Monday Genea-pourri, Week of Dec 25-31, 2023

I have completed one hundred ninety-nine (199) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. This was the last week of the year 2023. It was a quiet week except for a lunch date with German class colleagues, a soup day with the Wednesday Walkers, and two trips to Danville to operate at the San Ramon Valley RR. I got a teenage girl to run the train on Friday.  

Genealogy

Genealogy Meetings
I had no meetings this week.

Genealogy Writing/Research
I worked on Rod’s genealogy and continued researching the McCallas in Tennessee. There are land records to view and the images are locked at FamilySearch, so I must wait until my next stint at the OFSC. I wrote some extra blog posts this week.

I started some of the cleanup of paper files on New Year's Eve and discovered I hadn't entered some information into RootsMagic so spent the afternoon on that. I could have just scanned the paper where I'd written the notes but decided that if I have the FamilySearch film open, I can paste the URL of the item into the notes section of each source. Otherwise, I am just putting off the work for another day. 

Blog Posts Published:

Merry Christmas from My Trails into the Past.

Merry Christmas from Mam-ma’s Southern Family.

Story of My Life: Introduction. I had started on my own biography and used the introduction for this week’s theme.

Accentuate the Positive Geneameme 2023. This meme came from Jill Ball of GeniAus and I answered her twenty questions.

Looking Ahead to 2024: Goal Setting. I reviewed what I had accomplished in 2023 and set new goals for 2024.

SNGF: Your 2023 Christmas Genea-Gifts. I wrote about books I purchased for myself.   

Genealogy Volunteer/Work
I created a press release for the upcoming 2024 schedule of the BCG-sponsored webinars and am awaiting feedback before I post it.

Webinars/Courses Viewed:

• Source Analysis Tips: Land and Tax Records by Diana Elder (Family Locket YouTube Channel)
• Just Three Generations by Judy G. Russell (RootsTech Keynote 2014)

Other: I had lunch the day after Christmas with Nancy and Terry and it was the first time in many years that we got together. She was our German teacher at DVC and before she started teaching at the high school, when between jobs, we would meet in Orinda twice a month for lunch and a chance to practice speaking German. We met this time at Shelby’s and the waiter/cook/owner (I’m not sure) spoke German to us as we ordered. We didn’t practice too much among ourselves as we had too many items to catch up with. It was fun and we plan to do it again.

I am reading: Because I didn’t have other activities, I had more time to read and finish books. I had challenged myself to read 50 books and I did. In fact, I read 52!

• The President’s Wife by Tracey Enerson Wood—FINISHED!
• Just Lizzie by Karen Wilfrid—FINISHED!
• Mascot by Charles Waters and Traci Sorell—FINISHED!
• The Happiness Plan by Susan Mallery—FINISHED!
• The Girls Who Fought Crime: The Untold True Story of the Country’s First Female Investigator and Her Crime Fighting Squad by Mari K Eder

Photos for this week. These were taken at the meadow during phenology after a drizzly morning. Although we had a short walk before having soup, it was in a neighborhood along sidewalks, and not much to photograph.

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 © 2024 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.