Monday Genea-pourri, Week of Dec 4-10, 2023

I have completed one hundred ninety-six (196) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. I was out much more this week which I will discuss more below.  

Genealogy

Genealogy Meetings
Jacqueline and I met for a quick hour and she caught me up on the packing for the move.  Sunday was Book Club. I hadn’t attended in months and this month we were to share books we have read. We missed Gena and there was a Zoom snafu so I sent out a Zoom link so we could meet. I shared five books and got some ideas for books from the others.

Genealogy Writing/Research
I started working on my WWI Study this week. I have a list of family members from both sides of my family and my husband’s family who were of the age to serve. The first hint of service is their name in the Veterans Administration Master Index which is a database found at FamilySearch. This week, I was working on Harold R Gleeson, who enlisted in a South Dakota National Guard unit before the draft. This unit was called up and they trained in Deming, New Mexico at Camp Cody. Because this was a National Guard unit, there were many newspaper articles about it, which will add so much more to their story. I have more records to view: muster rolls, morning reports, etc.

Blog Posts Published:

It Can Not BeThanksgiving Without Cornbread Dressing. For the favorite recipe theme, I wrote about my mother’s cornbread dressing and how my mother-in-law learned after thirty-plus years that her husband liked cornbread in his dressing.

SNGF: Christmas Weather 1967. We were to write about the kind of weather we experienced during Christmas. California weather is pretty mild and I expanded a little talking about typical weather and getting Christmas trees.  

Genealogy Volunteer/Work
I spent a half day at the History Center correcting a couple of special collections after Traci helped me determine what to do with them. Saturday, the strategic planning committee met, and we spent most of the time trying to determine how much off-site storage space we would need in the new county storage building. The consultant will be coming on Tuesday.

I got the press release for the BCG-sponsored webinar this month.

At the FamilySearch Center in Oakland, the patrons didn’t need any assistance, so I did some of my work after discussing with Rudy about the new lectern in the classroom. I am still trying to fix it so when on Zoom, the classroom screen displays the presentation and the lectern screen displays the speaker notes in PowerPoint. Last time I had to have both the lectern computer and my laptop running to see my speaker notes.

Thursday, our Acalanes Writing Group met in person for the first time. We agreed to meet at the Oakland FamilySearch Center and then to go out to lunch. It was unfortunate that Lynne had to go out of town but it was the last time that Jacqueline could do this before her move to Oregon. They shared draft copies of their books and I brought my Nilsen book to show.

Webinars/Courses Viewed:

• Breaking Brick Walls with City Directories by Susan Fabian (Seattle Genealogical Society)

Other: I volunteered again at the N-scale modular layout of the Southern Pacific branch along the San Ramon Valley from San Ramon to Clyde that is set up in the exhibit room at the Museum of the San Ramon Valley in Danville. Pete and I had only one visitor but Brian came by and we had a nice visit. I’m not sure I’m scheduled to work with him.

Thursday evening, my sisters and one niece met for dinner at Jack’s. The five of us had a great time catching up and we exchanged sister gifts. I ended up eating both of my meals out that day but kept it light by eating salads.

I am reading:

• Skirts by Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell—FINISHED!
• The Coldest Case by Martin Walker

Photos for this week. I did not hike with the group this week due to the volunteer work in Danville, but I did go to the meadow alone for phenology. The early morning sky is always pretty.

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.