Last Saturday the CGS Board held its monthly meeting online (as we have done since the pandemic began). Besides discussing business, we took time to honor this year’s recipients of the “Genie” Award, bestowed annually on Volunteers who have gone above and beyond in their service to the society.

As Chris Pattillo shared last fall, the Website Content Committee has undertaken the huge task of enlarging our California Surnames Index. A team of volunteers has been going through our large book collection, identifying family names, and entering them into a searchable database. The process involves carefully going through each book, and volunteers have spent many hours on this rewarding but sometimes tedious task. Some of our volunteers have contributed literally thousands of entries. Volunteer Committee chair Kathleen Beitiks presented the Genie Award to our three top indexers: Jean Alderson, who has indexed 10 books; Liz Summerhayes, who has done 12; and Kristi Wessenberg, who finished 13 books! They, along with the other indexing volunteers, have our immense gratitude and appreciation.

We missed the festive atmosphere (and goodies!) that usually characterize this member meeting. The good news is that we are cautiously moving back to in-person gatherings: we expect to host several hybrid events beginning in June, and we certainly hope we’ll be seeing one another in person again before too long.

The post 2022 Genie Awards! first appeared on California Genealogical Society.