Monday Genea-pourri, Week of June 8–14, 2026

Outside activities included a hike at Lafayette Community Park, visiting Linda’s garden, volunteering at the History Center, phenology, lunch with friends, and Beaver Festival.  

Genealogy

Genealogy Volunteer/Work:
At the History Center, John and I finished boxing up the studies and loaded them into the U-Haul truck on Monday, and on Tuesday, LeighAnn and I took them up to Fairfield to drop them off and pick up some books for sale. I worked on the PH Hist. Soc. clipping files some more.

Monday, I gave a presentation to the Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society on Research Plans. Thursday, I led the writing group and we discussed Lynn’s and Jacqueline’s work, both making great progress.

Genealogy Meetings: 
I attended the Recert Accountibility group and the Military SIG on Monday, and the Sonoma County Genealogical Society’s board meeting on Tuesday. This was my last board meeting as I’m off the board as of July. Sunday was book club where we highlighted books we had read.

Genealogy Writing/Research:
I worked on researching and writing about John Gleeson’s life in South Dakota, and then worked on his life until his death in Portland, Oregon. I will work on his wife’s family, the Tierney’s in Canada this coming week. I attended two sessions of Level-up and got a lot of the Gleeson work done during those sessions.

Blog Posts Published:

What are the Possibilities?
For the theme of “possibilities,” I wrote about three people who appeared in the 1900 census in Mitchell, Davison County, South Dakota, that said they were the daughter and grandchildren, but I don’t think so. This was highlighted by Randy Seaver, 52 Ancestors, and Linda Stufflebean.

12 for '26: Gleeson Family – John Gleeson Family in South Dakota Timeline
This was the second of my posts about the John Gleeson and his family.

SNGF: What Artifacts Did You Find in an Ancestor's Closet/Attic/Garage?
I wrote about medallions my grandmother left me.

12 for ’26: John Gleeson Family in Portland, Oregon
The last post about John Gleeson and his family, ending with his wife’s death in 1920.

Courses Attended: 
I attended the seventh and last session of the course Merging and Separating Identity with Jan Joyce. This week, she covered legal issues, generating hypotheses, and writing case studies.

Webinars Viewed: I watch more NGS recordings.

• Lessons from Documenting Misattributed Parentage by "Proving a Negative" by Thomas W. Jones
• Spot the Impossible Ancestor: Red Flags in Genealogy by Jennifer Zinck
• Catholic Funeral Cards as Genealogical Evidence by Bonnie Wade Mucia
• Elevate Your Research by Finding Your Family's Footprint in Property Documents by Renate Yarborough Sanders
• Also Annual Reports: Supplemental Documents for Genealogical Research by Adam Oster (Kinseekers)

Other:
Our hike this week was to the Lafayette Community Park and then we visited Linda’s garden. Friday, Nancy and I met Terry at Brotzeit, a German restaurant in Oakland, and we actually spoke some German during our meal.

On Saturday, I helped out at the Beaver Festival at the Friends of Alhambra Creek booth.

I am reading: 

• Ancestoring: Understanding Records, Family, and Ourselves by Darci Hind Posz
• An Enemy in the Village by Martin Walker—FINISHED!
• The Bizarre Bazaar: Down a Dark Path by Daniel Nayeri—FINISHED!
• A Season for Spies: A Lane Winslow Prequel by Iona Whishaw

Photos for this week. Our hike was another abbreviated one because of the heat. After hiking a mile at the Lafayette Community Park, we visited Linda’s garden. These photos are from her garden.

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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