Lecture – Carla Cegielski & John Schmal

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Carla Cegielski is a full-time genealogical researcher specializing in the areas of Ohio, western Pennsylvania and West Virginia. She has been researching her own family for over 40 years and providing research services to others since 2007. After retiring from teaching at a local business college, Carla began lecturing on various genealogical topics. She is a frequent speaker at genealogical societies, libraries and conferences. Carla holds a B.A. in Russian Language and Literature and an M.S. in Library Science. Carla is past-president of both of the Great Lakes Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists and the Lake County (OH) Genealogical Society. She has volunteered as a grader for the National Genealogical Society’s American Genealogy Home Study Course and as a coordinator for the ProGen Study Group. Carla currently serves as Vice President of the Lake County Genealogical Society and the Great Lakes Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists.

 

John P. Schmal will discuss the Spanish settlements of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, including the establishment of the five missions in the area between 1772 and 1804. He will explore the growth and challenges of the communities in the early decades of the Spanish period. The Chumash who inhabited the area long before the arrival of the Spaniards will also be discussed with emphasis on their numerous languages and transportation networks. At the end, there will be discussion of genealogical research for the Spanish, Mexican, and Indian inhabitants, with emphasis of the Huntington Library’s Early California Population Project (ECPP).

John Schmal is an historian, genealogist, and lecturer. He has degrees in History (Loyola-Marymount University) and Geography (St. Cloud State University) and is a board member of the Society of Hispanic Historical Ancestral Research (SHHAR).  He has published dozens of short stories on the history of the indigenous people of most the Mexican states.
In June 2018, he was a recipient of the Conference of California Historical Societies Award of Merit in the Scholarship Award and was recognized for “proliferate historic studies in the area of Mexican, Mexican-American and indigenous research.”