What's Happening at the Sahyun Library?

Fall is bustin' out all over!   Come down, have a look, and smell the roses!  The library is open as usual, even during construction, which you will want to inspect, too.

August Update to Construction

With the beginning of construction looming in a few weeks, small groups of members have been working at the Sahyun Library to clear the Fireside, Family History, and Librarian rooms that will be renovated, and to consolidate patron services in the back of the stack room.  And we’ve been having more fun than a member has the right to have!

            John Fritsche was the big lifter in the first of these work sessions, all coordinated by Jim Friestad.  While Louise Matz and Cari Thomas made boxes, Gary Matz, Art Sylvester, and Jim filled those boxes with periodicals.

John dollied the boxes out to a storage room where he offloaded the dolly and stacked the boxes – about 280 of them!  Jan Cloud and Louise supervised what went into the boxes in the first place.

            In the second session, Bob Lynn was the big lifter, being everywhere to wield a screwdriver, a crowbar, a screwdriver, and then truck disassembled bookcases and tables out to the lath house for storage.  Gary Matz, Art Sylvester, and Jim were also ever present to help him by lifting on the other ends of furniture.  Meanwhile, Cari Thomas, Marj Friestad, Kathie Morgan, and Joan Treloar moved the small stuff, such as drawers, pictures, and the paper cutter, but including the copy machine.  Meanwhile, three rapt patrons were oblivious of this beehive of activity and were busily looking for ancestors on the computers.

            What’s next?  Demolition! as soon as the demolisher returns from his honeymoon in early September.

Jamboree 2010

 

This year's Southern California Genealogical Society's Jamboree was great fun.

Our own Louise, Cheryl, Paul and Jan represented our society in the vendor booth selling used books and Hawaiian shirts. Sunday was Hawaiian Day, so a lot of us wore Hawaiian shirts and leis to honor the occasion.  

Great speakers, great topics, so well organized, amazing, at last count there were 1700 participants!

Love the ribbons, great idea.

Photos by Rosa

Researching at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City

The Society's annual trek this year to Salt Lake City was from May 12 to May 19.  There were 16 of us this year traveling by various means; some came by car, but most of us by plane.  It's only a two-hour flight direct from Santa Barbara on Delta, but it's a two-day drive by car. Plan your trip now for next year's trek, which will be from May 25 returning on June 1, 2011. The following photos were taken by Rosa Avolio and Dorothy Oksner.  

Long corridors of microfilm in drawers are on the second floor for US and Canada, the film numbers for which are on the hundreds of computers on each floor.

Images from the films can be saved to a thumb or flash drive saving printing costs. But printed copies are only 5 cents each. A $3 card can last for several days and you can review the printed hard copies at night more easily than from your thumb drive using your laptop in your hotel room (if you brought your laptop to SLC, that is).

The Sorensen DNA class was among several classes offered. Christie, Marj, Jim and Dorothy learned a little more about DNA.  Patsy attended the Swedish Research classes.  Classes on Wales and Scotland research were offered as well. 

Of course, we had to eat occasionally to maintain stamina, so at lunch time we all walked over to the Office Building cafeteria where we could get a variety of meal selections at half the cost.  On Thursdays they served prime rib, mashed potatoes and gravy with one side dish for $7.  Joanne, Patsy and Mae are enjoying prime rib.  

Walking back to the Library from lunch, Helen got her photo snapped to send to her husband and son.

On Sundays the Library is closed, so in the morning some of us went to the Tabernacle to hear The Spoken Word and the  Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing.  In the afternoon we went shopping in the Gateway Mall several blocks away and near the Union Pacific train station, a well-preserved but empty station.

 

Since the mall wasn't open until noon, we settled for drinks at Starbucks.  Christie, Joanne, Mae and Marj are resting in the shade, and they hadn't even begun to shop!

The fountain in the mall danced up and down to the music, and later children enjoyed playing in the spouting water.

Our hosts and caretakers, Marj and Jim.  We are all looking forward to the next  research trip in May 2011.  Contact Jim for particulars at ronjim@cox.net.

Relaxing in the hotel before the trip home are Christie, Rosa and Kathy.


Leaving for home on the last day. Mary looks too happy.  It's been quite a week.

Ground Breaking at the Sahyun on April 11, 2010

Over   60 members and guests attended the Ground-Breaking event at the Sahyun Library on Sunday, April 11, 2010. Joining in the breaking of ground in   preparation for the construction of a new wing for the  genealogical   library, they took golden shovels in hand and had fun in turning over  the dirt.  A lot of dirt was shoveled! It was even reported in Eastman's newsletter and on edhat.com.

President Art Sylvester and Campaign Co-Chairs Michol Colgan and Jan Cloud turned over the first shovelfuls.

Then our new contractor, Tony Shurer, and our architect, Gary Jensen joined in.

And even more members joined in including major benefactors. The yellow safety helmets made the event even more fun. Oh, watch out.. . . A falling avocado!

A toast was made to the impending construction of the new wing.

 Art Sylvester and and First District Supervisor Salud Carbahal are going to work on Salud's family history.  Salud joined us in this ground-breaking event. 







Cari, Ken Pat and Christie enjoy snacks and champagne. 

Cheryl, Richard and Liz may be expecting rain..





Jim and Michol may be planning a wine tasting event. . . . don't know.

Thelma and Gloria share their interest in family history.

Elaine and Lydie are discussing the intricacies of flower arranging (I'm sure) as Lydie is our expert for our society.

Laura, Marsha and Jim are discussing Jim's Family Tree Maker class. When is he going to teach another one?

Emily, Kathie and Rosa are nursing their champagne.

Inside, Susan greets members and accepts pledges. Good for you, Susan.



Back in the kitchen, Cari cleans up with Marj.  Way to go, gals. Is that bottle empty? Need some help with that?

That's a Wrap! HOW-TO Seminar with 'The Genealogy Guys'

A grand time was had by all at the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society's annual Seminar on Saturday, March 6!

Over 165 attendees enjoyed a variety of topics ranging from "The Genealogist as 'CSI'" to "Where's the Book with My Family in It?", as well as Census Research expert techniques and understanding the family history that resides in our DNA. 

Our Keynote Speaker, esteemed Santa Barbara City College History Professor Emeritus, Dr. Curtis Solberg, started the day off on a touching & personal note as he described his search for Norwegian roots and showed us a film he produced highlighting these Norwegian immigrants to the Midwest.

And did we learn to "Social Network"!

The Podcast Parlour Cafe was abuzz with polka music and images of our ancestors, both on the walls and in a running digital display. 

The Seminar Raffle was a big hit, with the Grand Prize of an Ancestry.com World Deluxe annual subscription won by lucky Claudia C and several other attendees winning prizes such as a Godfrey Library subscription, World Vital Records subscription, discount for Family Tree DNA testing and 1 Hour Consulting with 3 local genealogy experts.

Last minute Book & Sales shopping was greatly enhanced by the live & lively sounds from the jazzy "Newcats" band, from the Santa Barbara Youth Music Academy.

The day ended with the podcast recording of Episode #199 of "The Genealogy Guys" semi-regular weekly radio program.   

The Genealogy Guys Podcast
Episode #198 even gives a preview of the day and a wonderful review of our Sahyun Library by two professionals genealogists who know a great research facility when they see one.

Santa Barbara Genealogy Society Sahyun Library

Thanks to the more than 40 volunteers that made this event such a successful, educational, and fun for all (Flowers by Lydie)! 

(And special thanks to those whose efforts held the rain at bay until the seminar was over.  Whew!)