My Trails into the Past

I want to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas! I hope that there is joy and happiness surrounding you and your family. Lisa Copyright © 2011-2025 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

Calling All Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night Again -  Time For Some More Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing s is to:  1)   Today's challenge is to share memories of December holiday gatherings and celebrations with your families (as a child, a young adult, a parent, a grandparent, a great-grandparent, an aunt or uncle, a sibling, a cousin, an in-law)!   2)  Pick two or three questions from the list in my blog post:  Ask AI:  "What questions can I write about concerning family gatherings and celebrations during the December holidays?"  Use different questions from the list that you didn't use last week. Here's mine: Last week, I wrote about when we opened presents and what kinds of trees we had. This week I shall select two more topics: Were there memorable gifts or surprises from your family’s holiday history? I have been thinking about the family gifts we received over the years. One year in the mid-...

Calling All Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night Again -  Time For Some More Genealogy Fun!! Our mission tonight from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to:  1)   Today's challenge is to share memories of December holiday gatherings and celebrations with your families (as a child, a young adult, a parent, a grandparent, a great-grandparent, an aunt or uncle, a nibling, a cousin, an in-law)!   2)  Pick two or three questions from the list in my blog post:  Ask AI:  "What questions can I write about concerning family gatherings and celebrations during the December holidays?" 3)  Tell us about your memories of your holiday gatherings and celebrations in your own blog post, in a comment here, or on your Facebook page.  Be sure to leave a link to your report in a comment on this post. Here's mine: I chose these two questions: Did your family have traditions for how gifts were given or opened (e.g., all at once, youngest to oldest)? Wh...

Copyright © 2023 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

May you and your family have a wonderful Christmas! Copyright © 2022 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

I have completed ninety-three (93) weeks of semi-lock down due to Covid-19. I went out five times. Monday for a lab test and German Class Christmas party, Tuesday to Napa to meet daughter for lunch and have our booster shot at Napa Kaiser, Friday to the Meadow for phenology (because on Thursday it was pouring), and on Christmas to our daughter’s house. Genealogy Blog Writing : My post last week about my husband’s grandfather working as a telephone lineman was spotlighted in the 52 Ancestors weekly email. 52 Ancestors—Week 51: Holidays Celebrated by my Grandparents I posted some shots of my grandparents celebrating Christmas with their dog or with our family. Merry Christmas! I posted an image of one of the old German postcards I bought from a Dutch seller with the words fröhliche Weihnachten !. O nline Study Groups & Meetings Attended: Jacqueline and I met on Monday. The rest of the groups are on holiday. ClientWork/Presentations : None. I started outlining my Found...

Copyright © 2021 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musing’s post for this week: Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:   It's Saturday Night again -  time for some more Genealogy Fun!!  Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision. Here's your chance to sit on Genea-Santa's lap (virtually) and tell him your Christmas genealogy-oriented wish list: 1) Write your Genea-Santa letter. Have you been a good genealogy girl or boy? What genealogy-oriented items are on your Christmas wish list? They could be family history items, technology items, or things that you want to pursue in your ancestral quest. 2) Tell us about them in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook Status  post.  Please leave a comment on this post if you write your own post. I have been a very good genea-girl this year. I worked very hard putting together my BCG portfolio and have turned it in. I am now being very patient awaiting the results. ...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing started this meme and I loved the idea. Genealogists are great at documenting our ancestors’ lives but not so great documenting our own. I’ll write about what I’ve been doing the past week. Genealogy Sunday, I finished up the KDP. I printed it out and put it aside to read in about a week when it might look fresher. I started working on the Case Study again. I thought it was almost done, but I have lots of work still to do on it. I might try different approaches and see which works out the best. Working on the Case Study, brought out the need for a few documents from Todd County, Minnesota. There are no professional genealogists up there, nor none in the Minneapolis area willing to go up there. I made a request last summer for some deed records but they never got back to me. I’ll try once more with the request, then I’ll try a title company in the area. That email is all written and waiting in the draft box. I’ll probably have better luck if I wai...

