My Trails into the Past

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing started this meme and I loved the idea. Genealogists are great at documenting our ancestors’ lives but not so great documenting our own. I’ll write about what I’ve been doing the past week. Genealogy 1. Genealogy Courses This week I atteded Rick Sayre’s Advanced Land Tools: Maps class at SLIG (Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy). We had five full days of classes and a banquet on Friday night. I learned so much about how to accessed maps online and offline, how to overlay old maps onto Google Earth, and how to plot land both on paper and in a program called DeedMapper . Check out my blog posts about my SLIG experience.     The week wasn’t just about class. I made some new friends, visited with old friends, read through several of the BCG certification portfolios, and purchased some new genealogy books. I got in some exercise each day walking back to the hotel from the library each afternoon. Some of the CGS members pre...

#SLIGExperience The theme for our Land class today was online maps. We learned about many different websites that house lots of images of maps. Some great sites are: Library of Congress National Archives National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Bureau of Land Management USGS David Rumsey’s Historical Map Collection to name a few good sites. State archives, libraries, and historical societies are also other great sites for historical maps. Screen shots of two sites we visited in the Family History Library lab: David Rumsey's Map Collection BLM website Here’s a map I found that was interesting—wish I noted which site I found it! This depicts the San Francisco Bay Another classmate and local genealogy society (California Genealogical Society). Laura Lee and me   I’m so excited by what we’ve learned so far! Copyright © 2018 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My ...

#SLIGExperience The second day at the Advanced Land Tools: Maps was fantastic! After learning all about migration routes, we worked on land platting. With protractors and rulers, and the land description, we were able to plat it out. It’s not so hard. Reminded me a lot of high school geometry class (which was my favorite math class). After learning to do it on paper, we went to the Family History Library computer lab and learned how to plat the same land using a program called Deedmapper . It’s a program I definitely want to buy. I walked back to the library, stopping first at the Salt Lake City Visitor’s Center and the gift store there. They have lots of neat stuff – some with “Salt Lake City” written on it, some candy treats, some jewelry, and books. Check it out. After dinner, I visited the Ancestry Pro Genealogists open house and had fun socializing with lots of SLIG participants and Ancestry employees. I even met a member of my local genealogy society I...

#SLIGExperience My syllabus and name tag along with this year's lapel pin I’ve completed first day of Advanced Land Records: Maps with Rick Sayre as the Coordinator. We also met our other instructors: Melinda Kashuba, Kimberly Powell, and Jerry Smith. The morning was an overview of what our week will be, plus Rick gave us an introduction to mapping America and a lesson on land division. After lunch we headed via bus to the Utah State Archives, where Melinda led a discussion about how to read maps and then we met in small groups to look at and analyze a few maps. Luckily we received a list of what to make notice of and to think about how the maps could help us genealogically. My team: Linda & Jane One of our maps we analyzed It was much fun seeing the variety of Utah maps that the archives have in their collection. I really love hands on activities. Copyright © 2018 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing started this meme and I loved the idea. Genealogists are great at documenting our ancestors’ lives but not so great documenting our own. I’ll write about what I’ve been doing the past week. Genealogy 1. Blogs Got caught up, writing future blog posts, since I would be in Salt Lake City for eleven days. This post was started and was added to during the week, to be published on Monday, January 22. Two posts were published on the 15th: ·          Mam-ma’s Southern Family : “Happy 7th Blogiversary!” ·          My Trails into the Past : “Monday Genea-pourri, Week of January 8-14” I also published a post for the “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.” The theme was longevity and I wrote about my grandmother and her uncle, who both lived to 100ish. https://mam-massouthernfamily.blogspot.com/2018/01/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks-week-3.html 2. Genealogy Courses I am working on th...

