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Showing posts from May, 2018

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 22: So Far Away: The Travels of Nils Malkom Nilsen

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow . I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past . I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. Nils Malkom Nilsen, the maternal great-grandfather of my husband, was a minister for the Swedish Covenant Church, and from his birth in Ă…senhöga, Jönköping län, Sweden, to his death in Hilmar, Merced County, California, he lived in at least twelve residences. Ă…senhöga, Jönköping län, Sweden Fastorp, Lännäs, Ă–rebro län, Sweden Sheffield, Warren Co, Pennsylvania Youngstown, Mahoning Co, Ohio Cromwell, Middlesex Co, Connecticut Harcourt, Webster Co, Iowa Hilmar, Merced Co, California San Pedro, Los Angeles Co, California Turlock, Stanislaus Co, California Escalon, San Joaquin Co, California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz Co, California Hilmar, Merced Co, California He studied the ministr

Monday Genea-pourri, Week of May 21-27, 2018

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. Genealogy I drove up to Sacramento to attend the Sacramento German Genealogical Society ’s presentation about military records given by Dr. Kathryn Marshall. She covered a lot of information in the hour and a half! The handout is full of great links. Because I attended the above meeting, I did not volunteer at the History Center of the Contra Costa County Historical Society. However, on Wednesday, a group of us visited the Museum of San Ramon Valley in Danville in order to see their special exhibit on Chinese and the Transcontinental Railroad. It was a very nice exhibit. I also asked if we could view their archives and we went into both the library on the ground floor and the archives area on the second floor. I’m writing up an article for the Contra Costa Co

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Who Is Your Most Recent Unknown Ancestor (MRUA)?

1) Who is your MRUA - your Most Recent Unknown Ancestor? This is the person with the lowest number in your Pedigree Chart or Ahnentafel List that you have not identified a last name for, or a first name if you know a surname but not a first name. 2) Have you looked at your research files for this unknown person recently? Why don't you scan it again just to see if there's something you have missed? 3) What online or offline resources might you search that might help identify your MRUA? 4) Tell us about him or her, and your answers to 2) and 3) above, in a blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a comment on Facebook or Google Plus. In December 2016 , we wrote about our MRUA and I wrote about no. 19, Susanna Raduntz. I also wrote about nos. 20 and 21, Jeremiah Sullivan and Mary Sheehan. Their parents are still not known. Today, I’ll write about the next nos. 36, Christoph Siewert and 37, Anna Marianna Ewald . They were the parents of Vincent Siever

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 21: Military: George Gorrell Served in WWII

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow . I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past . I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. George Joseph Gorrell, U.S. Army Air Corps Before World War II started, my father-in-law, George Joseph Gorrell, was training at the Curtiss-Wright Technical Institute of Aeronautics in Glendale, Los Angeles County, California. He was learning how to work on airplanes. His World War II Draft card had information about his physical features. He was six feet tall and weighed 160 pounds. As a young man, he had brown hair, brown eyes, and a dark complexion. He was 25 years old. After the training, he worked at McClellan Air Force Base in North Highlands, California, just north of Sacramento. He received more training there on hydraulics. He worked on landing gear.   He was inducted i

Monday Genea-pourri, Weeks of May 7-20, 2018

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. Genealogy I worked two Fridays this month at the Desk of the California Genealogical Society’s library. The first Friday I had a couple of researchers looking for their aunt. Last week I had two researchers looking for someone to translate a record written in Portuguese. I sent them up to the FamilySearch Library. Our CGS Intro Class group had a meeting, as we are changing the format. Each first Saturday class would be one of three types of class: overview, records, and organization. We talked about who would work on which part and scheduled ourselves for the following year. I’m to work on the overview class. I did get to meet with the Certification Study Group. All five of us were able to meet and discuss our progress. I had worked on my case study thinki

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 20: Languages

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow . I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past . I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. I had to deal with a foreign language early in my genealogy research because my father’s paternal side is German. My father’s maternal side is Irish, but so far those records have been in English. I studied German four years in high school and four quarters in college, so I wasn’t afraid to research in German records. Though once I found them, I didn’t realize the lettering would be so difficult to read! I lucked out in knowing where to look in German records. The marriage between my great-grandparents, Johan Anton Hork and Julia Ann Sievert, gave the birthplace of Johan Anton as Oberhundem, Kreis (county) Olpe, Westfalen. It is important to know the name of the village in order to find local records. The F

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Celebrate Mother's Day - Show Us Some Photos

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to: 1) Sunday, 13 May is Mother's Day in the USA. Let's celebrate it by showing some of our photos with our mother. 2) Extra credit: What did you call your mother during her life? What did your children call your mother? 3) More extra credit: Have you written a biography or tribute to your mother? If so, please share a link if you have one. 4) Share your photo(s) on your own blog post or in a Facebook or Google + post. Leave a link on this blog post to help us find your Mom photos. I don't have a lot of photos with my mother but I do have some pretty special ones. These were all taken within the first year of my birth. The color one is from a slide--no idea who took it. I called my mother "Mommy" and then "Mom." My daughters called her Grandma Lea. Unfortunately, she died when they were really young and didn't know her well. This is

Monday Genea-pourri, Week of April 30-May 6, 2018

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. Genealogy Not much happened on my own genealogy or the certification portfolio this week except for the blog writing. Our certification group didn’t meet this week. I did review my case study a bit and it’s churning ideas in my head for some restructuring. Blog Writing : I wrote a couple of blog posts this week: The Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post was about a summer day in our 12th year. For this week’s 52 Ancestors post I wrote about the 1880 census in Comanche County, Texas, where six families were living next door to each other, but all with different surnames. Class I started the California Genealogical Society’s class Intermediate Genealogy: Records Series. I have 10 students who all seemed very interested in the class on land records.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Recall a Summer Day When You Were 12

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has another great topic this week. Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to: 1) Remember when you were 12 years old? On a summer day out of school? What memory do you have of fun activities? 2) Tell us about that memory (just one - you can do more if you want to) in a blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a comment on Facebook.  Please leave a link to your own post in comments on this post. 3)  Have you told your children and grandchildren about your childhood memories?  You really should. It was 1966 when I was 12. In that summer, I had just finished up 6th grade at Parkmead Elementary in Walnut Creek, California, and we had a whole summer before starting 7th grade at Parkmead Intermediate, which was located right next door to the elementary school. A typical summer was breakfast of cereal that we served ourselves. Then outside to play until called for lunch, when we had peanut