Monday Genea-pourri, Week of May 24–30, 2021

I have completed sixty-three (63) weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. Besides going to the History Center and Phenology, I met with Dave to take the Coast Division Member of the Year Award to Phil. It was really nice visiting with Dave.

 Genealogy

Blog Writing:

52 Ancestors—Week 21: At the Cemetery—Some Erath County Cemeteries I wrote about my first genealogy road (airplane) trip to Texas with my maternal grandmother, and the trips to cemeteries as part of the tour.

Sharing About the Memories of Neighbors: Jerry & Eleanor Carpenello. I wrote about our neighbors and how I rediscovered their surname by searching in the reverse listing in the city directory.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – Who is #42 on Your Ahnentafel List? I wrote about Norman’s number 42 which was Edward Nicholas, his third great-grandfather, who lived in Cornwall, England.

Online Study Groups & Meetings Attended: I attended the Certification Discussion Group and Amigos on Wednesday, and Peer Group on Friday. Mary Roddy gave a great presentation on using newspapers with some good tips. I met with Jacqueline to discuss the book we read, Writing Interesting Family Histories. Next week, we'll work on Zotero by using the Zotero for Genealogists book.

Webinars & Classes Attended:

• Newspaper Research by Mary Roddy
• Probate Records: Wills and Whole Lot More by Annette Burke Lyttle
• What to Call That German Place by Jim Beidler

Client Work/Presentations: Nothing this week, though I have thought about my classes for the fall and have jotted down some notes.   

Volunteer & Own Work:
I worked on putting away some collections and recording them in the Finding Aid. Communicated with our summer intern and look forward to her working on our library projects.

On my work, I began working on my fourth great-grandfather, Ellis W. Lancaster’s story and in that process realized I had never downloaded the deed records from Lewis County, Missouri. I spent time collecting historical background on the county, locating maps, and creating a spreadsheet to account for the purchases and sales of his land. Next is to transcribe or abstract all of the deeds.

Other: I watched several model railroad layout videos in preparation to the upcoming NMRA convention in July. I took minutes of the committee meeting on Wednesday. I also watched a German movie, Mostly Martha with my husband on Sunday night. We enjoyed it very much. Perhaps we should do this once a week.

I’m reading the following books: (I know, I’m crazy, but different books speak to me at different times.)

• The Family Tree by Karen Branan
• Black Newspapers & America’s War for Democracy, 1914-1920 by William G Jordan
• Girl Waits with a Gun by Amy Stewart
• The Gilded Hour by Sara Donati
• Researching and Writing History by David Dymond
• Zotero for Genealogists by Donna Cox Baker 

Photos taken this week:

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.

Copyright © 2021 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.