Santa Clara City Library is a great place to begin working on your family history. The library has a large collection of books and materials that are kept on the 2nd floor of the library in the Heritage Pavilion accessible whenever the library is open. Come in for a tour of the collection and pick up some beginning guides. Try these:Your Living Family Tree by Gordon Burgett or
Secrets of Tracing Your Ancestors by W. Daniel Quillen
Begun more than 50 years ago, the Santa Clara Historical & Genealogical Society works closely with the library in assisting interested family history researchers. They moved their books and resources to this library and continue to purchase books, provide volunteer consultants, and volunteers in many other capacities here. We also have a Local History and Genealogy librarian, Mary Hanel.
Sign up for the free Beginner's Fall Seminars on Saturday, October 10, 2009 from 1-4 p.m. and Saturday, October 17, 2009 from 1-4 p.m. both in the Redwood Room on the1st floor of the library. Register by sending a message to scchgs@hotmail.com or leave a message at (408) 615-2986. There are also sign-up sheets in the Heritage Pavilion
Learn more about researching Civil War ancestors on Saturday, October 24 from 1-4 p.m. in the Redwood Room.
Many digitized records are freely available on government web sites, such as the U.S. Dept. of the Interior's Civil War Soldiers and Sailors database or the U.S. General Land Office records.
posted by mb
