Monday Genea-pourri, Week of Jul 17–23, 2023

I have completed one hundred seventy-six (176) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. I attended a family reunion on Saturday and hugged everyone – the first time since Covid started. Maybe this is a sign I’m ready to end my semi-lockdown.

Genealogy

Genealogy Meetings
Jacqueline and I met on Monday afternoon. We talked about diets, cemeteries, ordering death certificates, and the court records I got from NARA-KC.

My mentee and I met for the first time in nearly two months. I was on vacation in June and she was gone most of July. She is so close to submitting so I gave lots of encouragement.

Our Contra Costa County Historical Society board of directors met on Thursday and I took the minutes via Zoom. We got an Owl but there were some audio problems we still need to solve, but the sound and visual worked great when it worked.

Lastly, I attended the orientation for the IGHR (Institute of Genealogy and History Research). The classes start on Monday and I’m taking an advanced course in land and land platting. It’s an early start of 7:30 am.

Genealogy Writing
I worked on updating my school presentation after viewing Melissa Barker’s presentation on Sunday. She had some interesting resources I hadn’t thought of.

I received a court case for Warren E. Gilbert from the National Archives branch in Kansas City. It only took two days from ordering to receiving the file. Their ordering system is sweet. I started transcribing it while at the Oakland FamilySearch Center on Wednesday.

Because of the institute class this week, I wrote the 52 Ancestors post for this week ahead of time and it’s scheduled to post on Tuesday.

98^th Birthday of Mary Martha Gleeson Gilbert The theme of birthday was perfect – I had found articles about her 98^th birthday party from two different newspapers in Los Angeles, both including different photos.  

SNGF: Who is Your Last Immigrant Ancestor? I wrote about my husband’s great-grandmother, Hulda Carlson, and my great-grandmother, Anna Maria Gleeson.

Genealogy Volunteer/Work
It was quiet at the History Center. Tara and I put away all of the stuff left over from the Saturday sale. I then worked on accessing some collections, adding them to PastPerfect and the Online Archive of California. Finally, continued working on processing a collection recently donated. Janet and I searched for a possible court case but did not locate it in the minute books.

AppGen founders had our semi-weekly meeting and are all set for our upcoming registration period in August.

I gave a webinar to the California Genealogical Society on Focused Research. It was a small group but they all participated nicely.

Again, it was quiet at the Oakland FamilySearch Center on Wednesday evening. It seems those who need help come during the day and those who don’t, work through the evening. It’s okay. I get a chance to work on my own work. I always have a list of locked films to check or a list of newspapers to check on NewspaperArchive.

Webinars Viewed:

• Tax Records -- More Exciting Than You Might Think by Annette Burke Lyttle (CGS)
• I Hate Conflict! Mediating Sources That Don't Agree by Elizabeth Gomoll (Legacy Family Tree Webinars)
• Andiamo! Finding Your Italian Family by Margaret R Fortier (BCG/LFTWebinars)
• Grandpa Was a Tail-gunner: Researching Army Air Forces Ancestors by KB Barcomb (FSGS Poolside Chat)

Other:
Because most of the walking group went up to Caples Lake, Elaine, Phred and I went to Mt. Diablo and hiked the Mary Bowerman trail. It was pretty hot but we saw lots of plants with wiltering flowers, fruit, or seed pods.

Norman and I attended the Nilsen Family Reunion held this year at Samuel P. Taylor State Park. The picnic area was in the redwoods and although it was hot, it wasn’t too bad in the deep shade. It was a small gathering this year and no children attended except one teenager. But we had nice conversations and good food. Traffic getting there was tough because Highway 80 was closed in one spot and people had to take a detour.

I am reading:

• Friends in High Places by Donna Leon—FINISHED!
• The Templars’ Last Secret by Martin Walker

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.