My Trails into the Past

This past Saturday, I attended the Board for the Certification Ed Fund presentation given by Judy G. Russell and Carolyn Ladd. The theme of the day was studying documents, creating citations, and learning the law to understand the documents’ meaning. It was a great day of learning. I thought I would show how I gather the information when locating a document on FamilySearch ’s full-text search. Crafting a citation is not straightforward. I have to go to several screens to gather the information needed. Searching Let’s start with finding a document on Full-text search. I always put the search in quotes in the keyword box. Once I get the returns, I then filter using the place first, down to the county level. If I still have too many hits, I’ll filter by the year, working through the decades. Collecting Citation Information The following image shows the second document from the returns list. From this view, I see the page number, 332. The deed actually begins on page 331, so I will wan...

My great-uncle, Jack C. Sullivan (born John Cyril Sullivan), enlisted in the Army on 4 June 1917 into an engineering corps at Vancouver, Washington. [1] The 4th Engineers trained there and then at Camp Green in Charlotte, North Carolina. [2] They were assigned to the 4th Division in 1918. The regiment saw battle at Aisne-Marne (summer 1918), Battle of Saint-Mihiel (September 1918), Meuse-Argonne Offensive (Fall 1918), and in Alsace-Lorraine (November 1918). [3] Jack served in Company E, and according to a discharge record, Jack was gassed on August 5. [4] I have been collecting information about his service. His service record was one of many that burned in the fire at the National Archives in St. Louis in 1973, so I have to find substitute records to fill out his story. A book was written by members of the 4th Engineers and printed in Germany at war’s end. It is Columbia to the Rhine: Being a Brief History of the Fourth Engineers, and their trip from the Columbia River, in the St...

I had a full week at home, back to a normal schedule, except no phenology, due to the government closure. On Thursday, I had dinner with my sisters and cousin, Bonnie. It was great getting together. Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I prepared and scheduled the BCG webinar press release. I volunteered at the History Center, where I accessioned items that were donated while I was gone. Thursday, we had a board committee meeting on facilities. On Wednesday, I volunteered at the Oakland FamilySearch Center. Very few people were there, probably due to the possibility of rain. Lastly, our writing group met. We discussed Jacqueline’s updates to her father’s story and Sheila’s application for a Kentucky early ancestor certificate. Genealogy Meetings:  I attended several meetings: Labor SIG with Kinseekers and the APG NorCal Chapter. Jacqueline and I got caught up after my three-week vacation. Genealogy Writing/Research : I have continued using The Catholic News Archive , which...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's  Saturday Night  again -  time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to: 1)  You were born and given a forename (first name and middle name(?)) and a surname on your birth certificate. What were they? 2)  How many persons are on the  FamilySearch Family Tree  (with an exact search for a birth name) with your first and, separately, your surname? Are there any other persons with your complete first-middle-surname? 3)  How many matches do you have when you search the  FamilySearch Historical Records   (with an exact search for a name)  with your first name, and separately, with your surname?  Are there any other persons with your complete  first-middle -surname? 4)  How many people are in the  Public Ancestry Member Tree collection   (with an exact search for a name) with your first ...

In 1943, my husband’s grandmother filled out a family tree on binder paper. She described her grandparents as Thomas Davey and Mary Nicholas. She listed their children, including her father, Fred H. Davey. One of Fred’s sisters was listed as Lydia N. Colby, who had two sons, Albert and Alfred, and she identified them as twins. [1]  She included no dates and no locations for this family. I do not have much to work with, but I want to know if the boys were actually twins. Obituaries of Thomas and Mary Davey Thomas Davey died on 6 February 1886. The survivors included Mrs. Lydia Jackson of New York City. [2] Five years later, Mary Davey died on 18 September 1893 in Indianapolis. Mrs. Lida M. Colbey of New York was listed as one of the survivors. [3] The obituaries give two surnames for Lydia: Jackson and Colby. Both obituaries list her residence as New York City. An 1891 city directory lists a Lydia Colby, widow, living at 410 W. 57th Street. [4] This was the only directory fou...

We completed our third week of vacation and arrived home on Sunday. Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I did not volunteer or work this week. Yeah, I’m on vacation! Genealogy Meetings:  I attended no meetings this week. Genealogy Writing/Research : The Allen County Public Library's monthly email introduced me to a new resource, The Catholic News Archive , and I found articles about the Hork and Schalen families. I also worked on recording Beaver County, Pennsylvania, tax records into an Excel spreadsheet. I had ordered copies before leaving on the trip, and I made good use of the downtime on the train on our way to Winslow, Arizona. Blog Posts Published: John Coor was a Rural County Sheriff For the theme of “rural,” I wrote about discovering documents about John Coor becoming a sheriff in Copiah County, Mississippi, in the 1820s. I love full-text search at FamilySearch . SNGF– Your Favorite Hallowe’en Memory I shared a couple of photos of family costumes. Webinar...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's  Saturday Night  again -  Time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings , is to: 1) Think about your most memorable Hallowe'en - was it when you were a child (candy, games, carnivals), a teenager (tricks and treats), or an adult (perhaps a party)? Here's mine: Two memories came up on Facebook where I had posted photos. The first one pertained to one of the Hallowe’en parties my parents would host sometime before the actual day. This shot is my favorite as it looks like a ghost popped into the photo. The second photo is of my daughters wearing the costumes I made that year. We attended a Hallowe’en party and won the best costumes award. Copyright © 2011-2025 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

We completed our second week of vacation. Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I did not volunteer or work this week. Yeah, I’m on vacation! Genealogy Meetings:  I attended no meetings this week. Genealogy Writing/Research : During one day when I recuperated in my hotel room after a day of 15k+ steps, I worked on future blog posts and researched the Coor family using full-text search. I also watched a few webinars. Blog Posts Published: From Rural to Urban Life: The Davey Family Moves to London.   For the theme of “urban,” I wrote about the Davey family moving from rural Cornwall to London. SNGF– Create a 500 Word Biography Using AI from Genealogical Notes or Timeline .   We were asked to use AI to write a biography of an ancestor. How to Deal with a German Civil Marriage Record that is in French . For Webinar Wednesday, I had viewed Ute Brandenburg’s webinar titled,   The Emperor’s New Code , and knew I had a few civil records that were created duri...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's  Saturday Night  again -  Time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to: 1)  Select an ancestor, and a genealogical sketch (or research notes, or a timeline, or Ancestry Member Tree profile, etc.) for that ancestor, and create a PDF of the sketch/notes/timeline/AMT Facts page/etc.   2)  Go to one of the FREE AI Large Language Models (LLM) like  ChatGPT ,  Claude ,  Gemini ,  Grok , etc., and write a prompt (create your own, or modify mine below) for the LLM to create a biography of that ancestor in, say 500 words.  If you want something longer, ask for more words. Here’s mine: Off the bat, I prefer to write my own ancestor biographical sketch, but I will give it a try with ChatGPT and Claude and compare the two. I will use the same prompts as Randy. ChatGPT "You are an expert genealogist. Please create a draft biography w...