My Trails into the Past

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)  Linda Stufflebean posted  "Essential Tools For Today's Genealogical Success"  recently, and Teresa Basinska Eckford followed that with her list in  "Essential Tools for Genealogists."   2)  What are your essential tools for doing your genealogy and family history work? Please list five or more of your essential tools so that readers may find tools that may help us do our work. Here’s mine: I use very few tools, but I will justify my tools here. 1. Word . I primarily work in Word. I keep track of my findings and report my analysis and conclusions. I find it easier to create source citations as I’m researching. There is a lot to capture when finding documents of interest, especially at FamilySearch: the URL, IGN number, image number(s), record type, and the lo...

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)  If you could go back in time to interview one of your ancestors, what questions would you ask him or her?  Tell us your selected ancestor's name, their birth and death years/locations, and their spouse's name and marriage date/location.  List at least five questions to ask that selected ancestor. Here's mine: The ancestor I’ll ask questions of is my great-grandmother, Anna Maria Gleeson , born 13 February 1860 in Carleton County, Ontario, Canada, [1] and died 3 January 1912 in Anaconda, Deer Lodge Co, Montana. [2] She married John H. Sullivan sometime in 1882, likely at Mitchell, Davison Co, Dakota Territory. [3] I wished I had asked my grandmother questions about her childhood and her parents. But she died before I became interested in genealogy. Questions to ask: ...

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 recall the layout of one of your family homes (a parent's home, a grandparent's home, your first home with your spouse/SO, etc.)?  Can you estimate the size of the house and the size of the rooms?  What features were in each room?  Can you draw the floor plan, showing doors, windows, etc.? Here's mine: I could describe both of my childhood homes, one in Pittsburg and the other in Walnut Creek, but I will save Walnut Creek for another day. Pittsburg, California, at 467 E. 9th Street We lived here from about 1955 to 1963. During that time, four children were born, and the six of us lived in a two-bedroom house. By the time we left, the kids slept upstairs, two to a room, which worked out as there were two girls and two boys. Our parents slept in the dining room downs...

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)  If you have your family tree research in a Genealogy Management Program (GMP), whether a computer software program or an online family tree, figure out how to find how many persons, places, sources, etc. are in your database (hint:  the Help button is your friend!) 2)  Tell us which GMP you use, and how many persons, places, sources, etc. are in your database(s) today in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook comment. NOTE:  WE last did this in November 2021. Here's mine: Like Randy, I use RootsMagic 10. I saw that I had an update to make, so I took care of it before checking the statistics. Tools > Enhanced Properties List I hope this can be read. I could not figure out how to make...

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)  Learning about how to pursue genealogy and family history is a lifetime task.  Once you've mastered one record type (census, church, certificates, probate, directories, immigration, etc), or one skill (family tree software program, record transcription, source citations, DNA matches, AI prompting, etc.), a new record or skill presents itself.  With the constant advances in technology and knowledge, doing genealogy and family history well requires constant learning of something new.  2)  This week's challenge is to tell us a new genealogy-related skill that you have, or are working on, developing.  Tell us about your progress.  Are you having fun? Here’s mine: I have not been good at keeping an accurate track of my searches since moving to working ...

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) Have you been down a genealogy rabbit hole lately?  What was it, and what did you find?  [If not, go find a rabbit hole! Try your FamilySearch Notifications or Ancestry.com Photos or Stories.] Here's mine: I am going down a rabbit hole right now. I have been working on my Selman line, those who came from Alabama to Cherokee County early during Texas statehood. I began by making sure I had all the census records of the families in Texas from 1850 through 1900 and beyond, if they were still living. I added children to the families based on census records. I also added cemetery tombstone information from Find a Grave to their profiles. Once I had the information found on Ancestry , I used FamilySearch 's full-text search to locate documents I hadn’t yet seen. Be...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's  Saturday Night  again -  Time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver (via Linda Stufflebean, who suggested the topic) is to: 1) What five reference books (and only 5) would you recommend to a b eginning genealogy researcher to have on their bookshelf? Here's mine: 1. My first pick is Drew Smith’s Generation by Generation (Genealogical Publishing Company, 2023). I recommend this book because of Smith’s approach in covering genealogy research, not by record group, but by methodology. Begin with yourself and work through 20th-century sources first. For a review of the book, see https://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/2023/04/a-new-beginning-genealogy-resource-drew.html . *2. George Morgan,  How to Do Everything with Your Genealogy (McGraw Hill, 2015). Parts of the book would be dated due to changes in online sources, but he covers the fundamentals on researching differe...

