Monday Genea-pourri, Week of October 28-November 3, 2024

I have completed two hundred and forty-one (241) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My only outside activities were trips to the History Center twice and Kaiser for Covid & flu vaccines. 

Genealogy

Genealogy Meetings:   

My recertification accountability group met on Monday morning. We’re meeting twice a month. The CCCGS Roundtable met next on Monday and there was lots of discussion about DNA and I shared about my trip to the FamilySearch Library. Jaqueline and I met on Tuesday and we discussed the webinar we attended on blueprints to help with writing.  

Genealogy Writing/Research:

I continued working on my Polly case study. The Assemblage class’s homework was to work only on the title, pull quote, introduction, and conclusion. I submitted it in time for peer review. I like that Jan also gives us feedback. It’s becoming obvious that I still need a little more research and some correlation and analysis before the main writing can be completed.

One afternoon, I gathered newspaper articles from the Turlock newspapers that are now online for the Nilsen and Lundquist families who lived in the neighboring town of Hilmar. They are waiting for me to enter the info into RootsMagic. I sure wished these had been available online when I was working on their stories years ago.

Blog Post Published:

Chiseling Through a Challenge: One of Mary Jane Davey’s Marriages. For 52 Ancestors’ theme of “Challenge,” I wrote about the struggle to locate information about Mary Jane Davey, but managed to find one of her marriages. 

SNGF: Do You Have Any Ancestors from Whom You Descend Two (or more) Times? I wrote about my mother-in-law being related to her cousin in two ways.

Genealogy Volunteer/Work:

At the History Center, I worked on the Pleasant Hill Historical Society Collection. What is next, is to combine some materials and place them in letter files. Then I can finish the finding aid and upload to the Online Archive of California.

The writing group met this week and we discussed part of the time on Lynne’s writeup on the visits with cousins. Then Jacqueline showed how she used the blueprint method to work on her story about her father. It piqued Margaret’s interest and she thought to use it to work on her next project.

Webinars/Courses Viewed: 

I attended the eighth session of the SLIG course, Advanced Study of Death, coordinated by Gena Philibert-Ortega. We continued talking about cemeteries and what symbols are found in them. 

I also attended the fourth session of the SLIG course, Assemblage: Preparing, Writing, and Revising Case Studies. This week we discussed titles, pull quotes, introductions, and conclusions.

I also viewed the following webinars:

• Using Narrative Blueprints to Structure Writing Projects by Kim Richardson (Heritage Seekers Gen Club)
• Heat Up Your Genealogical Research with Fire Insurance Maps by Melinda Kashuba, PhD (CGS)
• Understanding Copyright & Plagiarism by Drew Smith (WikiTree Week Symposium)
• The Impact of US Railroads on Family History by Kim S. Harrison (Kinseekers)

Other:

The San Ramon Valley Branchline group had another Zoom meeting and it was decided to give the clinic at the Layout/Ops SIG event in February. My husband and I got Covid and flu shots this week and I was under the weather the next day.

I am reading: 

• The Great Hippopotamus Hotel by Alexander McCall Smith--FINISHED!
• Moonshine: A Glocal History by Kevin R Kosar--FINISHED!
• Stories in Stone: A Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography by Douglas Keister
• For the Love of Summer by Susan Mallory
• Yours Truly: An Obituary Writer’s Guide to Telling Your Story by James R Hagerty

Photos for this week. 

The meadow after an overnight rain.

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.