Castro Valley Genealogy Study Group

01/22/2026

At our January, 2026 meeting, we introduced the latest feature of Familysearch.org, "Family Groups" (in the FamilyTree menu of FS). This allows families to confidentially review and share information about living people. Only people in the group can see the living people they create.

Become a part of the best ancestry website community through FamilySearch, and discover how our free Family Trees and records can help you uncover your past.

10/29/2025

Our group continues, led by Wayne Ainsworth, usually twice a month on the 1st and third Wednesdays, 10:30am at the Castro Valley, California Library. See our website https://cacvgg.wdgeo.com where class notes are posted before each session. And, it's free.

Our next class will be held on Wednesday October 18, 2023, 10:30am at the Castro Valley Library, 3600 Norbridge Avenue, Castro Valley, CA 94546

10/04/2023

We had our first Study Group meeting at the Castro Valley Library this morning. Fourteen people in attendance. We covered a lot of topics, most genealogy programs, and top family tree sites. Much discussion about the free https://familysearch.org site with an over a billion person family tree and billions of online records. Also gave suggestions on finding specific information, highlighting newspaper articles that can be quite revealing. Try our website https://cacvgg.wdgeo.com with class notes and upcoming Study Group sessions.

09/21/2023

If you are looking for help with your family history research or just the companionship of others with the genealogy bug, please join us! The group meets from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm the 1st & 3rd Wednesdays of each month. There is no fee, no registration, and it is open to anyone.

Each meeting will feature a short presentation by our experienced docent or a guest speaker with plenty of time for research and questions - and it's FREE!

Register to receive reminders of upcoming meetings at www.aclibrary.org/branches/csv (click on Events), but attend only when you'd like!

The Castro Valley Library is a branch of the Alameda County Library system. The Library is located at 3600 Norbridge Avenue, and is wheel chair accessible. For more information, call the Library at 510-667-7903, or see Events at www.aclibrary.org/branches/csv.

Closed until 10:00am today …

04/20/2018

This page for the Alameda County Library, Castro Valley Genealogy Group was actually created to show how easy it is to set up a page. I'm listing the URL for our group's website, http://cacvgg.wdgeo.com. Please notify the Library and attend one of our twice-monthly meetings. We cover a range of topics and you will learn something every session. 10:30-12:30am, First and third Wednesdays.

08/29/2017

Please check out our web site at http://rootsweb.com/~cacvgg. We occasionally post "Class Notes" with links from our class and from attendees. The latest being an August update of Wayne Ainsworth's Genealogy Toolbox. It's an Excel workbook, a free download, that you can continue to update with your favorite genealogy tool web sites.

If you are looking for help with your family history research or just the companionship of others with the genealogy bug, please come join us! It's FREE!

07/05/2017

Among other topics, we will cover a couple FamilySearch items. (1) Searching FamilySearch Books - A lesser known topic, but one that might reveal some very important details about your families; (2) FamilySearch FamilyTree (FSFT) Unique Person ID that everyone in the FSFT has. There are several shortcuts that can speed up searches for your ancestor.

We've been having excellent attendance recently, so come and discover what your genealogy mission needs. http://familysearch.org/tree/.

05/04/2017

At our Castro Valley Library Genealogy Group meeting this morning, Wayne Ainsworth provided an update to his Feb 16, 2017 Genealogy Toolbox. The Excel file is located at: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cacvgg/documents/2017-02-16-wayne-ainsworth-genealogy-toolbox.xlsx

03/09/2017

Just updated the web site with all the genealogy features of the Alameda County Web Site http://guides.aclibrary.org/genealogy. There is a lot to take advantage of. Another great free genealogy site is http://familysearch.org. Register to add your own family tree.

Hunt for your roots with these excellent sources. Searching for your family starts here.