My Trails into the Past

On a trip in the Spring of 2024, I made a research trip to Texas, spending time researching my mother’s family in Comanche, Dallas, Erath, and Rockwall Counties. This was my second trip to Texas. I had previously made a visit to Stephenville in Erath County with my grandmother in the late 1990s, and had taken photographs of resting places of her side of the family. This trip, I spent time visiting the cemeteries in Comanche County for the gravesites of my grandfather’s side of the family. Most of the Johnston family were buried in Hazeldell Cemetery. There is a discrepancy about the spelling of the name. The sign at the entrance spelled it Hazledell Cemetery. [1] Hazeldell Cemetery, Comanche Co, Texas Find a Grave spells it as Hazeldell or Hazledell Cemetery. [2] Wikipedia has Hazel Dell Cemetery. [3] This is probably the original spelling and the sign is just missing the extra space to support it. Hazel Dell was a small community in southeastern Comanche County. It had a schoo...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's  Saturday Night  again -  Time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment tonight from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to:  1)  What are your major genealogy challenges - the family mysteries that you haven't been able to crack to date?  2)  Tell us about five of your real genealogy challenges with a short paragraph, and link to blog posts if you have written about them. Here's mine: 1. I would like to know the origins of Samuel Johnston and his wife Elizabeth McCormack , both of South Carolina. I have them firmly in Yalobusha County, Mississippi, and many of their children were born in the 1840s somewhere in Alabama. The issues are I have no idea where in South Carolina they came from, Johnston is a common name, and South Carolina didn’t require marriage registrations until the 20th Century. I have written about them here and here . 2. I would like to know the origins and parents o...

I watched a webinar this week called “Creating Your Ancestor’s Resume.” It was presented at Kinseekers in November by Karen Molohon. This topic intrigued me as another way to get information about my ancestors and family members onto paper (figuratively speaking). Creating a resume about an ancestor can have two purposes. If this is all you do, then you have written something about their life. A collection of these could be shared with your family. The other purpose is that it can serve as a starting point for further writing, such as adding historical and social context about their work. I thought I would create a resume for one of the ancestors I am working on. I will use these headings: genealogical summary, parents' names, spouse’s name, children’s names, skills, education, hobbies, and work history, starting with the most recent job down to their first job. My grandfather, Tom J. Johnston, saved some of the letters of recommendation he had five men write, who knew him we...

W illiam Joseph Hork and Lela Nell Johnston were married at Queen of All Saints Church in Concord, California, on 19 April 1953.[1] Lea’s friend, Barbara Boyenger, was her maid of honor and Bill’s brother-in-law, Gene Soares, was his best man. Before the ceremony, Ken Harvey, Barbara’s future husband, took photos of the preparation at Lea’s house. Barbara must have spent the night as we see the two of them having breakfast still in their night clothes.  The marriage news was written about in the Contra Costa Times and the Concord Transcript . The article in the Times is very detailed about the clothing the participants wore during the wedding and afterward for their wedding trip. They married on a Sunday afternoon at Queen of All Saints Church in Concord. Father Adrian McKenna presided over the ceremony attended by immediate family members and close friends. Because Lea was not Catholic, the ceremony was likely not a full Mass. The photo below shows the couple just at the alt...

In the years I knew my aunt, Bev, she wore what I considered drab clothing. She came to our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners wearing black, white, or silver outfits. I could never understand why she had to be so uncolorful. These colors did match her silver-gray hair, and she always wore bright red lipstick to brighten up her face. Beryl on the right, her sister-in-law, Pansy on the left Pansy (left) & Beryl (right) It wasn’t until later that I learned that black and other dark, solid colors have a slimming effect, and that was likely why she dressed that way.  I have a collection of color slides of my aunt. These images delight my sisters and me. They are of her posing in various outfits probably in her home so that she could change into them easily. I have no idea who took the images, but as we can see, she was very photogenic. These images prove she wore lots of color in her younger years. #52Ancestors-Week 45: Colorful This is my seventh year working on this year-long pro...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to: 1)   Which ancestor of yours married the most times?  [This may be interesting for some GeneaBloggers!]  [thank you to Linda Stufflebean for suggesting this topic!] Here's mine: The question asked about ancestors, so I will focus only on direct ancestors, as it is easier to browse looking for the number of known marriages. There was no need to look on my father’s side, as they were all Roman Catholics and married only once. On my mother’s side, her grandfather, Thomas Newton Johnston, married three times. The first marriage was to her grandmother, Nell Hutson , on 6 June 1907 in Comanche County, Texas. [1] Nell died on 14 July 1919. [2] He married next, Zilpha E. Buford (nee Morris ) on 12 December 1931 at Stephenville, Erath County, Texas. [3] This was the grandmother my mother remembered. She was ca...