My Trails into the Past

This week, my outside activities included trips to the History Center and to the Pacific Coast Region of the National Model Railroad Association’s convention in San Luis Obispo. More about it below.   Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:    On Monday, I had multiple Zoom meetings: the CDG accountability group, the NGS conference committee, the CCCGS roundtable, and with Jacqueline.  Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I spent half a day at the History Center. Genealogy Writing/Research: The only writing I did this week was for the two blog posts. Blog Posts Published: Homes My Parents Lived In For the theme of “home, sweet home,” I wrote about the houses my parents rented or owned. I have photos of most of them.  SNGF: The Occupations of My 2nd-great-grandfathers I know most of the occupations of my 2x-great-grandfathers except for one. Webinars/Courses Viewed:  Is There a Doctor in the House? Researching Ancestors Who Were Physicians by Jane Neff Rollins (Ancestor See...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's Saturday Night again -  Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings’ assignment for us tonight: 1)  Our ancestors had to work to support themselves and their families.  Do you know what occupations your 2nd great-grandfathers had?  Tell us about them.  If one intrigues or mystifies you, ask a free Artificial Intelligence tool to tell you more about the occupation in that place and time. Here's mine: On my father’s side: Joseph Heinrich Horoch (1804-1857). I cannot read what his standing is on his death records. Vincent Sievert (1823-1890) first worked as a farmer and then as a stone cutter. Jeremiah Sullivan (1811-1888) first worked as a miner and then as a farmer. John Gleeson (1835-1915) first worked as a farmer and then as a hotel keeper. On my mother’s side: Reuben Johnston (1841-1924) worked as a farmer. Peter Hutson (1853-1930) worked as a farmer. William Carlton Lancaster (1873-1946) worke...

The earliest homes my parents, Bill and Lea, lived in are not completely known. After their marriage, the newspaper announcement stated they lived at 3418 Wren Avenue, which might have been Bill's mother's home.  For a wedding present, Lea’s parents, Tom and Pansy Johnston, helped purchase a home in Shore Acres housing development in West Pittsburg (now Bay Point). Below is Lea and Bill at the site of their home before its purchase. The address was 35 Wharf Drive. The purchase price is not known but Bill took out a mortgage with Bank of America for $6550. How Tom and Mam-ma helped them was probably with the down payment. If the down payment was 20%, the purchase price would have been about $8100. It is not known how long they lived there. Here they are holding me outside the home. It had a flat roof. Today the house looks completely different with new pitched roofs. There is no record of the sale of this house with the county recorder, so it is possible the bank repossessed the...

This week, my outdoor activities included trips to the History Center and the Oakland FamilySearch Center and flights to and from Seattle. I wore a mask in the airport and on the planes. Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:    On Monday, I met with Matt to go over what I need to do for the NGS conference while he is gone. I helped Jacqueline with reading and understanding Arkansas tax records at FamilySearch .   Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I worked on accessioning some new donations at the History Center. We got some large county ledgers of coroner records. A wonderful donation! On Thursday, I took the minutes at the Contra Costa County Historical Society board meeting. I had no researchers at the FamilySearch Center so I worked on getting more deeds from Erath County, Texas, using the full-text search in records that are locked from home. On Friday, I flew to Seattle and spent the weekend with Jill and Mary at Mary’s cabin, and we discussed Applied Genealogy Institute and ha...

In 1905, My grandfather’s sister, Ida Hork Colmann, and her husband, Martin J. Colmann, lived at the Manhattan Hotel in San Francisco. Martin was a partner in the business of manufacturing underwear at the Colmann & Fiel, located at 1429a Mission Street.[1]  The Manhattan Hotel was located at the junction of Market, Fell, and Polk Streets and run by John P Gallapher.[2] Here is a current map from Google Maps of the intersection of Market at Polk and Fell. I looked for a fire insurance map of the streets but that part of San Francisco wasn't available. Here is a map of the area of San Francisco that shows the area that was in the burned portion. https://data.sfgov.org/-/Areas-Damaged-by-Fire-Following-1906-Earthquake/yk2r-b4e8 The story passed down is Ida and Martin had to spend time in Golden Gate Park in tents.  A tent camp in Golden Gate Park, April 1906, after the Earthquake and fire.  Chronicle Archive 1906 By 1908, they were be found living on Pacific Avenue and ...

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)  What plans, or potential plans, do you have to pass your genealogy work to relatives and/or descendants, or posterity? Here's mine: My children at this time are not interested in genealogy research although they might be interested in any books I might write. I do have family letters and other historical documents. My goal is to do the following: I will put files of papers, historical papers, letters, etc. into purchased archival boxes.  Photos are being put in various-sized boxes for storage. Larger archive boxes will house some artifacts such as photo albums and scrapbooks. I will label each box well and create a sheet of possible places the boxes could be donated to if my heirs don’t want to keep them. Some of these archives are located in places where the ancestors originated from. I will pre-arrange the pos...

