My Trails into the Past

In May of 1882, Thomas Davey and his wife, Mary Nicholas Davey, of Jeffersonville, Indiana, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in their home surrounded by their children. They even were reunited in matrimony by their minister from the Methodist Episcopal church.  The local newspaper had a nice write-up about the event.  "Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Davey, living at No. 226 Wall street, celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage at their home on Tuesday evening and were again united in marriage by Rev. Ongley, of the Methodist Episcopal church.  The aged couple were married in their native country in 1832, and are blessed with seven children and eighteen grandchildren, several of whom were present on the happy occasion.   “Mrs. Davey is particularly well known as a Christian lady whose good deeds of charity have endeared her to many during her residence of twenty years in this city.  Mr. Thomas Davey, after many years of faithful service as blacksm...

I have completed two hundred and forty-seven (247) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My outside activities were trips to the History Center, to the train club, and to a Wednesday Walkers party.   Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:    I met with the Cert Renewal group, Kinseekers Military SIG, Jacqueline, and Amigos this week. I shared the WWI draft classification record from Erath Co, Texas during Kinseekers. Jacqueline and I talked about my new iPad and Jacqueline asked questions about census citations. We got caught up with each other during Amigos. Genealogy Volunteer/Work: At the History Center on Tuesday, I continued with the same collection—this time I’m entering data into the finding aid and correcting some folder labels. Our Writing Group met and because no one had submitted any new work, we discussed general topics and made the dates for the next session. We decided to meet once a month through April.  Genealogy Writing/Research: I did some major tidyi...

Calling All Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night Again -  Time For Some More Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing s is to:  1)   Today's challenge is to share memories of December holiday gatherings and celebrations with your families (as a child, a young adult, a parent, a grandparent, a great-grandparent, an aunt or uncle, a sibling, a cousin, an in-law)!   2)  Pick two or three questions from the list in my blog post:  Ask AI:  "What questions can I write about concerning family gatherings and celebrations during the December holidays?"  Use different questions from the list that you didn't use last week. Here's mine: Last week, I wrote about when we opened presents and what kinds of trees we had. This week I shall select two more topics: Were there memorable gifts or surprises from your family’s holiday history? I have been thinking about the family gifts we received over the years. One year in the mid-...

The day I met my future mother-in-law I knew it would be a good relationship. I had been seeing her son for about a year or two. We met at the trolley museum off Highway 12 when I came up with friends from the train club. We all loved volunteering there: running streetcars, maintaining the track, and working on rebuilding cars in the shop. He lived on the museum site as a sort-of caretaker and worked in Rio Vista during the week as a welder. Later, he took a job closer to where I lived and moved to Pleasant Hill. I do not remember the exact circumstances that led us to visit his parents at their home. His mother welcomed me warmly. She gave me a tour of the house and when I saw a bookcase in the hall, I knew I had found a kindred soul. Books can reveal a bit of one’s personality. She was an avid reader of fiction. Many of the books on her shelf were also on my shelves. She had a whole collection of Louis L’Amour books, and he was one of my favorite authors then. She also had the Mrs. P...

I have completed two hundred and forty-six (246) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My outside activities were two trips to the History Center, a trip to the doctor’s office, a trip to the Oakland FamilySearch Center, and a trip to the Chevron archives.   Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:    Genealogy meetings this week included the NGS Conference Committee on Monday morning, a Zoom meeting with Jacqueline on Monday afternoon, the Certification Discussion Group on Wednesday, and Gena’s book club on Sunday. I put a library hold on one of the books mentioned about our BYOB (bring your own book) day.  Genealogy Volunteer/Work: On Wednesday, I presented at the Oakland FamilySearch Center on researching in person at archives and libraries. I had a nice audience who were very interested in doing research in Germany.  I volunteered at the History Center on Tuesday and Saturday. I’m still working on the same collection—this time I’m entering data into the finding ...

Calling All Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night Again -  Time For Some More Genealogy Fun!! Our mission tonight from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to:  1)   Today's challenge is to share memories of December holiday gatherings and celebrations with your families (as a child, a young adult, a parent, a grandparent, a great-grandparent, an aunt or uncle, a nibling, a cousin, an in-law)!   2)  Pick two or three questions from the list in my blog post:  Ask AI:  "What questions can I write about concerning family gatherings and celebrations during the December holidays?" 3)  Tell us about your memories of your holiday gatherings and celebrations in your own blog post, in a comment here, or on your Facebook page.  Be sure to leave a link to your report in a comment on this post. Here's mine: I chose these two questions: Did your family have traditions for how gifts were given or opened (e.g., all at once, youngest to oldest)? Wh...

