Monday Genea-pourri, Week of January 16–22, 2023

I have completed one hundred fifty (150) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. We had clear weather this week though it was cold. I was out of the house more: besides visiting the History Center twice this week, I volunteered at the Oakland FamilySearch Center and gave a live in-person presentation to the Mt. Diablo Genealogical Society. On Saturday, I traveled to Oakland for a day of birding with two others as part of the Mt. Diablo Audubon trip. I went twice to the meadow, first to do phenology and again with Elaine to do some pruning to make our path safer.

Genealogy

Blog Writing: We have a new schedule for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks and I ended up with two this week.

Out of Place: Why Can’t I find John H Sullivan with His Family? For week 3, I wrote about how I cannot find my great-grandfather with his parents. It took a complicated case study to prove his parentage.

Education: Mississippi’s Enumeration of Educable Children – James M. Coor’s Children are Listed For week 4, I investigated the above database at FamilySearch and compared the information about the children in his household in the 1880 census with the information in the 1878 school census. I also found two conflicts with the names and sex of the children.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Where are Your “Close DNA Matches” Residing? Randy had us check out the feature at Ancestry DNA where we can see our matches placed on a map. It revealed that I had many southern US matches but very few from England and Germany, and none from Ireland.

Meetings/Discussion Groups
This week, I met with Jacqueline but do not remember what we discussed. I attended the NGSQ study group, the first time since they went to the Zoom format. I wasn’t sure if I would like it, but it worked out well. I enjoyed the article by Amy Larner Giroux. Wednesday at the Certification Discussion Group meeting, we heard from a new CG and their journey to certification. On Friday, I attended the first 30 minutes of the Oakland FamilySearch Center’s volunteer meeting. Sunday, I attended the book club meeting. This week was ‘bring your own book’ and it’s a favorite way to see what new books I might like to read.

Volunteer
I volunteered at the History Center twice this week. John’s help with the inventory has been extremely helpful. I went in Wednesday morning to enter some of the books we couldn’t find on the inventory sheet. It turns out that most were in the database but under a category we didn’t expect. I do have some books that never were entered and will do that when I go back again. On Thursday, I took minutes at the CCCHS board meeting.

I went to the Oakland FamilySearch Center (a new name!) for my twice-monthly volunteer session. There were not many people who needed help, so I worked on writing my 52 ancestors blog post about John H. Sullivan.

I met with my mentee and I was pleased that she was working on a schedule to get more done.

Client Work
Our AppGen leaders met with another of our contracted instructors for a post-class evaluation and feedback session. We met later for our regular meeting and made plans about how to conduct the draws for the upcoming AppGen classes. Registration opened on Wednesday.

I gave a live in-person presentation to the Mt. Diablo Genealogical Society on Friday. I was nervous because it was my first in-person hybrid presentation in three years. I had gotten the zoom presentations down pat. Plus this presentation was interactive and I wasn’t sure how to handle both the live and online audience. Funny how live presentations take longer than Zoom ones. Even though I said I’d take questions at the end, I ended up having lots of questions. They want me back!

Own Work
I have not worked on my lesson plans this week. Next week, I’ll be in an advanced law for genealogists class but will be taking notes for sources and info I will need for my probate class.

Webinars Viewed.

• Document Analysis: Digging into the Details by Angela Packer McGhie (BCG/LFT Webinars)
• Finding Uncle John by J Mark Lowe (Florida State Gen Soc.)
• Writing For Publication by Michael Leclerc (APG Writers SIG)

I am reading:

• A Bitter Truth by Charles Todd—FINISHED!
• Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge by Erica Gies

Other
I attended my first Mt. Diablo Audubon birding trip this weekend. We went to Lake Merritt first and then to two spots at the Martin Luther King Jr Regional Park: Arrowhead Marsh and Garretson Point. It was a super high tide and the marshes were good places to see rails and soras. I got a life bird: a Ruff. It was hidden among many willets and godwits but its legs are orange so we could pick it out. At one point we could see most of its body when the front birds moved. All in all, we saw over 70 species. It was a great day!

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 © 2023 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.