My Trails into the Past

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's  Saturday Night  again - time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is: 1)  Have you found a unique document or record (e.g., not a vital record, military record, probate record, etc.) that provided new and/or unique information for one or more of your ancestors?  How did it affect your research?  Please share your find. Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for suggesting this topic. Here's mine: My grandmother, Anna Marie Sullivan Hork, was a schoolteacher. She first taught school in the Deer Lodge County schools after graduating from Montana Normal School. I don’t know the names of the schools she taught near Hamilton, so I should contact both the district and the historical society to see if records are available. She likely met her future husband in Hamilton, where he lived and she did not teach once they were married. They moved to Los Angeles after their marriage and...

Many people choose to do DNA tests in order to see their ethnicity estimates. Since I have completed my genealogy research back several generations, I have an idea of my ethnicity. My Ancestry Estimates My paternal grandmother is from a long line of people from Ireland, particularly County Cork and perhaps County Tipperary. The surnames I research are Sullivan, Sheehan, Gleeson, and Tierney. My paternal grandfather is from a long line of people from the German states of Westfalen & Posen. The surnames I research are Hork, Sievert, Sommer, Trösster, Voss, Döbener, and Randuntz. On my mother’s side, both her maternal and paternal sides have been in the U.S. since colonial times and settled in the South. Likely, they came from countries of present-day Great Britain. The surnames of her paternal ancestors are Johnston, Hutson, Jones, Selman, Haley, and Oldham. The surnames of her maternal ancestors are Lancaster, Loveless, Welch, Coor, Rodgers, Hughes, Polly, Neel, and Kethley. D...

I have completed one hundred sixty-three (163) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My outside activities included working at the History Center, doing phenology, and volunteering at the Oakland FamilySearch Center and the John Muir National Historic Park’s John Muir Earth Day Birthday event at the California Native Plants booth. Genealogy Blog Writing : Should be a Movie: John Coor’s Travels Through Indian Country to Mississippi Territory . For week 16 of 52 Ancestors, I wrote how it would be cool to see as a movie the route that John Coor and John Kethley took through Georgia and Alabama to get to Mississippi Territory in 1811. SNGF: Sharing a Document That Provided New Information—Johnstons & Jones in Comanche Co. 1880 Census  I wrote how the page where my ancestor was listed was full of other Johnston and Jones families. Meetings/Discussion Groups Met this week with Jacqueline and we discussed citations and research plans in Texas. Volunteer I was a lit...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's  Saturday Night  again - time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment today from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to describe a common document or record that provided new and/or unique information to one or more of our ancestors. (Thanks to Linda Stufflebean for this topic.) Here's mine: My document shows well how keeping track of the neighbors on a census record can pay off. The document that gave me much information about my mother’s paternal side of the family is the 1880 U.S. federal census for Comanche County, Texas. I was looking for Rubin M. Johnston, my 2x-great-grandfather. Because of the large gap between the census years 1900 and 1880 due to the loss of the 1890 census, I was not sure if I would find him married or still with his parents. I found him with his wife, Olevia J., and three daughters I did not know. [1] There was a clue on the census that they had been married the previous year, so Olevia wa...

I have completed one hundred sixty-two (162) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My outside activities included working at the History Center, doing phenology, hiking, train club meeting, and attending a party at the Oakland FamilySearch Center.   Genealogy Blog Writing : What My Mother Did to Get Solitude . For week 15 of 52 Ancestors, I wrote about the ways my mother found solitude from us six kids. SNGF: What Genea-Musings Posts Do You Like  For Randy’s 17 th anniversary of writing on his blog, we wrote about the posts we like. My favorite is SNGF, but I enjoy some of his other themes, too. Meetings/Discussion Groups Met this week with Jacqueline, my mentee, Amigos, and heard the tail end of the Certification Discussion Group about adding context to stories. Volunteer On Tuesday, I did my volunteer stint at the History Center, working primarily on an accession. On Monday and Friday, we interviewed candidates for the Executive Director’s position. Dur...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Here is our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings: 1) Let's do something different today.  Since it's my 17th blogiversary today, please tell me which posts you especially like on Genea-Musings.  Are there any posts that you don't care for? Here’s mine: First off, congratulations to Randy on the 17 th anniversary of writing his blog. That is a huge accomplishment. My favorite post is Saturday Night Genealogy Fun because I enjoy participating in writing up my own posts based on his weekly themes. This helps me write posts for my own blog. I also enjoy reading the Best of Genea-blogs posts. I don’t read as many blogs as Randy and he usually curates some very interesting blogs. I especially like posts about methodology I enjoy reading the Ask Randy posts, especially if it is about RootsMagic. I use RootsMagic and Randy often has insights on how to better ...

