Searching for Your Indigenous California Roots

About this event

November 14, 2026, 2-4pm | "Searching for Your Indigenous California Roots" Featuring John P. Schmal & Archivist Laura Bang, with special guest James Yee (Barbareño Chumash)

🗣 Genealogist John P. Schmal will discuss the many dimensions of exploring your Indigenous California Roots. Pointing out the value of California’s Mission records, John will discuss the many techniques and resources available for exploring your California roots online. These will include the Mission Records and the Huntington Library’s California Early Population Project. We will also discuss the value of National Archives and Ancestry.com in locating Indigenous ancestors. Handouts will be included. Archivist Laura Bang will give an overview of SBMAL resources available for family history research.

📍 Location: Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library, 2201 Laguna Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105

💲 Cost: Free with RSVP (limited seating)

ℹ️ Logistics: RSVP Required | Light Refreshments | Doors at 1:30pm

About our speakers :

John P. Schmal is an historian, genealogist, and lecturer. After graduating from a Los Angeles high school, John attended Loyola-Marymount University in Los Angeles and St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, where he studied Geography, History and Earth Sciences and received two BA degrees. For the last 15 years, he has developed a skill in tracing the lineages of the California Mission Indians. He is a recipient of the 2018 Conference of California Historical Societies Award of Merit in the Scholarship Award. He was recognized for his “proliferate historic studies in the area of Mexican, Mexican-American and indigenous research.” He currently manages IndigenousMexico.org , a one-stop resource for historical and census information about the Indigenous people of Mexico and California.

Laura Bang has over 15 years of experience in archives and special collections libraries, working with a variety of subjects and materials. She is currently the Archivist at the Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library. She was born and raised in Santa Barbara, spent some time on the US East Coast (including getting a Masters of Library Science at the University of Maryland), and is now happy to be back in her hometown. Laura is fluent in Spanish.

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