My Trails into the Past

Thelma Nilsen Gorrell (1926-2018), my mother-in-law, was one hundred percent Swedish, although she was third-generation here. She had fond memories of the Swedish food served at holidays, but she never learned how to make it, as her mother died when Thelma was young. One day, she found a little Swedish cookbook compiled by Julia Peterson Tufford from Minnesota. In it, she rediscovered some of the treats she remembered. Today, the poor book is falling apart, but she scanned the pages and shared them with us. Here are some of the favorites that were made often. Swedish Potato Sausage (Potatiskorv) . My husband, Norman, loves this dish. It is labor-intensive. When we first learned to make it, Thelma used an old-fashioned hand-cranked meat grinder. Later, she purchased a Kitchen Aid mixer that had a meat grinder attachment. That cut down the grinding time by half.  My husband found a sausage stuffer that made stuffing the sheep casings easier than with the grinder attachment. We al...

Outside activities included a trip to the History Center, a visit to Pacheco Marsh, meeting with friends at a restaurant in Orinda, getting teeth cleaned, and working at the Train Club. Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: At the History Center this week, I worked on the donations, entering them into the accession book and then into PastPerfect. I took minutes at our monthly board meeting. I also helped a researcher locate some items. Genealogy Meetings:  I attended the Kinseekers NARA SIG, the APG Writers SIG, and the certification peer group. Genealogy Writing/Research : I did no research or writing this week except for the blog posts below. Blog Posts Published: Elizabeth Loveless: Sorting Out 7 in my Tree For the theme of “the name’s the same,” I discussed the seven women in my tree who are named Elizabeth Loveless. This was highlighted on the 52 Ancestors email. SNGF – Who’s Number 100 in Your Ahnentafel? I reported on three ancestors with the Ahnentafel number ...

Calling All Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings ’ assignment tonight is to: 1)  Who is Number 100 in your Ahnentafel list? Tell us about him.  {If you don't have a #100, use another number]. 2)  How do you descend from #100? Here's mine: My tree is unusual, as I have my daughter in the number one spot.  So, #100 is Christoph Siewert , my paternal 3rd-great-grandfather (her maternal 4th-great-grandfather). I don’t know much about him. He was born about 1766 in Posen, Prussia. He married Anna Mariana Ewald on 14 January 1811. He died on 3 February 1841. I know this information because a cousin hired a researcher in Poland. However, he doesn’t remember the researcher’s name, nor have any information about where this information came from. So, I can’t write specific citations to the church, only to the research notes given to me by my cousin. The lineage:  #100 – Christoph S...

During the government shutdown, Brian Rhinehart of CivilWarRecords.com, presented a webinar, “Researching Your 19th Century Ancestors,” about researching military records at Fold3 . His pitch was to help support his employees since they could not work at the National Archives while it was closed. Learning to do better searching at Fold3 is always welcome, and I liked the idea of supporting those who were caught in the shutdown. I didn’t attend live, as I had other obligations, and watched the recording later, which turned out better because we had exercises to try out his methodologies. Seeing the recording allowed me to work on the problems without any stress. The way Fold3 is set up is different from most websites, where you enter a name in a search field and you’ll get all the documents about that person or persons with similar names. You can do that at Fold3, but you won’t get everything. Fold3 is better searched using their browse feature. He used the analogy of file drawe...

Outside activities included four trips to the History Center, a visit to Hoover Ranch, and Train Club. Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I volunteered at the History Center four times this week. Tuesday was my regular day. On Wednesday, I covered part of the day for our Executive Director, who was ill. Friday, I met up with John to discuss the next steps in our processing of the collections. Saturday, I met up with Maxine. Tasks I did during the week were entering more books into the library database, completing research requests, and on Saturday, I helped a researcher locate info to document a business that moved. On Tuesday, I took minutes for the Sonoma County Genealogical Society board meeting and met up with the president on Saturday to give him the president’s binder. Genealogy Meetings:  I attended two meetings: the Military SIG with Kinseekers, and with Jacqueline before she left on her vacation. Genealogy Writing/Research : I searched in Newspapers.com for mo...

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 )  Review the last three or four "Best of the Genea-Blogs" posts (see    https://www.geneamusings.com/search/label/BestofGeneaBlogs ).  2)  Pick one of the articles listed that either helped you with your research or your writing, and/or that touched your emotions, and/or that you are really impressed by. 3)  Tell us which article you picked (and link to it), and why you chose that article, and how it helped, touched, or impressed you. Here’s mine: James Tanner’s post from Genealogy’s Star titled “Why are you stressing over an end-of-line?” touched me. It’s true that at some point in our research, records will not be available for many reasons, and we will not be able to go any further back. Saying it lets us let it go. He told us to “start researching other p...

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...