My Trails into the Past

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)  Every historical person has major events, milestones and "turning points" in their life, from birth through death and even beyond.  These events, milestones and turning points can be the basis for family stories of the historical person. 2)  Please share one of those events in your own life, or the life of one of your ancestors.  Here's mine: One turning point in my life was figuring out what I was going to do with my life after graduating from college with a degree in Biological Sciences. I really didn’t want to go out in the working world. I liked college, taking classes, and learning new stuff. My job at the college library was fun. In fact, I was enrolled to work on a second major of Geography. Besides, there were no jobs to be had. We were in a ...

Outside activities included phenology, History Center, hike, and anniversary party for my niece.   Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I volunteered twice at the History Center again this week. Traci and I worked on the Betty Maffei collection on Monday and on Tuesday, I entered books into the library database and shelved them. Genealogy Meetings:  Meetings I attended this week were the CCCHS board meeting, an education committee meeting at CGS, NARA SIG, and Oakland FS Center meeting. I met Linda for tea and we had a great get-together talking about our projects and families.   Genealogy Writing/Research : I got in a little more writing this week, finishing up what I had started on Reuben Johnston, finishing up on the full-text search for him and his brothers, and introducing their parents Sam & Elizabeth Johnston. I also wrote a couple of proof summaries for the MGP class. Blog Posts Published: William Hutson “Hutts” Loveless Lived a Long Life For the ...

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) Do you have any records of your ancestors' schooling, such as report cards, yearbooks, or photos? 2)  If so, please share one of them and what you learned about your ancestor(s) from the article.   Thank you to Lisa S. Gorrell for this SNGF idea. Here's mine: We have my husband’s mother, Thelma Nilsen, report card for her 7th grade school year. [1] Report cards tell us how teachers thought the student did in each subject, not how much the student learned. This card is interesting because the citizenship grade is a large as the scholarship grade. I was surprised to see a report card without letter grades, especially in such a high grade level. She had no + in the scholarship section but did have + in responsibility, cooperation, and courtesy to teachers. This card was issued by the Elim Unio...

Outside act ivities included phenology, History Center, hike, and lunch in Orinda. Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I volunteered twice at the History Center again this week. I worked putting more items away on Tuesday, and on Saturday worked with entering collections into PastPerfect and the Online Archive of California. I led the writer’s group and we discussed Margaret’s submission and talked about citations. Genealogy Meetings:  This week I met with my accountability group, military SIG, and two sessions of Level Up.   Genealogy Writing/Research : I have spent time writing but didn’t get much completed or published on the blog. Part of the reason is the two courses I’m taking during the week. Blog Posts Published: What to do about Multiple Sources for One Event For the them of “Multiples,” I wrote about how I analyze and correlate multiple sources and pieces of information. Highlighted by Linda Stufflebean and Randy Seaver. SNGF: An Unusual Newspaper Art...

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) Have you found an unusual, chilling, amazing, or fascinating newspaper article about your ancestors?  2)  If so, please share the article and what you learned about your ancestor(s) from the article.  Provide a source citation too! Thank you to Lisa S. Gorrell for this SNGF idea. Here's mine: Several years ago, I visited the Pittsburg (Calif) Historical Society to write an article for the Contra Costa County Genealogical Society’s newsletter. I had a regular column highlighting local research resources. I was super surprised to find my mother’s names listed in a newspaper index. We lived in Pittsburg from about 1956 to 1963. It seems my mother was involved with the Junior Woman’s Club in Pittsburg and she was mentioned on various committees as each year these were chosen. Of course, she wasn’t...

Sometimes our genealogy database is not completely clean and tidy. I might know a fact’s date down to the minute. I might not know the exact place an event took place. Different records that name our ancestors might give us different answers to a research question. So, what do we do? Enter all the different dates into our database? Pick the best one and ignore the rest? This is where following the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) helps us answer this. [1] For a reminder, the GPS asks us to first do reasonably exhaustive research, while recording source citations for each item we find. We also must analyze each document and the information we find in the document to understand the source of the information. If we get conflicting information, and that is common when we find different dates for an event, we work at resolving the conflict, hoping to get close to the correct answer. And lastly, we write up our conclusions and share them. [2] When we have multiple information pieces tha...

Outside activities included phenology, History Center, day trip to Berkeley, a movie, and garage sales. Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I worked two afternoons at the History Center again this week, working with the library database on Tuesday and attending a meeting about processing the Maffei collection. I did a birth certificate pull for my long-standing client. Genealogy Meetings:  This week I had meetings with Jacqueline, the CGS education committee, APG Golden State Chapter, and the Labor SIG.   Genealogy Writing/Research : I did not write much this week, except for the homework in the Mastering Genealogical Proof class I’m taking and the 52 Ancestors & SNGF blog posts. I started working on the Johnston family and did a little research and writing during the one Level Up session I attended. Also, my daughter is visiting and we spent time together. Blog Posts Published: Can Samuel Johnston’s 1850 Mississippi Neighborhood Help Locate His Alabama &...