Castro Valley Library Genealogy Study Group

Our Study Group is on hiatus. As of June, 2026 we are reorganizing due to leader Wayne Ainsworth's retirement. He led the group continuously from 2018 - 2026. All of the Class Notes with many genealogical resources that he contributed are available. We are indebted to his tireless pursuit of new genealogy resources and thank him so much!

Our May 6, 2026 meeting was a tour of the Oakland FamilySearch Center on May 6, 2026, organized by Wayne Ainsworth and conducted by Rudy Wolf. It's quite the place to learn about your genealogy. They have a media center where media (books, photos, video and audio can be digitized). Explore their website.

At the January 21st session we learned about a new FamilySearch feature, Family Groups in the Family Tree Menu. This allows families to share information with each other about living relatives, but keep it private. It's explained in these two videos 6 Minutes 23 Seconds and 46 minutes 40 seconds.

At the August 7th, 2024 session, we tried writing a letter to a DNA match wanting to encourage a response using a prompt with https://perplexity.ai.

If you haven't tried it, the Full Text Search feature of FamilySearch is in the Search Menu, is amazing. There are over 6,600 collections already with billions of microfilm images full-text searchable. See for yourself.

If you don't see the latest class notes, please refresh your internet browser. The site is updated twice/month.

Here are some Descendancy Research Tips from an April 2024, Denise Plaskett handout at a recent Oakland FamilySearch Library presentation.

On January 4, 2018, Wayne Ainsworth supplied a new version of his Genealogy Toolbox with an updated genealogy blog section.

Some links in our class notes may not work, since they point to the Rootsweb.com web site (now owned by Ancestry.com) with much of their content frozen or taken down.

A Facebook Page was created at https://www.facebook.com/cacvgg/. If you "Like" the page your Facebook feed will be notified with updates. We created it during a class to show how easy it is to create your own Facebook page.

If you are looking for help with your family history research or just the companionship of others with the genealogy bug, please come join us! It's FREE! Check our Class Notes for handouts from past meetings. Pat from the class, suggested a web site for occupation abbreviations. This and more were added to our Class Notes page

Each meeting will feature a presentation by our experienced docents or a guest speaker. There will also be time for research and Q &A using the Windows laptops we provide.

• Beginning or experienced genealogists are welcome.
• Use a library Windows laptop or bring your own.
• Meets the 1st and 3rd Wednesday monthly from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm. (except when the schedule changes are requred by holidays and other events).

There are a couple of favorite web pages... A DNA Centimorgan Chart to help determine closeness of DNA matces and a 2nd Cousins Chart to make cousin relationships understandable.

A couple of paths to genealogy information at the library:

• https://aclibrary.org/resources/history-biography-genealogy/
• https://aclibrary.org/?origin=user-query&post_type=&s=genealogy

When visiting the library, please utilize the Genealogy eResources. At that web page, with your Alameda County Library Card, you may log into the commercial genealogy websites, Ancestry Library Edition, MyHeritage or HeritageHub. Explanations of each site are provided.

Some additional (free) Sites to use are::

• Cyndi's List
• FamilySearch
• Findagrave
• Rootsweb
• USGenweb
• WorldGenWeb

Contact: Castro Valley Library (510) 667-7900. Registration for the class is suggested.

Location: CASTRO VALLEY BRANCH
3600 Norbridge Avenue, Castro Valley, CA 94546

Most recently updated May 7, 2026