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 fifteen weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I left the house this past week to work at the CCCHS History Center, walks to the mailbox, and a yoga class in a park. Otherwise, I met people on Zoom. Genealogy Blog Writing : Blogs posted this past week: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 26: Middle—Life of Olevia Jane (Jones) Johnston.   I wrote about the middle child of Benjamin W & Amanda (Haley) Jones. Happy 9 th Blogiversary! I wrote a post about my ninth anniversary of writing the My Trails into the Past blog. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: The Time Machine. We wrote where we would go in our genealogy family events on a time machine. I wrote about my troubles with finding the origins of Samuel Johnston. Study Gr...

It's  Saturday Night  -  time for more  Genealogy Fun!  Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing is to: 1) Determine which event in your ancestral history that you would love to be a witness to via a Time Machine.  Assume that you could observe the event, but not participate in it. 2) Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status post . Like Randy, I have many brick walls and I have written before about one of my biggest I’d like to solve. You can see here , along with more links to previous posts about my trials and tribulations. I would love to discover the birth parents of my 3X-great-grandfather, Samuel Johnston, who was born about 1816 in South Carolina. I am hoping that in the process, I would learn which county this happened in, so I can hope to continue the line further back. I have been stuck in Yalobusha County, Mississippi where the family appeared ...

It’s been nine years since I started this blog. It is actually my second blog. I had started Mam-ma’s Southern Family in six months earlier, but it was too constricting writing only about one line. I needed someplace to write about my many other lines as well as my husband’s line, thus the start of My Trails into the Past. In the past year, I have written 138 posts covering several topics: Saturday Night Genealogy Fun : 38 posts. I did not always find the theme inviting. 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks : 35 posts, with the rest on Mam-ma’s Southern Family. Monday Genea-pouri : 52 posts, one for each week. I write mostly about my genealogy activities but also about other activities, and I try to post a few photos I have taken of nature during the week. This spring, this theme has been the place to record how Coronavirus has affected our activities. Family stories : 12 posts about the Gorrell, Hutson, Davey, and Hork families. I have been writing more non-th...

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. Olevia Jane Jones, my fourth great-grandmother, was born 22 February 1859. [1] Her parents were Benjamin W. Jones and Amanda A. Haley. [2] She was the fifth and middle child of nine. There is no census that lists all of the children together. In 1860, she was the youngest of five. [3]   B.W. Jones, 38, male, farmer, VA, $2842, $8323   AA Jones, 31, F, MS    MF Jones, 13 F, MS   WA Jones, 11, male, MS   TW Jones, 9, male, MS   EB Jones, 5, F, MS   OJ Jones, 1, F, MS   David Gillman, 20, male, dressier, MS By 1870, her father is gone, having died sometime and someplace during the Civil War, and only eight children are enumerated, as the elde...

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 fourteen weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I left the house this past week to work at the CCCHS History Center, get blood work done at Kaiser, and have a heart monitor fitted. I did a couple of walks, but otherwise, I met people on Zoom. Genealogy Blog Writing : Blogs posted this past week:  52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 25: Unexpected—My Grandparent’s Marriage License Location.   I wrote about finding my grandparent’s marriage record in a neighboring county and wondered why. Thomas N. Davey Passport Gives Confirmation About Arrival Ship . I updated a previous blog post with the evidence I found from Thomas’ passport application. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Dad’s Work History . We wrote about the jo...

It's  Saturday Nigh t  - time for more  Genealogy Fun! Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to: 1)  Sunday, 19 June, is Father's Day.  Let's celebrate by writing a blog post about our father, or another significant male ancestor (e.g., a grandfather). 2)  What was your father's occupation?  What jobs did he have throughout his life?  Do you know his work history? 3)  Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status post. The majority of the time, my father worked in supermarkets as a produce clerk or produce manager. He worked for several different stores but the longest were for LoRay Market and Safeway. The LoRay store in Walnut Creek was only a few blocks away, but he always drove, primarily because he started work at 5ish. This gave him time to put out all of the produce that was removed from the shelves and put...

Previously I had discovered a possible ship on which the Thomas & Mary Davey family arrived to the United States. Read about it here . The conflicting problem in the above post, was the family was recorded as Nichols and Thomas was not with them. This past week, I discovered some new evidence. The oldest son, Thomas N. Davey, made several trips across the Atlantic to visit family and friends in England. In 1915, he obtained a passport to make the three-month travel and I found the passport application on Ancestry. [1] These passports are great for giving valuable information about naturalized citizens. He swore he was born at Saint Agnes, England on or about 7 November 1933. He emigrated to the United States on board the Ocean Queen from London on or about 5 February 1852. He had resided in the U.S. for 43 years, and in Carthage, Missouri from 1872-1911. He also stated he was naturalized at Carthage on 26 September 1891. At the time of his application, he 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. I have completed thirteen weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I left the house this past week to work at the CCCHS History Center and to have an eye doctor appointment. I also went to the meadow to do my weekly phenology study and took walks to the mailbox with my husband. Otherwise, I’m meeting people on Zoom. Genealogy Blog Writing : Blogs posted this past week: My post last week was chosen as one of the three highlighted in the 52 Ancestors weekly email. That will make three times this year! 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 24: Handed Down—Creating a Story of Heirlooms.   I wrote about starting a Shutterfly book with images of our heirlooms. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Pauleen’s Crazy Month of May Pandemic Meme Part II. We answere...

It's  Saturday Night - time for more  Genealogy Fun! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is the following: Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music here) is to: 1)  Check out Pauleen Cass's blog post,  Crazy Month of May 2020 Meme: Pandemic Experiences.   We did the first 10 prompts last week. 2)  Let's do the last 11 of the prompts this week. 3)  Tell us about your own pandemic experience in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a post on Facebook.  Be sure to leave a link to your work as a Comment to this post and also on Pauleen's post. 4)  Thank you, Pauleen!! Here's mine: 11)  What have you found to be the strangest change to your life?  That I discovered I don’t mind staying home. I miss the chance to visit with people in-person but I really enjoy just staying home. 12)  Have you found the changes an...

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 have written several blog posts previously about some of the heirlooms that have made their way to our home. They can be found here , here , here , and here . It’s wonderful that I have written about these heirlooms, but that might not be enough to keep them from being tossed once my husband and I have passed on. We didn’t talk about the old things with my daughters. Our children would treasure these things we treasure if we had talked about them as they were growing up. That way they would possibly feel a connection to them the same way that we do. It’s almost too late now—they are out of our home, so out of sight, out of mind. But, perhaps I can remedy that. I have decided to create a Shutterf...