Randy Seaver has another great SNGF this week. Our instructions are: Pauleen Cass (Cassmob), who writes the  Family history across the seas  blog started a Christmas meme in 2012 - see  Deck the Halls - 2012 Christmas GeneaMeme . So we will use that for SNGF this week (since very few readers did it in past years!): 1)  Copy and paste the meme questions into your blog or word processor, and then answer the questions.  You could use short statements, long paragraphs or provide a link to one of your earlier posts. 2)  Tell us about your meme answers in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this post, or on Facebook, Google+ or Twitter. 3)  Be sure to leave a comment on Pauleen's blog post about your entry in this Christmas 2017 Geneameme.  She'll be surprised! Here's mine (questions in green, answers in red): THE 2017 CHRISTMAS GENEAMEME Do you have any special Xmas traditions in your family? ...

This Christmas card is from 1970 and is a part of the Gorrell Photo Collection. George and Thelma Gorrell with their five children. I don't know the history behind the photo, but it looks like it was taken in a photo studio by the plain grayish background. The color has held up pretty well, though I tweaked it a bit in Photoshop Elements. Merry Christmas from the Gorrell Family! Copyright © 2016 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

The Christmas season would not begin until the Burl Ives "Twelve Days of Christmas" record was played. I cannot imagine anyone else singing that song. That record was played to death; literally. So I was saddened when I didn't have one to play to my girls. A co-worker was kind enough to find the album on eBay, so now I begin our Christmas caroling season with good ole Burl Ives. You can hear him sing here . Here are the lyrics. I've only included the last verse to keep this post short. On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me: 12 Drummers Drumming 11 Pipers Piping 10 Lords a Leaping 9 Ladies Dancing 8 Maids a Milking 7 Swans a Swimming 6 Geese a Laying 5 Golden Rings 4 Calling Birds 3 French Hens 2 Turtle Doves and a Partridge in a Pear Tree Copyright © 2014 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

Christmas music is my favorite part of the Christmas Season.  I always remember Christmas records being played on the stereo at home as we trimmed the tree and Christmas music played on the radio from Christmas eve through Christmas Day.  At school we sang Christmas songs, though I don't remember any exact titles.  In 7th and 8th grade, I was in Girls & Boys Chorus and we once went to Rossmoor (the local senior community) and sang Christmas songs.  One of the songs I remember singing was "O Come, All Ye Faithful" because we sang a verse or two in Latin.  So I guess we sang both religious and secular songs in those days. I had fond memories of one particular record by Burl Ives that had "The Twelve Days of Christmas" on it.  My work partner found the record for me on eBay and it is very nice to now listen to it again at Christmas.  My daughters took piano lessons and played Christmas songs through the New Year. My favorite Christmas songs are (n...

Lisa with daughters, Elizabeth (age 8) & Margaret (age 6), 1997 When scanning photos for the Christmas Cookies post, I found this photo taken of my daughters and me with matching Holiday dresses.  I'm pretty sure I ordered them from a catalog, though I don't remember which one.  In order to get the most out of the dresses, we wore them everywhere we could: a Christmas party at my friend, Beth; church on Christmas eve, and then to my parents on Christmas Day.  The girls might have worn them to school on the final day before winter break. Copyright © 2011 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past

I have fond memories of Christmas Cookies, both baking and eating!  My mother always had us make sugar cookies we rolled out onto the large kitchen table and cut using the many different shapes.  I was very fond of the tree, Santa & sleigh, and star shapes.  Once baked, we then decorated them with colored frosting and sprinkles.  I remember the old silver and gold sprinkles made with traces of real metal! When I had children, we cut cookies at our kitchen table, too.  I collected many different cookie cutters and my daughters enjoyed rolling, cutting, and frosting the cookies.  The photos here show my daughters with friends at a friend's house having a Christmas Cookie party. Elizabeth, Mike, Aaron & Margaret Adam & Margaret As you can see, there was always lots of flour around--on the table, in their clothes, and hair!  But they had such a wonderful time creating their masterpieces--each cookie carefully deco...

c. 1973 Walnut Creek, CA    Christmas tree ornaments changed throughout my life.  Early on, my mother had an aluminum artifical tree that had only blue balls on it.  She had a blue spot light pointing down on the tree.  The next year, she'd buy green or red balls and a new spotlight color.  Our house in Pittsburg had a large picture window in the front and it was put on display.    Later, when we lived in Walnut Creek, she switched to evergreen colored artificial trees.  We still had colored glass balls but now they were of many colors.  The tree also spotted colored lights and once the tree was completely filled with balls, my mother meticulously laid strands of tinsel on each branch.    As we children grew older, we demanded more part of dressing the tree.  Now homemade ornaments and paper or popcorn strands adorned the tree.  Artificial trees made the way for aromatic Scotch pine trees--still m...