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. I have completed fourteen weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I left the house this past week to work at the CCCHS History Center, get blood work done at Kaiser, and have a heart monitor fitted. I did a couple of walks, but otherwise, I met people on Zoom. Genealogy Blog Writing : Blogs posted this past week:  52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 25: Unexpected—My Grandparent’s Marriage License Location.   I wrote about finding my grandparent’s marriage record in a neighboring county and wondered why. Thomas N. Davey Passport Gives Confirmation About Arrival Ship . I updated a previous blog post with the evidence I found from Thomas’ passport application. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Dad’s Work History . We wrote about the jo...

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 5–So Far Away.  I wrote about Johan Anton Hork coming to the US from Germany and traveling over time to Montana. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – A Day in the Life . We were to choose the front page of a newspaper from the date of our grandmother’s birthday. I chose my husband’s mother’s birthday, 29 January 1926 and used a Modesto newspaper. There were articles about bandits and a bad cop breaking prohibition. Webinars/Study Groups Attended:     I attended both the Thursday night study group and the Friday study group. We checked in and had good discussions about our past week. I attended two webinars this week: “More Than Just Names: Advanced U.S. Census Research,” by ...

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 1–Fresh Start .  I wrote about my mother’s southern ancestors who migrated to Texas.   Webinars/Study Groups Attended:     I met with both of my study groups this week. It was great that all of the Thursday evening group were present. In Friday's group we continued discussing our goals. It was great being able to meet with my genealogy friends online. Client Work : During the week, I received calls from two local genealogical societies who needed last-minute speakers, so I have agreed to do that. The first one will be this coming week. Sunday, I spoke about city directories at the Sacramento Public Library. I also met with a potential client, but after the consul...

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 48—Thief. I could not think of  post to write using this theme, so didn’t write one. This is the only one I have missed in two years. Webinars/Study Groups Attended:     I attended no webinars or study groups this week, due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Client Work : No Work this week. Volunteer Work : I did work at the History Center this week, still opening up the center and working on special collections that need to be processed or put away. I managed to file away some items into the subject/town files in the library. Own Work: I worked on the Gleeson family this past week, mostly working on land records from Carleton County, Ontario, Canada. My 3x-great gran...

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 : I wrote the following blog post this week: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks  For week 14, our theme was Brick Wall. I wrote about trying to find the father of David Shotts, my husband’s third great-grandfather.   Webinars/Study Groups Attended:   “One Touch Genealogy” given by Thomas MacEntee at Legacy Family Tree Webinars. He had great pointers about culling all of the information you can from a document and to place “to do” items that you think of onto a separate sheet so you don’t get distracted until you are done. In my Thursday evening certification study group, we spoke about transcriptions to abstracts. It was a good discussion and I shared my homework from Chap...

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 : I wrote the following blog post this week: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks  For week 11, I wrote about the large family that the Thomas & Mary Nicholas Davey had. Unfortunately out of the fifteen children, only seven lived to adulthood. I wrote about a slave distribution in my Thomas Haley family in Rankin County, Mississippi . It is important to share this information so the descendants of enslaved people might be able to make the connection. For Saturday Night Genealogy Fun , where we wrote about a favorite photo.   Webinars/Study Groups/Lectures Attended:   I participated in the AmericaGen Study Group - Chapter 20 Local Land Records . I attended the Contra ...

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 : I wrote the following blog posts this week: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks For week 6, I wrote about “surprise” which was the awarding of honorary life membership to the PTA to my grandmother, Anna Sullivan Hork. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun : We wrote out our longest married ancestors. My children had several who were married more than 50 years. I also wrote a “On This Day” blog post about the birth of my great-grandmother, Nell (Hutson) Johnston. I forgot to mention the “ On This Day ” post I did last Sunday about my 2x-great-grandfather, Joseph Heinrich Horoch’s baptism. Lastly, I did a guest post on Cheri Hudson Passey's blog, Carolina Girl Genealogy .  The title was "Tuesday's Tips-Lisa Gorrell, CG~Preparing fo...

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 : I wrote the following blog posts this week: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks For week 5, I wrote about my first trip to Sutro Library viewing census records and finding my grandfather’s family. This trip hooked me for life. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun : We were to write about Super Bowl LIII and about our favorite teams. I wrote instead about the San Francisco Giants.   Webinars/Study Groups Attended I attended three webinars week by Family Tree Webinars: Family Gatherings: Dragging Genealogy Information Out of Your Family by Melissa Barker You Can Do This: Photo Organizing and Preservation by Thomas MacEntee Focused Research VS Information Overload by DearMyrtle & Cousin Russ and participated in one study...

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 I continued working on deed records for the Lancaster family, getting the deeds in Erath County, first by recording the deeds from the grantee and grantor indexes so I have a full record, and beginning to collect the actual deeds. I ran out time and will continue the next time I’m at the Oakland FamilySearch Library later this month. These records are not available from home. I found more ship arrival records for Thomas N. Davey, the son of my husband’s 2x-great-grandfather, who lived in Joplin, Missouri. I was surprised by the number of times he visited England. I wish I knew which family members he visited. I also worked on the homework for the American Genealogy Study Group with DearMyrtle which we will have on Wednesday. These chapters co...

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 Family Research . I spent most of the 11th, working on the Johnston-Couch line, picking up some 1940 U.S. census death, cemetery, and newspaper records on Ancestry , FamilySearch , and Findagrave . Two of my great-grandfather’s sisters married Couch brothers. There were a lot of Couch surnames found in the Comanche Chief newspaper of Comanche Co, Texas. SLIG Virtual Practicum . I worked on Week 3's assignment while in New York and Week 4's when I got home. I have found that using a research log can be useful, but there is not enough space to write some analysis. I’m going back to a research report for Week 5. Week 4 was a kicker, with DNA analysis and research in English records! Thanks to Sheri for the help. Blog Writing : I wrote t...

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 I finished four out of the five lessons for the Intermediate Skills 2 course I will be teaching in October & November at the Oakland FamilySearch Library on behalf of the California Genealogical Society. I plan to work on the fifth class after getting some input from the students so I can tailor it to their wants. I viewed only one webinar this week: “Methods For Identifying The German Origins of American Immigrants,” by Michael D. Lacopo, and participated in the DearMyrtle AmericanGen Study Group on Wednesday. We discussed researching online. I attended the Sacramento German Genealogical Society meeting and learned about using the State Library resources. This week my volunteer work was at the Oakland Family Search Center . I sat with...

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 The big news this week was finishing up on the last story of the KDP. I still have a few holes to fill on the second and third stories. The probate records from Merced County, California and the land record from Montgomery County, Iowa, should come in this week and that will be extremely helpful. I’ll need to do some editing and proof-reading both the text and footnotes. It feels good to be nearly 90% done with this part. The online session with the Mastering Genealogical Documentation hangout went very well. We were talking about Chapter 13, citing original online content. I focused on recording negative searches done online. If you’re interested in the recording, check out DearMyrtle’s YouTube channel. I worked at the desk at the California Ge...