My Trails into the Past

Fifteen years ago, I started a blog on January 15, centered around my maternal grandmother’s family. It was too confining, so in June of 2011, I started this blog, so I could also write about my grandfather’s family, my father’s family, and my husband’s family. That began the start of My Trails into the Past . 15 years is a nice round number and I still enjoy blogging. I write at least three posts a week: one for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks , one for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun , and one for Genea-pourri about my genealogy pursuits of the past week. So doing that means close to 150 posts a year. Of course, some are posted on my other blog, Mam-ma’s Southern Family , if the theme has something to do with her family. This year, I started a new meme, working on twelve family lines, one per month. That has increased the number of posts I have written per week. So far in 2026, I have written about 80 posts and I wrote 80 posts last year since June 27. 12 for ‘26 This is a new theme this...

I can't believe I have been blogging on My Trails into the Past for fourteen years. I still manage to write at least three posts a week. I even managed the posts while I was on vacation.  So on average, I do 52 posts on the following themes: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks . I sometimes write the post at my other blog, Mam-ma's Southern Family. Genea-pourri. These posts document my genealogy week. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. We write a post using a theme thought up by Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings. I sometimes write those on my other blog. Occasionally, I'll write a fourth post when I have something interesting to write about. This past year, these were those extra posts: Progress on the Polly Line: Keeping the Timeline Up to Date Analysis of the new AI Summary at FamilySearch Goals for 2025 RootsTech 2025, Day One RootsTech 2025, Day Two Artificial Intelligence Helped Consolidate Multiple Blog Posts into a Coherent Story Statistics for the blog: It's cool that there are m...

Happy Blogiversary! It’s been ten years since I started this blog to write about my genealogy journey in researching my father’s and my husband’s ancestry. This involves many states (except the southern states of my mother’s ancestry), Ontario and British Columbia in Canada, counties of Cork and Tipperary in Ireland and Cornwall in England, several states in Germany, and several counties in Sweden. All too many to list here, but check out my tags to see where I research. In the past ten years, I have written 722 posts! This year, I wrote 141 posts (three more than last year). I wrote about the following topics:  Saturday Night Genealogy Fun : 41 posts. Sometimes these weekly themes, suggested by Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing, didn’t interest me. 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks : 40 posts, with the rest on my other blog, Mam-ma’s Southern Family. Monday Genea-pouri : 52 posts, one for each week of the year. I write this meme regularly, highlighting mostly what genealogy activities I...

It’s been nine years since I started this blog. It is actually my second blog. I had started Mam-ma’s Southern Family in six months earlier, but it was too constricting writing only about one line. I needed someplace to write about my many other lines as well as my husband’s line, thus the start of My Trails into the Past. In the past year, I have written 138 posts covering several topics: Saturday Night Genealogy Fun : 38 posts. I did not always find the theme inviting. 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks : 35 posts, with the rest on Mam-ma’s Southern Family. Monday Genea-pouri : 52 posts, one for each week. I write mostly about my genealogy activities but also about other activities, and I try to post a few photos I have taken of nature during the week. This spring, this theme has been the place to record how Coronavirus has affected our activities. Family stories : 12 posts about the Gorrell, Hutson, Davey, and Hork families. I have been writing more non-th...

Well, it's now been eight years since I started this blog to document my family stories and to discuss my research. This past year I have written 121 posts! The three main memes I participate in are 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, that accounts for a weekly post; a weekly post documenting my genealogy and other activities, called Geneapouri; and Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun if the task looks doable. Occasionally I write an extra post during the week if I find an interesting genealogical find. Some of the popular posts during the past year were: I attended SLIG and wrote two posts about my class here and here . I was trying to win a contest to get priority registration for next year. I wrote about my mother meeting Louis Armstrong as a member of the Pittsburg Junior Woman's Club . I wrote three posts about my Aunt, Lorene Hork and her working for the US Navy during WWII, the US Army in Japan after the war, and her trip around the world. The most po...

I started this blog seven years ago. It wasn't my first blog. " Mam-ma's Southern Family " was the first but it's theme was too restrictive. I was only writing about my mother's mother's line. I wanted to give equal coverage for the rest of my family and my husband's family, so I started "My Trails Into the Past" blog to do just that. In the past year I started writing more regularly. I started the Monday Genea-pourri  series in November 2017 after seeing Randy Seaver start writing with the meme. This gives me a chance to reflect on what I have done the previous week. Even though it is to be focused on genealogy, I often write about other activities I did with family and friends. Isn't that part of our future genealogy? In January, I have participated in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks  meme, started by Amy Johnson Crow , where we write about our ancestors (or ancestors' siblings) based on weekly themes. This has been a fun activi...

It's been six years since I wrote my first blog post. In this time I have written over 200 blog posts, mostly about my paternal families and my husband's families. I write about my maternal families mostly on my first blog, " Mam-ma's Southern Family ." Most of my blog posts have been about the Hork, Gorrell, Sullivan, and Johnston families. I have also made many "Saturday Night Genealogy Fun" posts and participated last year in the "A-Z Challenge." This year I've been working on my portfolio for BCG certification and have not written as many detailed stories about my family for the blog. Since I have not decided on which family to write for the Kinship Determination Project (KDP), I've been selective in what I write about for this blog. Once the portfolio is complete and turned in, I hope to return to writing about the research process and learning more about my family. Copyright © 2017 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails in...

Better a little late. This is my blog's 5th Anniversary which started in 2011. I'm busy this week at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP) and completely forgot about the anniversary! However, I am learning a lot about records for women and children and hope to report on successes in this blog in the future. Copyright © 2016 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.