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 twenty-eight (28) weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I did phenology at the meadow. I took some things to Goodwill and visited at Salvation Army store. I went to volunteer at the History Center on Tuesday. And I took photos at Heather Farm Park on early Friday morning where I hardly saw anyone. Margaret is still here but went to visit her friend in Tracy. Elizabeth and her dachshund, Doobie, came for the weekend. Genealogy Blog Writing : Blogs posted this past week: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 39: Should Be a Movie—Lorene Hork Traveled the World with Three Chums   I wrote about how my aunt and three of her girlfriends traveled Asia and Europe after a tour of work with the U.S. Army in Tokyo in the 1950s. Saturday Night Gen...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's  Saturday Night  again - Time for some more  Genealogy Fun!!   Our assignment today is from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing: 1. DNAsleuth (Ann Raymont) created a 7-in-1 chart showing 7 generations of ancestors on one page several weeks ago - see her blog post at  https://dnasleuth.wordpress.com/2020/09/01/7-gen-1-sheet/ .  In her post, there is a link to her Word document if you wish to use it. 2.  Linda Stufflebean's husband, Dave, took the concept a step further, and created an Excel template of the 7-in-1 chart.  You can download Dave's file from my Google Drive at    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s7rTacxacWVCWxUEWq5pAArJCv8mCZWT/view?usp=sharing .  Linda's chart is in  https://emptybranchesonthefamilytree.com/2020/09/using-excel-to-display-7-family-generations-on-1-sheet/  (I opened it to "Editor" so you can download it and work with it). Here is an image of the b...

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. In 1952, my paternal aunt, Lorene E. Hork, applied to work for the U.S. Army in Japan. She wrote home often telling of her adventures and these letters were saved by the family and put together in a binder. I wrote about her adventures in Japan here . Where her year was up, she resigned, and with three girl friends (Anne Ankers, Mitzi Seale, and Donna Oehm) that she met there in Tokyo, embarked on the start of a around the world adventure. I have written several posts about their adventures:      “ Travel--Lorene’s First Leg ”      “ Dear Diary—Taipei, a Continuation of Lorene Hork’s Trip ”      “ Transportation: Lorene Traveled Around the World Part III ”  ...

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 twenty-seven (27) weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I did phenology at the meadow. I took some things to Hospice. I went to volunteer at the History Center on Tuesday and Saturday. The air became clearer on Thursday and I shot some photos at the Martinez Marina for my new photography class. Genealogy Blog Writing : Blogs posted this past week: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 38: On the Map— Communities in Erath County, Texas Where My Ancestors Lived.   I wrote about the communities in Erath county where my ancestors lived. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Moving On Out We wrote about our first place we lived after moving out of our parents’ house. Study Groups Attended:     I attended fewer study groups this week d...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's  Saturday Night  again - time for some more  Genealogy Fun!!   Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing’s assignment this week: Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!): 1.  Where did you go the first time you moved out of your parents home?  Did you have roommates? Did you live by yourself?  Did you get married right away?  Tell the story - your children and grandchildren will want to know! 2.  Share your story in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or on Facebook.  Please leave a comment with a link to your post here. I lived at home until I was about twenty-five. I had paid my way through college, but had the luxury of living at home. Luckily, what side jobs I had paid for the school fees and books and the transportation costs of BART rides and AC Transit busses. I lived in Walnut Creek and attended California State Univers...

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 twenty-six (26) weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. My gosh, it’s been half a year already! I went out more this week (mask on): I did phenology at the meadow. My daughter and I took some things to Goodwill. We ate out twice, once in Petaluma and once in Martinez (eating outside with our immediate family), and once to pick up take-out. The weather this week started out cool, got so warm by mid-week we needed the air conditioner, but by Thursday, the smoke in the air along with the marine layer of fog made the sky a dark orange all day. It was still dark at 9 am but got a little lighter as the day went on. The orange was gone by Friday, but we’re still struggling with poor air quality due to the numerous fires in California. Gene...

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. My daughter is visiting for a few weeks, which leaves little time to write. Here is a post I wrote for Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. We wrote about how we got to school. I used all kinds of transportation in the 16 years of getting to school. https://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/2018/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-how-did.html Copyright © 2020 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again -  time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has a new assignment for us:  Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!): 1) What was your childhood home like? How many rooms did it have? What facilities did you have? 2) Share your response on your own blog, in a comment to this post, or in a comment or post on Facebook. My response. I had done this for the Book of Me in 2013 and placed the link here: https://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/2013/10/book-of-me-written-by-youprompt-5-my.html Copyright © 2020 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

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 twenty-five (25) weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I went twice this week (mask on): I did phenology at the meadow and attended yoga in the park. Most days were nice and cool with early morning fog, but by Saturday it was warming up, and on Sunday it was over 100.   Genealogy Blog Writing : Blogs posted this past week: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 36: Occupation—Edward N. Flynn: From Lamplighter to Mayor   I wrote about my husband’s relative, Edward N. Davey, who had four distinct careers: lamplighter, telegraph operator, physician, and mayor. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Time Capsule Fun .  We picked a date, checked out what happened on the website dMarie Time Capsule Website and wrote our post abou...

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.     There have been several doctors in the Thomas & Mary Davey family. Daughters, Mary Jane and Catherine Rose were both physicians for women and children’s ailments.  Two sons of their daughter, Elizabeth Davey were also doctors: Edward N. Flynn and Frederic H. Flynn. This story is about Edward.      Edward N. Flynn, a life-long bachelor, who lived in Jeffersonville, Indiana, held many jobs in his lifetime.  He started out as a lamplighter for the J.M. & I. railroad, where he lit the signal lamps [1] He then studied telegraphy and became an operator. [2] In his spare time he read about medicine while saving up to attend the Louisville Medical College. [3] He graduated ...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's  Saturday Night  again - time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Here is our assignment (from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing ) if we choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!): 1) Go to the dMarie Time Capsule Website -  http://dmarie.com/timecap/ 2) Select a date in your family history that you want to know about. You might pick a birth date or wedding date of your parents or grandparents. 3) Enter the date into the search form, and select the news, songs, toys, books and other things that you want to feature. 4) Share the date, why you picked it, and the results of your Time Capsule study on your own blog, in a comment to this post, or in a comment or post on Facebook. Here's mine: I picked my dad’s birthday of 23 April 1930. The results are here . Top News: On April 23, H. Van Gent discovered asteroids #1225 Ariane & #1267 Geertruida. He discovered more the next day...