Monday Genea-pourri, Week of May 4-10, 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.

I have completed eight weeks of “lock down” due to Covid-19. I left the house only to do phenology at the meadow, walks to the mailbox, and a trip to the post office.

Genealogy

Blog Writing:

Blogs posted this past week:

• VE-Day in Chester, England. I found a photo George took on VE-Day in Chester, England. He also wrote about it in his diary.

• 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 19: Service: George J. Gorrell’s WWII Service at Burtonwood Air Depot. I wrote about my husband’s continued service in England.

• Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Your "Favorite" Genealogy Websites (2020)  Wrote about some of my favorite websites where I conduct genealogy research or learn about new genealogy things.

Study Groups Attended:   

Many more online meetings again this week:

• Monday. Our Monday Morning Group met for nearly two hours. We had several stories to share and questions to be answered. It was a nice meeting. Jacqueline and I had a good talk on Monday afternoon, and plan to meet again next week.
• Wednesday, I attended the Certification Discussion Group where we listened to Angela Packer McGhie discuss her certification progress. We had homework and had to think about what is being tested in each of the elements of the portfolio. It was a great discussion. I’m up next week. Our Retreat Genie-buddies group met on Zoom for more catching up, primarily listening to Linda talk about her upcoming projects.
• Thursday, four of us met online and discussed computers, CGS online meetings and classes, the BCG article I co-wrote with Judy G. Russell, and the wonder Certification Discussion Group session with Angela McGhie.
• Friday, six of us met and spoke certification discussion groups and creating citations.

Webinars Attended:

• "Bagging a Live One – Reverse Genealogy in Action,” Mary Kircher Roddy, CPA, CG® at the Virtual APG meeting.
• “Fridays in May: Your Questions Answered LIVE,” with Thomas MacEntee at Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
• “Secrets in the Attic: Break Down Brick Walls With Home Sources,” Denise May Levenick at Legacy Family Tree Webinars.

Client Work/Presentations:

I co-wrote an article with Judy G. Russell called “Genealogical Implications of Public Health Crisis” for the Board for Certification of Genealogists’ publication, OnBoard May 2020 issue.

Volunteer Work:

I began working on the presentation for the Writing Series at California Genealogical Society. We decided to do in on Zoom.

I also emailed students from the CGS Skills class and offered to teach the last class over two weeks starting on Wednesday.

Own Work:

I figured out a way to keep the scanner running by scanning at 300 dpi instead of 600. I got a bunch more items in George & Thelma’s binder scanned and was able to use some in the blog post this week.

I worked on my presentation for the Certification Discussion Group on Facebook, where I will present my certification journey on Tuesday next week.

Other:

Got calls from my daughters on Mother’s Day and that was nice. I’m terrible, that I did not walk at all this week, though I did do some gardening. I have lettuce seeds to plant now, too.

Happy Mother’s Day to my maternal ancestors.

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