Monday Genea-pourri

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing started this meme and I loved the idea. Genealogists are great at documenting our ancestors’ lives but not so great documenting our own. I’ll write about what I’ve been doing the past week.

Sunday, November 5, 2017.  I worked most of the day at the computer, catching up on a variety of projects, such as completing my Mastering Genealogical Documentation homework for the DearMyrtle Hangout on Monday. I also helped my husband pick the rest of the pomegranates on our tree. We have gathered four bags this year to give to our neighbors.

Monday, November 6, 2017.  I got into a cleaning state today (actually it had started the day before). I recycled some things and took some things to Goodwill. Feels great to have some more space. German class was fun because everyone was there.

Tuesday, November 7, 2017. Spent several hours with fellow board members of the Contra Costa County Historical Society discussing how to conduct fund-raising. After a quick lunch, I went to the History Center and worked on some genealogy queries. We often get queries asking for obituaries. We have a pretty good collection of clipped obits.          

Wednesday, November 8, 2017.  I had a big day. Left Martinez Amtrak Station at 8:36 on the San Joaquin train for Merced for a day of on-site researching. During the ride down, I listened to the Mastering Genealogical Documentation on the DearMyrtle hangout. The wifi worked great on the train. The ride was just over two hours. I walked from the station to the area where the county government buildings were.

Martinez & Merced Amtrak Stations

First stop was the Merced County Historical Society’s archives, located in the old courthouse. What a wonderful place! The society has the entire old courthouse building where they have both a museum and an archive. The archive had some interesting records: original voter applications and I photographed the ones from Hilmar precinct for the Nilsen and Lundquist families. There was also a book listing men who served during WWI however, the entry for John E Lundquist gave no details. I still don’t know where he served.

One view of the archives. Those books on the nearest shelves
are original voter applications

Next, I headed for the Superior Court building and stopped at the civil records division. The clerk found three records for me, but I have to order them by mail. The downloading of the files is time-consuming and they couldn’t guarantee that it would be done that day.

The last stop was at the county administration building where the County Recorder’s office was. I ordered a death certificate and then spent an hour or so reading deed indexes. I copied nearly two pages of index records for Lundquist and Nilsen. Again, I need to order these by mail. The copies come from microfilm and the clerk was busy with another order.

I got done earlier than I expected and was able to ride the 4:36 train back, in time to attend the Contra Costa County Historical Society’s board of directors meeting.

Thursday, November 9, 2017. After a nice rain overnight, the Strenztel Meadow was all damp this morning. Luckily I have rubber boots to wear for doing our weekly phenology survey. The sun came out for a moment and I got a few lovely shots of the hillside of Mount Wanda. Here is Shirley inputting the data into an iPad.

Friday, November 10, 2017.  This was a pseudo holiday--most government workers were off today, so the BART ride into Oakland was great--seats for all. I worked Desk Duty today at the California Genealogical Society's library, located in the basement of the Breuner Building. It was a quiet day--only one customer, who wanted to know how to best preserve his family papers. I also got to have an online chat with my BCG-Peer Group. The ride home on BART was also nice, with few standees.

Saturday, November 11, 2017. Happy Veteran's Day. I posted a blog post I had written a couple of years ago listing all of the ancestors who served in the Armed Services. I worked most of the day writing about the first generation of my KDP. I feel I made some good progress!

Copyright © 2017 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.