African American Genealogical Records at the California State Archives
with Guest Speaker Sebastian Nelson
Our next monthly program meeting will be held on Saturday, May 17, 2025. Our featured Guest Speaker will Sebastian Nelson, Archivist, of the California State Archives. Mr. Nelson will discuss the availability of resources at the State Archives for family history research, with a particular focus on African American genealogy.
California’s first legislature, meeting in 1849–50, charged the Secretary of State to receive “…all public records, registered maps, books, papers, rolls, documents and other writings . . . which appertain to or are in any way connected with the political history and past administration of the government of California.” The Act Concerning the Public Archives (Chapter 1, Statutes of 1850 (PDF)) was the first law signed by California’s first governor on January 5, 1850. The California State Archives, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State, continues to serve in the spirit of those early instructions, providing a repository for the state’s permanent governmental records as well as other materials documenting California history. The California State Archives serves a wide variety of researchers whose interests range from legislative intent and public policy to genealogy and railroad history in California. Visit the State Archives “Genealogical Resources” web page here, to learn more about the collection of records available for family history research.
Sebastian Nelson is a member of the Academy of Certified Archivists. He has a Master’s degree in history from the University of Oxford and a Master’s degree in library science from San Jose State University. Sebastian enjoys the bizarre creatures, fanciful monsters and cunning puns that are found in heraldry, and he studied coats of arms as a graduate student in Great Britain.
Please join us at our next monthly meeting!
May 17, 2025 1:30pm to 4:00pm
Virtual Meeting via Zoom
Please verify your Zoom access prior to the meeting. If there are any issues with accessing the meeting, please contact our AAGSNC Webmaster for assistance PRIOR to the meeting. We cannot guarantee availability to assist DURING the meeting. For security reasons, the meeting link should not be shared among members. Thank you.
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