The Sacramento Regional Genealogical Council, aka SRGCouncil or SRGC, is a collaborating group of genealogical groups in the Sacramento area and in Northern California that exists to facilitate communication and cooperation among its member organizations. The Council provides opportunities for member organizations to plan regional events, exchange information, coordinate activities, avoid the duplication of group projects, and encourage the preservation and accessibility of records of genealogical value.

How Did the SRGC start?

The SRGCouncil began more than 40 years ago, when a group of dedicated genealogists in the Sacramento area decided to work together to lobby for genealogical records and rights. Founding members include Joyce Buckland, Yvonne, Rich, Lois, Dove, Alton Sissel, Elizabeth Kohler, and Dorothy William. Using the title Genealogical and Historical Council of Sacramento Valley (GHCSV), the member societies met in-person quarterly at the Sacramento Family History Library, to share what was happening in individual member societies/groups, and around the Sacramento area.

In 2010, the GHCSV acting Board of Directors decided to bring the Council into the 21^st century by creating the Sacramento Regional Genealogical Council, or SRGCouncil. This new Council would act as an umbrella organization to encourage and facilitate individual genealogical groups and societies. The goal was to recruit more Genealogical Societies by removing membership fees to the Council, broadening our area to include any interested genealogical groups in Northern California, and most importantly, creating a website that would allow anyone interested in genealogy to have immediate access to the names and locations of the area genealogical groups.

SRGC Moves Forward!

Accessing the SRGCouncil’s website at https://srgcouncil.org allows viewers to click on any or all of the Member Organizations listed on the homepage and go straight to information about each individual group, and access a link to the society’s own website. The website displays a shared calendar of upcoming events and/or conferences offered in the area. We have amazing webmasters that are ready and willing to instruct Council members on utilizing our website. Enormous thanks to Richard Hanson, Michael Dickey and Mary Sayles for their patience and hours of time spent on this website.

One good thing that came out of the Covid 19 Pandemic of 2020-2022 was the need to meet remotely during the times of restricted travel and visitation. This “setback” has initiated the use of virtual meetings both for the Council and member organization. It also came with a huge learning curve as we sought to provide a new audio-visual format accessible from home. Many Council meetings were spent discussing how to enhance audio-visual presentation to attendees at meeting and speaker presentation. What started out as a problem, became a convenience that allows members to participate in our quarterly meetings from all over the region, or the world for that matter! We save travel time and expenses, and still get to meet together.

On October 2022, the non-profit Council shut down. Its purpose was picked up by the new social club SRGC. Its simpler legal design minimized the time and effort needed to run the organization, while allowing more support for individual societies and groups. In addition, more sharing has occurred between member organizations, with multiple groups inviting members of other organizations to attend many of their speaker meetings.

We love meeting together and sharing successes, plans, new technology and of course genealogy!

Please take a moment to view our website listings of

genealogical presentations available in our area.