Family Stuff: Raising Bakersfield

RaisingBakersfield.com: An online community space for parents debuts

Happy Mother’s Day, Bakersfield: Have we got a present for you!

The Bakersfield Californian family of publications has given birth today to its newest Web site, RaisingBakersfield.com, an online community space for local moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, aunts, uncles, and anyone else who has a stake in raising Bakersfield’s next generation.

Are you so enamored with your kids that you want to post their pictures online and blog about their progress?

Do you want to keep an online journal detailing your daily fears and joys as a parent?

Are you hoping to find great deals on anything from toys to tutoring, or to get information on upcoming family events in the community?

Do you want to meet, vent with, bond with, or give advice to other parents or grandparents?

Then you’ll want to become a member of this new urban tribe.

WHAT SOME USERS ARE SAYING

“I love the website. It is easy to use and very creative. I think it will be a lot of fun and informative on many levels for the parents in the Bakersfield community,” said Jane McCullagh, who goes by the user name “Yomama.”

According to her user profile, McCullagh is “a young-at-heart 60-something mother of three grown daughters and grandmother to two young boys,” who has been a schoolteacher and superintendent as well as a stay-at-home mom.

“I hope to share with you some of the joys I have had as a parent and grandparent and offer any advice and tips I can to that next generation of moms out there!” she tells her fellow site members.

That wish to network is the spirit behind RaisingBakersfield.com, and is reflected in the welcome on its home page by content manager Jason Sperber, father of a 31⁄2-year-old.

“RaisingBakersfield.com is a place, on the web, where we can connect and reflect together,” Sperber (user name “Jason”) said. “Parenting is both the most challenging and the most important job we will ever have, but we can’t do it alone. We shouldn’t have to. This is our community, one we are building for the sake of our children, and together, we are all Raising Bakersfield.”

HOW THE SITE WAS CONCEIVED

Mary Lou Fulton, The Californian’s vice president of audience development, said the idea for a Web site for local parents came from several Californian employees last year during a companywide effort to look for new product offerings for the community.

One of the people who suggested the idea, Fulton said, was circulation manager Cristi Tallman, who was expecting a child 16 years after the birth of her last.

“I found the Internet to be an invaluable resource,” Tallman said. But even online, something soon became obvious to her: “There was no good local source where I could connect with other moms and moms-to-be.”

Fulton said Tallman became part of a team of employees who studied for months the possibility of launching a site like Raising Bakersfield. Research included interviews with the operators of similar sites in other cities, she said. Everything they found pointed to a local need.

“Raising Bakersfield will be the best and most comprehensive local online resource for parents,” Fulton said.

Site users can even sign up to receive free e-mail newsletters to keep up to date on the latest information available on the Web site.

A WEB SITE AND PUBLICATION FOR ADVERTISERS

And for local business owners, Fulton said, Raising Bakersfield will open up opportunities for online and print advertising, as a monthly glossy newsletter will feature selections from the Web site along with an extensive listing of local deals and an event calendar. The print newsletter will be distributed free at more than 100 local businesses catering to parents and families, Fulton said.

“We especially welcome advertising from smaller businesses that don’t have big budgets,” she said.

“This is one of the most affordable advertising programs we have ever offered at The Californian and we hope many local businesses will take advantage of it.”

Originally posted at http://www.bakersfield.com/138/story/439250.html on May 8 for print publication on Mother's Day, May 11, 2008.

Trace your own family tree, right here in Bakersfield

Bakersfield locals seeking to research their family history don’t have to be Mormon or travel to Salt Lake City to take advantage of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ extensive genealogical data resources.

Three LDS chapels (called stakes) in Bakersfield include a Family History Center complete with computers, microfilm reels and readers, and enthusiastic volunteers to help you get started on a search. Each center functions as a branch of the Family History Library, located in Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City. The library boasts of being the largest genealogical record repository of its kind in the world.

For Clareen Hays, director of public affairs for the LDS Church in greater Bakersfield, successful genealogical research is nothing short of a spiritual experience.

“We believe this is the Lord’s work,” she said about her church’s mission to collect birth, marriage, death and other records from people all over the world and throughout the centuries, and make them available for anyone, Mormon or not, who wants to view them.

“If we’re having difficulty finding a record of someone who has passed on,” she said, “the Lord will allow that person to help us find that record.”

