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. I have completed two weeks of “lock down” due to Covid-19. I left the house twice: to do phenology at the meadow and to pick up a bird feeder set-up. I did stop on Thursday at a drive-through Starbucks to get a London Fog latte. My husband and I have walked, mostly to the local mailbox. I continued taking photos of birds or plants and posted on Facebook. My friends seem to appreciate them. Genealogy Blog Writing : 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 13: Nearly Forgotten “Three Sons Named Edward” . I wrote the eight children of Thomas and Mary Davey who did not live to adulthood. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – A Facebook “Have You Done This? Meme We were asked show our favorite genealogy reference books. I made a small list and showed the images from my...

It's Saturday Night - time for more Genealogy Fun! Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music here) is to: 1)  Another "Have you done this?" meme was going around Facebook this past week.  Let's do it!!   2)  Copy and paste the list below, delete my answers, and add your own.   3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a post on Facebook . Here is the list: 1)  Driven 100 mph : I was not doing the driving, but my friend was driving her Cadillac and she got up over 100 mph on Highway 13 with us in the car. 2)  Ridden in a helicopter: No. I once had the chance but turned it down. I regret it. It was above a PG&E hydro-electric power plant where they were doing repairs and I could have taken wonderful aerial photos. However, I’m afraid of heights. 3)  Gone zip lining: No. Don’t like heights or speed. 4)  Been to an NFL gam...

This week I have been working on Hutson family, specifically, Peter Hayden Hutson. There is much discussion on what his first name was. Some say Payton.   However, all of the documents I have found either list his name as P. H. or Pete. He was known in the Gustine, Texas area as “Uncle Pete.” I wrote about Pete back in 2014 when I participated that year in 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. That post is here . Since I wrote that post, I have learned a little more about him. On 13 April 1905, P. H. Hutson purchase a piece of property from R. L. Selman and his wife, Julia P.  This piece of property was located in Gustine, Comanche County.  He paid initially $350 and secured three notes to be paid in 1906, 1907, and 1908, which totaled $400. The land was two acres. [1] R.L. Selman was Pete’s wife, Sarah’s brother, Robert Louis  (1855-1931). The interesting thing about the land, was it wasn’t filed until 27 December 1919. So the next task is to try to figure out: What p...

This is my third 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. According to a bible record for the Thomas & Mary Davey family, there were three sons named Edward Davey. [1] Edward Nicholas Davey was born May 1837 in Constantine, Cornwall and died in infancy. Edward Davey was born 18 April 1838 in Cork, Ireland. Edward N. Davey, III was born April 1842 in Bedminister, England. Of the fifteen children born to Mary and Thomas, only seven lived to adulthood.  These three sons were not part of that list. I have not seen the copy of the bible page, only the extraction done by a granddaughter of Thomas and Mary.  It is likely the bible passed on to their son Thomas Nicholas (1835-1924) and then to Mary “Marie” Davey Korn (1877-1948). The image of the...

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. I have completed one week of “lock down” due to Covid-19. I left the house twice to do some client work but will do no more. We are allowed outside to exercise so my husband and I have walked, mostly to the local mailbox. I try to take photos of birds or plants to post on Facebook to help bring up everyone else’s spirits. Genealogy Blog Writing : 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 12: Popular: Ursula Hork “One of Hamilton’s Most Popular Young Ladies” . I wrote briefly about several of the newspaper articles about my great-aunt, Ursula. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – What’s On My Genealogy Bookshelf We were asked show our favorite genealogy reference books. I made a small list and showed the images from my Library Thing account. Tom Johnston Become...

Newspapers sometimes gives clues to events that one would otherwise not know about. Such was the case when last week I was searching Comanche, Texas and Stephenville, Texas newspapers for articles about my great-aunt, Beryl Johnston for my weekly Saturday Night Genealogy Fun blog post. One of the articles I found was about a court hearing to appoint Thomas N. Johnston temporary guardian for the children Beryl Johnston, Mildred Johnston, Tom Johnston Jr, Hal W Johnston, and Luther Johnston, minors. [1] The notice stated that on the 12th day of December, he was duly appointed Temporary Guardian and the appointment would be made permanent unless “the same shall be successfully contested at the next term of said Court, commencing on … 6th day of April 1924 [should be 1925] at the Court House…” So my first thought was, what had the children inherited? Usually under-aged children need a guardian to handle an estate given to them. Since their father was still alive, it must ...

It's Saturday Night - time for more Genealogy Fun! Here is Randy’s assignment tonight from Genea-Musing .   Our mission is to: 1)  Teresa at the Writing My Past blog wrote a post about her genealogy bookshelf, even showing photographs of the books on several of her shelves.  Linda Stufflebean thought this was a good SNGF topic, so here we are! 2)  Tell us what books, or types of books are on your genealogy bookshelf/ves in your home.  Do you have a photo of them?  Are there specific books that you use more than others? 3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a post on Facebook . I have genealogy books on several different bookcases in my home. The ones I use most often are next to my desk. Others are placed based on their size, though I have most of my German genealogy books together. Actually my books get moved around often as I always take books to share when I teach genealogy c...

This is my third 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 thought I would check my RootsMagic database on the word “popular” and see what might come up. Several newspaper articles came up with the word “popular” and one person in my tree has many newspaper articles with her name, both before and after marriage. Urselle “Ursula” Clementine Hork was born to Johan Anton Hork and Julia Ann Sievert in Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon on 23 Mar 1892. [1] She was the sister of my grandfather, William Cyril Hork. Hamilton newspapers gave several accounts of Ursula’s school-year activities. In the 4th grade, she was part of the year-end program playing Ye Queen of ye May. [2] She was captain of the volleyball club at her high school. [3] In 1909, she was in the ...

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 11–My Irish Ancestors . I wrote briefly about the Irish ancestors on my father’s side. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – Fearless Females, Beryl Johnston . We were asked to find newspaper articles about an ancestor. I was able to find lots of articles about my great-aunt, Beryl Johnston (and later Mrs. Howard Russell) from The Portal to Texas History site which had newspapers from Comanche and Stephenville. Webinars/Study Groups Attended:     I attended both of my online weekly meetings. Thursday, we discussed the coronavirus issue, especially about the Family History Library and National Genealogical Society conference in Salt Lake City. I have a California Genealogical Society trip ...