I have completed two hundred and forty-nine (249) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My outside activities were trips to the History Center (twice), Oakland FamilySearch Center, the emergency room for my husband, and to a Walking group get-together.
Genealogy
Genealogy Writing/Research:
On Christmas Eve day, I finished the book about my parents. It’s a digital book with photos and some text I copied from previously written blog posts. I sent this document to my siblings on Christmas Eve but I have not heard from any of them yet about what they think.
I spent a couple of days working on the children of Rueben Johnston and his first wife, Catherine. The only record I have found of Catherine is their 1870 census enumeration with the first child, Samuel. Two tombstones of their children list her as S.C. Johnston. I am not sure of Catherine’s surname or even her first name. Two daughters called her Catherine Shull or Scull on their death certificates. A Sully family lived nearby with a young man named James E McDonald, who married Reuben’s youngest sister, Sarah. That might be a connection. Possibly her surname has been misremembered. I found no Shull/Scull families in Titus County, Texas, nor in Yalobusha County, Mississippi, where the Johnston family had originated from. I’m trying to write down all the records and databases I have looked at, even the negative searches. It is unfortunate that the records of Titus County burned in a courthouse fire in 1892. I’m feeling their absence. Their marriage record would be so nice right now.
Genealogy Meetings:
I met with Jacqueline and showed her the progress I had made in the book about my parents. None of the other regular Monday meetings were held.
Elaine invited me to story time at the John Muir House and we learned the “true story of Winnie the Pooh.” It seems the bear was real and lived at the London Zoo where the real Christopher Robin visited. The great-granddaughter of the Canadian veterinarian who found the bear on his way to WWI wrote the picture book, Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear, that the Muir house ranger read to us.
On Christmas, we Zoomed with our daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, who were in Phoenix and Iowa. We opened Margaret's presents while she watched. They were having a good time and it was nice meeting together.
Genealogy Volunteer/Work:
At the History Center on Tuesday, I finished the Pleasant Hill Historical Society Collection. It’s finding aid is in the finding aid binder and on the website Online Archive of California. On Friday, I wrote up the finding aid for the Doctor’s Hospital collection and put it away in the Special Collections room. I also wrote up the finding aid for the Barry Goode Collection. I ran out of time to put those finding aids on the OAC.
On Thursdays and Fridays this week and next week, the Oakland FamilySearch Center is open for staff only. I went in on Thursday to scan an 1898 book I purchased. I used the Czur scanner and it worked like a charm. I then gathered the images into a pdf and uploaded the book to the Internet Archive so others can read it, too. It’s about the Philippine Campaign of the Spanish-American War. However, I cannot remember which person in my husband’s family served there.
I prepared the press release for the BCG-sponsored webinars to be presented in 2025 at Legacy Family Tree Webinars. It will go out this coming week.
Blog Post Published:
For the 52 Ancestors’ theme “Resolution” I wrote about the amount of dpi a photo should at least have in order to print at a nice resolution.
Greeting card greetings on both blogs.
I wrote a letter to Santa asking for a few genealogical items for Christmas.
I reviewed my 2024 goals and made new ones for 2025.
Webinars/Courses Viewed:
- DNA: Proof, Citation & Privacy by Elizabeth Shown Mills (LFT webinars)
Other:
Our walking group met on Sunday for soup day. We had three soups to choose from: potato leek, turkey barley, and bean with beef & vegetables. I brought sourdough bread and butter. It was great having conversations with everyone. Thank you Ulla for hosting! It was too wet for us to take a walk beforehand.
I am reading:
- Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear by Lindsay Mattick—FINISHED!
- Spy Camp by Stuart Gibbs—FINISHED!
- The Science of Murder: the Forensics of Agatha Christie by Carla Valentine
- A Forest Journey: The Role of Trees in the Fate of Civilization by John Perlin
- Miss Merkel: Mord in der Uckermark by David Safier (for German class—will take a while to read)
Photos for this week. These are taken from the hill and valley behind John Muir School, on my daily walk.
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.
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