Monday Genea-pourri, Week of June 9–15, 2025

My outside activities included a trip home from Colorado, a visit to the History Center, phenology, a train club meeting, a hike, and a No Kings protest.   

Genealogy

Genealogy Volunteer/Work:
I sent out the press release for the upcoming BCG-sponsored webinar and another for the release of the new BCG application guide.

I dropped by the History Center on Wednesday afternoon and took care of the items that had been donated while I was away on vacation. 

Genealogy Meetings:   
Amigos met, and Stewart, Jacqueline, and I caught each other up on our past month’s activities. We made preliminary plans for a retreat in Oregon in September. Now, to decide if we’re driving up or taking Amtrak.

Genealogy Writing/Research:
I found some images of birth records for the children of George Elden Lancaster and his wife, Lillie Pearl Tinsley, in Arizona records on FamilySearch. I had previously only had the information from an index.

I downloaded an image of the tombstone for Jimmie Mack Lancaster that I had requested at Find a Grave. My guess is the memorial was created from an obituary. His wife is still alive. He is the son of my great-grandfather’s brother, Earl.

While waiting for the train in Grand Junction and then riding home, I worked on the genealogy of Julian Hulaniski, an ancestor of my husband’s friend, Rod. I had promised to work on writing up what I had learned so far. I am finding more information as more documents and images become available online, especially when doing “full-text search” on FamilySearch. I decided to write it up as a KDP, and perhaps I’ll use it in my BCG recertification. However, when I give it to him, it will have endnotes instead of footnotes.

Lastly, I tried using Perplexity to research what bourbon making was like in Kentucky in the 1830s & 1840s. It summarized the subject and gave me some web resources to check out. I’m also reading the book Kentucky Bourbon: The Early Years of Whiskeymaking and I hope to learn more about my ancestor, Robert Lancaster, who lived in Shelby County and had two stills and 80 barrels of whiskey when he died.

Blog Posts Published:

Reginold Lancaster’s Wife was an Actress Before Marriage
For the theme of “artistic,” I shared about Eda Pearl Ralston, who was a whistler.

SNGF: Tell Us About the Fathers in Your Tree – We were to list our father, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, and 2x-great-grandfathers, describing their occupations and number of marriages and children. I added photos of those I had.

Webinars/Courses Viewed: 

• Using AI to Track County Boundary Changes by Diana Elder (Family Locket)
• Ancestor Bios: The ABC Process by Randy Seaver (ProjectKin)
• Industrialization and Internal Migration: Sources for Tracking Migrants by Ute Brandenburg &
• Industrialization and Internal Migration: Case Studies by Ute Brandenburg (German Genealogy Headquarters)

Other:
We arrived home late on Tuesday, with our train (California Zephyr) over 4 hours late. Instead of having a two-room suite, we were split between two different cars (our scheduled car was not on the train). On top of that, my car’s restrooms did not work. Other than that, the ride was beautiful through Utah and the Sierras.

I participated with Elaine at the No Kings march in downtown Martinez. Not a big crowd; I think it was a last-minute thing.

Our hike was at Dutra Ranch, part of the John Muir Land Trust property, and my legs were feeling it after four weeks of no hill hiking.

I am reading: 

• The Case of the Missing Brontë by Robert Barnard—FINISHED!
• A Girl on Schindler’s List by Rena Finder with Joshua M Greene—FINISHED!
• Kentucky Bourbon: The Early Years of Whiskeymaking by Henry G. Crowgey
• 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. 

 

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.

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