My Trails into the Past

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. This idea came from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing, who started this meme. Genealogy Blog Writing : 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 43--Travel . I wrote the third installment of the adventure of my aunt, Lorene Hork and her travels around the world in 1953 with three other friends. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Photographs of Heirlooms . I had five heirlooms that I wrote about and included photos of. Webinars/Study Groups Attended:   I attended my Thursday evening  online study group, and Kim, Linda, and I had a very engaging conversation about the KDP. In my Friday group, after everyone checked in, we discussed DNA standards. I attended the Sacramento German Genealogy Society to listen to Dr. Roger Minert speak about his project, German Immigrants in American Church Records. He spoke about the start of th...

Nils Arthur Nathaniel Nilsen    Nils Arthur Nathaniel Nilsen was born 118 years ago today on 15 March 1894.  His parents were Rev. Nils Malkom Nilsen and Hulda Charlotta Anderson-Carlson.  Arthur was born in Youngstown, Mahoning Co., Ohio, where his father was the pastor of the Swedish Church on Poland Avenue.  He was their first child and would be the oldest of six (four brothers and one sister) children.    Arthur was an avid reader and was self-taught in many subjects. He worked many different jobs, as a clerk at the post office, farmer, truck driver, electrician, and chicken rancher. Arthur c. late 1940s    Arthur was my husband's grandfather.  He died 19 September 1954 in Sacramento, California, when my husband was nearly two years old.  He never got the chance to know him. Copyright © 2013 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past

In the early days of searching the 1940 census, California was one of the states available on Ancestry.  My husband and I searched through several Sacramento enumeration districts (EDs) for his father, thinking that he was already living in California on April 1, 1940.  He worked at McClellan Airfield before World War II as an aircraft mechanic.  However, we did not find him living with Mrs Hansen at her boarding house. Next we searched the home of his parents, and there we found him. 1940 Federal Census, Jasper Co, Missouri, ED 49-33, sht 11a George is on the right George's father, Joseph N Gorrell can be found on line 10.  The family lived at 502 South Pennsylvania Street in Webb City.   Joseph owned his home, worked as a shopman for the utility company, was married and attended 8 years of school. We found George, age 25, completed 4 years of high school, working at a floorman at garage.  We have a photo of George in front of the service st...