My Trails into the Past

Madison, South Dakota, was sixty-seven miles from Mitchell, South Dakota, if traveling on main roads, and about the same if traveling diagonally across smaller roads between farm fields to Madison. That’s how far Margaret would have traveled to attend normal school in Madison, a town in Lake County. The Dakota Normal School was founded in 1881 and was the first to train teachers in Dakota Territory.[1] Margaret’s older sisters, Helena and Elizabeth, were also teachers, but no documentation has been discovered for their teacher training. Margaret graduated from the school on 12 June 1895 along with another Mitchell girl, Viola I. Mills.[2] According to a publication published in 1890, the institution was “a four-story structure, 76 x 84 feet. West Hall The course of study consists of four divisions, namely: elementary, requiring three years to complete; advanced, which runs with the elementary and requires four years; commercial, of one year; and professional for those who, having taken...

My outside activities included two trips to the History Center. I joined other friends on Friday at the John Muir National Historic Park, waving signs in front to get people to honk their support for the rangers at the park. I operated trains for the train club show on Friday. On Saturday, I worked our California Native Plants booth at the Earth Day Birthday event at the JMNHP. I got in three good walks this week and weeded several days in my yard. I also did phenology at the meadow and collected lots of ticks, even after being careful to remove them, brought a couple home, hiding in my pants. Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: During two trips to the History Center, I worked on clearing off the accession desk and met with John about some finding aids that need updating.  On Saturday, I presented to the San Mateo County Genealogical Society about the Bureau of Land Management’s website for researching federal land records. I love how questions from the audience get me thinking abo...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's Saturday Night again -  Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Here is our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings :   1)  We all wish that we knew more about our most elusive ancestors - the ones we might not know the surname for, or the one who was probably adopted, changed his name for some reason, or lived through war or a natural disaster. 2)  Be a time traveler - where would you go, who would you speak with, what would you ask them?   Here's mine: My paternal tree is a bit pathetic. I don’t know the parents of my 2x-great-grandparents, Jeremiah Sullivan and Mary Sheehan of County Cork, Ireland. Some questions I would ask of them: 1.  When and where did you marry? 2.  When and where were your children born? 3.  Who were your parents? 4.  When and where were your parents born, married, and died? 5.  What did they do for a living? 6.  When and where were your grandparents b...

I have not looked at my matches at Family Tree DNA in a long time. For this post, I’ll concentrate on my paternal side. My dad’s ancestry is half Irish and half German.  Closest Match My strongest match is my dad’s sister at 1962 centimorgans (cM), with the longest block at 167 cM. I also match 107 cM on the X chromosome. The 1962 cM is consistent with matching at a half-sibling, uncle/aunt/niece/nephew, or grandparent/grandchild. [1]  Next Closest Matches My next closest match is a 2nd-4th cousin range at 170 cM. Our longest block is 28 cM. There is no X match. I have communicated with this person in the past and she is my second cousin once removed, a granddaughter of my great-grandfather, John H. Sullivan’s brother.   The third closest match is also at the 2nd-4th cousin range with 117 cM, 42 cM as a longest block, and 10 cM on the X chromosome. I don’t know this person and they provided no surnames. Since she was an autosomal transfer, I found her on Ancestry DNA. Her...

My outside activities included three trips to the History Center, one to the Oakland FamilySearch Center, and weeding in my backyard. Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I had three trips to the History Center this week, the first my regular stint, the second for the board meeting where I took the minutes, and the third on Saturday. I brought home work and spent most of Sunday updating the library database. Two members of my writing group came to the Oakland FamilySearch Center, and I helped with their issues with the Family Tree, but we also discussed other items.  Genealogy Meetings:    I attended meetings this week with the CDG renewal accountability group, the Kinseekers Military SIG, the CDG meeting, and the OFSC staff meeting on Friday. Genealogy Writing/Research: I conducted some research on my great-uncle, RD Lancaster after getting a hint from the NARA catalog. I also did some research on Amos Gorrell for my SLIG class presentation. I used ChatGPT to summarize a ...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's Saturday Night again -  Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing ’s assignment today is to: 1)  We all have a plethora of surnames in our family trees, and some of them are funny, strange, interesting, or unique.  Please share five of your funny, strange, interesting, or unique surnames in your ancestry.  How are they related to you? [Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for this SNGF prompt] Here’s mine: Jacob Appel (1815-??), who married Dorothea Margaretha Carolina Wollenweber, my husband’s 2nd-great aunt.  Carl W. Applequist (1903-1969), who married Edna Ruth Palmer (1911-1986), the sister of Rose Emelia Palmer, who married my husband’s great-uncle, Berger Malcolm Nielsen (1902-1949). Laura May Bacon (1884-1971), who married Lonnie O. Lancaster (1876-1911), my 2nd-great-granduncle.  Ellen Bird (1850-1933), who married James Quigley (1846-1944), the grandfather of my father’s cousin, John J. ...

