Welcome to the SRGCouncil Website

Your Gateway to Area Genealogy Societies

The SRGCouncil is a group of Northern California organizations that provide information and/or resources to assist people searching for family history information. These groups include genealogical and historical organizations and libraries.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

This is the SRGCouncil's new website:

• Is useable on small devices like smart-phones.
• Uses up-to-date web technology.
• Expect exciting new features to be added.

The National Archives at San Francisco will be closing:

• The National Archives at San Francisco is scheduled to be closed within a few years. Holdings will be moved to five other archives starting in late Oct. 2026. The California Attorney General filed a lawsuit to prevent that closing based on the local community not being consulted (at best a delay). Indian tribes also filed a lawsuit.
• If you or your society wish to object to the closing, send email to ArchivistOfTheUnitedStates@nara.gov.
• Or for a bigger impact, mail a letter to Bradford P. Wilson, Archivist of the United States, National Archives and Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001.
• You should address the importance of preserving local access, impact on the community, expense and difficulty of traveling great distances and conclude with a request to cancel or delay the closure.

Join SRGC

• Joining SRGC is your first step towards becoming visible to the area's genealogical community and connecting with other societies.
• Become more visible by being profiled on the SRGC website, which is increasingly becoming a known by both the media and the public as the gateway to area societies.
• Connect with other societies at the quarterly membership meetings on Zoom. Watch the SRGC website for opportunities to the genealogical community at the national and even worldwide level (e.g., conferences that allow participation by small societies).

Be Visible

• Don't reply on people somehow being able to find you. Become visible. Start by joining SRGC so you will appear on their website.
• Staff informational tables at both genealogical and community events. Don't restrict yourself to just insider local genealogy events. Get public exposure.
• Promote your group by providing a speaker at conferences.
• Focus not just on recruiting new members, but also on getting the public interested in genealogy and preserving the past. Public interest leads to members which lead to additional volunteers.
• Use ConferenceKeeper. to attract public attention to your meetings and events.
• Create badges for your members to create a sort of espirit de corps.

Connect

• Connect with other local genealogical societies at SRGC membership meetings. Learn what works and what does not work. Improve your process.
• Establish relationships with other societies that could lead to joint meetings and other activities.
• Partner with local libraries and other institutions. E.g., provide personal help by your volunteers to help people at libraries. They will be appreciative and will sometimes profile you in their websites.
• Become active an active participant in local area genealogical conferences, events and projects. E.g., organizing the next Family History Day. SRGC typically takes the lead but needs help from other groups.
• Take this to the next level by joining the National Genealogical Society (NGS).