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Monday Genea-pourri, Week of June 23–29, 2025

My outside activities this week included two trips in one day to the dentist for a crown, phenology at the meadow where I saw a gopher snake in the grass, and the train club where I operated trains for a show.   

Genealogy

Genealogy Volunteer/Work:
Because of the dentist on my History Center day, I only spent a couple of hours there. John and I met to discuss what to do with the small books and textbook collection. I got a request to do a presentation in November and took care of filling out their contract.

Genealogy Meetings:   
I attended the Renewal Accountability Group this week, and we discussed some of the research I had done on my vacation. The Monday Morning group met and I shared about my research trip to Indiana and Kentucky. Amigos didn’t meet due to other commitments, but I attended the RootsMagic SIG and spent time adding headshot photos to my program.

Genealogy Writing/Research:
This week, I have worked on processing the research I conducted in Indiana and Kentucky. It would seem that it wouldn’t take much time to record the new information in RootsMagic, but each new piece of information sparks ideas for further research. I think “just take a quick look at Ancestry, FamilySearch, Newspapers.com, etc., and then get back to work.” It is never a quick look, and suddenly it’s an hour later. Note to self: write down the research idea for later!

I have a folder on my desktop titled “Genealogy Work in Progress.” This past week, I took all loose thumb drives and transferred the files to this folder so they can be worked on later. I now have three empty drives to use at the FamilySearch Center for the next round of research.

Blog Posts Published:

My  Favorite Names to Test Out Online Database Searches
For the theme of “fan club,” I wrote about my research trip at the Shelbyville Library in Kentucky and how I found some previous research on the Lancaster and Neal families in their surname files.

Happy 14th Blogiversary!
It’s been fourteen years since I started this second blog of mine. I had done 1324 posts!

SNGF: Try Out the FamilySearch “Famous Relatives” Page.
I have many “famous” people I’m supposedly related to based on the FamilySearch Family Tree, but since I did not do the research myself, I consider the connections as fictitious. Though it would be cool to be related to George Washington, Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, John Adams, and Jane Austen.  

Webinars/Courses Viewed
I watched the presentations I missed from the TIGR AI course I took the previous week, which took up most of my morning on Friday. I discovered that the military class at TIGR didn’t happen, so they will be running it in August. I’m considering it.

  • Hand-written Text Recognition: Harnessing the Power of Artificial Intelligence to Transcribe and Search Documents by Yvette Hoitink (LFT Webinars)

Other:
Another week with no hike. It was too bad, as the weather was exceptionally cool. It just gave me time to get housecleaning and laundry done – Yeah! And do some extra reading. I am halfway through the year, and I have read half my challenge number of books. But I couldn’t have done it without reading a few of the children’s books on the list below. I had found these books on a shelf at the Jeffersonville History Museum and took a photo. I didn’t have room to carry them with me the rest of the trip. Instead, I checked them out of the library. The I Survived! books are interesting, and I may look for more. The author describes her research process and gives sources for further reading at the back.

I am reading: 

  • I Survived! The Nazi Invasion, 1944 by Lauren Tarshis—FINISHED!
  • Heroes Don’t Run: A Novel of the Pacific War by Harry Mazer—FINISHED!
  • Mr. Blue Jeans: A Story about Levi Strauss by Maryann N Weidt—FINISHED!
  • I Survived! The American Revolution, 1776 by Lauren Tarshis—FINISHED!
  • Kentucky Bourbon: The Early Years of Whiskeymaking by Henry G. Crowgey—FINISHED!
  • Death of a Snob by M.C. Beaton
  • Miss Merkel: Mord in der Uckermark by David Safier (for German class—up to Chap 35-We’re on hiatus for summer)

Photos for this week. Some shots from my neighborhood walks.




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.

Copyright © 2011-2025 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

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