It’s been 5 years since the first lockdown due to Covid-19. Although I am still as cautious as we should be for any illness, I won’t count down the time anymore.  The only reason to make note of my outside activities is to show that I do more than sit at a computer all day. Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:    Since this was the second week of the month, I had several meetings on Monday, first starting with my renewal accountability group at 8 am. Our NGS convention meeting was canceled, so I was able to attend the Kinseekers military SIG meeting. Jacqueline and I met later in the afternoon. Sunday, I attended book club and our group discussed Wanderers: A History of Women Walking. Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I volunteered twice at the History Center. On Tuesday, I was there from 1 to 4 pm and closed the center, since our director was ill. I opened the next day and worked until 2. I worked on accessions, recording them in our notebook and on PastPerfect. I also worked on proces...

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)  Legacy Family Tree Webinars provides free and/or subscription education to genealogists every week.  What were your favorite webinars over, say, the past 3 months? 2) Tell us about your favorite Family Tree Webinars in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a link on this post if you write your own post. Here's mine: To start, because I am a Certified Genealogist, I have a free account with Legacy Family Tree Webinars. But even before being certified, I was a member because I valued the many webinars found on their website and that membership has access to the handouts. I used to wait for the 50% off sale to renew and that’s a real bargain. I keep track of the webinars I view in an Excel spreadsheet. This helps me now answer this question as I can look back to th...

In August 1908 at the age of 27, Harold H. Goe applied to work for the Anaconda Copper Company, better known as the ACM. He had attended the Colorado School of Mines and previously worked in Boulder and Denver, Colorado, before coming to Anaconda, Montana.[1]  His first job at the company was with the surface department at the Reduction Works. Six months later he transferred to the testing department and worked there until 1912.[2] In the same year, he married my great-aunt, Helena Marie Sullivan, who was known as Nellie, in Portland, Oregon, where she was living with her grandparents, John and Margaret Gleeson.[3]   He next worked at the laboratory from 1912 to 1915 and then the Brick Department as the superintendent. He claimed he was a metallurgical Engineer.[4]   Several articles were found at the Internet Archive and HathiTrust that mentioned a patent awarded to Harold for a brick machine that makes taper bricks using a combination of an upper die with an i...

I have completed two hundred and fifty-nine (259) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My outside activities were a birding trip on Monday, a trip to the History Center on Tuesday, and a trip to Salt Lake City Wednesday through Saturday. I wore a mask in the airport, on the plane, and in super crowded rooms at RootsTech.  Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:    Jacqueline and I met to discuss last-minute plans for our trip to Salt Lake City.  Genealogy Volunteer/Work: At RootsTech, I volunteered at the BCG booth three times and was filmed for promo for the upcoming NGS conference. I did a lookup in microfilm at the FamilySearch Library for an acquaintance.  Genealogy Writing/Research: I spent nearly two days at the FamilySearch Library, working on the Coor family in Erath County, Texas, and the Gorrell family in Jackson County, Ohio. I love using the three-monitor set up at the library. I have a system of how I capture all the information from full-text searches. Fi...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's Saturday Night again -  Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment tonight (well, Sunday morning) from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to:.  1)  'Twas the week of RootsTech 2025, and all through the house, the genealogists were checking their RootsTech schedule.  What classes did you absolutely love this week?  2) Tell us about your favorite RootsTech 2025 classes in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a link on this post if you write your own post. Here's mine: I was fortunate this year to attend RootsTech in person. It was touch and go the few days before because I seemed to have a mild case of the flu. Maybe flu vaccinations work! I attended a total of six sessions, three each on Thursday and Friday, and spent all day Saturday at the FamilySearch Library until it was time to head to the airport and home, hence, why this is being written on Sunday. I wrote a...

We woke up to snow on the ground from an overnight storm. There wasn’t much and the sidewalks weren’t too icy. My first session was learning about resources in Kentucky from Susan Court, a member of the Kentucky Genealogical Society, “Kentucky's Public and Publicly Available Records.” She had so much to talk about that she ran out of time, but her syllabus and slides are available for download.  The second session was from Tim Bingaman on “Keys to Researching in Pennsylvania.” We learned about the typical resources, the dates vital records are available, and places where to conduct on-site research. During the lunch break, we visited the exhibit hall. I stopped at the Kentucky Genealogical Society’s booth to add stickers to their map of where my ancestors lived. I visited the Viking Cruises booth and spoke to an agent about river cruises in Germany. I played two games at other booths and won prizes, including a cell phone desktop holder. I stopped by the NGS booth and gave Gena ...

I was up bright and early, as always happens to me in a new location. The first sessions began at eight, so we were on our way to the convention center by 7:30. Our plan was to view sessions that were presented live and not recorded. The recorded sessions we could view when we got home. Hopefully, Facebook friends will talk about the sessions they enjoyed seeing live-streamed. The first session was to listen to Rick Sayre's presentation “Finding your World War I or WWII soldier.” His 14-page syllabus is filled with advice on methodology and has many links to online sources. I thoroughly enjoyed it. He was also giving another session on the National Archives, but I was working the BCG booth, so missed it. The second session was Judy Russell’s talk called “In That Case: Using Published Court Cases.” She showed us the two websites Case.law and CourtListener and the kinds of information we might find in these published cases. The third session was Michael Lacopo’s “I am Poor, Obscure...