From the Mormon perspective, according to Hays, it might be in an unredeemed ancestor’s best interest to lend a helping hand: As long as there are believers willing to perform baptisms or other forms of “temple work” for those who died without hearing the Mormon message, the dead will be given another chance in the next life to hear it and accept it. Their free will stays intact, however, Hays explained, as they can still choose to reject the message.

Mormons using their family history records can thus try to ensure that multiple generations of their families are “sealed” forever together throughout eternity.

Sandy Hand, assistant director of the Bakersfield Stake Family History Center on A Street, said she has been able to research her own family history back to her fourth great-grandmother, who was born in Rosenfeld, Germany, and migrated to the United States in 1857.

“What’s exciting to me is that you know they (one’s ancestors) existed because we’re here, but when you see a name on the record, this is real time. These people were real,” she said.

Non-Mormons can still have plenty of nonspiritually inspired fun filled with jaw-dropping discovery moments by learning about their roots.

An example Hays gave involves African-Americans, who often have a hard time finding out where they came from because of the legacy of slavery.

Each Family History Center in Bakersfield has a CD copy of the Freedman’s Bank Records. The Freedman’s Savings Bank was created by the U.S. government immediately following the Civil War to help emancipated (“freedmen”) or veteran slaves and their families build their savings. Although the institution endured for only about a decade, from 1865 to 1874, the Freedman’s Bank Records database can be an invaluable tool for African-American families on a genealogical quest. Free copies of the CD-Rom are available at local Family History Centers while supplies last.

Go & Search

Research your family tree at a Family History Center open to the public at three metro Bakersfield chapels of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Use of the facilities is free but you may have to pay a nominal fee to photocopy documents or to order the shipment of microfilm not available locally.

Bakersfield Stake Family History Center, 316 A St.

Hours:

• 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday

• 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday

Information: 322-1976

Bakersfield East Stake Family History Center, 5600 Panorama Drive

Hours: • 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday

Information: 872-5683

Bakersfield South Stake Family History Center, 2801 Real Road

Hours: • 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday • Also, 6 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday

Information: 831-2036

Other sources available through the LDS Church:

• www.familysearch.org

• www.lds.org — Free family history software downloadable from the “Family History and Temples” link.

• Freedman’s Bank Records CD-Rom (suitable for PC computers only) for researching African-American ancestry: Free while supplies last from any of the above Family History Centers.

• General Information: Contact Clareen Hays, director of public affairs for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in greater Bakersfield, 833-9297.

______________________________________

Source: The Bakersfield Californian, Friday, Feb 15 2008

Finding myself: A Californian reporter's genealogical journey

It was a long shot.

While vacationing in Salt Lake City after Christmas, I decided to go into the multistoried Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and do the touristy thing of beginning a genealogical search.

Initially, some friendly volunteers gave me the hope that I would find some information about my family. After awhile, however, it became clear that there was just one microfilm reel that was likely to contain the birth records of only my paternal grandparents, Elena and Gonzalo Medina, and that it ended with entries from 1910.

But I wasn’t sure of their birth years. They died in the 1990s, when they were, I thought, in their 80s. So I figured they were probably born toward the end of the first decade of the 20th century.

And I didn’t know their birthdays: They were simple rural folk who never celebrated themselves or expected others to celebrate them in that way. But from what I thought my mother — the de facto recorder of family birthdays — had said, August and October sounded about right for their birth months.

I was also assuming that the birth records of “Mamá Nena” (from her name, Elena) and “Papá Chalo” (from his middle name, Gonzalo, by which he was known) would be entered in the town hall registry of the small coffee-growing mountain village of Comasagua, in El Salvador, where they had lived — and died. It hadn’t occurred to me they might have been born elsewhere.

And I wasn’t even sure whether Grandma’s maiden name, “Henriquez,” was spelled with or without a silent “h” at the beginning.

But there was no time to think about all these possible limitations.

I simply had to search.

Thank you, LDS Church!

One of the things that fascinates me most about Mormons is their emphasis on the spiritual “sealing” of entire families so they can be united for all eternity in heaven.

By proxy, Mormons perform baptisms and other “temple work” for the dead who may not have heard the Mormon message in this life, in the hope that they will have a chance to hear and accept it in the next. They therefore make great efforts to gather genealogical data from all over the world so believers can go back as many generations as possible and find ancestors whose salvation they can try to ensure.

With that end in mind, the Genealogical Society of Utah had photographers shoot, page by page, the Registry of Births of the Municipality of Comasagua, Province of La Libertad, for all those years.

