My Trails into the Past

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) Tell us about a memorable summer vacation when you were a child. What are your memories of summer vacations with your family? Did you travel? How? Did you visit extended family? Who? 2) Put it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook post. Please leave a link in a comment to this post. Here’s mine: The summer in 1969 was between my freshman and sophomore year. My grandmother, Anna M. (Sullivan) Hork, who we called Nana, wanted to go down to Pomona, California, and spend some time with her older sister, Loretto (Sullivan) Patterson. After three weeks, there would be a trip down to San Diego to visit with her daughter, Lorene (Hork) Waldron. She had done this trip many times and in 1969 I was invited to accompany her. I was both excited to make this trip with her, and equally scared. T...

I am very interested in the family members who never had children. There is no one to remember them. Ida Marie Colmann, formerly Ida Marie Hork, lived in Los Angeles area for many years after the death of her husband Martin J. Colmann on 17 December 1908. She never remarried and lived alone most of her life. In November 1947, Ida spent the winter with her sister, Carrie Hork, at the Grube apartment, and with her brother, Anthony Hork and family. [1] She likely stayed as in March 1949, a newspaper article mentioned she had moved to Hamilton from Los Angeles a year and a half ago. That same month she was visiting Missoula at the Hotel Florence for an indefinite stay. [2] However, in October 1949, Carrie Hork left for Long Beach, California, to be with her sister, Ida Marie Colmann, who was ill. She was accompanied by her brother, Anthony and his wife. [3] She and Ida returned to Missoula later that month. [4] In March 1950, Ida recently moved to Missoula following a stay in Hamil...

This is my fourth year working on this year-long 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 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 grandmother, Anna M. Sullivan, was born in Anaconda, Montana, the youngest child of five. She had just one brother, Jack, and three sisters, Helena (Nellie), Loretto, and Ethel. [1] After attending the Normal School in Dillon, Montana, she then taught school until her marriage to William Cyril Hork on 30 Nov 1922. [2] Shortly after their marriage, the couple moved to Los Angeles, California. [3] They did make visits back to Montana over the years. I have a photo of their first child, Lorene in Hamilton, where Cyril was from. After Anna and Cyril separated, Anna made several trips to Montana to visit her sister, Nellie, who lived in Anaconda. One of the trips in 1946, her sister,...

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 forty-five (45) weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I got books from the will-call at the library, took a walk, and went to the meadow for phenology.   Genealogy Blog Writing : I published two posts this week, catching up on the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks meme. Also, GeneaBloggers highlighted my Mam-ma’s Southern Family blog for its 10 th anniversary. That was a nice surprise. Week 2: Family Legend-Did David Shotts Participate in the Whiskey Rebellion with George Washington? . This is one of my husband’s ancestors and county histories written over 50 years past his death make this claim. There might be records at the Pennsylvania State Archives to help me. Week 3: Namesake-How Many Named George Washington? . I found five family...

This is my fourth year working on this year-long 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 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. Last week I wrote about my daughter’s 5x-great-grandfather, who might have served in a Pennsylvania militia under George Washington. That got me thinking about how many of our ancestors and collateral family members were named after George Washington. I only found a few. George Washington Shotts (1840-1927), was the son of Daniel Shotts and Mary Ann Bishop. Daniel was the son of David Shotts, our legendary militiaman. Was he named because of the legend? George went by George W. Shotts. George Washington Quigley (1875?-1946) was the brother of John Vir Quigley, who married my grandmother’s sister, Ethel Sullivan. The only record found with his full name was the 1920 census. Otherwise, ...

This is my fourth year working on this year-long 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 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. When one reads these old county histories that were very popular around the time of the centennial of our country, elaborate biographies were written by the families who paid to have them printed. My children’s 4x-great-grandfather, David Shotts has one of these bios, published in several different books. He died in 1825, so these books written after 1876 are going to be stories passed down in the family and not told by people who were there. From two of such books, we find stories about David: “David Shots was a Revolutionary hero, who came to Huntington township in 1809. He was also in service during the suppression of the Whiskey insurrection.” [1] “David Shotts entered Huntington in...

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 forty-four (44) weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I went on two neighborhood walks looking for birds. Genealogy Blog Writing : I published four posts on both blogs this week. The first three are from my studies in the SLIG migrations class: Using Railroad Maps and Timetables to Discover How Ebenezer Moved to Texas . Southern Migration: How John Coor’s Family Got from North Carolina to Mississippi Territory in 1811 . Migration from Montana to California After WWI . Another post using what I learned from the Migration class. This time I analyzed how Cyril and Anna Hork, my grandparents, got to California, likely by train. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Our "Academy of Genealogy and Family History" (AGFH) Nominees. We...

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)    Does anyone recall the Academy of Genealogy and Family History (AGFH) awards from back in the 2008-2012 time frame, hosted by Jasia on Creative gene?  Genea-bloggers would nominate blog entries in different categories, and Jasia would collect all of them with links to each blogger's post.  The bloggers selected their own posts for nominations. 2)  This week, let us nominate the "best" posts from 2020 that we wrote in these categories: *  Best Picture (a photograph) *  Best Screenplay (a story) *  Best Documentary (a series) *  Best Biography *  Best Comedy 3)  Put it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a link in a comment to this post. Here’s Mine: The best photog...

This past week I attended a class at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy called “From Sea to Shining Sea: Researching Our Ancestors’ Migrations in America.” [1] We learned so much about migrating families in the United States these some 400 years. We have learned about trails, roads, canals, and railroads that took them to new places. We learned about possible economic and social reasons (and push and pull of migration) that prompt their moves. Moving to a new place often were due to seeking freedom, a better life, free land, or being with family. I started thinking about why my ancestors moved. Of course, any of the above reasons probably factored in their moves, depending on the time period and their circumstances. Specifically, what brought my Hork family to California in the early 1920s? Cyril’s Move Cyril Hork had married Anna Sullivan in Butte, Montana on Thanksgiving Day in 1922. [2] At the time of his marriage, he was working as a warehouseman with the Northern Pacific...

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 forty-three (43) weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I went out to the History Center for a half day, to do phenology, and two walks to the mailbox with my husband and one at the Marina to look for birds. Genealogy Blog Writing : I published four posts this week: 52 Ancestors-Week 52: Week 1 – Beginnings. I wrote about my children’s recent immigrant ancestors and their beginnings in the United States. Accentuate the Positive Geneameme 2020 . I participated in Jill Ball’s blog meme and some of the 20 questions she posed about the previous year. Using WWI Muster Roll Records to Discover When Jack C Sullivan Was Promoted . I used these muster rolls to discover when he was promoted to Corporal and Sergeant. Saturday Night Geneal...