My Trails into the Past

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. This idea came from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing, who started this meme. Genealogy Presented at the Sacramento German Genealogical Society on the topic of Focused Research: Using Research Plans. I was a little nervous at first but then got right into it. The recording is available at their website for thirty days. Presenters also come in early for their study group and a couple of people sat at my table. When we have big name speakers, the table is usually over-flowing. Participated in the Certification Peer Group on our way down to L.A. using my phone. I like meeting better on the computer. We continued talking about case studies, using the tips from the BCG Action Group mailing list. Participated in the DearMyrtle study group, AmericanGen on Wednesday. These are now twice a month and we finished up chapter 7. I also we...

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. This idea came from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing, who started this meme. Genealogy I helped a researcher who came into the History Center this week to do some research in court records on men from China. She actually found quite a bit of information in our loose files. We had a very nice conversation with Tom Jones at our Writers SIG meeting. He gave us some great tips about writing and editing. What I took away from the talk: write about the person, not the research. Find the theme and weave that into the story: introduce it, draw it out in the narrative, and then end with theme. Watched a webinar about numbering genealogies, given by Alice Vogt Veen and then made more changes to my numbering in my KDP.  I have decided that I’m done making changes. It still matches the examples in Numbering Your Genealogy but I lea...

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’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Pas t . I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. Who is or was musical in our family? My daughter, Margaret, plays the piano, sings, and dances, as well as acts. Her favorite music is show tunes. In junior high and high school, she played percussion instruments. Her grandmother, Thelma, sang in the St. Stephen's Church choir for over fifty years. She also loved classical and opera music. She had such a strong diaphragm from singing that she could blow up air mattress in no time at all. My father-in-law’s uncle, Fred J. Davey, was a music teacher who played trombone and led the church orchestra and the Odd Fellows band in Springfield, Missouri. My paternal grandmother, Anna Sullivan, was in her college Glee Club. She later was ...

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. This idea came from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing, who started this meme. Genealogy Attended  Gena Philibert-Ortega’s  presentation at the Sacramento Public Library on Sunday about how to use  Internet Archive . I have used the site before but picked up a few tips from her today such as getting a library card so I can “check out” books that are not freely downloadable. Made more progress on my certification portfolio. I returned to the KDP to correct my numbering after reading Warren Bittner’s article in the latest NGS Quarterly , where he showed the numbering system for foreign-born ancestors. We discussed it some during our certification peer group meeting. Examples could be found in the old BCG Standards book. We all got into the classes we wanted for 2019 SLIG. Flew to San Diego to attend the Team Leader m...

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’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past . I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. Last week I wrote about my aunt, Lorene E. Hork Waldron, who spent a year in Japan working as a civil servant for the U.S. Army in Tokyo. She wrote many letters home to her mother, and two sisters, Virginia, and June. The family saved the letters and they were given to me in two old cloth-bound binders. One about her time in Japan, and the other about her travels west to Europe on her way home with three girlfriends, Anne Ankers, Mitzi Seale, and Donna Oehm. The first letter was a postcard saying  “Leaving Tokyo Aug 31. Arrive Bangkok approximately 25 Sept. Write there c/o American Express. Letter following. SIG: Lorene.” She sailed on a freighter that loaded freight at Osaka, Kobe, Moji before leaving for ...

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. This idea came from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing, who started this meme. Genealogy Made some progress on my certification portfolio. I spent this week proofreading the KDP, first for spelling and grammar errors and then reviewing each of the citations. I added some photos to make it visually more appealing. Five of us met in the certification peer group and shared our progress and lack of progress on our portfolios. It was nice hearing about Dennis’ class at GRIP. At the history center , I started on a house history by first doing deed research, working my way back to find the first buyer. The client is interested in learning who built her house. I also attended the presentation of the interview with Betty, who was the first executive director of the center. It was very interesting learning how the archives all started. ...

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!): 1) What year was one of your great-grandparents born?  Divide this number by 100 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number." 2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an "ahnentafel" - your software will create this - use the "Ahnentafel List" option, or similar). Who is that person, and what are his/her vital information? 3) Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the "roulette number." 4) Write about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook status or a Google Stream post, or as a comment on this blog post. My great-grandfather Johan Anton Hork, was born 9 November 1843. Divide by 100 gives me the round number of 18, which is Vincent Sieve...

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’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past . I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. I have several independent, unmarried great-aunts, two of whom I’ve already written stories. My paternal aunt, Lorene E. Hork Waldron, was also a very independent woman who married late in life. She was our “fun” aunt. She had no children, but loved to pay attention to us. After World War II, she worked for one year in Tokyo, Japan, for the U.S. Army. We know about her activities in Japan through the letters written home to her mother, and to her two sisters, Virginia and June. She left in early March 1952. The first letter is dated 9 March 1952 and she wrote of the first few days at sea. She claimed she “hadn’t been sick yet but had her thunder mug available just in case.” There were 2500 people on board, ...

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. This idea came from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing, who started this meme. Genealogy At the History Center , I attended the presentation on our new database program, PastPerfect, given by Scott to all of the volunteers who could attend. They have made good progress so far—the maps have been added so far. A new query came in about the history of her house in Kensington. Will work on that next Tuesday. I contacted a previous client about permission to use the research report for the certification portfolio and she has given me permission. I have just one more element to finish. Yeah! It would be nice to finish it up and send off before our trip to England. I attended two webinars live this week: The first webinar of the new Virtual Genealogical Society : “Future Trends in the Genealogical Industry,” by Thomas MacEntee. ...