Oh! That's How You Found Them: Searching for Your Family

This event is presented by the Palm Springs Genealogical Society with guest speaker Sheila Bostater. This FREE program will be from 10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in The Learning Center.  

Sheila will be taking us through the steps that she took to find her biological family, finding that she had ancestors on the Mayflower!

After not knowing who her birth family was, she was able to locate family members from both her paternal and maternal birth families.  As a result, her paternal line had lineage back to a Mayflower passenger and her maternal line had lineage back to nobility in England.  She has become a member of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants and a member of the Colonial Dames of the XVII Century.

Shelia Bostater was born in Los Angeles but grew up in Culver City, home of major film studios such as MGM, Desilu studio.  She was adopted at birth and always knew she was adopted.  It was not until she was 13-years old that she learned the name of her birth parents.  In 2016, she finally found her entire birth family using Ancestry and FamilySearch.  During her early years, she was involved in the music department of her high school and earned a scholarship to attend Pepperdine College (LA campus).

She had to stop her musical career due to family needs and went into the “work world”. She began her career working for General Telephone and Electronics (GTE, now known as Verizon), she remained there for the 30 years.  During that time, she held several job titles and was able to participate in many special projects that allowed to work in Stanford Connecticut, Dallas Texas, Tampa Florida, Ft. Wayne Indiana, Everett Washington, Honolulu Hawaii, and her main office in Thousand Oaks California.

When she finally retired from GTE after 30 years, she took courses in the travel industry.  She obtained certification as an Accredited Cruise Consultant and a Master Cruise Consultant.  She finally had to stop working due to hand injuries after too many years using a computer.

During her off time, she enjoys traveling, taking cruises, playing golf, and researching her birth and adopted families in both Ancestry and FamilySearch.

She has been able to travel to several European countries as well as most of the U.S. states. In 2007, she moved to Indio to enjoy her retirement and joined her community’s Genealogy Club where she has given presentations to the club. She now enjoys helping others learn about their families and how best to perform their search skills.  She is here today to help us learn more about Ancestry and how we can use it more effective.

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