Monday Genea-pourri, Weeks of Oct 7-13, 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

Blog Writing:

•  52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 41 – Context: William C Hork Worked For the WPA. I got a late start but wrote about my 5th grade experience with a road map.

•  Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: One of Your Immigrant Ancestors.  I wrote about wanting to visit Oberhundem, the home town of my great-grandfather, Johann Anton Hork.

Webinars/Study Groups Attended:

I attended only one webinar this week:

• 50 Records for Female Ancestors by Gena Philibert-Ortega

I also attended both of my online study groups and we had very engaging conversations. We saw Faye for the first time in months on Friday and it was nice hearing what she has been up to.

Client Work:

I had a court record pulls in Contra Costa and Alameda counties this week.

Volunteer Work:

At the History Center this week, I made sure all of our special collections have been entered in Past Perfect as well as being uploaded to the Online Archive of California website.  

Friday was my desk duty day at the California Genealogical Society’s Library. It was quiet for the first four hours and then I had two customers who work on their own.

Own Work:

I started transcribing the employee cards for my grandfather, William C. Hork, from when he was working for the WPA in Ontario, San Bernardino County, California. Sometimes he worked as a foreman, a pipe fitter, or as a laborer. Most of the jobs were at Chaffey Junior College. I’m about a third of the way through the sixty cards. I had obtained these images from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis this past summer.

I taught the second Acalanes Adult School class on genealogy this week. Fifteen of my students returned and seemed to have enjoyed the previous class and did the homework. I added a review session, applying it to resolving a conflict. I then began the lesson on research trips. Lissa, the administrative assistant for program, was waiting outside my door at the end of class wanting my write-up for the next quarter. I worked on that over the weekend. Thanks to discussions with Jacqueline and Dennis, I now have an idea of what to do.

Other:

On Saturday, Norman and I went on the Home Tour in Martinez, hosted by the Martinez Historical Society. We viewed six different homes. We also got in extra walking as we walked to the Shell Clubhouse and walked most of the route before walking home. Many of the homes were decorated in Halloween themes. Norman liked the last house best, because he had old player pianos and organs, and a very interesting backyard with both a view and a bocce ball court.

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