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 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 : 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 47—Soldier . I wrote about Amos Gorrell, who was a Civil War soldier and had a diary that I excerpted from. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Thanksgiving-Genealogy Edition . We wrote about genealogy things we were thankful for. Webinars/Study Groups Attended:     “Shipping on the Great Lakes” by Cari Taplin. It was a very interesting webinar about ships used on the Great Lakes. Her photos and maps were wonderful. I attended the Thursday evening group but not the Friday study group meeting this week. Client Work : No Work this week. Volunteer Work : At the History Center this week, I opened up and continued working on special collections that need to be processed. We al...

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 was busy with other activities and only got one post in this week. 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks :  For the “cousins” theme, I showed two photos from our archives of Nilsen cousins and Hork cousins. Webinars/Study Groups Attended:   "Civil Law Concepts and Genealogy"—Claire Bettag, Legacy Family Tree Webinars Conference Attended : I attended the Association of Professional Genealogists Professional Management Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah held at the RL Hotel from September 22-24, with a pre-conference activities on the 21st. I was a mentor to two first-time attendees, Robyn Buehler and Marybethe Kelly. I also spent time with other first-timers, especially Franchesca Werden. Robyn, Lisa, ...

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  For the “mistake” theme, I revisited Daniel K Coor, who was enumerated in 1880 as a female named Anna. “When Did the Thomas Davey Family Come to America?” a post about a possible ship list record that may be the family of Thomas Davey. Webinars/Study Groups Attended:   Advanced DNA Techniques: Using Phasing to Test DNA Segments—Blaine Bettinger, Legacy Family Tree Webinars Own Work: I did not get much work done this week, though I worked on the curriculum for my adult school course. I met with the education coordinator and viewed my classroom, learned how to record roll, operate the projector, and use the copier. I have eighteen students and am looking forwa...

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  For week 20, the theme was “nature” so I wrote our Gorrell Family camping trips.   Webinars/Study Groups Attended:   I participated in two certification study groups . Thursday night, we spoke about a variety of subjects and will continue to talk about transcriptions. On Friday, we spoke about Chapter 7 in the new Professional Genealogy book on Copyright & Fair Use, with Josh moderating.   I also participated in DearMYRTLE’s AmericanGen Study Group as the moderator. We talked about church records this week. APG Writers SIG meeting with Diane L. Richards speaking about writing for the North Carolina quarterly. A So...

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 8, I wrote the family photos of the Nils Malkom Nilsen family in Hilmar, California. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun . I wrote about my first trip to Sutro Library.   Webinars/Study Groups Attended:   I attended: “Applying Evidence to Genealogical Research Questions,” by Melissa Johnson, CG for BCG “Online Sources for French Genealogy, Part I” by Paul Woodbury for Legacy FamilyTree Webinars “Constructing Clear Citations” by Tom Jones, CG for APG Writers SIG Our  Cert Peer Group  did not meet because too many of us were unavailable. Two volunteer gigs this week at the History ...

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 Family Research . This week we received homework for our Advanced Southern Research class at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG). It’s about doing some cluster research and I decided to work on one of my brick walls: Who are the parents of Samuel Johnston, who was born in South Carolina, had children in Alabama, lived in Yalobusha County, Mississippi, before moving to Titus County, Texas, where he died. I have no idea where in Alabama and where in South Carolina he lived. So we have a spreadsheet to record information about what we know, and also to begin analyzing the neighbors. I had already thought about that. Which neighbors also came from Alabama? Perhaps they came with the Johnstons. I also did a little research on Reginold Lancaste...