My Trails into the Past

This week, my outside activities included trips to the History Center and to the Pacific Coast Region of the National Model Railroad Association’s convention in San Luis Obispo. More about it below.   Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:    On Monday, I had multiple Zoom meetings: the CDG accountability group, the NGS conference committee, the CCCGS roundtable, and with Jacqueline.  Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I spent half a day at the History Center. Genealogy Writing/Research: The only writing I did this week was for the two blog posts. Blog Posts Published: Homes My Parents Lived In For the theme of “home, sweet home,” I wrote about the houses my parents rented or owned. I have photos of most of them.  SNGF: The Occupations of My 2nd-great-grandfathers I know most of the occupations of my 2x-great-grandfathers except for one. Webinars/Courses Viewed:  Is There a Doctor in the House? Researching Ancestors Who Were Physicians by Jane Neff Rollins (Ancestor See...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's Saturday Night again -  Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings’ assignment for us tonight: 1)  Our ancestors had to work to support themselves and their families.  Do you know what occupations your 2nd great-grandfathers had?  Tell us about them.  If one intrigues or mystifies you, ask a free Artificial Intelligence tool to tell you more about the occupation in that place and time. Here's mine: On my father’s side: Joseph Heinrich Horoch (1804-1857). I cannot read what his standing is on his death records. Vincent Sievert (1823-1890) first worked as a farmer and then as a stone cutter. Jeremiah Sullivan (1811-1888) first worked as a miner and then as a farmer. John Gleeson (1835-1915) first worked as a farmer and then as a hotel keeper. On my mother’s side: Reuben Johnston (1841-1924) worked as a farmer. Peter Hutson (1853-1930) worked as a farmer. William Carlton Lancaster (1873-1946) worke...

The earliest homes my parents, Bill and Lea, lived in are not completely known. After their marriage, the newspaper announcement stated they lived at 3418 Wren Avenue, which might have been Bill's mother's home.  For a wedding present, Lea’s parents, Tom and Pansy Johnston, helped purchase a home in Shore Acres housing development in West Pittsburg (now Bay Point). Below is Lea and Bill at the site of their home before its purchase. The address was 35 Wharf Drive. The purchase price is not known but Bill took out a mortgage with Bank of America for $6550. How Tom and Mam-ma helped them was probably with the down payment. If the down payment was 20%, the purchase price would have been about $8100. It is not known how long they lived there. Here they are holding me outside the home. It had a flat roof. Today the house looks completely different with new pitched roofs. There is no record of the sale of this house with the county recorder, so it is possible the bank repossessed the...

This week, my outdoor activities included trips to the History Center and the Oakland FamilySearch Center and flights to and from Seattle. I wore a mask in the airport and on the planes. Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:    On Monday, I met with Matt to go over what I need to do for the NGS conference while he is gone. I helped Jacqueline with reading and understanding Arkansas tax records at FamilySearch .   Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I worked on accessioning some new donations at the History Center. We got some large county ledgers of coroner records. A wonderful donation! On Thursday, I took the minutes at the Contra Costa County Historical Society board meeting. I had no researchers at the FamilySearch Center so I worked on getting more deeds from Erath County, Texas, using the full-text search in records that are locked from home. On Friday, I flew to Seattle and spent the weekend with Jill and Mary at Mary’s cabin, and we discussed Applied Genealogy Institute and ha...

In 1905, My grandfather’s sister, Ida Hork Colmann, and her husband, Martin J. Colmann, lived at the Manhattan Hotel in San Francisco. Martin was a partner in the business of manufacturing underwear at the Colmann & Fiel, located at 1429a Mission Street.[1]  The Manhattan Hotel was located at the junction of Market, Fell, and Polk Streets and run by John P Gallapher.[2] Here is a current map from Google Maps of the intersection of Market at Polk and Fell. I looked for a fire insurance map of the streets but that part of San Francisco wasn't available. Here is a map of the area of San Francisco that shows the area that was in the burned portion. https://data.sfgov.org/-/Areas-Damaged-by-Fire-Following-1906-Earthquake/yk2r-b4e8 The story passed down is Ida and Martin had to spend time in Golden Gate Park in tents.  A tent camp in Golden Gate Park, April 1906, after the Earthquake and fire.  Chronicle Archive 1906 By 1908, they were be found living on Pacific Avenue and ...

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)  What plans, or potential plans, do you have to pass your genealogy work to relatives and/or descendants, or posterity? Here's mine: My children at this time are not interested in genealogy research although they might be interested in any books I might write. I do have family letters and other historical documents. My goal is to do the following: I will put files of papers, historical papers, letters, etc. into purchased archival boxes.  Photos are being put in various-sized boxes for storage. Larger archive boxes will house some artifacts such as photo albums and scrapbooks. I will label each box well and create a sheet of possible places the boxes could be donated to if my heirs don’t want to keep them. Some of these archives are located in places where the ancestors originated from. I will pre-arrange the pos...

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...