Monday Genea-pourri, Week of Jan 22–28, 2024

I have completed two hundred and three (203) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. Outside the house activities included volunteering at the History Center, visiting Kaiser for doctor’s appointment and lab test (wore mask), and attending the Contra Costa County Historical Society’s annual luncheon and meeting. 

Genealogy

Genealogy Meetings:
I hosted Monday Morning and we had about ten show up. I shared my blog post about finding the comic book. Later Jacqueline and I spoke about Feedly, possibly attending the in-person GRIP, and our blogs. Wednesday, I attended the CGS RootsMagic SIG and we spent the time answering questions that members had.

Genealogy Writing/Research:
Besides attending some webinars, I worked on processing the files I scanned at the OFSC last week and then recycling the paper I don’t need. Slowly I’ve whittled down the files to a few for each family in generations three and further back. I will be keeping most of the files and papers for my parents and grandparents, though I will rearrange the papers. Once all this is done, it will be time to buy archival document boxes to store them in.

I read the first article in the current NGS Quarterly and discovered that Elizabeth Shown Mills has kin in the same counties in North Carolina and Mississippi as I do. I kept hoping there would be a connection. It was a great article.

I also began the research on the old German town settlements in America article I’m writing for Der Blumenbaum. I spent Sunday researching various German settlements in Texas and settled on writing about towns settled by the Flusche brothers for German Catholics in Texas, Iowa, and Kansas.

Blog Post Published:

Locating the Comic Book that Named my Great-Uncle. After many years of searching, I finally found it online.

SNGF:Run a “Problem Search” on Your Family Tree + More. I had done this in Oct and because my computer laptop was in the shop, I couldn’t run it again. He also asked us to do some research, and I couldn’t do that either. The old spare (Win7) laptop is acting up.

Genealogy Volunteer/Work:
I finished creating call signs for the books in the library at the History Center. The next step is to figure out how we will upload to PastPerfect so it can go onto the website. I also accessioned some donations and entered them into PastPerfect. Friday, I attended the OFSC staff meeting on Zoom.

The Erath County (Texas) Genealogical Society asked me to do some data entry from home and I worked on the page from the Dublin’s Harrell Funeral Home Record book and sent it back saying I’d would be glad to do more.

Webinars/Courses Viewed: There were others, but my list is on the other computer.

• “Finding Fathers: Tracking Males Who “Disappeared” or “Just Showed Up” by Elizabeth Shown Mills (Legacy Family Tree Webinars)
• “Essential Keyboard Shortcuts and other PC Tech Tools for Genealogy” by Peggy Jude (Legacy Family Tree Webinars)

Other:
Saturday, I let the computer do an update and when it was finished, all my sound devices were gone. I tried to fix it but finally made contact with our computer repair firm and dropped off my laptop that day. I’m using an old Win7 laptop and while I am typing, I remembered why I got a new one (besides the hard drive being full). The cursor jumps around without my knowledge and if I don’t watch the screen while I type, my words could be anywhere on the page. It is difficult to get what I want done when my files are not here. I think I need to investigate how to have the computer backing up onto my portable hard drive as well as to Backblaze. Mostly I have used the portable drive as an overflow where I put files I’m not using.

Our walk this week was to the U. C. Berkeley Botanical Garden, where we viewed an art exhibit of painters of native plants. Most were watercolors and they were beautiful. Afterward, we walked around the garden. The Dutchman’s Pipevine is blooming as were manzanitas and one trillium.

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