gold 


Session 2: Three Common Dangers Family Historians Face That Cause Them to Struggle With Online Research – And How to Overcome These Forever  

Lisa B. Lee, professional genealogist, is owner of GotGenealogy.com, a Web site designed to help genealogists make the most of their online searches. A graduate of the National Institute for Genealogical Studies (University of Toronto), she obtained her PLCGS with certificates in U.S., Canadian and Irish genealogy and methodology. Ms. Lee publishes monthly newsletter, the Got Genealogy Gazette, which is chock full of ways you can make the most of your online family research. She invites you to check out her Web site, GotGenealogy.com, and join her on FaceBook at www.facebook.com/got.genealogy. She may be contacted at Lisa@GotGenealogy.com 


For more information about Lisa Lee, see our website at : http://slocgs.org/index.html#may2015

© San Luis Obispo County Genealogical Society