Genealogy Club
All residents are invited to attend the Genealogy Club’s monthly general meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 10 a.m. in Clubhouse 3, Room 9. Coffee time starts at 9:30. Christine Cohen will present “Homesteading: Land for All.” Homestead application packets from 1862-1934 are great sources of genealogical information. These applications list family members and statements from neighbors, plus notations of previous residences. They also include pages from the family Bible, birth, marriage or death certificates, plus newspaper clippings and witness affidavits. Union Civil War Veterans had to provide proof of military service, and immigrants had to provide naturalization documents.
Cohen is a longtime member of the Whittier Area Genealogical Society (WAGS) and is currently the program director. She is also a member of the Tualatin Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Society of Daughters of Holland Dames, and the Association of Professional Genealogists. Her interest in genealogy began in 1977 with the airing of the TV mini-series “Roots.” Her enthusiasm was piqued when she was given a typed pedigree chart, commissioned by her maternal grandfather, of Dutch heritage from the New Netherlands in the 1650s. She is a native Californian, a graduate of UCLA in political science, and recently retired to pursue her genealogy interest full-time.
Club dues are $15 for the year. Membership gives people access to the Genealogy Library, where they can use paid online subscriptions of Ancestry, Fold3 and Newspapers (publisher edition). Renewal sheets are in the library. Fill one out and include it with a dues payment.
The club holds Theme Thursdays from 1:30-2 p.m. in the Genealogy Library, which consist of mini learning sessions or discussions on genealogical topics. The topic for today, Feb. 19, is Rootstech 2026. The Feb. 26 topic is using Artifical Intelligence for genealogy.
The Genealogy Library is open Monday-Friday from 1-4 p.m.; Saturday from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.; closed Sunday. To volunteer, call 714-390-4213 or email lisnhow@gmail.com.
