Genealogy Research Tips and
Sahyun Library Updates

Did you miss our recent private tour of the Santa Barbara Mission Archive-Library? If so, there’s good news. The Archive-Library is hosting a free Open House on the first Saturday of each month, where you can see several artifacts, books, and artwork from their collection, and learn more from knowledgeable folks about the Archive-Library.  The

With our next monthly meeting coming up, we wanted to take a moment to remind everyone about our Zoom attendance policy. When registering and joining any of our Zoom events, please use an identifiable name — preferably your full name. This applies to all public meetings and classes. Why does this matter? Two reasons: Security.

Join American Ancestors on May 18th to hear from acclaimed historian W. Fitzhugh Brundage as he discusses his book, A Fate Worse than Hell, his harrowing new history of Civil War prisoner-of-war camps, North and South. The most comprehensive work to date on the lives of America’s prisoners during the Civil War is based on

The May issue of our monthly Tree Tips newsletter is available to read here.

If you’ve been missing our Genealogy 101 class, The Essential Skills for New Genealogists webinar series offered through Legacy Family Tree Webinars may be just what you’re looking for! Dr. David Mc Donald offers a foundational roadmap for anyone looking to grow from a casual collector of names into a disciplined and effective family historian. This

“The California State Library has recently digitized a collection of historical periodicals from 21 California correctional institutions, published between 1915 and 1991. The full collection is now available online through the State Library’s catalog. “This collection of prison press periodicals was written and produced by incarcerated individuals in California state prisons between 1915 and 1991.

MyHeritage announced they “have completed the publication of the Sweden Births, Marriages, and Deaths collections, spanning 1850 to 1945 (1920 for births). Together, these collections include more than 33 million historical records drawn from Sweden’s Lutheran Church books.” Sweden Births, 1850–1920 Sweden Marriages, 1850–1945 Sweden Deaths, 1850–1945 MyHeritage is a premium subscription site available at

I recently attended a webinar on how to find funeral home records for our ancestors. The presenter listed many different archives and online resources to find these records and more. Since we are a genealogical library and not an archive researchers may not find our records very easily. SBCGS volunteers have been working with local

If you have RootsTech playlists with unwatched videos and handouts before 2024, now’s the time to get busy watching them. FamilySearch.org has announced that it will no longer retain presentation recordings and handouts older than 3 years. Use this link and select the Year dropdown menu to catch up on previous years’ recordings before they disappear

Have you been using FamilySearch.org’s Full-Text Search tool from home? You might be surprised to learn that you’re likely missing important records—and there’s no way to know it from your computer. Understanding FamilySearch Access Levels Most genealogists are familiar with FamilySearch’s restrictions on some indexed records. When searching indexed collections, you’ll sometimes encounter records marked

Special Invitation to SBCGS (& guests) from San Luis Obispo Genealogical Society IN PERSON ONLY February 18, 2026 2:00 – 5:00 pm IOOF Hall 520 Dana St., San Luis Obispo Google Maps “Family Tree Maker* staff will be visiting genealogy societies and Family Tree Maker User Groups across the state to host hands-on training sessions

Nathan Dylan Goodwin’s novel The Chester Creek Murders is available free today as a Kindle download. The story follows a detective who teams up with a genealogist to solve a decades-old serial killer case using cutting-edge DNA analysis. You can download the book for free today here. Nathan is known for blending genealogy research into

“While many women trade surnames they had at birth for their husbands’, some hold on tightly to the former, a tradition famously established by Lucy Stone, who decreed, ‘A wife should no more take her husband’s name than he should hers. My name is my identity and must not be lost.’ “ Read more about

If you will be seeing family during this holiday season, consider interviewing them to add context and richness to all those dates and documents. Ask three questions: ✨ Prompt ideas: “What’s something your family always did growing up?” “Who influenced you most?” “What’s a memory you never want to forget?” You will thank yourself for this! 

If you have ancestors that resided in New Netherland (New York) prior to 1664 then you should look at this project. They can say it better than I can: The NYG&B’s New Netherland Settlers initiative is a groundbreaking, multiyear project to develop detailed, peer-reviewed sketches of all the people residing in New Netherland prior to

The Census Tree website describes this innovative and interactive tool far better than I can. Here is their description. “This Census Tree is the largest-ever database of record links among the historical U.S. censuses, with over 700 million links for people living in the United States between 1850 and 1940. The Census Tree includes 314

The following excerpt is from Steve Little’s blog post dated November 7, 2025. “As I noted in my June blog post: ‘The man on the left is my grandfather; the man on the right is not.’ “The AI didn’t repair or “restore” the original. It learned from the “seed” image and generated a new, convincing-but-fake

Fold3 is providing free access to more than 350 million select WW I and WW II records to honor the veterans whose service changed history.  Popular collections include:  Morning Reports 1912‑1939 Draft Registration Cards 1917‑1918 National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866‑1938 WWII Enlistment Records, 1938‑1946  Missing Air Crew Reports, 1942‑1947 Search them here. Access