My Trails into the Past

I make an effort to tell the story of those family members who had no descendants. I don’t wish that they be forgotten. One such person was my husband’s great-uncle, Arthur Leonidas Gorrell. Arthur was the youngest child of Amos Gorrell and Catherine “Cate” Elizabeth Shotts, who was born 27 February 1876 and died 19 April 1916. [1] My father-in-law, George Gorrell was just barely one years old and it’s possible he never met him. Arthur married Millie Gillespie on 3 October 1903 in Marshall, Saline County, Missouri. It’s interesting that his license said he lived in Kansas City, Missouri and she lived in Blackwater, Cooper County, Missouri. [2] It is likely that was where he met her, as his parents lived in Blackwater at that time. Perhaps they attended school together even though he was three years older. Taken in Blackwater about 1913 Three years prior to the marriage, Minnie lived in Blackwater with her parents, James Henry and Nancy Crockett Gillespie. She was twenty years old...

I have completed one hundred twenty (120) weeks of semi-lock down due to Covid-19. I volunteered at the history center twice, went to the recorder’s office in Martinez for deeds,  Fairfield for a civil court case, train club for our end of the month show, and to the Beaver Festival in Martinez where I worked at the Friends of Alhambra Creek booth. Genealogy Blog Writing : Randy Seaver highlighted my Broken Branch post in his Best of the Genea-Blogs post for the week of June 19-25, 2022. Broken Branch – When the End of the Line Families are not Well-Documented   I wrote about how as a baby genealogist, I found books about my families and entered them in my genealogy database without researching them in original sources. These all need further research. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Paternal Grandfather’s Matrilineal Line Randy Seaver had us list the maternal line of our paternal great-grandfathers. I could list three generations, which isn’t bad for a German lin...

It's  Saturday Night  - time for more  Genealogy Fun! Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing is to: 1)  Who is in your paternal grandfather's matrilineal line (i.e., the mother of your paternal grandfather, and her mother, etc.) 2)  Write your own blog post, or add your response as a comment to this blog post, in a Facebook Status post or note. Here’s mine: My paternal grandfather was Johan Anton Hork (1843-1906), born in Oberhundem, Westfalen and died in Sheridan, Wyoming. His mother was Maria Catharine Trösster (1813-1874), born and died in Oberhundem. She married Joseph Heinrich Horoch (1804-1857) 2 Aug 1835 in Oberhundem. Her mother was Maria Elizabeth Döbener (1792-??). She married Johann Joseph Trösster (1778-1831) 22 Jan 1809 in Kirchhundem. Her mother was Anna Elisabeth Schmies. She married Caspar Döbener. I have no dates. Their names came from Maria Elisabeth’s marriage record. That is as far back as I have researc...

I have completed one hundred nineteen (119) weeks of semi-lock down due to Covid-19. I was out and about a little more this week, volunteering at the history center, going to the recorder’s office in Martinez and Fairfield, as well as the court records'  office. Genealogy Blog Writing : Popular Name: Mary Beats Out John    I worked out how many people in my database I had with popular first names and I have more Marys than Johns, Elizabeths, and Williams, which where the next popular names. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Grandmother Memories Randy Seaver had us write about our memories of our grandmothers. I was surprised because it was Father’s Day weekend, that we didn’t writing about our memories of our grandfathers. O nline Study Groups & Meetings Attended: I attended my first Kinseekers Military SIG meeting. They are out of Florida and KB showed us some good places to get WWI military information. The Morning Reports are online at Fold3 but dif...

It's  Saturday Night  - time for more  Genealogy Fun! Our assignment tonight from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing is to: 1.    He found an image on Facebook that said: “If you were blessed to know your Grandma…what was the one thing that you remember most about her?” 2.   Write a post in response to this comment. Here’s mine: I was fortunate to know both my grandmothers, Anna Sullivan Hork, who we called Nana, and Pansy Louise Lancaster Johnston, who we called Mam-ma. Nana was the fun grandmother and Mam-ma was not, though once we became adults, it was much better. Nana Nana raised four children; my dad was the youngest. She taught elementary, particularly the lowest grades, and also CCD classes at the catholic church. This shows she was used to being around young children. She liked to read to us and knew great songs, teaching them to us as we washed dishes. I still have old school readers she kept when withdrawn from Williams School...

This week’s 52 Ancestor’s theme is popular name. I wondered, what is the most popular first name in my genealogy database? It took some digging and counting to come up with the answer. I use RootsMagic 8. By using the Person Search-Advanced, I could search on the Given Name. I tried four common first names: Mary, John, William, and Elizabeth. The results are in reverse order: William has 58 entries. Elizabeth has 66 entries, including 10 with no known last name. Eliza has 6 entries. Mary has 91 entries, including 23 with no known last name. John has 97 entries. However, I realized that I was missing people who also had middle names, so I changed the criteria to “contain” the name. I got a different outcome: Elizabeth has 150 entries. William has 210 entries. John has 268 entries. Mary has 272 entries. Now there could be duplicates in John and William entries and in Mary and Elizabeth’s entries, if people had both as their first and middle name. It really boils down th...

I have completed one hundred eighteen (118) weeks of semi-lock down due to Covid-19. I was home most of the week, just volunteering at the history center, going to an eye appointment, doing phenology, and going to a train club meeting. Genealogy Blog Writing : Mistake: Two Priests Made Mistakes on a Baptismal Record   I wrote about the two baptismal records of my grandmother, created 50 years apart and how they both had mistakes. This was for 52 Ancestors, week 23. This post was highlighted on Linda Stufflebean's "Friday's Family History Finds." Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What Search/Research did You Do Last Week? Randy Seaver is home from his heart surgery and we had a fun post to do this week. I wrote about the Gleeson and Loveless research I did, mostly in newspaper records. O nline Study Groups & Meetings Attended: Jacqueline and I met on Monday and I always forget what we talked about by Sunday. I attended my first SLIG Writing Group and I ...

It's  Saturday Night  - time for more  Genealogy Fun! Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music here) is to: 1)  What genealogy search/research did you do last week?  Did you have a research goal or plan?  Tell us about one or more search/research session. Here’s mine: I have done a lot of genealogy research and writing these past two weeks. My download folder has several Word documents of beginning writeups. I am searching for possible case studies, research reports, or family narratives to use for my BCG renewal which is due in late 2023. It’s never too soon to start on the renewal portfolio. The first project is locating all of the newspaper articles that I can find of the Gleeson/Gleason family in Le Mars, which is located in Plymouth County, Iowa. The University of Northern Iowa, Rod Library has digital newspapers from many Iowan cities on their website. The website is searchable and the pages or...

When I searched “mistake” in my RootsMagic database, I find several instances where I commented on likely mistakes in a record. Some of the mistakes seem to be on the part of the parish priest when he entered a sacramental event in a register. My grandmother, Anna Sullivan, was born 15 October 1892 in Anaconda, Deer Lodge County, Montana, the youngest child of John H Sullivan and Anna Maria Gleeson. I have several documents that support her birth and parents: Anna Maria Sullivan was baptized by Father DeSiere on 19 October 1892 at St. Paul’s Church in Anaconda. Her birth was listed as 14 October 1892. Her parents as Joannes Sullivan and Anna Gleason. Michael Sullivan and Anna Dorian were the sponsors. [1] In 1953, she received a certificate of baptism from the pastor of St. Paul’s Church, Father Joseph F. Schulte, which was a filled-out form. It stated Anna Marie Sullivan, father John Sullivan and mother Anna Gleeson, born in Anaconda on 15 October 1892 and was baptized on 19 Oct...