My Trails into the Past

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 tend to steer away from anything that would be frightening to me. I do not watch horror movies or read horror books. I have watched a few movies that scared me, not in a frightening way, but left me scared for the people in the action. Such as the runaway train in Silver Streak and the first scenes in the Indiana Jones movies. So this topic is a tough one for me. Instead, because it is also Halloween week, I thought I would share photos from Halloween parties my parents used to have. Some of the costumes were frightening! This was from 1993: Sister, Sabrina & her husband, Steve My brother, Steve and his daughter, Krissy   My dad as a nun with son-in-law, Mike My aunt, Lorene and brot...

Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun .   Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!): 1) Go take the Hallowe'en Personality quiz at http://www.blogthings.com/whatsyourhalloweenpersonalityquiz/ 2) Post your answers on your own blog, as a comment on this blog, or on your Facebook page. 3) Tell us if this is "right on" or not. Have fun with it! My answers from the quiz are: A bit of an introvert, you like the special occasions just as much as everyone else. You just have your own unique way of celebrating Halloween.   Sneaky and devious, people should really watch out for you. You are usually underestimated and forgotten. Your inner child is curious, brainy, and maybe even a little gross. You fear those closest to you finding out who you really are. You dread people discovering your secrets. You're logical, rational, and not easily affected. Not a lot scares you... especia...

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. We often learn about the cause of someone’s death from a death certificate. The doctor fills out this portion, often using cursive handwriting and using medical terms that are hard to discern. I’m always happy to find a death certificate that has been typed! Following the causes of death throughout our ancestral line can be helpful in tracing our health history. My parents: Father : Myocardial Infarction (10 min) and Coronary Artery Disease (30 mos). Actually he had that for 30 years. What the death certificate doesn’t say is he was found dead in his home and may have been dead a couple of days. He was found on Saturday and last seen on Wednesday evening. He was 77. Mother : Cardiac Arrhythmia (min) due...

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 Family Research . Not much went on with my own family research this week. A delayed birth certificate came from Davison County, South Dakota for my great-uncle, Jack Sullivan. I need to scan it before entering the data into RootsMagic. Because there had been no birth records in the 1880s in South Dakota, he needed affidavits to complete the certificate. That is the most interesting part of the certificate. More on it later! SLIG Virtual Practicum . Our second session was this week, where we learned how close we were on the homework. I got the right answer but missed some resources. We then got the next research project that will be due next Friday. Blog Writing : I wrote two blog posts this week: This week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks was ...

Here is our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing : 1)  How did you get to your school(s) through high school? 2)  Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or on Facebook or Google+.  Please leave a comment on this post with a link to your post . My first years were in Pittsburg, California, until we moved in Spring of my Third grade year. Kindergarten. I am not completely sure how I got to school in the early years. I attended Kindergarten at the Pittsburg Primary School. It was three blocks away and my mother did not drive. My guess, we walked there. There would have been a stroller coming along, too, because I had two younger brothers, aged 3, and 1. First through mid-Third grade . I attended St. Peter Martyr School at 560 Montezuma Street. I imagine someone drove me to school, perhaps my grandmother. I do remember walking to school with my brother, so that would have been my third grade year, as he was two years behind me. W...

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 Family Research . Since I turned in my certification portfolio, I have felt a little off course. I’m not sure what I  should focus my attention on next. Perhaps I’ll look at my southern families in preparation for the SLIG class in January on Advanced Southern Research. I do have small projects that I had started: my Aunt Lorene’s civil service records need to be organized finish reading the book about the 4th Engineers in WWI to learn about what my Great-uncle Jack did scan some paper items file some paper items process many folders of images from previous research at the Family History Library Looks like I have found plenty to do! Blog Writing : Blog posts I wrote this week: This week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks was ab...

It's Saturday Night again - time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Randy’s assignment this weeks is: 1)  What sporting activities did you participate in as a youth and as an adult? 2)  Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or on Facebook or Google+.  Please leave a comment on this post with a link to your post. Thank you to Lisa Gorrell for suggesting this SNGF topic. Thanks, Randy for choosing my topic. I don’t know if the timing is good or bad. This week’s 52 Ancestors category was Sports and I wrote about my two grandmothers, grandfather, father, and my sporting activities. I only wrote a little—just what I had a photo for. My first sport I remember playing was softball. There was a field two doors down from our house called Bertinoli’s field, as the family across the street owned the land. Later, when I was older, I realized it was just a small lot. But we were little—the oldest maybe 10, and only occasionally would anyone hi...

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 thought I’d write about my immediate family who were active with sports. I played softball in high school with the recreation department. In college at Cal State University Hayward, I played softball in Freshman year and badminton in my junior or senior year (can’t remember which). My schedule was too hectic with science labs to play much sports in college. My dad (William J Hork) played football in high school in Napa, California, and could through the ball with either hand. He watched it actively until he died. He like to keep statistics of all the teams. Both my grandmother’s played sports. Nana (Anna Sullivan Hork) played basketball, tennis, and volleyball in college (Montana Normal College)...

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 Intermediate Skills 2 . I’m teaching the class for the California Genealogical Society at the FamilySearch Library in Oakland and I have 15 students! We had our first class about cemetery and funeral home records. They seem excited to be in class and participated well. We’ll cover military records this week. Seminar . I attended the fall seminar with the Contra Costa County Genealogical Society, where we listened to Thomas MacEntee give four great talks. I got some great websites for searching for living people and I enjoyed both the lecture on collateral and cluster searching, and the Genealogy Do Over. His tips about spreadsheets were fantastic. A group of CGS members got together to take a photo. Thomas MacEntee at the CCCGS Seminar ...

It’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun! Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has another challenge for us: Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!): 1)  Ellen Thompson-Jennings wrote 20 More Questions About Your Ancestors and Maybe A Few About You this week and Linda Stufflebean thought it would be a great SNGF challenge.  I agree! 2)  Copy the questions from Ellen's post or from my post below, and insert your own replies.  Be sure to comment on Ellen's blog so she knows you wrote about it. 3)  Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or on Facebook or Google+.  Please leave a comment on this post with a link to your post. Q1:   Why do you love doing genealogy/family history? A1:   I loved researching in school, learning about new things, but I never liked writing the paper. I’ve learned that writing the paper is just as important. Q2:  How fa...

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. Ten: the number of children that John Gleeson and Margaret Tierney had, all born in Ontario, Canada. John and Margaret Gleeson are my second great-grandparents. All ten children grew to adulthood and there is no evidence that a child of theirs died in childhood. The first nine children were born about two years apart. However the last son, Francis was born five years after his sister, Margaret. It is possible there was a miscarriage or stillborn birth—just no record of any baptism. I have no photos of the whole family together, but do have photos of the five boys and the five girls. I can identify the youngest children but not the rest for sure. Their boys were: Martin Gleeson, John James Gleeson, Michael Pe...

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 finished four out of the five lessons for the Intermediate Skills 2 course I will be teaching in October & November at the Oakland FamilySearch Library on behalf of the California Genealogical Society. I plan to work on the fifth class after getting some input from the students so I can tailor it to their wants. I viewed only one webinar this week: “Methods For Identifying The German Origins of American Immigrants,” by Michael D. Lacopo, and participated in the DearMyrtle AmericanGen Study Group on Wednesday. We discussed researching online. I attended the Sacramento German Genealogical Society meeting and learned about using the State Library resources. This week my volunteer work was at the Oakland Family Search Center . I sat with...