My Trails into the Past

My paternal grandmother's paternal aunt, Mary Martha Gleeson Gilbert, celebrated her 98th birthday at Santa Teresita Hospital in Duarte, located in Southern California. A photo of the celebration was published in the  Los Angeles Times  and also in  The Tidings , the paper of the Catholic Diocese in Los Angeles. Aunt Martha is technically my great-great-grandaunt. She was born 8 July 1863 in Carleton County, Ontario, Canada to parents John Gleeson and Margaret Tierney. The family moved to Dakota Territory in 1879. She married Warren E. Gilbert in Mitchell, Dakota Territory, on 9 September 1886. They had one child, Muriel. Warren worked many jobs, mostly as a salesman and they ended up in Southern California.  Martha outlived her husband, who died in 1930, and her daughter, who died in 1956. She died in 1962 at the age of 99. It is interesting to see the two articles. The photos and captions differ a little, though likely were taken near the same time. The junior volu...

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 fifty-four (54) weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. This past week, I went out to the History Center, to Kaiser for my second vaccine shot, and to Lafayette for a walk around the reservoir and dinner for my birthday. Genealogy Blog Writing : Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – “Who Was Your First Ancestor Born in …” . I wrote about both my ancestors and my husband’s ancestors who were first born in the New World. Some were born during colonial times and some were more recent immigrants. Week 12: Loss--John E Lundquist . I wrote about the losses John felt in his lifetime, from death of two wives to the loss of his eye sight and use of his right arm from serving during the Civil War. Online Study Groups & Meetings Attended:  I a...

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...

Eighty-five years ago today was the birth of my mother, Lela Nell (Johnston) Hork, the only daughter of Tom J. Johnston and Pansy Louise Lancaster. She was born in Stephenville, Texas, a small-sized town southwest of Fort Worth. In 1930, there were about four thousand residents in Stephenville. Here is the earliest photo I have of my mother with her mother. She lived in Texas most of the 1930s and then near the beginning of World War II, her father worked on construction sites in Idaho, Oregon, and California. They finally settled in California, living in Walnut Creek and finally in Pleasant Hill. I have many photos of my mother, at least half with either her mother or her cousin, Sandra, in them. In high school, she was very active. She served as social secretary during her freshman year at Acalances High School and kept track of all of her dates. She never seemed to have a free night. She met my father at the annual Walnut Festival and they married on 19 April 1...

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 13, I wrote about my husband’s grandfather who was sued but the husband of the woman who was killed in an auto accident. For Saturday Night Genealogy Fun , we were asked to write about our ancestor’s occupation and I covered my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. Webinars/Study Groups Attended:   I attended: I participated in the DearMyrtle AmericanGen study group as we worked on Chapter 21, about transcribing and abstracting deeds and probate records My Thursday evening certification study group spoke about conferences. Our assignment next time is to read the chapter on Transcr...

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow . I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past . I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. My birthday is March 26, which makes me an Aries. The immediate relative with the closest birthday was my sister, Danna, who was born on April 1, just six years younger than me. Growing up we celebrated separate birthdays. Today, my sisters and nieces get together to celebrate our birthdays and Danna and I usually share the celebration together. When I met my future husband, I learned that his paternal aunt, Ada, had the same birthday as me, though she was born some fifty years before me. One year on my birthday I was awaken early by Aunt Ada calling to wish me a Happy Birthday. This was before we were married. I was working a graveyard-like shift from 1930 to 0330 and had been in bed only a few hours. I had no...

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 Intermediate Class . The third class in this six-week series was about land records. I covered both federal and local land records and created a couple of exercises. It took nearly 2.5 hours. I don’t think I have that much time at the Oakland class. I’ll have to cut something, I’m sure. History Center . Had a busy week at the History Center. Tuesday, I spent time working on the client’s work, and making copies for the high school event on Thursday. Sixty-plus students from Deer Valley H.S. came to the center as one of three stops (they also visited Alhambra Cemetery and the John Muir house). At the center there were five groups they rotated through and my station was in the county room. I spoke about the tax assessment books, showing them Mrs. Louie ...

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...

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. Nature/History I took my camera to the Meadow this week and got some interesting shots. The sun was shining nicely on the wooden cows at the fence. The Baccharis (coyote bush) was in full seed dispersal mode which made everything white. The moon was setting behind Mt. Wanda and I managed to get a nice shot. Also a shot of a California Scrub Jay. Wintertime, the recording of the phenology study goes pretty quickly, as many of the plants are in dormant mode. I also went on the first tour of John Muir’s grave site. A van took us out to the site and we learned a little about each family buried there: The Strentzels, the Muirs, and their children. We learned also about the Sierra Club coming to the site after Muir’s death. The large eucalyptus tree h...