My Trails into the Past

Outside activities included three trips to the History Center, lunch with Nancy and Terry, phenology, and a walk in the marina.   Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I made three trips to the History Center on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. I’m still working on the library database but also did some email and in-person research requests. I also took minutes for the historical society board meeting and the Sonoma County Genealogical Society board meeting. I also meeting with the History Center volunteers about the Stein Collection. I gave a presentation to the Fiske Library in Seattle on Wednesday called “How to Leave Your Genealogy.” Genealogy Meetings:  Jacqueline and I met. I also attended the renewal accountability group and the Kinseekers Military SIG. Josh and I met in the Peer Group meeting and talked about certification. Genealogy Writing/Research : Josh and I wrote for an hour during our writing accountability session on Friday. Other research I did was ...

I have no one story that means a lot to me. I have many. Each story adds on to another story. My children’s ancestors were not famous. They did not do super remarkable things that made the history books. We have no Mayflower ancestors. Likely no Jamestown either. Our families came later to the United States, some in the late 1600 and 1700s, many in the 1800s, and a few in the 1900s. Some came from Britain, some from German States, and a few from Ireland and Sweden. They settled in the South, Midwest, and the West. We do not know their reasons, except those who came to the US from Sweden, as they came later and left a few stories. But most likely came for the same reasons other families came: opportunity, for something that might be better than where they were, whether for better jobs or for land they could own. Most of our ancestors were farmers. Later comers had factory jobs and trade skills such as blacksmith, machinist, electrician, or tailor. Some were entrepreneurs, owning a poo...

Outside activities included a History Center, Soup Day party, Oakland FamilySearch Center, the bank in Cotati, and train club.   Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I covered for our Executive Director on Tuesday at the History Center. I spent most of the day adding data to the library database. I created the BCG webinar press release and scheduled it to be sent on Monday. Wednesday at the Oakland FamilySearch Center, after helping a new genealogist get started with FamilySearch , I did more scanning of my grandmother’s photos. On Saturday, I gave a presentation about researching cemetery and funeral home records to the Seattle Genealogical Society. Genealogy Meetings:  Jacqueline and I met and we discussed using AirTable some more. She showed me her AirTable base. I hosted the writing group on Thursday and we spent time talking about creating goals for the year. Hopefully, this will spark some writing. I drove up to Cotati to meet with two Sonoma County Genealogical S...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's  Saturday Night  again -  Time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to:  1)  Do you have Research Notes for some of your ancestors in a number of sources and papers, or perhaps in a Person Note or Research Note in your desktop family tree program, and dread trying to put them into a coherent genealogical sketch or research note?   2)  This week, take all of the Research Notes you have for one person in your tree and put them all in one word processor document. Organize them if you want - you don't have to.  Make a PDF file of your new word processor document and name it.   3)  Go to your favorite LLM (you know, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, or any other LLM), load the document, and ask the LLM to "Please organize the research notes in the attached document for [your ancestor's name, birth and death year] and c...

Outside activities included a German party, visit with niece & nephew from England, phenology, History Center, and a hike with Elaine & Phred. Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: A few of us met at the History Center on Saturday even though we were closed. I got a lot of book descriptions entered into the library database. I might be getting close to halfway done. I also got out a press release for the 2026 BCG-sponsored webinars at Legacy Family Tree Webinars. A great line up. Genealogy Meetings:  Jacqueline and I met and we discussed using AirTable. I showed her the one I started for my Hutson-Selman research project. Genealogy Writing/Research : This week I wrote a couple of extra blog posts and worked on researching in FamilySearch Full-text search for the Hutson family in Comanche County, Texas. There are a bunch of deeds, court records, and tax records to go through. I am either transcribing or extracting the information, first in a Word document, then into...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!   Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has our first assignment for the new year. 1)  What are your genealogy goals for 2026?  Consider genealogy research, education, organizing, service, writing, and whatever else you care to share . Here’s mine: I delayed working on this because I just bet this would be the theme for today’s assignment. I have reviewed last year’s goals here: Revisiting my 2025 Genealogy Goals . This is always a good start, as we often have left over goals we did not finish. This year, I am going to break up my goals into different categories: Education, Organizing, Research, and Writing. Education Under Education, I have signed up many of the upcoming Legacy Family Tree Webinars . I do not always watch them live, except the BCG-sponsored ones, because I am usually busy when they first air. I started a Wednesday Webinar meme this past year, where I tak...

To start off this monthly task, I selected twelve of my daughters’ sixteen 2x-great-grandparents. Using a random number generator, no. 10 was selected, which is Nell L. Hutson, who married Thomas Newton Johnston. I will deal with her life as a married person when he is selected. For now, I will focus mostly on her parents and work my way back. This will include Hutson and Selman lines. Background Information This first part will cover what I already know about the family of Nell and her parents. This covers census, marriage, deeds, obituaries, death certificate, and cemetery markers. Laying out the background information will help see the holes where more research is needed. These will be listed as action items. Nell was born on 8 February 1888 somewhere in Texas. This information is from her gravestone. [1] Other documents point to 1889 as the year of her birth. Her parents are Peter H. Hutson and Sarah “Sallie” Selman, though no document states this. [Action1: write proof summar...

It is time to revisit my goals for 2025 and see how well I did (see “Goals for 2025” ). Looking back, my genealogy goals were: Organization . Continue organizing and reducing files. I have new archival boxes to store these items and I can donate the plastic bins. Writing . Create 2 books about my grandparents, Tom J Johnston & Pansy Lancaster, and William C Hork and Anna Sullivan. Do the same as I did the parent's book, using blog posts and photos.  Renewal . Decide on a subject for the KDP I can use for my renewal. I have played around with some starting points but have not decided yet. Presentations . Create 1-2 new presentations. One should have a case study within. Revisit I had these goals written on a bright yellow 3 x 5 card posted on the bulletin board above my computer. I do not think I ever looked at them the whole year. So, it will be interesting to see how well I completed each goal. Organization . I was to work through more surname paper files in my plastic bi...

My grandmother, Anna Marie Sullivan Hork, was born 15 October 1892 in Anaconda, Deer Lodge Co, Montana, and died on Valentine’s Day, 1979 in Santa Clara, California. [1] I remember because my parents had a party for the immediate family and Dad got the call from one of his sisters that Nana had died. The funeral was a few days later at St. Matthews Catholic Church in San Mateo, California. [2] Afterwards, we went to my Aunt Virginia’s house where the after gathering could have been called an Irish wake. We all spoke of the great memories we had with our Nana. She was buried next to her husband in the Los Angeles National Cemetery. [3] She had married William Cyril Hork in Butte, Silver Bow County, Montana, on 30 November 1922, which was Thanksgiving Day. [4] They had five children, four who lived to adulthood. Cyril had problems with alcohol, so she left him and took her children to Napa, California, to live with her sister’s husband and start a new life. After working in his co...