Monday Genea-pourri, Week of April 16-22, 2018

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

Saturday we had the memorial service for Thelma Gorrell, my husband’s mother. The service at Northminster Church in Sacramento went very well with Peggy officiating. I read some readings that Thelma picked out. Several people spoke up about memories of Thelma that made us smile and cry. At the reception, we viewed a beautiful power point tribute created by her niece, Maddy. It was a nice way to have our final good-bye.

Genealogy

Blog Writing: I wrote this week’s 52 Ancestors post about Emil Carlson’s poem about his feelings after his wife died. Also wrote a On This Day post about my parents’ 65th wedding anniversary.

Class/Webinars

I attended four webinars and discussions this week:

• the laws of war, especially the Civil War, by Judy G. Russell
• writing for the APG Quarterly with the APG Writers SIG by Mary Penner
• making your case with DNA and documents by Patti Lee Hobbs
• the Black Pro Gen Live discussion about Tennessee research

CCCHS History Center. Completed several queries and worked on some on the finding aid.

BCG Cert Discussion Group: We had no discussion this week. I have studied past research reports to see if any are suitable for the portfolio. I probably need to find a new project.

Own Family Research: I worked on my great-uncle John Cyril Sullivan. I still want to find his service record, what might still be available after the 1973 fire. I had requested before but they said there was no record. What I did this week was create a complete timeline about his life—forcing myself to review what I already knew. In the process I found he enlisted under the name Jack Cyril Sullivan. So I send a letter back asking them to check under that name. Fingers crossed.

Family History Library Trip. Sunday was the beginning of the California Genealogical Society’s trip to Salt Lake City and the Family History Library. Six of us left Oakland on Delta and arrived to warm Salt Lake City weather. We visited Harmon’s grocery store for some snacks and later everyone met at the Olive Garden for our first group dinner. It was a success. The conversations at the dinner were lively and it will be a great trip.

2018 CGS SLC Trip participants at Olive Garden

Copyright © 2018 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.