My mother was an only child. She wanted a large family to get something that she didn’t have growing up. As a result, I have five brothers and sisters. I think she got a lot more than she bargained for. Raising six children is hard work. Raising six children gives you hardly anytime for yourself. There is always someone who wants a piece of your time. So how did she find solitude? She made her own solitude. One way, she got up at the same time as my father who worked the early shift at the produce department at the local store, LoRay. He left at 4:30 or 5:00 am and that quiet time between his leaving and us kids getting up for school was solitude time for her. During that quiet time, she read, wrote, or sewed. Sewing is what I remember most, as she made Barbie clothes for Christmas or sewed outfits for us to wear. Another way during summer was she sent us outside to play with instructions not to return until she called us for lunch. Her solitude time then was watching soap operas...

I have completed one hundred sixty-one (161) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My outside activities included working at the History Center, doing phenology, and attending two birding walks which of course were outdoors. Genealogy Blog Writing : A New Beginning Genealogy Resource: Drew Smith’s Generation by Generation (Book Review) . I was anxious to read this new book for beginning genealogists and can recommend it due to its new approach, starting with the present and working your way back in time, generation by generation. The first part discusses more methodology than in other introductory volumes. SNGF: Summertime Fun as a Child  I wrote about bicycling and roller skating on sidewalks in our old neighborhood in Pittsburg, California. Meetings/Discussion Groups Another quiet week. Just a short session with Jacqueline. Volunteer On Tuesday, I completed a half day volunteer shift and worked on cleaning off Betty’s old desk to make room for a computer to b...

Because I teach beginning genealogy classes at local genealogical societies and adult school, I was very interested in Drew Smith’s new book on basic genealogy research called Generation by Generation: a Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2023). [1] This slim letter-sized volume of 170 pages will not overwhelm a beginning genealogist. Smith’s approach to the subject is novel. Instead of dividing the book by different genealogical record groups, he instead covered records by those that help most in different time periods. The book is divided by two parts: part I covers basics about genealogical research and part II covers different time periods: after 1950 1980-1950 1850-1880 1776-1850 Colonial America and then records found outside of the U.S., and those foreign language records. The first part of the book helps build a solid foundation in research practices. Many of the topics in chapters 1, 2, 4, and 7 are covered in early cha...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing is to: 1) Let's talk about what we did as children (not teenagers or young adults) on our summer vacations from school.  2)  Write about your life as a child in the summertime (say, any age between 5 and 12).  Where did you live, what did you do, how did it influence the rest of your life? Here's mine: My first eight years of childhood was spent in Pittsburg, California. We lived in a two-story rental unit on East 9 th Street. As a young child, our yard felt large. We had lots of concrete, which was great for riding trikes, bikes, and peddle cars. The sidewalk was flat, but the driveway sloped down into the backyard. The peddle cars we had were chained-driven. I have never seen examples anywhere of these types of cars. My car was painted blue and I think it was supposed to be a Cadillac. My brother’s car was pain...

I have completed one hundred sixty (160) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My outside activities included working at the History Center, doing phenology, and running trains at Train Club. Genealogy Blog Writing : Light a Candle--Nana Saying a Prayer. For week 14 . I wrote about the racks of candles often found in old Catholic churches where one lights one to say a prayer. This post was a highlight of the 52 Ancestors for the past week. SNGF: What Genealogy Record Collections to Index or Digitize?  I would like some German church records indexed and western states' land, probate, and other court records digitized. Meetings/Discussion Groups It was a quiet week—no discussion with Jacqueline while she is on vacation. I attended the Certification Discussion Group on Wednesday and listened to Blaine Bettinger discuss the new AI tools and how best to use them. Volunteer On Monday, I hosted the online discussion group for the Contra Costa County Genealogical Socie...

I do not have many direct-line ancestors whose names begin with a vowel. In checking my database with a total of 7504 people, I found the following four women whose names begin with a vowel: Paternal side : Margaret Eagan , wife of Denis Tierney and mother of John Tierney. She would be my 2x-great-grandmother. I know absolutely nothing about her. John was born in 1804 and his father, Denis, married Judith Quinn in 1820. I have no notes in my database about her. But I did find a handwritten note from 22 Dec 1996 (early days in my genealogy research). From The City Beyond: A History of Nepean by Bruce S. Elliott, Denis Tierney’s first wife was Margaret Eagan and his second wife Judith Quinn. [1] Since Denis did not come to Canada from Ireland until the 1820s, Margaret was born and died likely in Tipperary County. Anna Marianna Ewald , wife of Christoph Siewert, mother of Vincent Sievert. From research conducted by Dr. Lukasz Bielecki, that was commissioned by my cousin, Thomas Manl...