Promoting the study of history and genealogy since 1957
Located within the Central Park branch of the Santa Clara Library
Classes, seminars, and consultations are available: See our event calendar for more information
View our large collection of genealogy & local history materials
Welcome to SCCHGS
SCCHGS is proud to provide frequent classes, seminars and speakers on both local history and genealogy topics. Our volunteers offer free consulting and low-cost research services and continue to index local genealogical records not available elsewhere. Please explore this site to see all of these great resources and more.
Our general meetings are held on the third Tuesday of the month. Check below for time, Zoom Meeting particulars, and registration requirements for specific events.
You may have rumors in your family that an aunt was a lesbian or an uncle was bisexual. Perhaps you identify as LGBT and want to know whether any of the relatives who came before you were also. This is valid family history research, but ethical concerns about the past and the present must be considered, and understanding gay history is critical to finding and understanding information. Janice M. Sellers has been researching her family history for almost 45 years. She is now a professional genealogist specializing in Jewish, black, dual citizenship, and newspaper research. She serves on the boards of two genealogical societies and edits a genealogy journal.
Join SCCHGS genealogy consultants for a Genealogy Basics Special Interest Group (SIG). If you are new to genealogy, returning to genealogy or simply want to review the basics, this group is for you.
Our DNASIG is a discussion group that meets to share information and learn from each other. If you have done a DNA test with Ancestry, FTDNA, MyHeritage or 23andMe and would like to learn more about what your results might tell you about your family tree, you are welcome to join us. This is not a class but rather a sharing forum. We combine our genealogy with a pinch of DNA to learn more about how to build our own family trees.
Facilitated by Mary Boyle, this group seeks to learn more about all aspects of Irish genealogy research. This will be unlike other SIGs in its structure around the Family Tree Irish Research Guide by Claire Santry. This book is a very approachable guide to contemporary Irish research. You will be asked to read a chapter a month and encouraged to try out the recommendations on your own ancestors.
We are delighted that Gena has agreed to share with us her extensive knowledge of Cemetery research. For family history researchers, cemeteries hold clues to the lives of our ancestors, but there is more to cemetery research than just finding a death date and a gravestone. Cemeteries and gravestones provide important clues that can be uncovered from their history, location, and engravings. In this presentation, she will discuss the history of cemeteries in the United States and the types of cemeteries that exist. She will help us learn to better examine records documenting death and burials and learn to better interpret all the information we discover in our cemetery research. Gena Philibert-Ortega is the author of Cemeteries of the Eastern Sierra. The Eastern Sierra is a region with a rich cemetery history that includes pioneer, ethnic, and mass burial sites. Her research into these cemeteries included maps, images, original and derivative records, histories as well as onsite research at libraries, archives, museums, and the cemeteries themselves. Gena’s current research includes women’s repatriation and citizenship in the 20th century, foodways and community in fundraising cookbooks, and women's material culture.
Our DNASIG is a discussion group that meets to share information and learn from each other. If you have done a DNA test with Ancestry, FTDNA, MyHeritage or 23andMe and would like to learn more about what your results might tell you about your family tree, you are welcome to join us. This is not a class but rather a sharing forum. We combine our genealogy with a pinch of DNA to learn more about how to build our own family trees.
Facilitated by Mary Boyle, this group seeks to learn more about all aspects of Irish genealogy research. This will be unlike other SIGs in its structure around the Family Tree Irish Research Guide by Claire Santry. This book is a very approachable guide to contemporary Irish research. You will be asked to read a chapter a month and encouraged to try out the recommendations on your own ancestors.
Our DNASIG is a discussion group that meets to share information and learn from each other. If you have done a DNA test with Ancestry, FTDNA, MyHeritage or 23andMe and would like to learn more about what your results might tell you about your family tree, you are welcome to join us. This is not a class but rather a sharing forum. We combine our genealogy with a pinch of DNA to learn more about how to build our own family trees.
SCCHGS is continuing to provide services as best we can during the pandemic closure period. Look for announcements on this page.
Meetings, classes and groups are conducted via Zoom Meeting. The links to each meeting are sent out by email — see the particulars in the announcement details ('More' links).
Our general meetings are held on the third Tuesday of the month. Topics are shown below. These meetings will be held virtually via Zoom for the remainder of 2020. Members will be provided with the meeting link via email. Others should contact the prior to the meeting (until 5 pm the day of the meeting) for the link.
SCCHGS Genealogy Consultants are offering limited consulting services via email and zoom. Send an email to with your question or for more information.
SCCHGS Researchers are also offering limited research services via email. All local repositories and archives are currently closed, but the researchers do have access to some materials. See Research Services or contact for more information.
Special interest groups continue to meet, via Zoom Meeting. Watch for announcements on this page.
Board meetings continue on their normal schedule, via Zoom Meeting. Members may check the Members Area page for more info.
Be safe.
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