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)  Most people have aunts and uncles in their life, the siblings of their parents, and in some cases, great-aunts or uncles, the siblings of their grandparents.  Who are/were our favorite aunts and/or uncles? Here's mine: My mother had no siblings, although she did have cousins. Her maternal side all lived in Texas and we never saw them. A couple of her aunts and uncles visited our grandparents and we met them. My father, Bill, had three older sisters and since they lived nearby most of the time, we saw them regularly. The oldest was Lorene, who married Wally, but they had no children. Next was Virginia, who married Johnnie and they had four children. The last sister was June, who married Gene, and they had five children. My dad married Lela Nell (Lea) and had six children. We probably got t...

I am doing one big happy dance today. Besides writing about my find, I want to give a tip on how I finally found a record I had been looking for. I had been looking for the death record for my great-grandfather’s brother, the Reverend Father Albert M. Hork, for many years. He died in 1912 and I have visited his tombstone at the convent cemetery of the Sisters of St. Mary’s in Beaverton, Oregon. [1] I had searched in various Oregon death indexes online at FamilySearch and Ancestry with no luck. I really wanted to write more about him because an obituary stated “he had come to Oregon on account of his health,” and “about a year ago his health became so poor that it was necessary for him to retire from active service.” [2] More information came from the obituary written about him in the diocesan newspaper, Catholic Sentinel . It appeared that he had been of ill health all of his life:     “He left his native country and entered the Scolasticate of the Jesuit Fathers at...

I have completed seventy-one (71) weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I went out to the History Center twice, phenology, and two grocery stores with my husband, where we wore masks. Otherwise, we took walks in our neighborhood. Numbers of cases are rising again in our county, so I wear a mask in public indoor spaces. Genealogy Blog Writing : I wrote two posts this week. 52 Ancestors—Week 29: Fashion—Mam-ma and Aunt Bev Pose for the Camera I posted a few photos of my grandmother and my great-aunt posing for the camera. They always were well-dressed for any occasion. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun—What Memories do You Have of Family Sickness or Deaths? I wrote about my grandparents’ deaths and funerals. O nline Study Groups & Meetings Attended:  I attended Monday Morning, Jacqueline, Amigos, and Peer Group this week, where we spoke about genealogy and answered each other’s questions . I shared about the new venture I’m involved in: Applied Genealogy Institute. ...

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-Musings : 1)  What memories do you have of family sickness or death?  Tell us about one or more of them and how the family dealt with it. Here’s mine: Grandfather, Tom J. Johnston The first death that I was aware of was my grandfather, Tom J Johnston’s in 1973. I remember my mother getting a call from my grandmother and my parents going over to the house. I was left to watch over my five younger brothers and sisters. I was between freshman and sophomore in college. I somehow remember that we were cleaning up the yard for company we were going to have that weekend, but that was all canceled. The funeral was on Friday at the Oak Park Hills Chapel. My two youngest sisters did not attend and perhaps Mrs. Potter watched them. We were told it would be a closed casket, but when we got there, it was open. That w...

I have completed seventy (70) weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I went out to the History Center twice, got a haircut, and attended the Nilsen Family Reunion (bumping elbows instead of hugging). Genealogy Blog Writing : I wrote one post this week. My 52 Ancestor post last week made the top three blog posts highlighted. 52 Ancestors—Week 28: Transportation—Lorene’s Saga Around the World, Part V—By Boat to Cairo I continued the story of my aunt, Lorene Hork, who took a vacation with three girlfriends from Tokyo to England aboard mostly boats. This leg was from Bombay to Cairo. O nline Study Groups & Meetings Attended:  I did not spend much time with my normal groups, but did meet with Amigos . I had meetings with the AppGen members and another with the attorney, and with CGS events group about a new members roundtable. Webinars & Classes Attended : I attended no webinars but two DNA classes on Zoom for the upcoming IGHR institute on Beginning DNA. She co...

We last left off the story of my aunt, Lorene E. Hork and three of her girlfriends and their travels from Japan, after working for the U.S. Army for a year. Check out  Part I ,   Part II , Part III , and Part IV to see their earlier adventures . [1] They left Bombay, India on 24 October 1953 aboard the T.S.S. Jal-Jawahar . She wrote home using the stationery from the ship, which showed an image of the ship and the flag of the Scindia Steam Navigation Company, Limited. I learned that the flag was blue and white with a red swastika, which was an ancient Indian symbol unrelated to Nazi German use. [2] The ship left Bombay, sailed across the Arabian Sea to the Gulf of Aden, and then north in the Red Sea, where it would go through the Suez Canal and stop at Port Said, where they would take a train to Cairo. At least, that was the plan when they purchased their tickets. Aboard this ship, they played deck tennis and deck cards, both English games, and a bingo-like game called Ho...