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)  Taneya Koonce wrote a Happy Birthday post about her own life in  Quick Tip: Create Your Personal History Timeline - The Birthday Edition 🥳 .  What a great birthday idea! 2)  This week, write your own Personal History Timeline - every 5 or 10 years, or the most important events.  If you don't want to do yours, write a History Timeline for one of your ancestors. Here’s mine: I decided to do myself in the same fashion as Randy. I found the early years easier to write than the later years. 1954 (age 0) . I was born at Concord Community Hospital, and the doctor said I was the most beautiful baby. I am my parents’ firstborn. 1959 (age 5). We lived in Pittsburg on East 9th Street. I began Kindergarten. I came down with scarlet fever, and we were quarantined. Now I h...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!   Our mission today: 1)  Did your grandparents know their grandparents personally?  2)  Check your family tree, and share your grandparents' names, birth and death years and places, and their grandparents' names, birth and death years and places. Indicate if they knew their grandparents. Here’s mine: We did this on February 15 of this year. https://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/2025/02/sngf-did-your-grandparents-know-their.html . However, I’ll play, but ask if my parents knew their grandparents. My father, William J. Hork, was born in 1930 in Southern California. His grandparents were: Johan Anton Hork, b. 1843 in Germany, d. 1906 in Wyoming. – No Julia Ann Sievert, b. 1854 in Illinois, died 1928 in Illinois.  – No John H. Sullivan, b. 1854 in Ireland, died 1932 in So. California. – Maybe, but he was too young to remember Anna Marie Gleeson, b. 1860 ...

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 )  FamilySearch has a page for "Famous Relatives" at   https://www.familysearch.org/en/discovery/famousrelatives .  It works if you are connected to the FamilySearch Family Tree. 2)  Check out the website.  Which connection surprises you?  Do you believe that the connection is correct? Here's mine: None of the relatives listed on this website are closely related to me. Once we get past 5th cousins, we are in the part of the tree where I have not done the research and don’t have the sources to prove the connections. All of the matches are on my mother’s side, as my father’s side is more recent immigrants from Germany and Ireland. George Washington is my first cousin eight times removed, through Amanda Deborah Oldham. I don’t know her parents, but the FamilySearch Family Tree shows Mary Ann ...

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)  According to Wikipedia, today is World Music Day!  How should we celebrate? 2)  How has music affected your life?  What is your favorite music type?  What are your favorite songs? [Thank you to Janice Sellers for suggesting this challenge to me] Here's mine: I’m getting a late start on this because I spent the day visiting the Fresno Public Library’s Heritage Center with the Northern California Chapter of APG (Association of Professional Genealogists). I'm going to focus on listening to music and not on any music I perform. Growing up, there was always music in our house, mostly from the radio. When my mother was young, she played the current hits. Later in life, she played country music on the radio. I was surprised when some of my pop songs were also being played on the country station...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing s is to: 1)  It's Father's Day on Sunday.  This week, tell us about the fathers in your tree -- their names, their birth and death years and locations, their occupations, the number of spouses, the number of children, etc. Go back at least four generations, if possible, through your known second great-grandfathers . Here's mine: Generation 1 (Father) William J. Hork (1930-2007). Lived in California his whole life and worked as a produce clerk for a variety of grocery stores. 6 children. Generation 2 (Grandfathers) William Cyril Hork (1899-1967). Born in Montana, died in Los Angeles. Never met him, as he was separated from my grandmother. Worked odd jobs. 5 children. Tom J. Johnston (1912-1973). Born in Texas, died in Pleasant Hill, California. Worked as a carpenter. 1 child. Generation 3 (Great-grandfathers) Johan Anto...

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) What was your favorite genealogy learning experience this past month?  In-person program? Online webinar? YouTube video? Blog post?  Social media item?  Family history story? Here's mine: I have been on vacation since the NGS Conference and have not had any genealogy education in two weeks, however, the NGS Family History Conference in Louisville counts as a genealogy experience. I volunteered during the conference, so I did not attend as many sessions as I would have liked. One session stood out for me: Guiding Principles for the Genealogical Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by Steve Little, David Ouimette, Lynn Broderick The panelists answered questions about the best practices for using AI. Lynn Broderick said something that made sense to me. She suggested not using...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's  Saturday Night  again -  Time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings tonight is to: 1) Who are your 32 3rd-great-grandparents?  List them (with birth names).  Tell us when and where they were born, married, and died.  [NOTE:  This is easily done in your genealogy software program or online family tree by making an Ahnentafel or Ancestors report from yourself as #1, then copy and paste.] Here’s mine: This will not be an exhaustive list, as I have several 3x-great-grandparents who have yet to be identified. 32. Johann Horoch : born 15 Aug 1773 in Altenhundem, Kreis Olpe, Westfalen, Germany; married 22 Apr 1798 in Kirchhundem, Kr. Olpe, Westfalen, Germany; died 18 Oct 1826 in Altenhundem, Kreis Olpe, Westfalen, Germany. 33. Anna Gertrud Sommer : born 25 Jun 1770. 34. Johann Joseph Trösster : born 2 Feb 1778 in Oberhundem, Kreis Olpe, Wes...