Tombstone Tuesday

This is the headstone for my Great-Grandfather John J. HALL.  It's located in Tulocay Cemetery, Napa, California.  He was born in Starksville, Herkimer County, New York.  He traveled to California via the Winged Racer, a Clipper Ship of about 1700 tons, with his mother and three of his seven siblings.  The 108 day voyage began 11 Dec1852 in New York Harbor, Sacramento bound with 12 passengers and crew.  The five family members reunited with the rest of the family in Sacramento, California.  He married Caroline GUERIN on 16 Feb 1873 and they soon moved to Eureka, Eureka County, Nevada.  In about 1890, John, Caroline and their children then moved to Napa, Napa County, California, where John passed away in 1923. Contributed by Diane Maltase, Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society member .

Please participate in Tombstone Tuesday. Send a photo of your ancestor's tombstone with a short description of the person or image to rootcellarsgs@gmail.com.

Mapping Monday



Credit: NOAA Civil War Logo

 The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Office of Coast Survey has provided another resource for researching your ancestor's Civil War history.  The collection, released last year, includes maps, charts and documents.  I was not aware of this resource until I read about it here: NOAA Unveils Special Collection of Civil War Maps and Nautical Charts - Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter.

If you find information in the NOAA collection, please send a message to rootcellarsgs@gmail.com.  We would like to share it with other readers of this blog.

Attibution: Daily blogging theme from Geneabloggers

From the In-box: How to Find an Old Book - Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

The article link below from Dick Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter (EOGN) reminds me of the brickwall segment of our workshops held every third Wednesday of the month for members and guests of Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society. A reader of the EOGN asked for help in locating an old book after he thought he had exhausted all known sources. Dick tossed the inquiry to his readers and received many comments some of which may be helpful to you.

See the full article:
From the In-box: How to Find an Old Book - Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Wordless Wednesday

Genealogy Jamboree Blog: WIN - Tell us Your Favorite Feature of the App

Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society will be represented once again at the Genealogy Jamboree sponsored by the Southern California Genealogical Society in Burbank, California on June 10-12. We look forward to this event every year. This year the Jamboree has gone real techie and we love it! The Jamboree App is a winner. It has the speakers, exhibitors, map, schedule and...


...Our favorite feature: the calendar. We just review the lecture sessions including breakfasts and banquets, decide if that's one we want to attend, click on the star and Voila!, the session is added to our personal calendar. Going from session to session will be so easy this year. Way Cool! And yes, we would like to win the Favorite Feature Contest!


Genealogy Jamboree Blog: WIN - Tell us Your Favorite Feature of the App


Read the Jamboree blog post about the app.

Legislative Alert: Vital Records

The Legislative Watch Chairperson of the California State Genealogical Alliance (CSGA) sent the following alert:

Assemblymember Gordon has introduced AB 1053 which has been referred to the Committee on Appropriations. Hearing will held on Wednesday, May 18th.

This bill would raise the basic fee for certified copies of vital records by $9 from the current $3. In other words, $9 will be added to the current fee for vital records. Example: If a county currently charges $19 for a birth record, the new fee would be $28. This is an enormous increase!

For questions regarding various fee elements being charged for vital record copies, please reference the pie chart in the 2011 Jan-Feb CSGA newsletter (member login required). The basic fee is being increased and added to other surcharges and program fees.

This increase would affect all vital records regardless of when the records were created. It is unfortunate that the increase would also apply to records created prior to 1906.

The full text of the bill is here.  The pertinent bill text is in Section 5. Use your computer's "find" function to search for "SEC. 5" without quotes.   The list State Assembly Appropriations Committee members is here.  The roster of State Assembly Members is here.

Today and tomorrow [May 16-17], you may wish to contact your Assemblymember, Assemblymember Gordon, or members of the Committee to object to this proposed fee increase as 'unreasonable' before it goes to committee on Wednesday.

Tombstone Tuesday

If you wish to participate in Tombstone Tuesday, send us a photo of an ancestor's tombstone with a short description of the person or image.

This is the tombstone of my great great grandfather William Babcock, b. 9 Dec 1831 in Brokenstraw, Warren, Pennsylvania and d. 24 March 1905 in Colorado Springs, El Paso, Colorado. His wife Emily died in Colorado Springs 2 Apr 1905. William served during the Civil War in Company A, Michigan 8th Infantry Regiment."