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 Blog Writing : I wrote the following blog posts this week: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks  For week 8, I wrote the family photos of the Nils Malkom Nilsen family in Hilmar, California. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun . I wrote about my first trip to Sutro Library.   Webinars/Study Groups Attended:   I attended: “Applying Evidence to Genealogical Research Questions,” by Melissa Johnson, CG for BCG “Online Sources for French Genealogy, Part I” by Paul Woodbury for Legacy FamilyTree Webinars “Constructing Clear Citations” by Tom Jones, CG for APG Writers SIG Our  Cert Peer Group  did not meet because too many of us were unavailable. Two volunteer gigs this week at the History ...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - time for some more Genealogy Fun !! Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has another wonderful challenge for us this weekend: Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music!), is to: 1)  Jacqi Stevens recently suggested, in her blog post "The Networks of Life," the question "How did you get started in researching your genealogy?" 2)  This week, let's tell our "getting started in genealogy research" story. 3)  Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a comment on this blog post to lead us to your answers. I have written about the origins of my genealogy research. My friend, Susan, took me to Sutro Library in San Francisco so I could see what all this genealogy research fuss was. She was my children’s babysitter when they were young and every winter I would have to find a substitu...

This is my second year 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 have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. I have shared many family photos on my blogs, so trying to find one that has not been shared before was tough. Nils Malkom Nilsen was my husband’s great-grandfather. He emigrated to America in 1889. [1] He married his first wife, Ida Christina Svensson in 1890, [2] but she and her young son passed away in 1891. [3] He returned to Sweden and returned to America with Hulda Charlotte Anderson-Carlson, to whom he married in Youngstown, Ohio, on 20 May 1893. [4] They had six children: Nils Arthur Nathaniel, Carl David Harry, Joseph Andrew Walter, Ernest Gedion Ferdinand, Berger Malcolm Sylvania, and Esther Hulda Victoria. This photo was probably taken in Hilmar, California, where Nils Malkom was pas...

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 Blog Writing : I wrote the following blog posts this week: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks For week 7, I wrote about the name “Loveless” for the theme of Love. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun . I wrote about how my grandparents met.   Webinars/Study Groups Attended:   I participated in: AmericanGen Study Group with DearMyrtle about Chapter 19 “Government Land Records” Wacky Wednesday Monday Morning Group of Contra Costa County Genealogical Society   Presentations : I presented at two genealogy venues: Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society on “Tips for Breaking Down Brick Walls” Concord Family History Center on “Focused Research: Using Research Plans” Our Cert Peer Group met and we discussed how to determi...

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 Blog Writing : I wrote the following blog posts this week: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks For week 6, I wrote about “surprise” which was the awarding of honorary life membership to the PTA to my grandmother, Anna Sullivan Hork. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun : We wrote out our longest married ancestors. My children had several who were married more than 50 years. I also wrote a “On This Day” blog post about the birth of my great-grandmother, Nell (Hutson) Johnston. I forgot to mention the “ On This Day ” post I did last Sunday about my 2x-great-grandfather, Joseph Heinrich Horoch’s baptism. Lastly, I did a guest post on Cheri Hudson Passey's blog, Carolina Girl Genealogy .  The title was "Tuesday's Tips-Lisa Gorrell, CG~Preparing fo...

Our assignment tonight from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing : Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music!), is to: 1)  Marcia Philbrick wrote Celebrating 50 Years today on her Heartland Genealogy blog, and suggested it for a Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge, so here it is: 2)   How many of your ancestors were married for FIFTY years?  What is the longest marriage of your ancestors in your tree (from marriage to first death of a spouse, or divorce)?  Consider, say, the last 6 generations to make it manageable!   3)  Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a comment on this blog post to lead us to your answers. By focusing on only our ancestors, I was able to make this manageable. I research my children’s ancestors so I will make the list based on that. their paternal ancestors are written in blue, maternal in green. Parents Norman Gorrell...

Nell Hutson was my paternal great-grandmother.  She was born either 8 February 1888 as was written on her tombstone [1] or 1889 which is calculated from U.S. federal census records. [2] The best record that might have solved or put into light on this question is the death certificate. She died at the age of thirty-one on  14 July 1919 at home near Gustine, Texas. [3] There is an obituary about her death and burial (even though the paper spelled her name wrong), but no death certificate. [4] Mrs. Tom Johnson Dead Mrs. Tom Johnson died on Monday, July 14, at the family residence in Comanche and was buried Tuesday at 10 a.m. at Union cemetery at Gustine. The many friends of the family will learn with keen regret of Mrs. Johnson's untimely death, passing away as she did in the prime of life when so much of her life was yet in the future. We join the many friends in extending our sympathy to the sorrowing husband and relatives. Nell was born, probably in Gusti...

This is my second year 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 have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. Picking a topic for “surprise” was a matter of searching the word in my RootsMagic program. Some of the hits pertained to elopements of young people who “surprised” family and friends by getting married. Other hits pertained to deaths, where the timing was imminent so people “weren’t surprised” by the death. My grandmother, Anna Sullivan Hork I did find the newspaper article from the Napa Register discussing the Parent Teacher Association awarding Honorary Life Membership to Mrs. Ann Hork in 1957. [1] Honorary Life Membership in the Parent-Teacher Association was awarded to Mrs. Ann Hork, former Napa teacher at a recent meeting in the Williams School in Concord.  The principal of the sch...

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 Blog Writing : I wrote the following blog posts this week: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks For week 5, I wrote about my first trip to Sutro Library viewing census records and finding my grandfather’s family. This trip hooked me for life. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun : We were to write about Super Bowl LIII and about our favorite teams. I wrote instead about the San Francisco Giants.   Webinars/Study Groups Attended I attended three webinars week by Family Tree Webinars: Family Gatherings: Dragging Genealogy Information Out of Your Family by Melissa Barker You Can Do This: Photo Organizing and Preservation by Thomas MacEntee Focused Research VS Information Overload by DearMyrtle & Cousin Russ and participated in one study...

Joseph Heinrich Horoch, my second great-grandfather, was born in Altenhundem, Westfalen on 3 February 1804 to Johann Horoch and Anna Gertrud Sommer. [1] He was the middle child of five. As was typical of Catholics in Germany at this time, he was baptized the next day, February 3, at the church in Kirchhundem. His godparents were Joseph Sommer of Kirchhundem and Anna Margarete Horoch of Meggen. [2] Kirchhundem and Altenhundem are located in the current state of  North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. These communities are still very small. They are situated in narrow valleys with steep hillsides. The nearest large city is Cologne, some hundred miles to the west. Altenhunden is in the top image and Kirchhundem the bottom, they were very close to each other, along with Meggen Joseph’s father was a tailor (“Schneider” in German), as was Joseph, and later, his son. Johan Anton Hork (our great-grandfather, who came to America). It was common to learn the trade of your fat...

It's Super Bowl Weekend in America - the whole country (well, almost) will watch the game between the Los Angeles Rams and the New England Patriots on Sunday afternoon at 6:30 p.m. EST (3:30 PST). Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to: 1)  What is your favorite National Football League team?  [For those that are not American football fans, but fan of another sports team, substitute your favorite team]  Why are you a fan of this team?  How long have you been a fan of your favorite team? 2)  What is the genealogy of your favorite team?  When did it start playing, what leagues has it played in? 3)  Have you worked for the team in any capacity, or attended games?  What is your best memory of your favorite team's history?   4)  Predict the score of the Rams-Patriots game on Sunday. 5)  Tell us in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, or in a comment on Facebook. Randy Seaver of Genea-Mu...