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Monday Genea-pourri, Week of Nov 28–Dec 4, 2022

I have completed one hundred forty-three (143) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. I was sick all week with my cough and skipped most activities. I finally felt well enough to do phenology (it was icy there) and on Sunday, visited the N-scale model railroad layout of the San Ramon Branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad that is on display at the Concord Historical Society.

Genealogy

Blog Writing: The post last week, “Wrong Side of the Law” was highlighted on Linda Stufflebean’s roundup post “Friday Family History Finds.”

Overlooked: Don’t Forget to Locate all the Sources That Document a Death. I wrote about the different records that documented my grandmother, Mam-ma’s death and burial.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Pretend You Are a Time Traveler We were to choose someone we would like to go back and visit—I chose Samuel Johnston. I sure would love to know his origins in South Carolina.

Meetings/Discussion Groups
I hosted the Monday Morning Zoom meeting and the first Friday Peer Group meeting.

Volunteer
I did not go to the History Center this week due to my cough.

Client Work
We had a productive AppGen founders meeting and discussed the ideas about marketing we learned from Carly. We decided to make some short videos about tips and to create videos about each of the upcoming courses for the spring session. I did record one minute plus video tip about testate versus intestate estates. I want to do another about land. I found it easier to create PowerPoint slides and talk about them, recording on Zoom instead of my phone.

Own Work
I started writing the bio of Rubin Mack Johnston and realize that I have no documentation about his birth or death except for his tombstone marker. Even though he died in 1924, I cannot find a death record for him; only an obituary. I’m beginning to think I need to start with his parents and I know even less about them. Ugh! What I really need is a research trip to do exhaustive research—there must be more that FamilySearch did not film.

Webinars Viewed:

  • “U.S. Military Pension Records: Revolution through Civil War,” by Rebecca Whitman Koford, CG (CGS)
  • “Indexing for Genealogical Writers: An Overview, “ by Amy Arner, CG (APG Writers SIG)

I am reading

  • Working the Land: The Stories of Ranch and Farm Women in the Modern American West by Sandra K Schackel—FINISHED!
  • Seen and Unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, & Ansel Adams’s Photographs Reveal About the Japanese American Incarceration by Elizabeth Partridge—FINISHED!
  • The Vanderbeekers on the Road by Karina Yan Glaser—FINISHED!
  • Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge by Erica Gies


Other:
I watched some World Cup games, first seeing the US beat Iran on Tuesday and then lose on Saturday to The Netherlands. I saw part of the England-Senegal game on Sunday. I’m also watching “Picard” on Paramount+.

I sure enjoyed the rain – happy that my garden got some needed moisture  and happy that I didn’t have to go out in it. This coming week I have jury duty.

Photos for this week:






Genealogists are great at documenting our ancestors’ lives but not so great at 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 © 2022 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

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