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Monday Genea-pourri, Week of Oct 30–Nov 5, 2023

I have completed one hundred ninety-one (191) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. Outside activities involved volunteering at the History Center and the Oakland FamilySearch Center, hiking, visiting a botanical garden with Friends of Alhambra Creek and NPS staff, and attending a party at a brewpub in Fairfield to celebrate Hubby and his brother’s birthdays.

Genealogy

Genealogy Meetings. My only online meeting this week was with Jacqueline and it was short, as she had things to do around her house.

Genealogy Writing. No extra writing this week except the weekly blog posts. I had too much other genealogy work to do.

Blog Posts:

Happy Halloween! I posted one of my holiday postcards.

Spirit – Mary Martha Tierney & her Spiritual Connection to God as Sister St. Melanie. For week 44, I wrote about my 2x-great-grandaunt who was a nun with the Grey Nuns of Ottawa. She taught school and later was the superior sister at a hospital in Ogdensburg, New York.

SNGF: Are You WritingYour Personal History? While looking for the short history I had started last year about my life, I realized we have written many posts about ourselves, from childhood memories to favorite music. These should give me fodder to continue my history story.

Genealogy Volunteer/Work
I opened the History Center on Tuesday with the help of Janet. We had one query to answer. With John’s help, we added new Acalanes High School Yearbooks to the shelf after shuffling the rest of the books forward. I popped into the Center on Saturday and did not stay long as I forgot my glasses. Maxine, LeighAnn and I did have a good conversation about how to create call numbers for all the books in the library and how to make more room in the library room for another bookcase.

Wednesday, I did my stint at the Oakland FamilySearch Center and met our new director, Rudy. We had a nice conversation, talking mostly about Germany near where he grew up, and about our roles at the center.

Saturday, I taught my last Intro class for California Genealogical Society’s Intro to Genealogy. I am retiring from the committee and Pam will take over presenting the session on vital records. This session, I actually had someone ask questions!

Our AppGen founders meeting was Monday and we seem all set for our spring program with registration being in January. I taught my second land class this week and learned about a new website for seeing the location of land on a map (RandyMajors.org) and we discovered we could use % as a wildcard on the BLM website. I spent a few hours commenting on week’s one homework and making sure week two’s homework answers were complete so I could grade their incoming homework this week.

I am also working on a presentation about probate records and am nearly finished. I have the presentation at the end of this week.

Webinars Viewed: I watched no webinars this week but I watched the recording of the NGS class “Empowering Genealogists With AI” and did some work with ChatGPT.

Other: We hiked this week at the John Muir Land Trust property called Fernandez Ranch. The only plant blooming were a few lupines. Friday, a group of us with the Friends of Alhambra Creek and workers at the John Muir NHP went to the East Bay Regional Park District’s botanical garden in Tilden Park and hiked up and down the hillside looking at plants from all over California. Many of the plants from the Southern California area were still blooming.

I watched only one game of the World Series this week and heard a bit of the last game on the car radio. I am disappointed that the Diamondbacks did not win, but can offer congratulations to the Rangers for winning their first ever World Series. They played very well!

I am reading:

  • Guardians of the Valley: John Muir and the Friendship that Saved Yosemite by Dean King—FINISHED!
  • Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America by Heather Cox Richardson

Photos for this week. Flowers from the botanical garden.






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.

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