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.
Online 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 difficult to search and browse.
- Jacqueline and I met on Monday and I practiced my Brick Wall talk with her.
- No one was at the Peer group meeting so I only waited 10 minutes before signing off.
Client
Work/Presentations:
I got another request for some record pulls at the recorder’s offices in Contra
Costa County and Solano County, and the court clerk’s office in Solano County. I
discovered in Solano County that one needs an appointment to get records so I’m
waiting for that email to be returned.
I
presented my Brick Wall talk to the Qualicum Beach Family History Society on
Tuesday evening. My talks that usually go over an hour in person, always finishes
way short of an hour, even though I try to speak slowly. I think it is because
in person I allow for questions to be posed during the session. It’s so much
harder to do that on Zoom when you cannot see the audience. Afterwards, there
were no questions really. Most people don’t turn on their videos either. I did
try something. I asked people to put into the chat what tip they would try next
in tackling their tough problem and I got about 8 people who responded. It felt
a little weird with so many of my examples from the U.S. when they were from
British Columbia, though I had some Ontario, Canada examples.
Volunteer Work:
It was quiet in the morning at the History Center and I got through all of the
subject clipping files, pulling out anything that would be better suited in the
library. A woman came in looking for information about her Castro family in San
Pablo and we sold a membership and some used books to her. Thursday was the
board meeting and we tried a hybrid setup so those who couldn’t be there in
person could still attend. It was not completely successful. It was hard to
hear some of the members who were sitting too far from the computer microphone.
It was suggested to purchase a mic that could sit in the center of the room.
I attended the board
meeting of the Sonoma County Genealogical Society and I will be appointed
recording secretary at the next meeting. I practiced recording the minutes
during the meeting, as I get to know the other members and their function.
I did my volunteer shift at the
Oakland FamilySearch Library and took care of the front desk for a while. It’s
fun greeting the people as they came in and I was glad the phone didn’t ring!
Own Work:
At the OFSL, I got copies of deed records from Plymouth and Clinton counties in
Iowa that are locked from home. This is for the Michael Gleeson family who
immigrated from Ontario, Canada in the 1860s to Clinton County. At home, I have
been entering the data and transcriptions into RootsMagic. I hope to write up a
genealogy and narrative about this family.
I also worked on one of my
family members who served during World War I. William Wesley Waldron was the
father of my uncle, Wally Waldron, who married my dad’s sister, Lorene.
Webinars Viewed: I attended three presentations this
week:
- 19th Century Ontario Enigma Case Study by Janice Nickerson
- Little Things Count Too: A Potpourri of Writing Do's and Don't's . . . by Barbara Vines Little
- How To Write Ancestral Stories Your Relatives Will Want To Read by Pam Vestal
Other: We visited our daughter, Elizabeth on Father’s Day, taking up the growing box system that once belonged to my grandmother. She used to get the biggest tomatoes from it. It’s set up that the water is fed from below the soil. We brought tomato and pepper plants, too. We ate dinner at a Peruvian restaurant, eating outside while our car got charged enough to drive home. Afterwards, we video chatted with daughter in New York, who is thinking of visiting us soon!
I
am reading:
- The
Swallowtail Legacy by Michael Beil—FINISHED!
- Water Street by Patricia Reilly Giff
- Ghosts of Gold Mountain by Gordon H. Chang
- On the Farm Front: The Women’s Land Army in World War II by Stephanie A. Carpenter
- A Practical Guide to Swedish Church Records by Geoffrey Fröberg Morris
Photos
for this week: I didn't shoot many photos last week. Here are the best of what I did shoot.
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.
Lisa, your week sounds busy and stimulating! I also have had difficulty searching or even browsing those morning reports on Fold3.
ReplyDeleteSo impressed with your commitment of writing this every week.
ReplyDelete