Welcome to Glenn & Laura's Home Page

Family Histories

Gallery of Laura's Paintings

Gallery of Chitons

Magnificent Murex

Oakdale Museum

This website has been set up to share some of our many and varied interests. We are grandparents who are retired. We moved from the city to the country twenty-five years ago and settled on a twenty acre farm here in Oakdale, California. We have raised, at one time or another, cattle and every other wildlife available. We will probably never understand why two persons who were born and raised in the big city would move to the country but we did and do not regret it for an instant.

We have three children - Michael, Patricia and Kathy - and seven grandchildren - Stefanie, Kari, Jeff, Chad, Ryan, Kate and Mitchell. Some of our interests which we wish to share with you include (1) collecting and exchanging worldwide seashells, especially chitons, (2) study of history, (3) gardening and (4) our familiy histories (genealogies).

Our interest in seashells started over thirty-six years ago. As we are both true lovers of nature, we spent many hours outdoors. We lived near California's central coast so many of these hours were spent visiting the beaches. The collecting and studying of the marine life came quite naturally as, at the time, Glenn was a senior aquatic biologist on the staff of the Steinhart Aquarium (California Academy of Sciences) in San Francisco, California.

Although we enjoy collecting all families of seashells, our interest focused on the group classed as chitons. The interest in chitons and our collection of specimens grew steadily until suddenly we had a very large local and worldwide collection. Specimens were secured by self-collecting, by exchanging with or gifts from others, and by purchase. The ultimare result was the authoring, in 1969, of a work titled Guide to West Coast Chitons. Our intention now is to share this interest with others on this website. We hope that by viewing our Gallery of Chitons more collectors will be encouraged to enjoy this wonderful class of mollusk.

Our initial interest in history came about as a result of researching our family histories. We found it was very interesting to find out what the country was like in the period when your ancestors lived there. This research produced knowledge and knowledge increased our interest. We became involved with the local historical society soon after moving to Oakdale and because of Glenn's experience at the California Academy of Sciences this lead to a deep involvement in the establishment of a program for the preservation of the local history. See Oakdale Historical Society.

In 1985, we worked hard with local citizens in establishing a history museum to exhibit Oakdale's history. Glenn was appointed the director of the museum (on a volunteer basis) by the city council and we still continue to operate the Oakdale Museum with the help of several volunteers and one part-time paid employee.

With all the information that is available through our research, it is only natural for Glenn to want to write a history of Oakdale. He is working on such a publication and we have included it on our website. It is entitled Land of Majestic Oaks.

We have been working on the genealogy of our families for thirty-six years. Laura's main family lines include Cantrell, Brazeal, Alexander, and Counihan. Glenn's main family lines include Burghardt, Garrett, Dewey, Peterson, Joll(e)y, Beem and Phillips. All of our research has taken the Cantrell, Alexander, Burghardt, Dewey and some collateral lines back to early 1600's. The Garrett, Joll(e)y, Beem and collateral lines have been taken back to the early 1700's. Our family histories are included on our website as Dunrovin which is the name Glenn's grandmother, Clara Ellen (Garrett) Burghardt gave to her cabin in the Montana mountains where she enjoyed life so much.

We hope you enjoy our website and ask you to please let us know your feelings by sending your comments to Glenn & Laura Burghardt.