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Monday Genea-pourri, Week of Nov 2-8, 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 thirty-four (34) weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I worked a few hours at the History Center. I did phenology with Shirley (masked of course) at the meadow as usual. Other than that, I didn’t leave the house except for a longer walk on Friday with Norman.

Genealogy

Blog Writing:  My 52 Ancestors post from last week was highlighted in the 52 Ancestors weekly email and I received way more views on it, along with some comments. Yeah!

Blogs posted this past week:

Online Study Groups Attended:   

  • I attended Monday Morning and sixteen people were in attendance.
  • Jacqueline and I had our weekly discussion Monday afternoon.
  • Three of the Amigos met and we discussed SF & Roman Catholic research. Stewart popped in as we were ending.
  • I attended the second of the GenProof sessions with Tom Jones. We discussed Chapter 3.
  • The Thursday Cert Discussion session had four of us join. More discussions about SF research and research at NARA.
  • At the Friday Certification Peer group after checking in, we discussed the KDP.
  • I attended Gena’s Book Club discussion group on Sunday where we discussed the book Finding Betty Crocker and many of us shared old cookbooks we have.   

Webinars Attended:

  • “Parishes, Priests, and Signs of the Sacred: Catholic Church Records” by Julie Miller.

Client Work/Presentations:
I gave two presentations this week. The first to the Genealogical Society of Vallejo-Benicia on “City Directories” and the “Introduction to Genealogy: Vital Records” class at CGS. That one went a lot faster than I thought it would. I got it done in 45 minutes and it usually takes 90 minutes or so in person. With Zoom, there really is no interaction.

I spoke with the new client on the phone and am awaiting additional information from her as well as the signed contract.

Volunteer Work:
I visited the History Center on Tuesday. I prepared the research materials for a researcher who was coming in on Wednesday. I also entered some items in the OAC website.

Own Work:
I am working on a new class on working with land deeds from state land states, those using metes and bounds to describe their land. I hope to make it a two-day workshop with in-class activities. I also spent the week working on the blog post about the deed of my grandparents with the restrictive covenant. It should be ready to post this week.

Other:
I attended all only one of my own Adult School classes: advanced German conversation. I also had German with Nancy on Monday and Ukulele lesson on Thursday. Saturday, I attended the board meeting of the Pacific Coast Region of the NMRA. I am the director for the Coast Division. Glad it was on Zoom instead of having to travel to Fresno where the meeting would have been held.

I’m finished reading Finding Betty Crocker for book club. I am also reading Color of Law for another discussion group and our next meeting will be on Sunday.

I received several books this week that I ordered:

  • Sisters in the Wilderness: the Lives of Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill by Charlotte Gray
  • Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie
  • Applied Genealogy by Eugene A. Stratton
  • Cradled in Sweden by Carl-Erik Johansson

The first two are about women who lived in Upper Canada about the same time my Gleeson and Tierney families lived there. I’m hoping to gain some historical context to add to any stories I write about them.

The book on applied genealogy was recommended by Tom Jones. The book on Swedish research was recommended by Jill Morelli. I have another book on Swedish research written by the people who created the old website Genline and it was very helpful with my earlier Swedish research. This book might help with other types of records besides the church records, especially those from the Family History Library.

Photos of the week: the four books that came in the mail.



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

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