Monday Genea-pourri, Week of March 2–8, 2026

We left Kansas City Monday night, arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday morning, and arrive home by that evening. I have played catch up at home most of the week, going out to do phenology, and weeding in my front yard. The rain while we were gone kept the plants alive.

Genealogy

Genealogy Volunteer/Work:
I worked on the BCG-sponsored webinar press release and it will go out next week.

Genealogy Meetings: I met up with Jacqueline to discuss AirTable, our trip to GRIP, and a trip to visit her in April.

Genealogy Writing/Research: I am working on the Lancaster family for March’s 12 for ‘26. There is a lot I already have, and I found a lot in full-text search at FamilySearch and newspapers at the Portal to Texas History. I’ve written three blog posts on my other blog, Mam-ma’s Southern Family and am working on the fourth one.

Blog Posts Published:

Changed My Thinking
For the theme of “Changed Your Thinking,” I wrote about how learning some things about our ancestors can change our perception of them for better or worse. It was highlighted on Friday Family History Finds.

SNGF—Your Favorite Online Class at RootsTech 2026.
I listed three of my favorite of the six I viewed.

The Origins of Johan Anton Hork and his Ancestors – 12 for ’26 
For the fourth week, I covered the ancestors of Johan Anton Hork.

And three posts for March’s 12 for ’26:

George Warren Lancaster & his Ancestors - March 12 for ‘26. He is my great-grandfather and I recorded what I knew about him, as well as a full-text search at FamilySearch.

12for ’26: George Warren Lancaster in Newspaper Articles. I next did a search in newspapers, recording what I found.

12for '26: Full-text Search for William C. Lancaster (1873-1946). Next, I conducted a full-text search for items naming my 2x-great-grandfather, Warren’s father.

Webinars/Courses Viewed: I am taking an AirTable course from Amberly Beck in Kimberly Powell’s Level Up Genealogy series. I missed the first three sessions because of the vacation and luckily, RootsTech pre-empted the fourth session, so I had time to view the recordings and do the exercises. This week begins Kimberly’s Writing for Discovery course. I know, too much to take at once, but it’s usually offered in the fall and this year, I could fit it in. Everyone talks about how it changed the way they write.

I viewed the following webinars this week:

• Lineage in Context: Creating a Compelling Kinship-Determination Project by Angela Packer McGhie (BCG/LFTWebinars)

RootsTech 2026. I had more on my list, but I was doing some research and lost track of time and would miss them.

• The GPS in Practice: Examples of Reasonably Exhaustive Research  Angela Packer McGhie Reclaiming the Past: Analyzing Southern Claims Commission Files for Genealogical Research by Julia A. Anderson
• When Nothing Found Means Something: Negative Search Results vs. Negative Evidence by Diana Elder    
• Which Date Is Right? Solving Birthdate Conflicts Through Genealogical Analysis by Carolyn Ladd  
• FamilySearch Full-Text Search—Your Golden Path to Ancestral Discovery by David Ouimette
• What's New at Ancestry by Crista Cowan

Other:
We toured the Steamboat Arabia in Kansas City. They are closing in the fall due to losing their lease. Hopefully they find a new place to move to. The rest of the trip home went smoothly and Mohammed picked us up at the station. I couldn’t find the housekey at first and thought I hadn’t packed it, but found it in a pocket of my backpack. Phew!

I am reading: 

• Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson

Photos for this week.

Kansas City Amtrak Station at night

dishes from the Arabia

My husband with our car attendant

Southwest Chief at Raton, Colorado

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 © 2011-2026 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.