On saturday, 16 Oct 2010, I spoke at the 30th Anniversary of KIN-DIG, the annual workshop of the Antelope Valley CA Genealogical Society.\u00a0 Also speaking was Kerry Bartels, archivist of the National Archives Pacific Region, at Perris, Riverside County\u00a0CA.<\/p>\n
What an amazing event!\u00a0 With anniversary cake.\u00a0 And a room-full of genealogy vendors.\u00a0 And a sell-out crowd of eager genealogtists\u00a0who had come to learn what is new and exciting in genealogy–I spoke on using American Court Records and How to Find “Lost” Records.<\/p>\n
And learn they did!\u00a0 Even me!\u00a0 We all got a walk-through on the National Archives website:\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/archives.gov\/pacific<\/a><\/p>\n This new research facility holds the records that were formerly at Laguna Niguel.\u00a0 It took 4 moving vans 4 months to transfer the Pacific Region’s share of more than 10 billion paper records and 30 billion electronic records held and preserved by the National Archives.\u00a0 Arizona, Southern California, Clark County Nevada, Hawaii, Guam, and American Samoa are part of the Pacific Region.\u00a0 Archivist Bartels taught us how to find records online for individuals from Record Groups,\u00a0sub-Groups, and\u00a0Records Series using finding aids and indexes prepared by archivists.<\/p>\n You see, it is a matter of jurisdiction<\/span> and provenance<\/span>.\u00a0 Jurisdiction is the government authority and the provenance is the specific agency or government entity that creates the records.\u00a0<\/p>\n You are back to using finding aids and indexes first, then checking specific record groups and series for other record catagories that also list your ancestor and describe his activities.\u00a0 I do recommend that if you are lucky enough to live within the Pacific Region, that you visit the new\u00a0National Archives branch at 23123 Cajalco Road, Perris CA 92570.\u00a0<\/p>\n Whether you live there or not, I suggest\u00a0you request a copy of Kerry Bartels\u00a0instructive handout, with examples,\u00a0for searching the website:\u00a0 http:\/\/archives.gov\/pacific<\/a>.\u00a0 Step-by-step directions in this handout will walk you through\u00a0 the site layer-by-layer.\u00a0 What could be difficult gets an “easy’ button.\u00a0 Your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/arleneeakle.com<\/a><\/p>\n PS\u00a0 I printed the entire guide to the Archival Holdings at Riverside CA so I could study it carefully and work my way around the website in preparation for my own visit to the facility.\u00a0 I went to Laguna Niguel to search several times and felt well rewarded.\u00a0 The volume of records available to search now is so much greater.\u00a0 What an exciting thing to look forward to!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On saturday, 16 Oct 2010, I spoke at the 30th Anniversary of KIN-DIG, the annual workshop of the Antelope Valley CA Genealogical Society.\u00a0 Also speaking was Kerry Bartels, archivist of the National Archives Pacific Region, at Perris, Riverside County\u00a0CA. What … Continue reading \n