My Trails into the Past

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. My first visit I remember to a cemetery was the old cemetery at the Columbia State Historic Park in Columbia, California, that we visited on an 8th grade field trip. It was an informal visit, just a bunch of us wandering around looking at the oldest dates we could find. Next visit was during the funeral of my grandfather, Tom Johnston, Jr. at Oakmont Cemetery in Lafayette, California in 1973. I don’t have much memory of the time at the grave site, but do remember the funeral and his open casket. I was a bit startled by it as it was supposed to be closed. Once I started doing genealogy research in the 1990s, I made the effort to visit cemeteries. I revisited my grandfather’s plot and took photos of his...

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 : 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks  For week 21, the theme was “military” and I wrote about the beginning of Amos Gorrell’s entry into the Civil War based from his diary. A blog post continuing the story of Joe Gorrell being sued. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun I wrote about one of my first tough genealogy problems.   Webinars/Study Groups Attended:   I participated in two certification study groups . Thursday night, we spoke about the current issue with DNA testing sites and their use by Law Enforcement. The discussions online have become very abusive between genealogists disagreeing with each other. I somehow have missed the discussions and I’m glad. I don’t like...

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. Amos Gorrell, Jr. served in Co. A of the 18th Regiment in the Ohio Infantry during the Civil War. He volunteered on 1 August 1861, about four months after the start of the war and served until 9 August 1864. [1] His pension files gives facts about his service: He was twenty-four years old and was five feet and eight and a half inches tall, with fair complexion, brown hair and eyes, and worked as a farmer. He was also wounded in battle at Chickamanga on 20 September 1863 and was in the hospital in Nashville, Tennessee in 30 April 1864. [2] However, Amos kept a journal during his service and from that we can see his state of mind as he decided to enlist. Below is a transcription: [3] July 29th 1861...

I reported on some newspaper articles that described the awarding of $5000 to Fred O. Banks due to the death of his wife when his automobile collided with the Empire Electric Company's truck driven by Joe Gorrell. I inquired with both the civil court clerk and the court archives office. I heard from the archives first, who found loose paper packets about the trial, but they were in delicate condition. The volunteer tried to make some scans for me, but the images are scattered and I have not yet figured out the order of things. Weeks later, I heard from the clerk of the court, who sent a pdf file from pages of the minute book about the court case. Unfortunately, he/she did not record a complete citation. Here, I can determine more about what happened. The trial was held in Jasper County Circuit Court, Division 1 starting on October 18, 1926. This was case no. 34005, Fred O. Banks vs. Empire District Electric Co. and Joe Gorrell. The judge was S.W. Bates. Mr. Banks' attorn...

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 : 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks  For week 20, the theme was “nature” so I wrote our Gorrell Family camping trips.   Webinars/Study Groups Attended:   I participated in two certification study groups . Thursday night, we spoke about a variety of subjects and will continue to talk about transcriptions. On Friday, we spoke about Chapter 7 in the new Professional Genealogy book on Copyright & Fair Use, with Josh moderating.   I also participated in DearMYRTLE’s AmericanGen Study Group as the moderator. We talked about church records this week. APG Writers SIG meeting with Diane L. Richards speaking about writing for the North Carolina quarterly. A So...

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. One way to get out into nature is to go camping. My in-laws, George and Thelma Gorrell, were enthusiastic campers. They had five children, so camping was probably an economic way to take a vacation. But they also enjoyed being in the out of doors. A few of their sons enjoyed fishing with their dad, and two of them still fish and hunt these many years later. Camping involved the whole family. They cooked their meals on camp stoves but also had fires going all day to keep water heated for drinks or showers or washing of dishes. They played games in the evening such as cards, spoons, or other family-fun games. Thelma like to put together jigsaw puzzles and George made a board with edges to keep the pieces fr...

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. Travels I spent two weeks in New York City visiting my daughter, Margaret. We attended her play, “Meg Jo Beth Amy & Louisa” twice, as well as seeing the Broadway play “Come From Away.” Historical sights we visited were Dyckman House; the old Custom House which now houses the Smithsonian Native American Museum, as well as the New York National Archives; Fraunces Tavern where George Washington gave his farewell to the troops; the old Cunard Building where passenger ships docked back in the day; and rode a train up to Poughkeepsie to visit the Roosevelt home at Hyde Park. I also got in some bird watching on three separate days. First at Central Park with an Audubon guide. Saw a blue-winged warbler, which was a first, and again on my own, where I saw a r...

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. This week before Mother’s Day is appropriate for talking about my second mother, Thelma Marie Nilsen Gorrell, my mother-in-law. She was the oldest daughter of Arthur Nathaniel Nilsen and Agnes Hilma Carolina Lundquist. Four brothers were born before her, one brother after her, and then three sisters, one who died as an infant. So being the oldest daughter, a lot of responsibility fell on her that did not fall to her older brothers. Inside work was “women’s” work. Her mother was weak and bedridden. Because of her  mother’s sickness, Thelma took care of many household chores. At the age of ten, it was Thelma who found her mother had passed away. She had to go to the neighbor’s home to get help. ...