Monday Genea-pourri, Week of October 7–13, 2024

I have completed two hundred and thirty-nine (239) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. This week was spent recovering from my trip to Utah, especially trying to heal my swollen knee from too much walking on concrete. The Salt Lake City streets are long and with so few restaurants close to the library, meant walking far just to eat. I had difficulty walking to the Southwest Airlines gate at the airport, but since I was nearly two hours early, I took my time and rested by browsing a few stores and eating dinner in a restaurant in terminal B. I cannot wait for terminal B to be completed. I imagine there will be a closer tunnel to it (escalators directly across security had barricades blocking it).

Genealogy

Genealogy Meetings:  
Two of us from our recertification renewal accountability group met (by mistake). Still, we covered a lot of topics. I have a possible assignment to write an article for the Connecticut Genealogy News. At Amigos, we discussed the Salt Lake City trip.

At Roundtable, a couple of members shared some recent discoveries. Jeff’s ancestor was a mayor of Jeffersonville, Indiana, and so was one of my husband’s cousins, probably a few years after. What a coincidence to meet another researcher studying the same area. I hope to do some in-person research there when I go to the NGS Conference in May.

Genealogy Writing/Research:
This week, most of my writing and research has been working on homework for my SLIG class on Assemblage, and revising the syllabus and worksheets for my upcoming class on Probate Research for AppGen. I needed to add information about the new every-word search in FamilySearch Labs.

Blog Post Published:

Most Wanted: What is the Origin of the Sievert Family? For 52 Ancestors’ theme of “Most,” I wrote about my third-great-grandparents, who lived in Posen. Since they were ethnic Germans, I’d like to know where they emigrated from before living in Posen.

SNGF: Share Something Unexpected: Tom Johnston Had a Short Naval Career. I wrote about what I learned from my grandfather’s naval records file. He was only in the service during WWII for four months.

Genealogy Volunteer/Work:
I took minutes for the boards of the Contra Costa County Historical Society and the Sonoma County Genealogical Society. I put out the press release for the upcoming BCG-sponsored webinar and attended the BCG board meeting. On Monday, I attended the bi-weekly NGS conference committee meeting.

My writing group met this week and three of us discussed Lynne’s writeup of her research trip to Colorado. This is an important thing to do when we take research trips. It’s best to keep notes daily, so nothing is forgotten. We made suggestions for what to add to her report.

Webinars/Courses Viewed:
I attended the fourth session of the SLIG course, Advanced Study of Death, coordinated by Gena Philibert-Ortega. We learned more about early tombstone carvers of New England and it was very interesting. I am also taking another SLIG course, Assemblage: Preparing, Writing, and Revising Case Studies, coordinated by Jan Joyce. This class is tough and has weekly homework.

I also viewed the four of the Reisinger webinars from Friday. They were excellent presentation and are available on Legacy Family Tree Webinars.

• Probate Power: Parents for Charles, a Father for Phoebe by Teresa Steinkamp McMillin, CG
• Evidence Mining & Context: Powerful Tools to Dig Deep by Rebecca Whitman Koford, CG
• Strategies for Resolving Conflicting Evidence by Angela Packer McGhie, CG
• Rubik's Cube Genealogy: A New Twist on Your Old Data by Elissa S Powell, CG

Other:
Besides my stepstool, I seemed to have left my iPod and earphones in the hotel. I’m sure they are long gone and these cannot be replaced without searching on eBay.

We visited our daughter and her significant other in Santa Rosa on Monday to celebrate Norman’s birthday. Besides a nicely cooked meal they prepared, we played with their dog, Dobie, and played YamSlam! We got home very late.

I am reading: No change on the books this week.

• The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels by Pamela Prickett
• Journeys of the Forgotten: The Orphans of Hamilton County, Iowa by Jill Morelli
• Yours Truly: An Obituary Writer’s Guide to Telling Your Story by James R Hagerty

Photos for this week.
Because of the SLIG class now on Wednesdays, I am not hiking with the Wednesday Walkers. Here are some shots from the neighborhood. Although the weather has been super warm, the plants are doing their fall thing.

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.