#SLIGExperience That’s what I’m writing about this week—my experiences at the 2018 Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. We had a great kick-off Sunday night with a welcoming reception with nice hors d’oeuvres. After introducing the SLIG staff and then all of the instructors for the 14 courses, we were treated to entertainment. I am taking Course 12: Advanced Land Tools: Maps. It is coordinated by Rick Sayre, cg . After quickly looking at the schedule, I can see that this will be a great course. This is my sixth SLIG experience. I love learning about a subject in depth. I love seeing old friends and meeting new ones. I look forward to the energy at SLIG Central. Better go to bed early—the week starts tomorrow! Copyright © 2018 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing started this meme and I loved the idea. Genealogists are great at documenting our ancestors’ lives but not so great documenting our own. I’ll write about what I’ve been doing the past week. Genealogy Although I was under the weather last week, I did work on the families that are part of my case study. I got an answer back from the Catholic church in Anaconda along with images of the baptism. It was just the one entry with no headings, but it was easily enough to figure out what the columns represented. On my portfolio work, I’ve made the decision that I’ll have to renew and extend another year. I enquired on how to do that, and now must send in another $75, which will give me until March 2, 2019 to finish up. The reason I have to extend, is even though I have about six weeks still on the clock, I have planned trips to Utah and Florida planned which will use up most of that time. My plan is to go back to working on it in earnest once we are back f...

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by  Amy Johnson Crow .  I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either  Mam-ma’sSouthern Family  or at  My Trails Into the Past . I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. This week the theme is "Favorite Photo." I don't know how anyone can pick just one favorite photo. I'm a photographer and I have many favorite photos that I've taken. I could never pick just one. I also have a large collection of photos taken by other family members. There are many favorite photos among those, depending upon who is the subject. I could write dozens of posts entitled "My Favorite Photo of XXX." (Hmm, now that might be a very good idea....) So for this week, I'm choosing one of my favorite photos taken of my youngest daughter and me. I'm not in many photos, since I'm usually the photographer. I have to remember occasionally to hand the camera to someone els...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing started this meme and I loved the idea. Genealogists are great at documenting our ancestors’ lives but not so great documenting our own. I’ll write about what I’ve been doing the past week. Family The memorial service for my aunt, June Stewart. It was held at Bonaventure Church in Clayton. First there was a rosary and then a Mass. I read the second reading. Father Aiden gave the homily. He thought of my aunt like a second mother. The Mass was very enjoyable because a large portion of the choir was there. I love singing. After the service, there was a luncheon of sandwiches and salads in the parish hall. It was so nice visiting with my cousins and their children. Afterwards, Bonnie arranged for family to have dinner at La Veranda Café in Clayton. It was a delicious Italian meal and wonderful to catch up with more of my cousins. My cousin, Bonnie, made the day very special. Here is a 2007 shot of my dad, Bill, with his sisters, Lorene, June, and ...

Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musing has another challenge for us. Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to: 1)  What was your best research achievement in 2017?  Tell us - show us a document, or tell us a story, or display a photograph.  Brag a bit!  You've earned it! 2)  We all have elusive ancestors.  What research problem do you want to work on in 2018?  Tell us where you want to research and what you hope to find. 3)  Put the answers in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post. 2017 Finds Oh, I wished I had kept track of all of my good finds. I’ll have to do better this year! I found good stuff on my Gleeson, Sullivan, and Lundquist families by researching from home, researching on location in South Dakota, and by having others do research or record pulls for me at recorder’s offices, historical societies, and courthouses. Since I am using t...

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow . I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’sSouthern Family or at My Trails Into the Past . I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. This first week is about “Starting.” How did I get started in this ever addicting activity? Susan Swindell, who was my two daughter’s babysitter, took a yearly trip to Salt Lake City at the Family History Library. I couldn’t understand how she could spend six days in a library doing genealogy research from the time it opened until it closed. So she took me to Sutro Library in San Francisco. This library is part of the California State Library but has resources that are great for genealogists. At the time it was in its own building, but now it is on a floor of the library at San Francisco State University. There she showed me how to look up census records on microfilm. I started with the 1920 census, as it was ...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing started this meme and I loved the idea. Genealogists are great at documenting our ancestors’ lives but not so great documenting our own. I’ll write about what I’ve been doing the past week. Genealogy I got mentioned in two blogs on the same day! Judy G. Russell thanked me for taking her bird watching and a drive up to the top of Mt. Diablo last September.  Gena Philibert-Ortega mentioned my suggestion in her blog post on the GenealogyBank blog post. She wrote about New Year’s resolutions and I had suggested “Create something to share with your family to ensure your research lasts to the next generation.” I was behind in my client’s work and got out his research report to him on Thursday. He is liking the stories that I find and authorized the continuation. One of his line of ancestors were from Massachusetts. This is a new area for me. For the next round, I’m returning to another line that were still in California and work on them awhile, w...