Monday Genea-pourri, Week of June 7–13, 2021

I have completed sixty-five (65) weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. Besides going to the History Center twice and Phenology, I had a doctor’s appointment on Monday, an eye doctor’s appointment on Tuesday, and a visit to the emergency room on Friday. All were with masks. I also had a negative Covid test for a procedure that will be done on Tuesday.

Genealogy

Blog Writing:

52 Ancestors—Week 23: Bridge—Locating Proof of the Goe Family Playing Bridge From an interview with my aunt, I learned my grandmother’s sister and brother-in-law liked to play bridge and had wonderful bridge parties. Newspaper articles supported that claim.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – What Happened on Your Mother’s Birth Date?. There are websites that list events on particular days and I wrote about what happened on August 21 and some famous people who were born on that day. Bonus, I found the birth announcement of my mother in an August 31 issue of the Stephenville Empire-Tribune.

Online Study Groups & Meetings Attended: I attended the Monday Morning where 17 attended, Amigos with three of us, and as well as meeting with Jacqueline. Jacqueline and I are continuing our way through the Zotero book.

Webinars & Classes Attended:
I attended two presentations this week: Fold3 by Anne Gillespie Mitchell and about the Ellis Island Experience by Madeline Yanov.

Client Work/Presentations: I facilitated the California Genealogical Society’s board retreat on Saturday. It turned out very well and I learned some new tricks using Google Docs and Zoom.

Volunteer & Own Work:
At the History Center, I volunteered both on Tuesday in the AM and all day on Wednesday. Both days we had researchers make appointments and I helped with pulling items for them.

For my own work, I am working on recording deeds and mortgages for my ancestor, Ellis W. Lancaster in Lewis County, Missouri before his move to Texas. He sure bought and sold a lot of land. He also got some land from the federal government as patents that he never sold. I’m wondering if the land was too close to the Mississippi River and he just abandoned them. Unfortunately, the tract books for Missouri are missing, so I don’t have that resource to help. Someday, if I’m ever in Washington, D.C., I’ll pull the land docs for him.

Other: I did a little trimming of my California poppies where the seeds have already dried and popped. If I trim the plants down, they usually re-grow again with new blooms. Although, with this extremely dry year, I might have to water a bit, which I hate to do because of the drought.

We had our Rails By the Bay convention meeting this week and I took minutes. The countdown to the convention is three weeks.

I’m reading the following books: (I know, I’m crazy).

• The Family Tree by Karen Branan – FINISHED. Book club had the author and she was very interesting!
• Black Newspapers & America’s War for Democracy, 1914-1920 by William G Jordan
• Girl Waits with a Gun by Amy Stewart
• Researching and Writing History by David Dymond
• Zotero for Genealogists by Donna Cox Baker
  

Photos taken this week:

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.

 Copyright © 2021 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.