My Trails into the Past

Outside activities included a hike at Mt. Diablo again, volunteering at OFSC, a bird count on Mt. Wanda, and a train club meeting.   Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I worked on the BCG webinar press release and will send it out this coming week. At the History Center, I got there after lunch and worked on entering books into the library database. On Wednesday, I volunteered at the Oakland FamilySearch Center. Genealogy Meetings:  Jacqueline and I did not meet this week. I attended the APG NorCal meeting and we merged with the Southern California group and selected a new logo. The Labor SIG met on Thursday this week and we had a great discussion in the 90 minutes about lots of different topics. Genealogy Writing/Research : I started a new surname for 12 for ‘26, beginning with my 2x-great-grandfather, Ebenezer Loveless. As I have done in past months, I first created a timeline with what records I already have collected. This week, I’ll finalize the full-text and n...

Full-text search has been a game-changer in genealogy research because it pulls up names and phrases in documents that have no index. I have found some great treasures using it in my own family research. However, after using it for the past year, I realized that not all records are searched using this new tool. So I have a strategy I use. First, use the FamilySearch catalog to get to the place of interest. Second, check the type of record you’re interested in and see if they are digital (ie. a camera is showing) and that they are not locked from home. If the camera is showing a lock, then full-text won’t show any results from those films while viewing from home. For the court records in Erath County, I see some of the films are locked and some are open from home. Third, check that the symbol of a sheet of paper with the + sign is showing. That means the film is full-text searchable. If there is no symbol, then those records won’t turn up in a search. In the image above, the last f...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's  Saturday Night  again -  Time for some more  Genealogy Fun! ! Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!): 1)  What automobile models did your ancestors have?  Pick an ancestor and share something about their cars. Thank you to Lisa Gorrell for this week's SNGF challenge topic. Here's mine: I created a book about our parents, Bill & Lea Hork, and gave it to all my siblings and their children. This is an excerpt from the book about the cars they owned. We were not well off and rarely had a new car. I remember some of the cars Bill and Lea owned but I do not have photos of all of them. I located photos online for illustration. Chevy When our parents were married in 1952, Bill was driving a 1948 Chevy. Here is a shot of them leaving on their honeymoon. Leaving on the honeymoon in the 1948 Chevy Chevy Wagon Sometime before 1963 or 64, they h...

A question that cannot be answered yet. I am not even sure it is a valid question. In my notes, my husband’s aunt, Ada Gorrell Thomason, wrote a note about her great-grandmother, Philippina Wollenweber. “She lived in Wertenberg [Württemberg], Germany.  Two lawyers came to see her in Jeffersonville [Indiana] about an estate in Germany.  She would not sign papers. no one knew why -- may have been cruel to her.  She made a fair living sewing for soldiers (navy blue flannel).” [ 1] Let’s break apart each of the facts as best we can. It is true that she was born in Württemberg, and it makes sense that Ada would spell the place phonetically. [2] Philippina lived in Jeffersonville from about 1870 to about 1907. [3] So, a lawyer coming to Jeffersonville makes sense. Lastly, the part about her sewing for soldiers can be broken down as well. Her occupation in 1900 was a seamstress. [4] There was a Quartermaster Depot in Jeffersonville that was active especially du...

Outside activities included a hike at Mt. Diablo and a trip to a model railroad convention in Rohnert Park.     Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I inventoried and rehoused the current items in Dean’s collection and spoke to the volunteer who is working on Betty’s collection. Genealogy Meetings:  Jacqueline and I met and we discussed her updated work on the book about her dad. I hosted Roundtable and also met up with the renewal accountability group, where Carol and I talked about my Wollenwebers. Genealogy Writing/Research : I continued working on the Voehringer family this week, finishing up the last post about Philippina’s siblings, who also immigrated. Blog Posts Published: The Tradition of Pancake Breakfast For the theme of “tradition,” I wrote about my childhood breakfast of pancakes and what we did with our children. 12 for ’26: The Family of Philippina Wollenweber geb. Voehringer I focused the last post of April on Philippina’s siblings and mothe...

This is the last post for the April families (Wollenweber & Voehringer), though a day late. But I wanted to get the last piece posted, after doing all the work. The previous post about Philippina, my husband’s 2x-great-grandmother, covered her timeline from her 1834 birth and baptism in Württemberg to her 1913 death and burial in Louisville, Kentucky. There were hints to some of her family who also immigrated to the United States. In the small village of Unterhausen in Schwarzwald, Württemberg, lived her parents, Johan Adam Vöhringer and Maria Agnes Reiff . To them were born eight children. [1] Philippina was the second child and was named the same as the deceased first child, Philippina Margaretha. [2] The church has family registers that list the couple at the top, then their children below. There are reference pages to other families, for example, the husband might be linked to his parents’ page, and the children once married, will be linked to their own family page. ...