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Monday Genea-pourri, Week of September 16–22, 2024

I have completed two hundred and thirty-six (236) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. Outside home activities involved my volunteering at the History Center, phenology, going to the lab to draw blood, and attending the memorial for my dear friend of over 50 years, Hugh Harvey.

Genealogy

Genealogy Meetings:  
At our weekly Zoom meeting, Jacqueline and I talked about our upcoming research trip to Salt Lake City and possible publishing programs for the computer. I attended the OFSC monthly meeting on Zoom.

Genealogy Writing/Research:
This week I finished both the article on planning for a research trip for the CGS Nugget and the article on preserving photos, slides, film, and videos for SGGS Der Blumenbaum. Both should be published within a month or two.

I worked on and submitted the pre-work for the upcoming SLIG course, Assemblage: Preparing, Writing, and Revising Case Studies, coordinated by Jan Joyce. This course begins Wednesday, October 9, and it means I’ll miss seven weeks of hiking with the Wednesday Walkers. I will have to get some walking in on another day. Hopefully, I can find flowers to photograph.

Blog Post Published:

A Symbol on a Tombstone Leads to Research into Its Meaning. For 52 Ancestors’ theme of “Symbol,” I wrote about the type of tombstone for my great-grandmother that was shaped like a tree trunk. This was highlighted both in the 52 Ancestors weekly email and on Linda Stufflebean's Friday's Family History Finds.

SNGF: Were Your Parents Related to Each Other? This meme was easy to answer. Both my parents and my husband’s parents were not related to each other.

Genealogy Volunteer/Work:
The Pleasant Hill Historical Society Collection is not quite finished but I have replaced old folders with new ones and sorted through the five boxes of school materials. The next step is to understand the boxes another volunteer put together so I can write up the finding aid.

I also met with NGS about the upcoming conference and finalized the schedule so contracts could be sent out. We will begin meeting bi-weekly probably until the conference in May.

Webinars/Courses Viewed:
I watched the two recorded sessions of the SLIG course, Advanced Study of Death, coordinated by Gena Philibert-Ortega, as I missed it because of the memorial I attended.

I also viewed the following webinars:

  • A Myriad of Slavery Databases by LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson (BCG/LFTWebinars)
  • Ephemera: Scraps of Your Ancestor's Life by Gena Philibert Ortega (SCCHGS)
  • Adding Citations to Document Images by Diana Elder (Research Like a Pro)
  • Practical Chromosome Mapping: Gaining Insights From Segments of DNA by Jonny Perl (LFT Webinars)
  • Streamline Your Research and Writing Workflow with Scrivener by Kimberly Powell (APG Writers SIG)

Other:
I did not hike with the walking group this week as I was a little under the weather. There was no volunteering at the Oakland FamilySearch Center either as they were paving the parking lot. I started the German class again. We will be reading a new book Miss Merkel by David Safier that our German teacher purchased in Germany this past summer. The memorial for my friend Hugh was very nice with his sister and three of his friends telling nice stories about him.

I am reading:

  • Shadow of His Hand: a Story Based on the Life of Holocaust Survivor Anita Dittman by Wendy Lawton—FINISHED!
  • Journeys of the Forgotten: The Orphans of Hamilton County, Iowa by Jill Morelli
  • Yours Truly: An Obituary Writer’s Guide to Telling Your Story by James R Hagerty

Photos for this week.
These photos were taken at Strentzel Meadow, a portion of the John Muir National Historic Park site, where I do the weekly phenology study. Two photos are of the seeds of the narrow-leafed milkweed plant, one is of aphids on the milkweed, and the other photo is of a snowberry fruit.




Genealogists are great at documenting our ancestors’ lives but not so great at 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 © 2024 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

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