My Trails into the Past

I left for Eugene, Oregon, on the Amtrak Coast Starlight on Monday evening and was picked up by Jacqueline Tuesday afternoon. I spent a lovely six days, and board the train back on Sunday afternoon, to arrive back home on Monday at 8 a.m.   Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: Wednesday, it rained all day and Jacqueline and I spent time on our computers, set up in the dining room. Actually I got in a little bit each morning and evening, when we weren’t doing other activities. I have the draft of the BCG Webinar for April written and approved and I will send it out on Tuesday. I received a request to pick up certificates and court records.    Genealogy Meetings:  I didn’t attend any meetings this week.  Genealogy Writing/Research : I began working on the Wollenweber family for April. I created a timeline for Matilda Wollenweber, as a start in discovering more that I can research on her. Next up would be her father, Ludwig “Louis” Wilhelm Wollenweber. I w...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's  Saturday Night  again -  Time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! O ur assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to: 1)  Family stories are often about "Turning Points" and "Major Decisions."   2)  This week, please describe a "Turning Point" in the life of one of your parents (or for both of them, or for grandparents).  Describe the decision, and discuss the outcome of it. Here's mine: A turning point in my father, and his sisters’ lives was when his mother and father separated sometime in the 1930s. They were living in Southern California. He was probably five or six, maybe even seven. I don’t know what year the split was. The 1937 Pomona city directory lists his dad, William Cyril Hork along with wife, Anna, at 215 ½ N. Euclid Avenue in Ontario. [1] By the 1940 census, they were listed apart. She lived at 236 East Foothill Road in Cucamonga, [2] while he lived at 215 ½ N ...

Because the timeline worked so well last month documenting G.W. Lancaster, I have decided to create a timeline first of what I know about Matilda Wollenweber. Then I can work on filling in any missing information. Some of the documents will need to be revisited as I do not have up-to-date links to them. Some may only have a microfilm number. Matilda Wollenweber is my husband’s paternal great-grandmother. Her daughter, Matilda Davey married Joseph Norman Gorrell, who were his grandparents. Matilda “Tillie” Wollenweber Timeline 1859    Matilda was born on 27 August 1859 to Ludwig Wilhelm Wollenweber and Philippina Veringer. She was baptized by Carl Ludwig Daubert, nearly a year later, on 22 July 1860 at St. Paul’s Evangelical Church in Louisville. [1] COMMENT: From a Wikipedia article, St. Paul’s German Evangelical Church was the first German Evangelical Church to be established in Louisville, being founded in 1836 by Rev. George Brandau. [2] She was baptized in the fir...

Lydia M. Polly was the mother of Martha Jane Polly Lancaster, who was married to George Wilson Lancaster, one of the focus ancestors of my 12 for ’26 in March. She is my 4x-great-grandmother and I do not know her maiden name. Working backwards, I have information about her from her tombstone, death certificate, and six census records from 1850 to 1910. I have no idea when she married Nathaniel H. O. Polly, though sometime around 1847. Let’s revisit the documents I have. This is often a way to find a flaw in the research or the thinking at the time I collected the documents. Maybe I will get a clue to investigate further. Death & Burial Records I have visited the Rockwall Memorial Cemetery where she is buried. Her stone, in the old section of the cemetery, is old with lichen, but readable. Her husband’s stone is newer and someone likely had it replaced. The stone reads: “L. M. POLLY Born Feb 24, 1828 Died Mar 27, 1912 Thy trials ended thy rest is won. God was thy ransom, t...