My Trails into the Past

This is a continuing story about the Official Personnel Folder for my great-aunt Beryl Johnston Russell. [1] See part 1 here . I had always known that my great-aunt Beb (that was what we called Beryl Johnston Russell) had worked for the federal government and lived in Greece. I had no idea who she worked for, but guessed it was the State Department. However, she worked first for the Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers. She had been working for the Bureau of Reclamation in Sacramento on the Central Valley Project. On 11 July 1948, she accepted the position of Clerk-Stenographer, CAF-4, at $2992.50 per month. This money included a differential to begin when departure from the U.S. Once at the Apergis Hotel in Kifissia, Greece, she filled out an application for employment in the Foreign Service of the United States. This is the best application as it had all of her previous employment history. It also had the addresses of the previous ten years. None of these addresse...

Today I received a thick envelope from the National Personnel Records Center for the civilian records of employment for my great-aunt, Beryl Johnston Russell Taylor. [1] It measured at one-half inch think, probably about 125 pages. I haven’t counted them yet but I have looked at every page. So how did I get this file? I wrote a letter to the National Personnel Records Center at the address in Valmeyer, Illinois asking for the Official Personnel Folder (OPF) of my aunt who worked for the federal government for about 30 years. I gave all of her names (she was married twice), her birth and death dates, and her Social Security Number. One of many of the forms in Beryl's file I had known little about her work. I knew that she worked a year or so in Greece after World War II (from her passport) and that she worked in Sacramento until her retirement (from her obituary). But I didn’t know what she did for a living. I will keep the pages in the order in which they came...

John E. Lundquist* enlisted as a private in Company C of the 4th Iowa Cavalry Regiment on 5 October 1861. He was thirty-six years old and was living at Lockridge township in Jefferson County, Iowa. [1] The companies of the regiment rendezvoused at Mount Pleasant, Iowa where they practiced until their assignment. [2] In February 1862, the regiment was transported by rail to St. Louis and then in March they traveled to Rolla, Missouri. Other movements occurred and they ended up on Arkansas. Company C had their first skirmish with the enemy on June 3. [3] Sometime near August 1862, John was sent to the hospital for sore eyes and later discharged from the army at Memphis, Tennessee in November. [4] He returned home and was unable to work for many months. The discharge papers also stated he had upper right arm paralysis. That would certainly make it difficult to do farming work. However, he did not apply for a pension until 1871. In his application letter, he stated he w...

This Christmas card is from 1970 and is a part of the Gorrell Photo Collection. George and Thelma Gorrell with their five children. I don't know the history behind the photo, but it looks like it was taken in a photo studio by the plain grayish background. The color has held up pretty well, though I tweaked it a bit in Photoshop Elements. Merry Christmas from the Gorrell Family! Copyright © 2016 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

Joseph Gorrell and Matilda Davey met at a boarding house in Kansas City, Missouri where they were both living. She was a maid at the Washington Hotel and lived at 1221 Broadway. [1] They obtained their marriage license on the 19th of December and were married on the same day by the Circuit Court Judge of Jackson County, Missouri. [2] On their application, they were living in different places: he lived at 1121 Central and she lived at 1207 Hasbrook Place. This differed from the city directory for 1900 but perhaps she had moved before the book was printed. Joseph was 31 years old and Tillie was 20. Then fifty-five years later, Joseph and Tillie celebrated their anniversary and it was written up in the newspaper. [3] The Joplin Globe printed lots of newsy articles about citizens of their community. This nice article gave the date of their marriage, the address they had lived in Webb City, the number and names of their four children, and the occupation of Joseph and soci...

Johannes Eliasson Lundquist was born 8 Aug 1824 in Grolanda, Skaraborg län, Vastergotland, Sweden to Elias Pehrsson and Kjerstin Ericsdotter. [1] He married three times in his lifetime. The first marriage was in his parish in Sweden. At the age of twenty-one, Johannes married Eva Charlotta Johansdotter, on 12 December 1845 in Fivlered Parish, Älvsborg län, Vastergotland, Sweden. [2]  They had at least three children: Josephina Alberina Wilhelmina, born 16 Sep 1846, Gustaf Adolph, born 23 Feb 1848, and Emile, born 26 Apr 1850. 1845 Marriage of Johannes Eliason Lundquist to Eva Charlotta Johannesdotter, Fivlered Parish The family immigrated to the United States in 1852, arriving in New York on 12 July. [3]  Sometime before 1856, Eva Charlotta died. According to a testimony from Johannes’ third wife, Charlotta died at Princeton, Illinois, prior to the Civil War. [4] A possible cause of death was cholera, during an epidemic. [5] The county clerk of Bureau C...

Five of my Gleeson and Sullivan ancestors applied for and received a patent on federal land in the Dakota Territory: John Gleeson, Martin Gleeson, John J. Gleeson, Ann Gleeson, and John Sullivan.  They all started as homestead applications. Homesteading involved three steps: filing the application, improving the land, and then filing the deed of title. [1] Here, John Gleeson of Davison County, Territory of Dakota, filed an application no. 14941 on 14 Dec 1880. [2] He also filled out a form swearing to the size of his family and that he had intentions of becoming a citizen of the United States. [3] In 1880, he claimed his family consisted of his wife and six children. He, in fact, had ten children. Three of them filed their own homestead applications: Martin, Ann, and John J. Gleeson. [4] The requirement of fulfilling the homesteading steps was to improve the property. They had to cultivate crops, build a dwelling 12 by 14 feet, and live continuousl...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has a new assignment this week.  Here is my assignment: 1) Who is your MRUA - your Most Recent Unknown Ancestor? This is the person with the lowest number on your Pedigree Chart or Ahnentafel List that you have not identified a last name for, or a first name if you know a surname but not a first name. 2) Have you looked at your research files for this unknown person recently? Why don't you scan it again just to see if there's something you have missed? 3) What online or offline resources might you search that might help identify your MRUA? 4) Tell us about him or her, and your answers to 2) and 3) above, in a blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a comment on Facebook or Google Plus. I don’t know the parents of my ancestor, Susanna Raduntz , who is no. 19. Susanna was born about 1832 possibly in Posen, Prussia. She married Vincent Siewert in Schneidemuehl, Posen, Prussia on 10 Feb 1850.  There are not many records in this area ...