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Monday Genea-pourri, Week of September 1–7, 2025

My outside activities this week were eating out at two restaurants in Florence, Oregon, walking on the beach, and collecting shells and rocks.

Genealogy

Genealogy Volunteer/Work:
I worked on the press release for the upcoming BCG-sponsored webinar.

Genealogy Meetings: none this week, does this retreat count?

Genealogy Writing/Research:
During the retreat, I spent time inputting data into RootsMagic and then filing the documents into family folders. Some of it involved looking up the record again on FamilySearch so I could get the correct URL, the IGN number, and the image numbers. Some of the documents I already had had that information because I had downloaded them recently. I now work with a Word document open when I use full-text search at FamilySearch. This way, I can capture all I need for a source citation, which I create while viewing the document.

Families I worked on:

  • Fred J. Davey and his daughter, Dorothy Davey. I found many newspaper articles about their music events.
  • Kethley family in Tennessee & Louisiana using full-text search
  • Sullivan & Ryan families in Butte, Montana
  • Gorrell family in Blackwater, Missouri & Webb City, Missouri
  • Amos Gorrell, working on his timeline. Incorporating his Civil War events took nearly a whole day. I decided to write a bio (KDP style) on him.

Blog Posts Published:

School Census Gives Evidence of Parentage
For the theme of “off to school,” I wrote about different school census records I have found.

SNGF– Essential Tools for Family History Research
We were asked to list the tools we use regularly in our genealogical research. I covered basic tools such as Word and Excel, and websites like FamilySearch, Ancestry, and newspaper sites. I forgot to mention PowerPoint, which I use to write my presentations.

Webinars/Courses Viewed: None this week

Other:
With my friend, Stewart, we drove his electric car up to Florence, Oregon, on Sunday to spend the week with Jacqueline for our genealogy retreat. It took only three charge stops, and we arrived 10 hours later, in time for some turkey burgers cooked by Barry. We spent the week with our computers set up at her dining room table, while Barry prepared our meals. We took time off to walk on the beach on Tuesday and later went into town to eat dinner and stroll along the old street in Florence. It was cooler than I expected, and I was cold most of the time. Next year, I’m bringing jeans and a sweatshirt. Saturday, we drove back, taking the same amount of time but stopping at different charging stations.

I did get to view a few of the US Open tennis matches, though I missed the women’s final on Saturday.

I am reading: 

  • How Welfare Worked in the Early United States by Gabriel J. Loiacono (over halfway done)
  • Coming up Short: A Memoir of America by Robert B Reich (over halfway done)
  • The Imposter Heiress by Annie Reed (for book club)

Photos for this week. 

Our setup minutes laptops (I was watching US Open)



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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