I have completed two hundred and fifteen (215) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. This week besides the History Center, I attended a History Fair at DVC, researched at the Oakland FamilySearch Center, and worked a booth at the John Muir NP Earth Day Birthday event.
Genealogy
Genealogy
Meetings:
The only meeting this week was our Monday meeting
and Jacqueline and I worked on looking for her Griffin family without much luck.
Genealogy
Writing/Research:
This week, I worked on several projects. One
project was researching and writing about May Mansfield Sayre, the stepson of
Amos Gorrell. Another was doing some more research in Ida Hork Colmann, my
grandfather’s sister. Finally, I worked on creating a timeline of Nathan H.O.
Polly’s life. I downloaded many deed documents from Rockwall County, Texas,
from the FS website, however, I somehow did not make sure they were downloaded
to the thumb drive. So if they were downloaded to the computer, they were wiped
clean that evening. That was four hours of lost time. I found that the Rockwall
County clerk has deeds online and I was able to view quite a few of them. They
charge $1.50 per page but I could still download a PDF with the word “unofficial”
over it. I only did the deeds that are not available at FamilySearch. I
still need to add the deed transactions to the timeline.
Blog Post Published:
Stepson Gets a Pension. For 52 Ancestors, I wrote about May Mansfield, stepson of Amos Gorrell. I covered him getting a pension as a child and how he lived his adult life.
SNGF: What Was Your Best Genealogy Research Achievement this Past Month? I wrote my preparation for the trip to Texas.
Genealogy
Volunteer/Work:
John and I worked on the books and documents left
over from the Fahden collection and decided which to put in the library, which
to put in the Studies section, and which to toss. Wednesday, we worked the
booth at the DVC History Fair where students could sign up for internships. In
the afternoon, I was part of a panel of people discussing how we use history in
our careers. I spoke about being a genealogist.
I presented “General Land Office: Getting the Most Out of the BLM-BLO Website” to the South King County Genealogical Society in Washington via Zoom.
Our AppGen founders' meeting was brief. We will have six courses this fall, including mine on probate records.
The writing group I lead met this month and we continued the critiquing of citations.
Webinars/Courses Viewed: I had planned to finish watching some that I missed last week, but never found the time.
- French Emigrants: They Were Not All Huguenots, or Nobles, or from Alsace-Lorraine by Anne Morddel (BCG/LFTWebinars)
- Comparing Plats of Land With Deeds and Grants by J Mark Lowe (Legacy Family Tree Webinars)
- How to Publish Your Family History by Bob Crossman (Arkansas Genealogical Society)
Other:
Because of the DVC History Fair, I did not walk
with the walking group but did a few evening walks with my husband. However, I went
with the Mt. Diablo Bird Alliance to the North Orinda Connector trail. We saw
about 45 birds.
I helped at the Native Plants booth at the John Muir Earth Day Birthday in the afternoon and then helped take down and carry out the supplies to the car. It was a nice day though a little breezy in the afternoon.
I am reading:
- Mischievous Creatures by Catherine McNeur
Photos for this week. Purple flowers blooming in my yard.
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.
As always, you've been very busy. Your flower photos always brighten up the start of my week.
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