Monday Genea-pourri, Week of Feb 26–Mar 03, 2024

I have completed two hundred and eight (208) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. This week besides the History Center, I went to the Social Security Office and Whole Foods. Otherwise, I was home or outdoors hiking.

Genealogy

Genealogy Meetings:  
Monday Morning meeting had about nine people and there were lots of good discussions. I shared about my great-uncle being mentioned in a comic book. Later, Jacqueline and I started a Trello board for our upcoming Texas research trip. We’re to get serious about what places we want to visit.

Wednesday, three Amigos met and we got caught up with each other’s lives. Later, I joined the CGS RootsMagic SIG and Keith covered searching in Newspapers dot com and how he enters data into the program.

Friday, the peer certification group met, and after congratulating Annette, we discussed the second chapter in Advanced Genetic Genealogy. I was lost after about six pages into the chapter by Blaine Bettinger on visual phasing.

Genealogy Writing/Research:
At the beginning of the week, I worked on the land records I received from the National Archives, pulled by Sandy Rumble. I extracted the information from each document and then spent time searching in newspapers for more information. This was a pre-emption file, so he had to give testimony as well as two of his neighbors. There was a huge wealth of information about the property. The first page of his application was missing and I hope Sandy can find it next time she visits.

I finished my methodology article for the California Genealogical Society’s journal Nugget and turned it in. It will be published in the spring issue.

Once FamilySearch announced the new every-word search available for deeds and probates, I spent the past three days searching, downloading, and transcribing. I have found some nice gems and deeds that I had missed when using the deed index. Clerks didn’t always remember to add the deed to the index, or maybe only entered the grantor and not the grantee. The best find was finding an agreement between John Coor and Joel Hoggart to build a grist mill in Copiah County, Mississippi. I shall write a blog post about it.

Blog Post Published:

From Eliasson to Lundquist: Changing Surnames. For 52 Ancestors, I wrote about how one Lundquist brother changed his name first in Sweden and then then the following brothers changed it once they got to the US.

SNGF: What Have You Done at RootsTech 2024? I attended virtually and viewed two presentations per day and have a list to view later.

John Coor of Copiah County Made an Agreement with Joel Hoggatt. I wrote about the new every-name search available at FamilySearch.

Genealogy Volunteer/Work:
I did stints at the History Center on Tuesday, where I opened, and on Saturday. I helped several researchers with their projects, two were students from Stanford University.

Webinars/Courses Viewed: These I viewed virtually at RootsTech 2024.

• Where Did You Find That: Effective Searches on FamilySearch.org by Debbie Gurler
• Digging into Finding Aids: The Road Map to Any Manuscript Collection by Melissa Barker
• The Homestead Act and Southern Black Homesteaders by Jessica Korgie & Bernice Alexander Bennett
• Reconstructing the Lives of Our Female Irish Ancestors by Stephanie S. O'Connell
• Diseases Our Ancestors Faced and How Those Illnesses Changed Our World by Gregory C Gardner

Other:
We hiked at Mt. Diablo State Park along the Knobcone Pine trail to view the blooming manzanitas. Also, some other blooming flowers.

I am reading:

Sweetness all Around by Suzanne Supplee

Germans in America by Walter D. Kamphoefner

Photos for this week.

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.