Monday Genea-pourri, Week of Feb 19–25, 2024

I have completed two hundred and seven (207) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. This week I had meals out with my sisters and with a friend of my husband. I also gave an in-person presentation in Sacramento. 

Genealogy

Genealogy Meetings: 
Jacqueline and I didn’t meet until Thursday when we spent an hour booking flights to Dallas, Texas in April. She is coming from Eugene and I from Oakland and we managed to locate a flight in Las Vegas that we both can transfer to! And the same with the return flight. We will be spending eleven days in North Texas doing genealogy research. Hello Dallas, Fort Worth, Stephenville, Comanche Co, Rockwall Co, and more. Maybe even a dip in Oklahoma.

Genealogy Writing/Research:
I spent some more time locating the 1950 census records for Whitlow, Goe, and Patterson families. On Friday, I received a land patent package from Sandy Rumble and it’s a goldmine. My 3x-great-grandfather, George W. Lancaster got 40 acres of pre-emption land and he had to prove his claim along with two witnesses. I spent Sunday transcribing the packet. I learned so much about their time in Maricopa County, Arizona Territory. They lived in an adobe house and he worked on the canal bringing water to his property. Now if I could locate some photos of the area.

Blog Post Published:

Two Family Heirlooms. For 52 Ancestors, I wrote about two heirlooms, one from my great-aunt, Elizabeth Gleeson, and the other from my husband’s great-grandfather, Amos Gorrell.

SNGF: How Did Your Ancestors Meet Their Spouses. I wrote about how my paternal grandparents might have met. I also added links to other posts about my parents and my maternal grandparents.

Genealogy Volunteer/Work:
I drove up to Sacramento to present a talk “Using the General Land Office Website” to the Genealogical Association of Sacramento. It was a new talk and it went about 50 minutes, so I was pleased by that.  

At the History Center, I worked on the new accessions and answered some queries. One person will come to research on Tuesday.

For the California Genealogical Society, I presented “How to Leave Your Genealogy” on Saturday. Over sixty people had registered but we ended up with about 48.

Our writer’s group met this week and we worked on citations for two hours. The time flew on by and it was decided to continue next month on some more.

Webinars/Courses Viewed:

• From 1619 to Juneteenth – Slavery and the Law Before the Civil War by Judy G. Russell (Santa Clara Co Hist & Gen Soc)
• Metes & Bounds Land Plats Solve Genealogical Problems by Jerry Smith (BCG/LFTWebinars)
• Microsoft Word Tips and Tricks by Eva Holmes (APG Writers SIG)
• Finding Females: Wives, Mothers, Daughters, Sisters & Paramours by Elizabeth Shown Mills    (Legacy Family Tree Webinars)
• More Than Just a Mark: Livestock Branding by Leslie Carney (Arizona Genealogy Day 2024)
• Finding Your Family in Historical Newspapers by Asa Espanto & Mary Feeney (Arizona Genealogy Day 2024)

Other:
No hikes this week because I went to Sacramento. I had a nice meal with my sisters, Sabrina and Renee at a local Italian restaurant. We talked for nearly three hours. On Friday, I met with Norman’s friend, Rod, and he agreed to have me put together a book about his ancestors. I have been researching them off and on for nearly twenty years.

I am reading:

• The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall by Ali Standish—FINISHED!
• Sweetness all Around by Suzanne Supplee
• Germans in America by Walter D. Kamphoefner

Photos for this week. Spring is showing up in California!

Genealogists are great at documenting our ancestors’ lives but not so great at 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.