Monday Genea-pourri, Week of Oct 2–8, 2023

I have completed one hundred eighty-seven (187) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. We’re still on vacation and our time in Maine has been either traveling in a rental car, by bus, or by train. I tried to wear a mask when there were crowded conditions.

Genealogy

Genealogy Meetings
None this week.

Genealogy Writing
I worked on extracting information on the Hork family from Missoula newspapers recently added to Newspapers.com.

Blog Posts:

Who Lived to Be Over 100. My children have several ancestors who lived long lives. For week 40, I named three on my mother’s maternal side: 

• my grandmother’s uncle Huts who lived to the age of 104; 
• my first cousin four times removed Drew Oliver Welch who lived to 103, and 
• my second cousin three times removed Thelma Gladys Welch who lived to 102. I met her when I visited Texas with my grandmother in the 90s.

SNGF: Which Ancestor Lived the Shortest Life? My great-grandmother, Nell Hutson, lived the shortest life at thirty or thirty-one.

Genealogy Volunteer/Work
I worked on the BCG Legacy Family Tree Webinar press release and will be sending it out this week.  

Webinars Viewed:
None this week.

Other:
Monday, we visited the statehouse in Augusta and then drove down to Portland, again taking some back roads. On Tuesday, after some issues with Lyft (the first guy refused to drive us), we got a ride to Wiscasset where we joined the Special Interest Tour mid-tour, to make up for what we missed last year when I caught Covid. We rode on the Wiscasset, Waterville, and Farmington Railroad and had a couple of run-bys to film. Afterwards, we went to the Boothbay Railway Village Museum. There were many buildings full of historic items and I especially enjoyed the model railroad. For dinner, we had a lobster bake in the old town hall building on the site. My first time eating fresh lobster.

Wednesday, after shopping and eating lunch in Bar Harbor, we got a “trolly” tour of Acadia National Park where they made only three stops. It was a bit foggy but clear on top of Cadillac Mountain. Thursday, we rode the Belfast and Moosehead Railroad and upon our return to Portland, we rode the Maine Narrow Gauge, where we had a couple more run-bys to film. After our final dinner at Solo Italiano, the tour was over. We had a good time, had a few good conversations with other tour members, and saw some nice fall colors.

Friday, we took the train down to Portland where we overnighted. On Saturday, we boarded the Lakeshore Limited and arrived in Chicago on Sunday, where the whole downtown was blocked off for the marathon. Luckily, we could get to Lou Mitchell’s for breakfast. We will leave for Portland, Oregon on Monday afternoon.

I am reading:

• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie—finished!
• The Body in the Castle Well by Martin Walker

Photos for this week.

Genealogists are great at documenting our ancestors’ lives but not so great at documenting our own. I will write about what I have 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.