Monday Genea-pourri, Week of Jul 10–16, 2023

I have completed one hundred seventy-five (175) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. Had a scare this week about Covid, as our executive director came down with it and she and I had been together on Tuesday. I tested Friday and Saturday but tested negative. I stayed home Friday from train club just in case.

Genealogy

Genealogy Meetings
I had more meetings this week than last. The Kinseekers Military SIG met on Monday and KB shared books she uses in her military research. Many of them can be found on the Internet Archive.

Jacqueline and I met on Monday afternoon but I don’t remember what we talked about. We always talk for at least two hours, so it was likely very interesting! At Amigos, three of us discussed citations and genealogies and probably bored Jacqueline.

Our CGS Roundtable meeting was very lively and the time went by fast. Everyone had something to share.

I hosted the Sonoma County Genealogical Society’s board meeting on Tuesday and we made a little progress on the future. We have no president or vice president of programs. We have no membership meeting in August and I talked Jeff into presenting in September. I hosted the July meeting where Linda Okazaki presented on organization and talked up the idea of getting volunteers to take on the two jobs, emphasizing the importance of the society continuing. Don’t know if it will work. The old president talked about it for months at each meeting.

Genealogy Writing
I am still working on my KDP for my renewal. I have many newspaper articles about the husband of my great-grandaunt and am trying to incorporate some into their story. Newspapers sometimes hint at land purchases and sales and now I want to get the deeds, which of course are not online. I also found a notice of an indictment and have a request out to a regional branch of the National Archives to get those records.

Der Blumenbaum came out and I have an article “Amana: A Religious Community in Iowa.”

I worked on the handouts and PowerPoint on how to leave your genealogy for an upcoming presentation. When I was looking for supporting resources, I was surprised to discover my blog post on that subject is on Cyndi’s List.

Collecting Signatures The theme was “random” and I wrote about signatures from original records that are in my collection. Some come from ancestor report cards.

SNGF: Three Things About an Ancestor I wrote about my great-grandmother, Lela Ann Loveless.

Genealogy Volunteer/Work
I did some work at the Contra Costa County recorder’s office and court record office for my regular client, by pulling records and certificates.

I did my stint at the History Center on Tuesday, mostly preparing for our booth on Saturday at the Maker’s Faire. I worked then on Saturday, helping set up and taking down the booth, and being stationed at the History Center with the topo maps we are giving away. We didn’t give away as much as we would have liked but now have ideas on how to promote these maps. They would make great wrapping paper or art projects.

Our writing group met on Thursday on Zoom and will meet in two weeks at the Oakland FamilySearch Center. It will be our first time in person. We discussed Margaret’s story. Her layout of the book is beautiful and she has made a lot of progress, especially after her research trip to Nebraska with her sister, who will now help with the book.

For AppGen, I showed Jill how to create a new Zoom meeting link and we had a nice chat afterwards. I checked in with Jean, who is teaching in the fall, to see how she was coming along with her syllabus. She’s doing fine. I worked on a new video tip to post on our AppGen Youtube Channel.

Webinars Viewed:

• Celebrating 2,000 Webinars! plus 10 tips you can use today, hosted by Geoff Rasmussen (Legacy Family Tree Webinars)
• How to Plan Your Digital Afterlife by Julie Miller (Legacy Family Tree Webinars)
• Organize Your Genealogy by Linda Okazaki (Sonoma Co Gen Soc)
• The ABCs and 123s of Researching Your Ancestor’s School Records by Melissa Barker (San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Gen Soc)

Other:
Our walking group hiked on some trails in Tilden Park in Berkeley. It was much warmer as the fog only came in over the bay. Surprising to still see flowers blooming, evidence of our late spring rains. By the weekend, we had 100 degree weather. Keeping the house closed up in the morning helped so we didn't need to turn on the A/C until mid-afternoon. I hope it starts cooling off soon.

I am reading:

• Fatal Remedies by Donna Leon—FINISHED!
• Friends in High Places by Donna Leon

Photos for this week
Some shots from our walk at Tilden Park.

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.