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 : 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 47—Soldier . I wrote about Amos Gorrell, who was a Civil War soldier and had a diary that I excerpted from. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Thanksgiving-Genealogy Edition . We wrote about genealogy things we were thankful for. Webinars/Study Groups Attended:     “Shipping on the Great Lakes” by Cari Taplin. It was a very interesting webinar about ships used on the Great Lakes. Her photos and maps were wonderful. I attended the Thursday evening group but not the Friday study group meeting this week. Client Work : No Work this week. Volunteer Work : At the History Center this week, I opened up and continued working on special collections that need to be processed. We also had a

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has our assignment for this week: Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along - cue the Mission Impossible music!): 1)  Think about the answers to these questions about your thankfulness for genealogy: a.  Which ancestor are you most thankful for, and why?   b.  Which author (book, periodical, website, etc.) are you most thankful for, and why?   c.  Which historical record set (paper or website) are you most thankful for, and why? 2)  Tell us about it in a blog post of your own; in a comment to this blog post; or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a link in Comments to your own blog post or Facebook post. Here are my answers: a.  The ancestors I am most thankful for are my maternal grandmother, Pansy (Lancaster) Johnston (1913-2013) and my pat

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 husband’s family is very fortunate. We have typed transcriptions of the diaries his great-grandfather kept while a soldier during the Civil War. [1] At the beginning of the 1861 typed volume, Amos wrote “My Semi-occasional Journal, or Diary while a Soldier in the war of 1861. Transcribed from a penciled account which I carried with me. With some corrections. ++ A. Gorrell”  I will record some of the entries and will not correct any of the spelling shown in italics. I have started transcribing some of the entries in a previous blog post, “Amos Gorrell, Jr., Served in the Civil War, Part I.” I shall continue the story here. There were no surviving diaries for the period of 1863 and part of 1864. 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 Blog Writing : 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 46—Poor Man . I wrote about Rev. Albert M. Hork, who had poor health. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Number One Songs. We checked what the number one song was for our birth year, our 16th year, our high school graduation year, and I added my marriage year. Webinars/Study Groups Attended:     “US Military Soldier’s Homes” by Rick Sayre I attended the Monday Morning group and spoke about finding a Davey cousin who lives in South Australia. I joined the Thursday evening group but we had no Friday study group meeting this week. I presented at the Contra Costa County Genealogical Society about how to order military records. Then listened to Carolyn Williams present about creatin

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's Saturday Night again - time for some more Genealogy Fun !! Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has our assignment for today: Tonight, we're going to go down memory lane a bit. 1)  What was the #1 song on the day you were born?  Or on your birthday when you were 15?  When you were 18?  Or when you married?  Or some other important date in your life. 2)  Go to http://www.thisdayinmusic.com/birthdayno1 and enter the date and select from UK, US or Australia record lists.  Note:  the first date available is 1 January 1946.   Alternatively, go to Wikipedia.org and search for "number one songs in yyyy" (insert your year) and enter the month and date and see a list of number one songs for each year since 1940. 3)  Tell us what your results are (If you are sensitive about your age, don't list the date or year... ) on a blog post of your own, a comment to this post, or in a Facebook status line or note. I found the This

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. Although I do not have many rich people in my family, no one is really very poor either. So I settled on writing about poor health. Throughout his life, my great-granduncle, Rev. Albert M. Hork, had poor health. He died of interstitial nephritis, which is an inflammation in the kidney. The attending doctor did not know how long Albert had this condition. Contributory to this was gastritis (an inflammation of the protective lining of the stomach) and anemia. He was only fifty-eight years old. [1] My great-grandfather, Johan Anton Hork, came to the U.S. in 1870 aboard the SS Idaho. [2] For the longest time I had thought he was the only one who came to America. However, a news article about his death in She

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 45—Rich Man . I wrote about Thomas N. Davey who was a mine owner. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: A Veteran’s Service & Gravesite . I wrote about my great uncle, John Cyril “Jack” Sullivan, who served with the 4th Engineers in WWI. Webinars/Study Groups Attended:    I watched one of the VGA Seminar’s presentation: The Seanachie: Linking Life and Law Through Storytelling, by Judy G Russell There was no Thursday evening  nor Friday afternoon online study group meetings this week. Client Work : No client work this week. Volunteer Work : At the History Center this week, I continued working on special collections that need to be processed, written up as a finding aid, enteri

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's Saturday Night again - time for some more Genealogy Fun !! Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has our assignment for this week: 1)  To celebrate Veterans Day, pick one of your ancestors or relatives with a military record and a gravestone.   2)  Tell us about your ancestor's military service. 3)  Tell us about your ancestor's gravestone - where is it, what is the inscription, when were you last there?  Show us a picture of it if you have one available. 4)  Write your own blog post about this ancestor and his gravestone, or share it in a Comment to this blog post, or in a  Facebook post . Here is mine: I have written about my grandfather, William C. Hork, who served in the Navy during World War I on a submarine tender. Check it out here . Today, I’d like to focus on my grandmother’s brother, John Cyril Sullivan, or as we knew him, Uncle Jack. I wrote about his early life in this post . Now that I know more abou