I grew up in a large family of six children, two boys, and four girls, with me being the eldest. Back in the sixties, mothers tended not to work unless they were the only breadwinner. So, my dad worked six days a week with Tuesdays off. He worked a union job and got time and a half or more to work on Sundays. He did not always work Sundays, as he was sometimes in charge of taking us to church.  So, providing for a big family on one salary was hard. Being the oldest, my younger siblings would get my hand-me-downs from clothes to toys. Most of my childhood toys were passed on to younger siblings, so I had none to share with my daughters. But I do have one item from a purchase in fifth grade. I bought a troll with allowance money and I still have it. But being the fifth oldest grandchild of my Nana, I got some hand-me-downs from my older cousins. I’m sure that was a blessing when my brother and I went to parochial school in Pittsburg. The white shirts from cousins probably helped with...

I have completed two hundred and forty-five (245) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My outside activities were trips to the History Center, two weekend days at Train Club for our public show, and Thanksgiving with my daughter on Thursday and my brother-in-law on Saturday.   Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:     Monday was busy with meetings: first with the CDG renewal accountability group and second with the Monday roundtable. On Tuesday, I had an early morning meeting with staff from BCG about our new mail program. Jacqueline and I met in the afternoon and we discussed Zoom and military items. I showed her images of the WWI draft classification sheets I had ordered. Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I taught my last session of the Probate class for AppGen. The students had wonderfully researched presentations about probate records. My next course will be in spring and I will teach about federal land. On Tuesday, I volunteered at the History Center continuing my work on th...

Calling All Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night Again -  Time For Some More Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment tonight from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing s is to:  1)   Today's challenge is to answer the question "Who Is the Earliest Ancestor in Your Maternal Family Tree?"   [thank you to Linda Stufflebean for suggesting this topic!]  Here's mine: Last week we tackled the paternal line and I do not go back very far on my father's side. However, on my mother’s side, I have in my RootsMagic database a John Sellman (1645-1707). He would be my 8x-great-grandfather. I have him in my database from copying the lineage from the book John Sellman of Maryland and Descendants by W. Marshall Sellman, who self-published in 1975. I viewed the book many years ago at the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City.  The passage I copied said “Buried in All Hallows Church, Anne Arundel, Maryland. He came to Calvert County, Maryland in 1658 from England at twelve or thi...

I wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all of my readers. I appreciate all my readers. I am very thankful for my family, our health, and the wonderful ancestors I get to research daily.  The card below was purchased from one of the wonderful postcard collectors. I wish I had cards sent to my ancestors and am envious of those who do have them. What wonderful treasures. Copyright © 2024 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

This is one of the funniest photos I have of my parents. Taken in 1952 before they were married, they must have had a trip down to Santa Cruz to enjoy the fun at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. My mother loved the Big Dipper roller coaster and the bumper cars. My guess they had friends come along with them to take this photo. #52Ancestors-Week 48: Very Funny This is my seventh year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow ( https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/ ) at Generations Cafe .  I write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or My Trails into the Past . I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. Copyright © 2024 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

I have completed two hundred and forty-four (244) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My only outside activities were trips to the History Center, Oakland FamilySearch Center, the Social Security Office, and three weekend days at Train Club for our public shows.   Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:     The only meetings this week were an NGS conference meeting and an hour meeting with Jacqueline.   Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I volunteered at the History Center continuing my work on the Pleasant Hill Historical Society Collection. I taught my third session of the Probate class for AppGen. I got the recording done correctly this week. The Contra Costa County Genealogical Society’s board meeting was Thursday and I took minutes. Genealogy Writing/Research: I received images of WWI draft classification records and decided to try Elizabeth Shown Mills’s method for writing and analyzing a research session with these documents. I did manage to work on half of the ele...

Calling All Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night Again -  Time For Some More Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to:  1)   Today's challenge is to answer the question "Who Is the Earliest Ancestor in Your Paternal Tree? [thank you to Linda Stufflebean for suggesting this topic!]  Here's mine: Most of the 4x-great-grandparents on my father’s side named only with few sources. One I’ll select is: Denis Tierney was born about 1777 in Ireland and died before 29 January 1856 in Carleton Co, Ontario, Cananda. He was the father of John Tierney who married Ann Murray in 1832. At this writing, the only record I have for him in my genealogy program is his St. Philips Church in Richmond burial record. The priest recorded his interment at the cemetery of Napean on 29 January 1856. His sons John and James were present.[1]  The Find a Grave memorial has no marker photo and states “headstone no longer existing, but church records indic...

