Monday Genea-pourri, Week of July 20-26, 2020

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 nineteen weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I left the house this past week do phenology at the meadow, go for a walk to the mailbox, and ride to Oakland to check out a grocery store in Piedmont that had the brand of mustard my husband liked. I was going to stay in the car, but the produce stand outside caught my attention—fresh peaches and apricots! This is only the third time in a store for me.

Genealogy

Blog Writing:

Blogs posted this past week:

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 30: Old Country—Thomas Davey Family in Cornwall.  I wrote about trip to St. Agnes in Cornwall where my husband’s 2x-great-grandfather was married.
Saturday Night Genealogy Fun—Major News Events During Your Life.  I wrote about where I was and what I was thinking during some news events in my life-time.

Study Groups Attended:   

Many online meetings again this week:

• Our Monday Morning Group met with twelve people. I was late due to another meeting.   
• I met with Jacqueline for our weekly hour talk.
• Only two of us Amigos met on Wednesday for a very quick get-together. We talked about Stewart’s ProGen class. Then I left to attend a webinar.
• Three of us were on for the Thursday evening discussion group and we talked about DNA, clients, and when archives & libraries would be open again.
• My Friday Cert Discussion group met with four of us. We talked a lot about IGHR writing class, FGS, DNA and SLIG, as well as case studies and the need to schedule time to work on portfolios.
• IGHR (Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research) orientation, where over 300 people were in attendance.

Webinars Attended:

Thank you, GRIP, for allowing anyone to attend their evening presentations. They had over 500 people attending these first two talks:

• Using Probate Records to Research Enslaved Ancestors by LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson
• Incorporating Social History by Michael Lacopo

I also viewed these webinars:

• 50 More Websites by Gena Philibert-Ortega
• Successful Searching with Old Fulton NY Postcards by Sara Gredler

And viewed the first of twenty NGS lectures:

• Peer Review: Good Medicine for Genealogists and Our Profession by Harold Henderson (NGS). The best thing I learned: don’t use the word “you.”

Client Work/Presentations:

I have nearly completed the client report. I only need to double-check all the details.

Volunteer Work:

There was no work at History Center for CCCHS, but I worked on a few email queries.

Own Work:

I cleaned up the Download folder this weekend and discovered some DAVEY family correspondence. I entered the information from the writer about a Davey brother of my husband’s 2x-great-grandfather, who went to Australia. In looking up baptism and marriage records, I think I found two more sisters of the two men.

I received some books in the mail that I purchased:

• Incidents in the History of Dublin (Texas), compiled by Mrs. SC Lattimore in 1914. My ancestors are not mentioned but I’ll get a sense of the history of the community.
• The Copyeditor’s Handbook by Amy Einsohn. A very thick book that smells of perfume. I might have to air it out outside for a couple of days. The risks of buying used books.
• Edit Yourself by Bruce Ross-Larson. This one was recommended for the Writing class at IGHR I’m taking this week.
• The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein. I have discovered restrictions to selling to non-white people in 20^th century deeds and want to learn more about it.

I have finished reading the pre-work for the Writing class I’m taking this week. We had to study a few case-study articles, and I hope I studied them enough. I might give them another read-through before the discussion class. I also got my writing sample down to 500 words. I wonder how much more it can be edited—we shall see.

I also did the pre-work for the Write as you Go! class I’ll be taking the following week.

Other:

Model railroading: Took minutes for the 2021 convention committee meeting and attended the meetup of the Coast Division. Pete’s On30 layout was very nice to see.

I finished two books:

• The Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams. I’ll be using this book to help with the design of my next book.
• Once a Crooked Man by David McCallum. A light thriller by one of my favorite actors.

25 of the over 300 people at IGHR orientation

Copyright © 2020 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.