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Monday Genea-pourri, Week of July 27–August 2, 2026

Outside activities included phenology, History Center, hiking, a meet with fellow modelers, and a trip to Placerville for a family reunion.

Genealogy

Genealogy Volunteer/Work:
I worked two afternoons at the History Center, working with accessions and putting away some donated items. I presented my Farming Ancestors talk to the North San Diego Genealogical Society.

Genealogy Meetings: 
This week I met with Jacqueline and we continued the discussion about the her trip to the Bay Area in September to visit National Parks. She had is all mapped out on a calendar. We also looked about her writing project and worked on some formatting issues. I also had a good conversation with Carol in the Renewal Accountability Group.

Genealogy Writing/Research: I finished up the month with a final post about the tax records in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. With the new month starting on Saturday, I wrote my first Johnston family post on Sunday. I attended two sessions of Level Up Accountability, one to enter data from items I had scanned, and the other session to continue writing about the Gorrells.

Blog Posts Published:

Tax & Census Records in Beaver County for the Gorrell Family (12 for ’26)
This is my concluding post about James Gorrell and the tax records in Beaver County.

A Day (Fortnight) in the Life of Amos Gorrell, Jr.
For the them of “a day in the life,” I wrote about Amos trying to locate a place to live in Cooper County, Missouri, based on his journal entries.

SNGF: Describe a Family Vacation
I wrote about our family trip to Santa Cruz, playing at the beach and visiting Roaring Camp and Big Trees Railroad.

12 for '26: Introducing Thomas Newton Johnston
For the new month of August, I wrote about my great-grandfather, Thomas N. Johnston, who my mother called “Daddy Tom.”

Courses Attended
I turned in the pre-work for the upcoming Mastering Genealogical Proof study group. This will be a fast pace study group as we are meeting twice a week. I also downloaded the material for the up-coming IGHR course Researching Your South Carolina Roots with Cheri Hudson Passey. This weekly course begins August 11. I may print out the syllabus and take to Staples to have bound.

Webinars Viewed:

  • Create Maps Using PowerPoint and Google Slides by Kimball Carter (Legacy Family Tree Webinars)
  • Angel Island World War II Japanese American Internment Resources by Grant Dim (Legacy Family Tree Webinars)

Other:
Our hike this week was at Sibley Volcanic Park. I have only one more hike to have enough miles to get the Regional Park challenge pin. We don’t always hike at one of the district’s park, so it has taken me some time to get the 26.5 miles in.

We drove up to Placerville on Friday to attend the Nilsen Family Reunion on Saturday at a park in Coloma. It was super hot, near 100 degrees, but our site was covered, so it wasn’t so bad, and there was a slight breeze. Afterwards, we had dinner with Norman’s brother, his wife, and daughter. So it was a nice day once we got back into A/C. We drove home on Sunday.  

I am reading: 

  • Ancestoring: Understanding Records, Family, and Ourselves by Darci Hind Posz
  • The Knowledge by Martha Grimes—FINISHED!
  • Das große Giggler Geheimnis by Roddy Doyle

Photos for this week. From my hike at Sibley.


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.

Comments

  1. Ancestoring is a really interesting read. Congratulations on the Regional Park challenge pin.

    ReplyDelete

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