Monday Genea-pourri, Week of Dec 31, 2019—Jan 5, 2020

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. This idea came from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing, who started this meme.

Genealogy

Blog Writing:

• 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 1–Fresh Start.  I wrote about my mother’s southern ancestors who migrated to Texas.

 Webinars/Study Groups Attended:   

I met with both of my study groups this week. It was great that all of the Thursday evening group were present. In Friday's group we continued discussing our goals. It was great being able to meet with my genealogy friends online.

Client Work:

During the week, I received calls from two local genealogical societies who needed last-minute speakers, so I have agreed to do that. The first one will be this coming week. Sunday, I spoke about city directories at the Sacramento Public Library.

I also met with a potential client, but after the consultation, I gave her possible contacts to further help her DNA problem. I just don’t have the experience in using DNA to help her. It is an interesting story and I hope she lets me know how it turns out.

Volunteer Work:

Still on hiatus for the holiday break. Can’t wait to get back to it.

Own Work:

Because of the new goals I have made, I spent time working on them. The goals are printed out and posted on my bulletin board above my computer where I can view them daily. I added a 2020 calendar and placed all of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks prompts on the bulletin board, too. I then worked a flyer of my presentations, creating a few new ones. It’s probably ready to be sent out to genealogical societies. I’ll spend this coming week gathering the contact info for program chairs at the societies in the area. I should probably print up a few to take to the two talks I’m doing this week.

Other:

Saturday, I went bird watching with the Mt. Diablo Audubon Society up to Putah Creek and Solano Park. It was a large group and we saw about seventy different bird species. The expected phainopepla was there but no Lewis woodpeckers. There were quite a few acorn woodpeckers working in the old oaks. At the Lake Berryessa dam, we saw a bald eagle—my first sighting in California. I was pretty excited. I had a great time and got in nearly 10,000 steps on the trip.

We also celebrated December birthdays at our Sisters get-together (which includes nieces, too) on Saturday night. We did our sister Christmas exchange, since we had to postpone the gathering from December. My sister, Sabrina, kept her tree up, so it was very festive. The dinner she fixed was delicious! She and her husband are such great hosts.

Copyright © 2020 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.