Monday Genea-pourri, Week of June 22–28, 2026

Outside activities included phenology, and two short trips to the History Center and library. I was busy this week with GRIP.

Genealogy

Genealogy Volunteer/Work:
I volunteered at the History Center for a couple of hours on Tuesday and Wednesday after my GRIP class. Basically, I had time to just catch up with what is needed and answering a couple of queries. I was the Zoom host on Saturday for the CGS webinar on newspaper research. They held it live at the new site, so it was a hybrid presentation.

Genealogy Meetings: 
I hosted the RootsMagic SIG but only one person came.

Genealogy Writing/Research:
In my free time this week, I searched for deeds for Denis and John Tierney in Nepean Township, Carleton County, Ontario (or Upper Canada).

Blog Posts Published:

When Circumstances Forces Father Hork to Leave
For the theme of “a hard choice” I wrote about Father Albert Hork having to choose to leave a parish that was too poor to care for him.

Checking the California Voter Registrations for a Female Ancestor
We discussed the suffrage movement in my GRIP class and I wondered if Mary Martha Gilbert registered to vote in California after women got suffrage in 1911.

Happy 15th Blogiversary!
I can’t believe I have been blogging 15 years. It sure has been fun.

12 for '26: Finding Deeds for Tierney Family in Nepean Township, Carleton County
There were a lot of deeds, so I stopped halfway, so I could write about them.

SNGF: Your Revolutionary War Era Ancestors
I wrote about two I found in my southern lines and one of my husband’s.

Courses Attended: 
I attended the GRIP course “Marching Toward Change: Reformers, Crises, and Movements that Transformed 19th and 20th Century America,” coordinated by Katherine R. Willson. It was excellent, covering such movements as suffrage and women’s rights, temperance, public education, abolition, labor rights, conservation, immigration, settlement houses, moral reform, and other reforms. Some were hard to discuss, especially immigration and the movements that divide people. I highly recommend it if it is offered again. The syllabus is 250+ pages!

Webinars Viewed:

• Land Records Of Upper Canada Part 1: Crown Land Petitions by Janice Nickerson (LFT Web)
• Land Records Of Upper Canada Part 2: Heir & Devisee Commissions by Janice Nickerson (LFT Web)
• Land Records Of Upper Canada Part 3: Land Registry Office Records by Janice Nickerson(LFT Web)
• Getting Started with AI for Newspaper Research by Maureen Hanlon (CGS)

Other:

No hike this week due attending GRIP. I worked the Train Club show on Friday, taking care of mishaps with the trains.

I am reading: 

• Ancestoring: Understanding Records, Family, and Ourselves by Darci Hind Posz
• Death on a Scottish Train: A Scottish Isle Mystery by Lucy Connelly

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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