I have completed sixty-nine (69) weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I went out to the History Center twice, doctor’s office, bank, court office, notary, and to train club. I still wear a mask indoors. Genealogy Blog Writing : I wrote three posts this week. My 52 Ancestor post last week made the top three blog posts highlighted. 52 Ancestors—Week 27: Free—Martha J “Doll” (Coor) Lancaster This week the theme was free, so I freelanced, writing about my great-grandmother Martha J Coor. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – Elementary School Memories I wrote about the three different schools I attended. Finding the Widow's Pension -- Andreas Pfotenhauer's Service.  The third in the series, this time focusing on the widows' pension which later converted to a minors' pension when she remarried. O nline Study Groups & Meetings Attended:  I met with Monday Morning and the Peer Group only. We spoke in the Peer Group about punctuation issues in writing citatio...

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)  What elementary school memories do you have?  Share some of them - pick a year, or discuss the whole experience.  Was this one of the best times in your life?  Or not? 2)  Tell us about your elementary school memories and the highlights of that time of your life - in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or on Facebook.  Be sure to leave a comment with a link to your blog post on this post. Here’s mine: I attended three different schools in my elementary school career. My first school was Pittsburg Primary School, which was located on Railroad Avenue. Below is a photo of the school, but the Kindergarten building was separate. It was three blocks from our house, so I probably walked. Perhaps either my mother or my grandmother walked with me. I only attended t...

Last two posts have been about finding first Andreas Compiled Military Service Record (CMSR), and then finding the Record of Service for the Regiment and Company where he served. Both records were found on Fold3. You can read about the CMSR here and the Record of Service here . Some of the widow’s pensions for those soldiers who died during the war can be found at Fold3 . Again, using Browse will get you to the record in the most efficient way. Start by selection Civil War (Union). Then select Civil War “Widows’ Pensions.” You will now have a choice of states. We will select Missouri because Andreas served with the 4th Missouri Infantry. Now select Infantry. Now you select with regiment and we’ll select Regiment 4, Company F. We now see three soldiers and the first one is Pfotenhauer, Andrew. This is likely an Americanized version of Andreas’ first name. A widows’ pension begins with the widow making an application. The Act of Congress, approved 14 July 1862, allowed for pension...

I have completed sixty-eight (68) weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. Another quiet week, going out only for the History Center twice and to phenology. Genealogy Blog Writing : I wrote three posts this week! 52 Ancestors—Week 26: Conflict—Learning More About Amos Gorrell’s Experience in Battle at Chickamauga During the Civil War I researched what his unit, Co A of the 18 th Ohio Infantry did at the Battle of Chickamauga in Tennessee and Alabama. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – Genealogy Pot Luck Randy is dealing with the injury to his wife and decided to have us do what we wanted. I wrote about working on a Civil War widows’ pension file. Finding Civil War Era Record of Service Unit Records – 4 th Missouri Infantry & Andreas Pfotenhauer . This is a continuation of last week’s post about researching in these Civil War era records, this time about what the regiment and unit did. O nline Study Groups & Meetings Attended:  I met with Monday Morning, Amig...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has had a bad week and wrote for this week: “I'm not in the mood for a long Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (SNGF) blog post, but I know that my readers count on me and love to have genealogy fun, so tonight (and tomorrow) let's do:” GENEALOGY POT LUCK!! Whatever genealogy fun you want to do - please spend an hour and do it!  Then tell us about it in your own blog post. My thoughts and prayers are with Randy and his wife, Linda. I hope things improve soon for them. This afternoon, I have spent more than an hour reviewing and writing about a widows’ Civil War pension I have found on Fold3 for one of the collateral lines of my husband’s Davey family. This will be the third post about the service and later pension of Andreas Pfotenhauer of Herman, Missouri and the 4th Missouri Infantry. He died during service and his widow filed for a pension. I learned from the military class I took at GRIP last week to take the documents and rearrange them in...