My Trails into the Past

The day I met my future mother-in-law I knew it would be a good relationship. I had been seeing her son for about a year or two. We met at the trolley museum off Highway 12 when I came up with friends from the train club. We all loved volunteering there: running streetcars, maintaining the track, and working on rebuilding cars in the shop. He lived on the museum site as a sort-of caretaker and worked in Rio Vista during the week as a welder. Later, he took a job closer to where I lived and moved to Pleasant Hill. I do not remember the exact circumstances that led us to visit his parents at their home. His mother welcomed me warmly. She gave me a tour of the house and when I saw a bookcase in the hall, I knew I had found a kindred soul. Books can reveal a bit of one’s personality. She was an avid reader of fiction. Many of the books on her shelf were also on my shelves. She had a whole collection of Louis L’Amour books, and he was one of my favorite authors then. She also had the Mrs. P...

I have completed two hundred and forty-six (246) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My outside activities were two trips to the History Center, a trip to the doctor’s office, a trip to the Oakland FamilySearch Center, and a trip to the Chevron archives.   Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:    Genealogy meetings this week included the NGS Conference Committee on Monday morning, a Zoom meeting with Jacqueline on Monday afternoon, the Certification Discussion Group on Wednesday, and Gena’s book club on Sunday. I put a library hold on one of the books mentioned about our BYOB (bring your own book) day.  Genealogy Volunteer/Work: On Wednesday, I presented at the Oakland FamilySearch Center on researching in person at archives and libraries. I had a nice audience who were very interested in doing research in Germany.  I volunteered at the History Center on Tuesday and Saturday. I’m still working on the same collection—this time I’m entering data into the finding ...

Calling All Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night Again -  Time For Some More Genealogy Fun!! Our mission tonight from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to:  1)   Today's challenge is to share memories of December holiday gatherings and celebrations with your families (as a child, a young adult, a parent, a grandparent, a great-grandparent, an aunt or uncle, a nibling, a cousin, an in-law)!   2)  Pick two or three questions from the list in my blog post:  Ask AI:  "What questions can I write about concerning family gatherings and celebrations during the December holidays?" 3)  Tell us about your memories of your holiday gatherings and celebrations in your own blog post, in a comment here, or on your Facebook page.  Be sure to leave a link to your report in a comment on this post. Here's mine: I chose these two questions: Did your family have traditions for how gifts were given or opened (e.g., all at once, youngest to oldest)? Wh...

I grew up in a large family of six children, two boys, and four girls, with me being the eldest. Back in the sixties, mothers tended not to work unless they were the only breadwinner. So, my dad worked six days a week with Tuesdays off. He worked a union job and got time and a half or more to work on Sundays. He did not always work Sundays, as he was sometimes in charge of taking us to church.  So, providing for a big family on one salary was hard. Being the oldest, my younger siblings would get my hand-me-downs from clothes to toys. Most of my childhood toys were passed on to younger siblings, so I had none to share with my daughters. But I do have one item from a purchase in fifth grade. I bought a troll with allowance money and I still have it. But being the fifth oldest grandchild of my Nana, I got some hand-me-downs from my older cousins. I’m sure that was a blessing when my brother and I went to parochial school in Pittsburg. The white shirts from cousins probably helped with...

I have completed two hundred and forty-five (245) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My outside activities were trips to the History Center, two weekend days at Train Club for our public show, and Thanksgiving with my daughter on Thursday and my brother-in-law on Saturday.   Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:     Monday was busy with meetings: first with the CDG renewal accountability group and second with the Monday roundtable. On Tuesday, I had an early morning meeting with staff from BCG about our new mail program. Jacqueline and I met in the afternoon and we discussed Zoom and military items. I showed her images of the WWI draft classification sheets I had ordered. Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I taught my last session of the Probate class for AppGen. The students had wonderfully researched presentations about probate records. My next course will be in spring and I will teach about federal land. On Tuesday, I volunteered at the History Center continuing my work on th...