My Trails into the Past

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 previously several blog posts about my paternal grandmother’s brother, John Cyril “Jack” Sullivan’s service during WWI. A veteran’s Service and Gravesite Finding Uncle Jack’s WWI Unit & Service No. John Cyril “Jack” Sullivan The Day U.S. Declared War on Germany and Entered WWI Veteran’s Day – John Cyril Sullivan, Veteran of WWI Today’s topic is scary stuff, and I don’t know what would have been scarier than trying to build a bridge over a river with the German army not far on the other side sending bullets and artillery over your head. Jack was in Company E, a part of the six companies in 4 th Engineers of the 4 th Division.   A book was written by members of the 4 th Engineers ...

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 thirty-two (32) weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I taught my genealogy class from an empty classroom at the Adult school. I worked a few hours at the History Center. I did phenology with Shirley (masked of course) at the meadow as usual. Other than that, I didn’t leave the house except for a longer walk on Saturday with Norman.   Genealogy Blog Writing : Blogs posted this past week: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 43: Quite the Character—My Aunt Beryl I wrote about how my Aunt Beryl loved to pose in clothes from her wardrobe. I included four photos. There were many more views than normal of my post, probably because I shared it on Facebook. In Feedly , it showed a metric of 29 (though I don’t know what that means, except I u...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's  Saturday Night  again - Time for some more  Genealogy Fun!!   Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has our assignment today: Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!): 1) Determine where your ancestral families were on 1 April 1940 - 80 years ago when the U.S. census was taken. 2)  List them, their family members, their birth years, and their residence location (as close as possible).  Do you have a photograph of their residence from about that time, and does the residence still exist? 3) Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status post. Here's mine: 1.   My father, William J. Hork , was living with his mother, Anne Hork , and three older sisters, Lorene, Virginia, and June, in San Bernardino County, California. She was renting, paying $20 per month. [1] His father, William C. Hork , ...

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 mother’s paternal aunt, Beryl Mavella Johnston, was quite the character. I have previously written about her as part of a Blogging from A to Z Challenge in 2016, as well as about her work for the federal government: “B is for Aunt Beb” “Beryl Johnston Russell Taylor Worked for the Feds” “Beryl Russell Worked in Greece” She was my grandfather, Tom J. Johnston’s older sister, and she was always a part of our holiday celebrations. She usually brought dessert to the meals, mainly pumpkin or pecan pie. She was loud and always spoke her opinion. She was always well-dressed, even if it consisted only of white, black, or silver-colored clothing. As a child, I didn’t understand why she didn’t like wearing color...

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 thirty-one (31) weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I worked a couple hours at the History Center. I did phenology at the meadow as usual. The biggest trip was Friday to the bank to deposit a check, to the library to return and pick up a book, to the recorder’s office to turn in my ballot, and to Kaiser to get the last shingles shot and the pneumonia shot. On Monday, I went to the bird store to pick up bird seed I had ordered. Genealogy Blog Writing : Blogs posted this past week: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 42: Proud—Of Those Who Served in Our Armed Services   I listed those in my family who served in the army, navy, and air force. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Top 10 Free Genealogy Sites.   We listed our favorite fr...

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 am very proud of those ancestors and collateral relatives who served our country in the Armed Forces. I would like to list them here. U.S. Army: John Eliason Lundquist, Civil War Harold Rupert Gleeson, WWI Joseph W Gorrell, Civil War Amos Gorrell, Civil War Oral D Johnston, WWI John E. Lundquist, WWI Carl David Harry Nilsen, WWI Carl David Harry Nilsen Jr, WWII Joseph A Nilsen, WWI Eugene F Soares, WWII John Cyril Sullivan, WWI Woodrow Whitlow, WWII U.S. Air Force: George J. Gorrell, WWII Rayburn D Lancaster, Korea/Viet Nam U.S. Navy: William Cyril Hork, WWI Tom J Johnston, WWII Ernest Nilsen, WWI, WWII Leonard M Nilsen, WWII Since my mother’s side is all southern, I’ll include those who served for the  Confeder...

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 : 1) Last week we defined our top 5 or 10 fee-based genealogy websites.  This week, let's define our Top 10 Free Genealogy Websites! 2)  List your Top 10 (or 20 if you want!) FREE based genealogy sites, and a short reason for listing them. 3)  Share your list on your own blog, in a comment on this post, or on Facebook.  Please leave a link to your list wherever it is. Here's my Top 10: 1.    FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org ). There are so many images of original records available on FamilySearch that cover most counties in all 50 states, as well as Canada, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. I have found such records as births, baptism, marriages, deaths, burial, deeds, tax records, probate, and court records from the U.S., Canada, Germany, England, and...

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 thirty (30) weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I taught my genealogy classes at the adult school but saw no one. I worked at the History Center. I did phenology at the meadow as usual. We visited Elizabeth in Santa Rosa and bought apples in Sebastopol at apple stands, visited Duncans Mills, and ate dinner outside at Grossman’s (a Jewish deli). Genealogy Blog Writing : Blogs posted this past week: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 41: Newest—Discovered that Thomas N Davey Made Many Trips back to Europe and England   I wrote about a ship’s list and passport applications that indicated he made trips back to England to visit family and friends. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Top 5 or 10 Fee-Based Genealogy Sites.   We liste...

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 for this week:  1)  Ken McKinlay posted  My Top 10 Fee-based Genealogy Sites  this past week, so I've made it the challenge this week (thanks to Linda Stufflebean for the suggestion!). 2)  List your Top 5 or 10 top fee-based genealogy sites, and a short reason for listing them. 3)  Share you list on your own blog, in a comment on this post, or on Facebook.  Please leave a link to your list wherever it is. Here’s mine: I subscribe to only a few subscription databases.  1. Ancestry . I have the World account in order to view Swedish, Canadian, English, and German records. I probably use Ancestry every day. Sometimes, it is only to grab a better image or to verify a source citation element I didn’t collect the first time. When I have a client project, Ancestr...