All posts by Kim Cotton

About Kim Cotton

Professional Genealogist, specializing in 19th & 20th Century U.S. records, particularly California & Connecticut, with a dash of North Western Mexico.

APG Field Trip – University of Pacific Special Collections

Repositories, , ,

Even though I have yet to actually apply for membership to the Association of Professional Genealogists, I took an opportunity yesterday to go with the APG Northern California chapter on a field trip east to Stockton.

Stockton has never been high on my list of places to visit. I grew up in the Central Valley so most Central Valley towns/cities remind me of why I moved to the Bay Area. I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived on campus. In the crisp, unseasonably sunny day, the buildings looked downright quaint, and I was struck by how much more historic the campus appeared than anything where I grew up. Continue reading APG Field Trip – University of Pacific Special Collections →

New Year Goals: 2012

Planning

Amy Coffin over at WeTree Genealogy Blog and Denise Levenick at The Family Curator outlined goals for themselves for 2011 and each recently posted their year-end progress reports.  The idea seems to have caught on in the geneablogging community and for good reason.

I’ve never been one for New Years Resolutions.  All the important changes I’d ever want to make would be lifestyle changes which are more likely to stick when done gradually and thoughtfully.  Plus, it doesn’t take a statistician to see that the gym is always a madhouse the month of January but by February, most of those people have abandoned their own resolutions and you can hear crickets in the cardio room.  An arbitrary start date of 1 Jan seems doomed to failure.

But a goal for a New Year seems like a different beast.  Continue reading New Year Goals: 2012 →

Members Meeting at CGS

Societies

Disclosure:  I am a volunteer and general cheerleader for the California Genealogical Society but am not an official blogger for the society. This post tries to be a balanced account of the meeting, and I try to mention any of my bias.

The Membership Meeting at California Genealogical Society just concluded, here at the library in Downtown Oakland.  These meetings happen every couple of months and are always a great opportunity to meet new and existing members, hear about what’s going on in various committees and find out what’s going on in the coming months.

This month had a special feature: “Members Speak, CGS Listens.”  It was an opportunity to brainstorm Continue reading Members Meeting at CGS →