Monday Genea-pourri, Week of August 3–9, 2026

Outside activities included phenology, History Center, day trip to Berkeley, a movie, and garage sales.

Genealogy

Genealogy Volunteer/Work:
I worked two afternoons at the History Center again this week, working with the library database on Tuesday and attending a meeting about processing the Maffei collection. I did a birth certificate pull for my long-standing client.

Genealogy Meetings: 
This week I had meetings with Jacqueline, the CGS education committee, APG Golden State Chapter, and the Labor SIG.  

Genealogy Writing/Research:
I did not write much this week, except for the homework in the Mastering Genealogical Proof class I’m taking and the 52 Ancestors & SNGF blog posts. I started working on the Johnston family and did a little research and writing during the one Level Up session I attended. Also, my daughter is visiting and we spent time together.

Blog Posts Published:

Can Samuel Johnston’s 1850 Mississippi Neighborhood Help Locate His Alabama & South Carolina Roots?
For the them of “Neighbors and Community,” I wrote about Samuel Johnston and my efforts to locate his roots.

SNGF: Extreme Weather or Natural Disaster Experiences
I wrote about my great aunt and uncle during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

Courses Attended: 
I attended two sessions of the Mastering Genealogical Proof study group.

Webinars Viewed:
I did not attend any webinars this week.

Other:
There was no hike scheduled this week because of the heat, though it was cooler on Wednesday. 

Our daughter visited us this week from New York City. On Thursday, we met our daughter, Elizabeth, in Berkeley to pick up Margaret who had been staying with her and would stay with us through today. In Berkeley, we visited a bookstore and clothing resale store, before having a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant. On Friday, we had dinner with my sisters, after another day of resale stores. On Saturday, Margaret and I spent time at garage sales and visited the John Muir National Historic Park. For dinner, we ate at a Moroccan restaurant with live entertainment. The belly dancer enticed all of us to join her. On Sunday, we saw Cookie Queens at the movie theater. Afterwards, we stopped for sushi at a new-to-me Japanese restaurant. It was so nice having her this weekend.

I am reading: 

• Ancestoring: Understanding Records, Family, and Ourselves by Darci Hind Posz
• The Old Success by Martha Grimes
• Das große Giggler Geheimnis by Roddy Doyle

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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