Monday Genea-pourri, Weeks of May 27-June 2, 2019

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

Education: I attended the Southern California Genealogical Society’s 50th Anniversary Jamboree.  It was three days of genealogy classes (plus a pre-day of DNA that I didn’t attend). I went with my friend, Jacqueline and she drove us. We had a great time attending classes, meeting new people, visiting with friends from all over the country, and finding things to buy in the exhibit hall. I volunteered 5 hours in the local APG group’s research room, helping people with their questions. That was a lot of fun. I attended interesting classes that gave me ideas on some talks I could do in our local area. Can’t wait to start on them. The sessions I attended were:

• “Los Angeles Public Library and Other Los Angeles-Area Resources” by Julie Huffman
• “How Your Hard Work Can Conquer All at the Sutro Library” by Dvorah Lewis
• “The Three Rs: Reading, “Riting, and Research in School Records” by Paula Stuart-Warren
• “Fold3 Search Update: Do You Know What You Are Missing? by Anne Gillespie Mitchell
• “America’s Turnpikes, Rivers, and Canals” by Peggy Clemens Lauritzen
• “The National Road: America’s First Federal Highway” by Annette Burke Lyttle
• “The Genealogical Proof Standard in Motion: A Case Study” by Michael D Lacopo
• “Finding Aids, Inventories, and Record Group Descriptions: Why Should I Care?” by Michael D Lacopo
• “Use an Ancestor’s FAN Club to Get Past Brick Walls” by Drew Smith
• “Privacy, DNA, and Genealogy: Handling the Double-Edged Sword” by Thomas MacEntee

My favorite classes were about the libraries and finding aids. I need to use them more in my research. There were other classes I wished I could have attended but at least I have the handout. Some are on the live stream which I can now take time to watch.

Jacqueline and I in the Exhibit Hall

Blog Writing:

• 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks For week 22, the theme was “cemetery” and I wrote several visits to cemeteries to photograph tombstones. I included photos of my young daughters helping me.
• Saturday Night Genealogy Fun I wrote about some research trips I have taken.

 Webinars/Study Groups Attended: 

• I participated in DearMyrtle AmericanGen Study Group on Wednesday morning. We covered Chapter 25 on Immigration records.
• Attended the training session on Tuesday for the upcoming International German Genealogy Conference, being hosted by my society, Sacramento German Genealogical Society. Mike and I then stuffed the goody bags.

Volunteer Work:

I taught at the Oakland FamilySearch Library on Wednesday, the start of a five-class session on Intermediate Skills for the California Genealogical Society. I have nine very attentive students. The first week, I covered land records. This coming week will be probate..

Own Work:

I worked on blog posts but not much else. I thought about how each of the presentations at Jamboree could help my own research.

Other Activities:

We had a meeting of the upcoming National Model Railroad Society’s convention committee “Rails by the Bay” in 2021 on Tuesday evening. We settled on a logo and made plans for promoting our convention at the upcoming convention in Salt Lake City.

#Jamboree2019

Copyright © 2019 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.