Submitted by Member Deborah Tucker:
The girl on the right is my 1st cousin 2x removed, Hazel Estelle Lack. Born on February 1st, 1896 in Shingletown, California, Hazel at the age of 16 was in love and decided to elope with her boyfriend, Jesse Porter (who was under 21) to Oregon. In California, parental consent for marriage was required at that age. It made for great newspaper stories. Young girl runs off to elope. She changes her mind and ends up with family in Oregon. Father brings her back from Oregon. The families point fingers at each other and want everyone arrested. What a scandal! But all’s well that ends well. The family decided it was time to marry Hazel off. So with their consent, a few months later Hazel married Earl Clifton Woodbury, age 19, in Red Bluff. Happy ending, right? Well, not really ... there would be several more marriages, name changes, and death at the relatively young age of 43.
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 (GSVB)! 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 level 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 of 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, or our meetings are held online via the Zoom platform. 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 have 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 interest 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. Beginning Saturday, January 7th, 2023, the Genealogy Society of Vallejo-Benicia Reference Library will be open additional days and hours.
The new days and hours are:
Every Tuesday: 1:00 - 3:30 pm
1st and 3rd Saturdays: Noon - 3:30 pm
2nd Thursday of the month: Noon - 3:30 pm
Our library is located on the 2nd floor of the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum at 734 Marin Street in Vallejo, California. Our librarian will be there to help with your research. In addition to numerous genealogical publications, Ancestry.com, Newspapers.com, and Fold3 are available for your use.
We invite you to join with us to search, discover and preserve your family history.
NEW: Some of our meetings are in person and some are on Zoom. Please check listings carefully to determine which is the case for each meeting. In-person meetings will not be zoomed or recorded. All times given for events are Pacific Time (either daylight or standard, depending on the time of year).
Welcome from the Web-Managers!
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Summer 2025
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| Life is a balancing act and the same is true for genealogy. It is summer, the kids are getting out of school, and maybe you are thinking of taking a road trip to explore your roots in person as I recently did. I put it off for years because I felt I wasn't fully prepared ... I had not sifted through and gleaned the information from every online source out there. I hadn't extended my father's paternal side of the tree as far as I could in all directions. But eventually I came to the conclusion that I will NEVER be fully prepared! And while sitting at a computer looking at online sources is easy enough, tromping through cemeteries built on uneven hillsides with thigh-high weeds is not. So getting out there while you still can is important. The preparations you need to make may not be the ones you expect. Such as: if you are in the hills and backwoods of Virginia, there is no GPS! Know where you are going and how to get back out again ... without GPS and without good signage. Burials were often in family plots on private land. Try to find the owner and get permission to cross the land to access the cemetery. There are often locked gates and no trespassing signs in your way. In Virginia at least, you have rights especially if it is your family that is buried there. "Owners of private property on which a cemetery or graves are located shall have a duty to allow ingress and egress to the cemetery or graves by (i) family members and descendants of deceased persons buried there; (ii) any cemetery plot owner; (iii) any person engaging in genealogy research, who has given reasonable notice to the owner of record or to the occupant of the property or both. The landowner may designate the frequency of access, hours and duration of the access and the access route if no traditional access route is obviously visible by view of the property." Oh, and carry a can of strong insect repellant and either high boots and/or tape (sticky side out) where your pants and shoes/boots meet. Remember that there is nothing like seeing the land from which your ancestors hailed IN PERSON in order to get a real feel of your roots. So get out there! |
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