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| James M. Owens |
| James Montgomery Owens (1878-1955) was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi. He served with the 9th Cavalry, Buffalo Soldiers, in the Philippines (1896-1898) during the Spanish-American War. He came to Vallejo in 1903 and became an active member of the community by helping to establish many civic and fraternal orders including Vallejo’s NAACP chapter and Firma Lodge. He was also one of Vallejo’s first African-American building contractors. Photo courtesy of Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum |
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Submitted by Member Laurel Carlson Knapp: My paternal grandfather, Johan Edwin Carlson, was the eldest boy in a family of 11 children consisting of 7 boys and 4 girls. Their parents, Julius & Anna, had been born in Sweden. From left to right, here are the 6 boys (one had died in infancy): Johan Edwin, Joseph Arthur, Paul Ephraim, Frank Benard, Fred Otto, and Nathaniel Tennie, the 10th child. They grew up to be solid citizens of their communities (don't you just know that from seeing this picture?). Their occupations: Ed managed the County Poor Farm, Joe was a mercantile manager, Paul was School Superintendent, Ben was a creamery operator who won prizes for his butter-making, Fred (I believe) was in sales or manufacturing in the Twin Cities, and Tennie was a farmer all his life, having taken over their father's farm after his death. All these boys died of heart conditions, some at an early age; the family came to refer to this phenomenon as "the Carlson heart" and it affected both males and females. Unfortunately, that gene continues today. This photo of the Carlson brothers was taken circa 1908.
Welcome
Build your family tree, research ancestral history, learn search skills, share ideas and tips with like-minded Northern California enthusiasts…
A warm welcome to the Genealogy Society of Vallejo-Benicia! We invite you to be part of our congenial group while we all learn and work together to build our family trees and to remember, research and document our ancestors.
Just as a genealogy research project often starts with a question, so did GSVB start as an organization when the question “Would you teach a genealogy class?” was asked on behalf of the Senior Center in Vallejo. Betty Heryford answered “yes” and began her class in March 1993. From the very beginning, Betty and her 17 students wanted three things. They wanted to have a quiet, set-aside place to meet, to grow into a group that would embrace all levels of experience, ages and family backgrounds, and to start a library to support their research goals.
Their dreams became the foundation of the Genealogy Society of Vallejo-Benicia.
We now hold our monthly meetings in the comfortable, quiet Heritage Chamber at the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum which is welcoming and comfortable for General Meetings, Guest Speaker presentations, and teaching lessons using Power Point and Video. The Museum also provides GSVB members with a central meeting place to carpool for visits and tours of other museums, libraries and historical sites of interest to genealogists.
The original group’s informal meetings at the Senior Center has expanded into a 501c Society which brings together people of diverse family backgrounds, ages, and experience levels interested in researching family history, not only in the United States but throughout the world. Because of the wide ranging interests of our membership, we continue to learn about new search opportunities and techniques, how to use on-line resources and new software packages, and how to benefit from the new world of DNA testing.
The few books collected by the original group has grown to a dedicated Genealogy Library of 2000 publications located in the Museum—and a very helpful Genealogy Library Staffer to help with research. The library collection includes general publications on building family trees and on how to research and document family histories. It also contains a wide-range of individual publications, arranged by state, to help researchers to discover more about their ancestors’ histories and “home place”. In addition to GSVB’s library, the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum maintains a library of California, Solano County, Vallejo, and Benicia military and general histories. Both libraries are very valuable to the family researcher.
we invite you to join with us to search, discover and preserve your family history.
Welcome from the Mistresses of the Web!
We would like to welcome you to the new website of the Genealogy Society of Vallejo-Benicia (GSVB). We are a genealogy society serving the genealogical needs of those who live or are researching in the Vallejo and Benicia areas of Solano County, California.
Like many other genealogy societies, we formerly had a website hosted by rootsweb.com which we lost when rootsweb took down all the websites. Our board members made the decision to start from scratch and build a new website. After looking around at other societies and speaking with board members from the Contra Costa County Genealogical Society (CCCGS.net) which is located nearby, we determined that easynetsites.com was our best option as their websites are designed specifically for genealogical, historical, and family societies. Several GSVB m embers spent the month of August 2018 in training to learn how to create and manage a website for the benefit of our members and the public. In our eagerness to get a website up and running again, we realize that our website is neither perfect nor complete. We ask for your patience as we roll out more features over time. Please do not hesitate to contact us in regards to information that we have not put online yet, but can still obtain for you in the "old-fashioned" way.
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December 5
Pot Luck
It's time for our annual winter holiday pot luck. Please bring (and label if it contains meat, fish, peanuts, etc.) a food for 6-8 people ...
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January 2
YouTube
We will be watching two YouTube videos: Tidying Up Your Genealogy (21 mins) by The Barefoot Genealogist - Crista Cowan Some of the ...
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