MOMENT OF DISCOVERY

As the microfilm reel advanced, I read many Catholic and Castilian names common to that era. They were hopelessly old-school but charming: Leandra, Aurelia, Felicita, Erminia, Coronado, Gabino, Macario, Rómulo. They sounded so classical, elegant and Hollywood-cool to me that I found myself wishing I had been named “Coronado” or “Rómulo Medina.”

When I got to 1906 I slowed down and started looking at each entry more carefully. 1907. 1908.

“Oh, my God!” I broke the silence in the quiet library.

Entry number 131 on page 144, in very legible cursive handwriting in Spanish, said:

“Comasagua Town Hall, Aug. 27, 1908: Elena Henriquez, a girl, was born on the twentieth of the current month at four in the morning in Hacienda San Luis of this jurisdiction, the illegitimate daughter of Emilia Henriquez, a native of San Salvador. This information was provided by Mr. Reyes Henriquez, who did not sign because he does not know how.” The signature of someone named Narciso Sandoval, who I gathered was the mayor, followed. Below it was that of Mariano Lobos, who was the town hall secretary and a witness.

There was Grandma, “illegitimate” because she was born to a single mom, Emilia, whom I had heard mentioned as “Mamá Mila,” my great-grandmother, a native of the capital who, for some reason, had moved to the countryside.

The baby’s birth had been reported seven days after the fact by Reyes Henriquez, who could have been my great-great-grandfather or my great-great-uncle — I couldn’t be sure. What I knew from the entry, of course, was that he had been illiterate.

I was on a roll now: If I had been able to find Grandma, I would surely be able to find Grandpa. So I kept scrolling through entries: 135, 140, 145, and there, very soon, at the bottom of page 150, was entry 149:

“Comasagua Town Hall, Sept. 20, 1908. José Gonzalo Medina, a boy, was born on the eighth day of the current month at two-thirty in the afternoon in this municipality, the illegitimate child of Catalina Medina, a native of this municipality. This information was provided by the natural father, Mr. Francisco Quiteño Jr., whose signature appears in this entry.” There were the signatures of Sandoval and Lobos again, and to the left of them, with the proud and fancy flourish of a newborn dad’s, was the signature of my great-grandfather.

As children, my brothers and I got to meet my Medina great-grandmother. We called her “Mamá Cata” (from Catalina). She used to smoke cigars, and whenever we visited her, my father, after whom I am named, would be sure to stop at a handmade cigar factory and buy her a bagful.

She had cheeks like a whiskerless walrus, and it was wonderful to sink into their fleshiness when we leaned up to give her a kiss.

She was the source of my family name, not my great-grandfather, who, not being married to her when Papá Chalo was born, was only the “natural” father, not the “legitimate” one, and therefore could not pass on his name. So my last name could have been Quiteño, which has both a “q” and an “ñ” in it, two of my favorite letters in the Spanish language. I felt cheated. Guess what the name of my next pet is going to be?

Grandpa was born in September, not in October as I had thought. Less than three weeks after Grandma. In the same town. They could have been playmates as children. Maybe they were.

I knew my ancestors and myself a little better now, after having taken that hopeful tourist’s detour into the library. My universe had expanded. I had gained a little more life.

I shared my find with some workers at the library who hear testimonies of finds like mine every day, but kindly rejoiced with me as though mine were the first.

“It wasn’t long ago I saw a gal start dancing,” said Rachel Creswell, a part-time volunteer.

“We see tears many times, tears of joy,” said Heidi Sugden, a reference consultant.

I myself didn’t dance. My eyes stayed dry and my hands stayed by my sides. But my heart understood the feeling perfectly.

___________________________________

Source: The Bakersfield Californian, Friday, Feb 15 2008

WarmLine - Another Parent to Talk To

WarmLine is a parenting helpline offering free telephone support for parents of children from birth to 6 years of age.

e-mail support: warmline@earthlink.net

WarmLine is a not for profit organization of trained volunteers that serve as a telephone outreach to families in Kern County, California.

661-323-3531
or 1-888-955-9099
outside Bakersfield California

Monday - Friday
8:30 am to 4:30 pm PST
(excluding holidays)

Call WarmLine today to talk about your child!

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WarmLine offers a confidential listening ear, helping parents and care-givers deal effectively with the crucial and often difficult situations that occur when raising children. We are here to provide support and guidance to anyone who needs it.

It's not only parents who benefit from WarmLine's services. Callers also include grandparents and other relatives who care for children, as well as Day Care providers and community childcare professionals. All callers are listened to with respect and objectivity by trained volunteers.