My Trails into the Past

It’s been 5 years since the first lockdown due to Covid-19. Although I am still as cautious as we should be for any illness, I won’t count down the time anymore.  The only reason to make note of my outside activities is to show that I do more than sit at a computer all day. Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:    Since this was the second week of the month, I had several meetings on Monday, first starting with my renewal accountability group at 8 am. Our NGS convention meeting was canceled, so I was able to attend the Kinseekers military SIG meeting. Jacqueline and I met later in the afternoon. Sunday, I attended book club and our group discussed Wanderers: A History of Women Walking. Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I volunteered twice at the History Center. On Tuesday, I was there from 1 to 4 pm and closed the center, since our director was ill. I opened the next day and worked until 2. I worked on accessions, recording them in our notebook and on PastPerfect. I also worked on proces...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's Saturday Night again -  Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to: 1)  Legacy Family Tree Webinars provides free and/or subscription education to genealogists every week.  What were your favorite webinars over, say, the past 3 months? 2) Tell us about your favorite Family Tree Webinars in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a link on this post if you write your own post. Here's mine: To start, because I am a Certified Genealogist, I have a free account with Legacy Family Tree Webinars. But even before being certified, I was a member because I valued the many webinars found on their website and that membership has access to the handouts. I used to wait for the 50% off sale to renew and that’s a real bargain. I keep track of the webinars I view in an Excel spreadsheet. This helps me now answer this question as I can look back to th...

In August 1908 at the age of 27, Harold H. Goe applied to work for the Anaconda Copper Company, better known as the ACM. He had attended the Colorado School of Mines and previously worked in Boulder and Denver, Colorado, before coming to Anaconda, Montana.[1]  His first job at the company was with the surface department at the Reduction Works. Six months later he transferred to the testing department and worked there until 1912.[2] In the same year, he married my great-aunt, Helena Marie Sullivan, who was known as Nellie, in Portland, Oregon, where she was living with her grandparents, John and Margaret Gleeson.[3]   He next worked at the laboratory from 1912 to 1915 and then the Brick Department as the superintendent. He claimed he was a metallurgical Engineer.[4]   Several articles were found at the Internet Archive and HathiTrust that mentioned a patent awarded to Harold for a brick machine that makes taper bricks using a combination of an upper die with an i...

I have completed two hundred and fifty-nine (259) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My outside activities were a birding trip on Monday, a trip to the History Center on Tuesday, and a trip to Salt Lake City Wednesday through Saturday. I wore a mask in the airport, on the plane, and in super crowded rooms at RootsTech.  Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:    Jacqueline and I met to discuss last-minute plans for our trip to Salt Lake City.  Genealogy Volunteer/Work: At RootsTech, I volunteered at the BCG booth three times and was filmed for promo for the upcoming NGS conference. I did a lookup in microfilm at the FamilySearch Library for an acquaintance.  Genealogy Writing/Research: I spent nearly two days at the FamilySearch Library, working on the Coor family in Erath County, Texas, and the Gorrell family in Jackson County, Ohio. I love using the three-monitor set up at the library. I have a system of how I capture all the information from full-text searches. Fi...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's Saturday Night again -  Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment tonight (well, Sunday morning) from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to:.  1)  'Twas the week of RootsTech 2025, and all through the house, the genealogists were checking their RootsTech schedule.  What classes did you absolutely love this week?  2) Tell us about your favorite RootsTech 2025 classes in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a link on this post if you write your own post. Here's mine: I was fortunate this year to attend RootsTech in person. It was touch and go the few days before because I seemed to have a mild case of the flu. Maybe flu vaccinations work! I attended a total of six sessions, three each on Thursday and Friday, and spent all day Saturday at the FamilySearch Library until it was time to head to the airport and home, hence, why this is being written on Sunday. I wrote a...

We woke up to snow on the ground from an overnight storm. There wasn’t much and the sidewalks weren’t too icy. My first session was learning about resources in Kentucky from Susan Court, a member of the Kentucky Genealogical Society, “Kentucky's Public and Publicly Available Records.” She had so much to talk about that she ran out of time, but her syllabus and slides are available for download.  The second session was from Tim Bingaman on “Keys to Researching in Pennsylvania.” We learned about the typical resources, the dates vital records are available, and places where to conduct on-site research. During the lunch break, we visited the exhibit hall. I stopped at the Kentucky Genealogical Society’s booth to add stickers to their map of where my ancestors lived. I visited the Viking Cruises booth and spoke to an agent about river cruises in Germany. I played two games at other booths and won prizes, including a cell phone desktop holder. I stopped by the NGS booth and gave Gena ...

I was up bright and early, as always happens to me in a new location. The first sessions began at eight, so we were on our way to the convention center by 7:30. Our plan was to view sessions that were presented live and not recorded. The recorded sessions we could view when we got home. Hopefully, Facebook friends will talk about the sessions they enjoyed seeing live-streamed. The first session was to listen to Rick Sayre's presentation “Finding your World War I or WWII soldier.” His 14-page syllabus is filled with advice on methodology and has many links to online sources. I thoroughly enjoyed it. He was also giving another session on the National Archives, but I was working the BCG booth, so missed it. The second session was Judy Russell’s talk called “In That Case: Using Published Court Cases.” She showed us the two websites Case.law and CourtListener and the kinds of information we might find in these published cases. The third session was Michael Lacopo’s “I am Poor, Obscure...