Mary Sheehan, the wife of Jeremiah Sullivan and mother of my great-grandfather, John H. Sullivan, was born in County Cork in Ireland. Her place of birth was consistently written as Ireland and her tombstone in Motley Cemetery in Todd County, Minnesota states County Cork. Like many Irish-born illiterate immigrants, the date of birth is fuzzy. Records of her birth in records recorded in the United States range from 1822 to 1832. She was 38 in 1870, living with her 40-year-old mining husband, Jeremiah, in Franklin township in Houghton County, Michigan.[ 1 ]  This suggests an 1832 birth. In 1880, the family lived on a farm they homesteaded in Todd County, Minnesota and she was 53 years old.[ 2 ]  This suggests an 1827 birth. Her husband was 61, causing him to age 20 years.  Five years later, she was 60 years old.  She now has an 1825 birth. Now “Jerry” was 70, certainly more than five years older.[ 3 ] Her tombstone's death date of 24 Feb 1892 and age of 70 years calcula...

I have completed two hundred and forty-three (243) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My only outside activities were trips to the History Center, the meadow for phenology, and the Western Railway Museum.  Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:    I met with my recertification accountability group on Monday and Amigos on Wednesday. We had good discussions. At Kinseekers we learned about WWI Index and Return cards from Ohio, Korean-era draft cards coming online at Ancestry, the Air Force records at the AFHRA, and WWII US Medical Research Center created by European reenactors. Jacqueline and I hosted the last Roundtable meeting on Wednesday. The Oakland FamilySearch Center staff meeting was on Friday. Many had good ideas for future classes to have.  Genealogy Writing/Research: Most of my time was spent preparing for the two SLIG classes and my AppGen class, so I did no writing or research except for working on the two blog posts this week. Blog Post Published: Traditions ...

What does one write when our families do not have cultural traditions? Are our family traditions cultural at all? Hork Family Traditions When growing up, we had some holiday traditions. Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners were always at the Hork house, as our house was large enough to seat everyone. The maternal grandparents and great-aunt came to us, bringing salads and dessert. Mom cooked the rest: turkey for Thanksgiving and a ham for Christmas. The side courses were always candied yams, mashed potatoes and gravy with giblets, cornbread stuffing, and peas with onions. Hors d′oeuvres consisted of potato chips with onion dip, carrot, celery, radish, and green onion sticks, and smoked baby oysters. Dessert was a variety of pies: pumpkin, mincemeat, pecan, or apple. My mother made us recipe books when we married and here is her recipe for the turkey and stuffing. Gorrell Family Traditions At the Gorrell house, they also had turkey on Thanksgiving with a sage stuffing, mashed potatoes, gr...

I have completed two hundred and forty-two (242) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My only outside activities were trips to the History Center, Oakland FamilySearch Center, to the bank and bookstore, and to Tony’s for an ops session.  Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:    I met with Jacqueline on Thursday instead of Monday, due the the AppGen class starting this week. I also met with the NGS conference committee. At the FamilySearch Center in Oakland, I was interviewed by members of the Project 2026 committee for the California Genealogical Society. The APG NorCal group also met this week. Our two field trips were included in this month’s eNews and we discussed future field trips. Genealogy Writing/Research: I worked on my case study adding visual effects of bullet points and a map. I met with two others separately where we gave feedback to each other on our work. I got some great feedback and we promised to meet again in the new year after working on our papers. Blog Po...

In the years I knew my aunt, Bev, she wore what I considered drab clothing. She came to our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners wearing black, white, or silver outfits. I could never understand why she had to be so uncolorful. These colors did match her silver-gray hair, and she always wore bright red lipstick to brighten up her face. Beryl on the right, her sister-in-law, Pansy on the left Pansy (left) & Beryl (right) It wasn’t until later that I learned that black and other dark, solid colors have a slimming effect, and that was likely why she dressed that way.  I have a collection of color slides of my aunt. These images delight my sisters and me. They are of her posing in various outfits probably in her home so that she could change into them easily. I have no idea who took the images, but as we can see, she was very photogenic. These images prove she wore lots of color in her younger years. #52Ancestors-Week 45: Colorful This is my seventh year working on this year-long pro...

I have completed two hundred and forty-one (241) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My only outside activities were trips to the History Center twice and Kaiser for Covid & flu vaccines.  Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:    My recertification accountability group met on Monday morning. We’re meeting twice a month. The CCCGS Roundtable met next on Monday and there was lots of discussion about DNA and I shared about my trip to the FamilySearch Library. Jaqueline and I met on Tuesday and we discussed the webinar we attended on blueprints to help with writing.   Genealogy Writing/Research: I continued working on my Polly case study. The Assemblage class’s homework was to work only on the title, pull quote, introduction, and conclusion. I submitted it in time for peer review. I like that Jan also gives us feedback. It’s becoming obvious that I still need a little more research and some correlation and analysis before the main writing can be completed. One after...