My outside activities included two trips to the History Center, one to the archives storage facility, one to the John Muir National Historic Park visitor center to meet with our phenology supervisor, and one to the train club for our monthly meetings. Otherwise, I stayed home working on projects at my desk or outside in the gardens. Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I spent two half-days at the History Center, finishing the scrapbook collection and meeting with Tara about putting the library database on PastPerfect. We decided to do it, but we need to add a couple more columns of data to our spreadsheet. Also on Tuesday, a group of us visited the long-term storage site where four huge crates of materials are stored. None of us knows what is in these crates, so we’ll arrange to revisit to take inventory later this year. From a brief glance once the crates were opened, we have many maps, boxes of book inventory (for sale), and boxes of phone books. But there is likely much more, deep i...

I cannot remember any big mistakes I have made in my genealogy research, but I know my biggest mistake was not beginning to research my family when I was younger and my older relatives were still alive. One case in point. My grandmother, Anna Sullivan Hork, took me to Pomona in 1969 to visit her sister and attend the wedding of a niece. I was fifteen.  I may have known about genealogy. I think we did a family tree project in the seventh grade. But it never occurred to me to ask questions and record the information while I was there. What I remember about the trip was that Aunt Loretta and Nana told stories of their childhood every night at the dinner table. I do not remember any specifics about the stories. I remember they had me laughing so hard about their antics.  Loretta Patterson & Anna Hork with brother, Jack Sullivan, July 1969 I wish I had the forethought to write down the stories. It would have been nice to have had a tape recorder to record their voices, but reco...

Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:    Genealogy Volunteer/Work: It was a busy week for volunteering. On Monday, I led a small group of local members of the California Genealogical Society, which was a chance to get to know others in the area and ask questions.  I spent two partial days at the History Center, working on a collection of scrapbooks. At the Oakland FamilySearch Center, I presented about newspaper research and had seven people in the classroom and a couple on Zoom. For the upcoming NGS Family History Conference webinar, I worked on preparing slides about the lectures we will be having. For the BCG, I prepared the press release to send out today. Genealogy Writing/Research: The only writing I did this week was for the two blog posts. I printed out the Hork family book I created last Christmas. I had Staples coil bind it and I handed it out to my family at our lunch on Sunday. Blog Posts Published: Swedish Newspaper Gives a Better Obituary For the theme of “Language”...

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)  All genealogists are human and most of us have gone on wild ancestor (goose) chases in our genealogy research career.  What was one of the wild ancestor chases in your research?  Explain the situation and how you (hopefully!) solved the puzzle. Here's mine: I cannot think of a time when I went down the wrong trail and had to chop off a line I had researched. However, I have been searching a long time for a few end-of-the-line ancestors. Two examples include: Jeremiah & Mary Sullivan of County Cork Jeremiah Sullivan and Mary Sheehan of County Cork came to the United States sometime in 1860s, but I cannot locate them on a ship’s list. It is possible (and I have not thought to check until this moment) that Jeremiah came alone and then Mary came with the children, or Jeremiah came with a couple of s...

My husband’s ancestors immigrated to the United States from Sweden. His great-grandfather, Nils Malkom Nilsen, was a minister with the Swedish Mission Church and gave sermons in the Swedish language. It is possible he learned English to conduct business, but his son, Arthur, said when he started school, he only knew Swedish, a clue to the language spoken at home. Because of this, Arthur would not allow his children to learn Swedish. Nils Malkom’s wife, Hulda, died before he did in 1924. Four obituaries have been found for her. English language obituaries were printed in the Stockton Record , Turlock Daily Journal, and the Modesto Bee . Nils Malkom had served in churches in each of those localities. An obituary was also printed in the Swedish-language newspaper Vestkusten . A comparison of the obituaries shows some differences and why it’s important to locate all that may have been printed. "Beloved Woman Passes to Rest. Escalon,” Record (Stockton, Calif) , 17 Nov 1924, p. 8, col....