My Trails into the Past

The 1912 Portland City Directory’s entry for Ethel Elizabeth Sullivan stated she was a student at B-W Business College. [1] Her address was 410 Ross which was the address of her grandparents, John and Margaret Gleeson. [2] Ethel is the sister of my paternal grandmother Anna Marie Sullivan. What was B-W Business College? The business section of the directory listing under colleges and schools at the back of the book listed Behnke-Walker Business College, located at 167 4 th Street. [3] On another page was a full-page advertisement for the school. [4] According to the ad, the college had “the most commodious, best-lighted and perfectly ventilated quarters. It had the largest and most complete equipment, with the greatest number of expert instructors and the most thorough and modern methods.” Behnke-Walker Business College A browser search brought up some more information about the college. The college was established in 1902. The training was for jobs in bookkeeping and shortha

I have completed two hundred and eighteen (218) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. I spent the week on vacation in Texas. To be safe, I wore a mask in the airport and on the plane coming home as both legs were full. Other than that, there were few crowds in North Texas. Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:   I hosted the APG NorCal chapter meeting on Tuesday evening from my hotel room. It went well, I think, and I had no connection issues. I skipped all my other meetings while on vacation. Genealogy Writing/Research: Research this week was mostly for Jacqueline in Fannin and Pontotoc Counties. I spent any free time processing and naming my files. I did visit the museum in Nocoma, Montague County, but didn’t find anything more for NHO Polly. On Friday, when we returned to Texas from Oklahoma, we visited Rockwall County, where their museum collections assistant brought out some items for me to view. I had seen one of the books at the Dallas Public Library but the other was new to me.

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's  Saturday Night  Again -  Time For Some More  Genealogy Fun!! Here is our missing from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings:  1)  When was the last time you had Genealogy Fun?  It could be research, conferences, a society meeting, or just talking with friends about your research, a favorite trip, etc.  Tell us about it! Here’s mine: Here I am in the Dallas Love Field awaiting for our flights home, writing this. I have just spent ten days doing the best genealogy fun. What can be more fun than traveling around the places where my ancestors lived? I have visited Dallas Public Library where I perused books from Dallas, Erath, Comanche, Rockwall, and Montague Counties. I looked and found deeds from Dallas County as well as court records from Dallas County for NHO Polly. After leaving Dallas, we spent a day in Stephenville, recording deeds from the index, and checking both probate and district court indexes, and then we went to Tarleton State U

I have completed two hundred and seventeen (217) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. I’m on vacation in Texas. To be safe, I wore a mask in the airport and on the planes, but not anywhere since. Few crowds as we are traveling in sparse North Texas. Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:   Jacqueline and I had a last-minute meeting to confirm a few things about our trip on Tuesday. Genealogy Writing/Research: I have done no writing except for the two blogs this week. However, I have done a lot of research. This time, the research was in person. Wednesday, we visited the Dallas Public Library and I looked at Dallas County deeds and Dallas County district court indexes. I also read through several books and took images of pages of interest. The main families I am interested in are Coor, Lancaster, and Johnston who lived in Erath County; Johnston and Hutson in Comanche County; and Polly who lived in Montague, Dallas, and Rockwall Counties. The Lancasters lived in Rockwall County, before E

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's  Saturday Night  Again -  Time For Some More Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings today is to:   1)  How complete is your family tree?  Do you have information about your cousins  - both close and more distant?  Today's challenge is to take one set of your 2nd great-grandparents and make a Descendants List (using your genealogy management program - e.g., Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic, etc.) Here’s Mine: I am in Texas on a road research trip. So, I’m showing the top of the 6-person descendancy charts for my four pairs of maternal 2x-great-grandparents. These are the families I am here researching. I’m only showing the top because it doesn’t take long for my list to show living people, especially in the 5 th and 6 th generations. As Randy said, these will be helpful to see if I have completed down to the sixth generation so I can match up with my DNA matches. Reuben M. Johnston & Olevia Jane Jone