I have completed two hundred and fifty-eight (258) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My outside activities were three trips to the History Center, and Train Club for the last Friday night show.  Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:    On Monday, I met with the CGG renewal accountability group, the NGS Conference committee meeting, the Monday Morning genealogy meeting, and Jacqueline, where we discussed our trip to RootsTech.  Wednesday, Amigos met and we caught up on our activities. Stewart and I agreed to read the new book Forensic Genealogy and discuss it.  At the RootsMagic SIG, Keith covered creating groups and I made a couple for men who were in the WWI and WWII drafts. Genealogy Volunteer/Work: At the History Center, I met with a new volunteer who will work monthly on the Bay Point Historical Society collection. We did an overview of what is in the filing cabinets. Friday, I went through the book donations from the public library and added about a third to ...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's Saturday Night again -  Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has our assignment tonight. We’re to:  1)  'Twas the week before RootsTech 2025, and all through the house, the genealogists were checking their RootsTech schedule.  What classes are you looking forward to watching online (for FREE) or attending in person?  Here's mine: I will be at RootsTech, arriving early Wednesday morning. I will spend the day at the FamilySearch Library, then check in at RootsTech in the late afternoon. I am staying at the Hilton Hotel with my roommate, Jacqueline. She’s the one who loves attending RootsTech. I find the crowds a bit too much. My plan is to attend a few classes, but mostly hang out in the exhibit hall either at the BCG booth or the NGS booth. I will wear a mask in class and in the halls between classes. These are the classes I would like to attend. Thursday, Mar 6 “Finding Your World War I or W...

It’s not a family secret, but few people know my great-grandmother, Anna M. Gleeson (1860-1912), was naturalized as a single woman and got 160 acres of land from the federal government. She was born on 13 February 1860 in Carleton County, Ontario, Canada, to John Gleeson and Margaret Tierney.[1]  In 1879, the family, including her nine brothers and sisters, moved to Davison County in Dakota Territory, first living in Mitchell, the county seat. On 7 October 1880, she and her brother, Martin, filed their intent to naturalize.[2]  On the same day, she also made a claim on 160 acres of federal land. This land included portions of sections 9 and 10 of township 104 in range 60. Six months later, she petitioned to settle the claim and purchase the land for $1.25 per acre totaling $200. At the time she made her proof, she said she had built a one-story 14 by 16-foot framed house and had broken 16 acres of land.[3]   Her father, John, her brother, Martin, and her brother, Joh...

I have completed two hundred and fifty-seven (257) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My outside activities were a trip to the History Center, the Lindsay Museum, Belle Cooledge Library where I presented to the Genealogy Association of Sacramento, and Livermore where I had lunch with three genealogy friends in the Bay Area.  Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:    I met with Jacqueline and shared the project I’m doing for my SLIG class. Three genealogy friends, Sheri, Kathryn, Kim, and I met at a restaurant in Livermore. We discussed what we’re working on. It’s always great seeing friends in person. Genealogy Volunteer/Work: At the History Center, I continued my work in PastPerfect checking that all the collections had been entered. Later that week, I took minutes of the board meeting of the Contra Costa County Historical Society. On Friday, I met with LeighAnn and Janet at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum where we consulted on how they should house the archive of their institut...

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)  Did one (or more) of your ancestors have a "different" occupation?  If so, try to find out more about that occupation in Steve Little's "Sam the Digital Archivist" custom prompt using the free ChatGPT4 artificial intelligence tool.  Click on the "Exploring unique ancestral occupations?" button and tell "Sam" in the "Ask anything" box to define and/or describe the occupation.   Here’s mine: I followed Randy’s instructions to try out Steve Little’s “Sam the digital Archivist” on a collateral relative named Joseph McFall (1836-1908). He married Catherine Rose Davey in 1868 in Clark County, Indiana. In the 1860 and 1870 census records he was listed as a caulker. That is what I asked the bot. “Joseph McFall (1836-1908) lived in Madison, Jefferson Co, Indiana in 1870. The ce...

The ship list for the arrival of the Jerry and Mary (Sheehan) Sullivan family has been elusive. The common name is not helpful. They had nine children. One would think with that many children, the ship list could be found, but all the names of the children are common as well, so searching for them makes it difficult, too. One of the strategies I use when trying to solve a tough problem is to review previous research with a distinct focus. My research question is “When did the Jerry & Mary Sullivan family arrive in the U.S.?” Review Census Records The first census that Jerry and Mary were enumerated in was in 1870 in Franklin Township, Houghton County, Michigan. Four children lived with them: Jeremiah, 12; Daniel, 11; Peter, 10; and Michael, 9 months. All are born in Ireland except Michael. This suggests they came to the U.S. between 1861 and 1869. [1] The 1880 census in Moran Township, Todd County, Minnesota, has three of the above children living with them: Daniel, 20, Peter, 18, ...