Monday Genea-pourri, Week of November 29–December 5, 2021

I have completed ninety (90) weeks of semi-lock down due to Covid-19. This past week I left the house a little more often than usual. On Tuesday, I visited the eye doctor, a department store for new belts, and volunteered at the History Center. Wednesday, I visited the optician, cleaned vehicles at the Train Club, and had my volunteer stint at the Oakland FHC.  Thursday, I did phenology at the Meadow. Saturday, our niece from London flew in and we had dinner with her and her father. With the new variant around, I’m a little worried and will try to cut my outside activities.   

Genealogy

Blog Writing:

52 Ancestors—Week 48: Strength—Tom Johnston’s Recommendation Letters I wrote about the letters that spoke about his work abilities and strength in character.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – Which Ancestor(s) Are at the Top of Your Research List? I made a short list of some of the research tangles I have.

Online Study Groups & Meetings Attended: I attended Amigos on Tuesday, where we heard about Stewart’s trip, and Peer Group on Friday, where we discussed Chapter 16 in Mastering Genealogical Documentation. It has been very helpful reviewing the book.

Volunteer Work
I met with John at the History Center and we discussed the upcoming newsletter. I wrote an article about the progress on the new library and provided a few photos. I hosted the California Genealogical Society’s Introduction to Genealogy Zoom class where Ron spoke about organization. At the Oakland FamilySearch Library, there were more staff than researchers, but I manned the front desk.

Own Work:
I finished the last writing class this past week and the group wants to keep meeting until I do the next writing class in the Spring. I worked on writing up the military papers from my grandfather’s OMPF (Official Military Personnel File) from World War II, trying to decipher some of the terms. I hope to find an expert in WWII navy records. I also thinned out another family’s (Welch) file folders. It is rather easy for these lines where I mostly photocopied pages from books or took notes. All of that is already inputted in the genealogy software, so the paper can be recycled. It will not be as easy when I work on more recent lines with many more original papers. Still, my goal is to get the six boxes down to two.

Webinars Viewed. None this week.

Other: I took a couple of walks this week and weeded some around the California Poppies in the front yard. On Saturday, we met Norman’s brother, his wife, and oldest daughter for drinks and dinner. Our niece had just come from London for a visit. We had drinks first at Five Suns Brewing and then dinner at Ginger Thai restaurant, both in Martinez. Book club on Sunday discussed the introduction of the book Gospel According to the Klan.

I am reading:

• Gospel According to the Klan by Kelly J. Baker
• Wicked Autumn by G. M. Malliet

Photos for this week:
The Oakland Temple campus was all nicely decorated.

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.