My Trails into the Past

A new (to me) database is on Ancestry.com called “U.S., Northern Pacific Railway Company Personnel Files, 1890-1963.”  I was pretty excited because until this point, I have had no direct ancestors who worked for the railroad. I’ve been a huge railfan most of my life and I was pleasantly surprised to have my grandfather turn up in this database. The Northern Pacific Railway Company was based out of Minnesota but had tracks that went west as far as the Pacific Ocean. My grandfather, William Cyril Hork, lived in Hamilton, Montana, which is in western Montana near the Idaho border. [1] Northern Pacific Ry Co map; wikipedia So what is this database all about? This is a “collection of personnel files from the Northern Pacific Railway Company…and includes company correspondence, job history, salary and promotion documents, leaves of absence, and more.” So this is more than a database. It has digital images of the records! The employee records can include multiple...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has a new assignment for us. 1) Who is your most recent immigrant ancestor?  I'm assuming that your ancestors moved from one country to another at some point in time. 2)  Tell us about that person - name, birth and death, emigration and immigration country and port, date or year of immigration, etc. My most recent immigrant was Anna Maria Gleeson, who arrived in the United States from Canada in 1879 or 1880. [1] There’s confusion as to the exact date she arrived. The year 1880 was stated in the 1900 census. [2]   Her father stated on his naturalization that he arrived April 1879, [3] but later stated 1880 on the 1900 census [4] and 1879 on the 1910 census. [5] Anna filed an intention to naturalized and stated on 7 Oct 1880, that she arrived at the port of Huron in the month of February 1879. [6] Davison Co, 2nd Judicial District, Declarations of Intention 1880-1886, p 24, Ann Gleeson. She was born 13 Feb 1860 i...

On 13 November 1863 in Tidersrum, Ostergotland, Sweden, Carl Johan Ericksson and Stina Maja Samuelsdotter were married. [1] Tidersrum, Östergötland,  1863, pg 29, no. 5, Erickson-Samuelsdotter They were my daughters’ paternal third great-grandparents. Their daughter, Mathilda Lovisa Eriksson-Holm immigrated to the United States and married Pehr Alfred Andersson Lundquist. Carl Johan was the son of Eric Svensson and Christina Carlsdotter, [2] and Stina Maja was the daughter of Samuel Persson and Maja Stina Jonasdotter. [3] Carl Johan was a tailor [skräddare] and he and Stina Maja had 9 children. Three known children immigrated to America: Matilda Lovisa, Carolina, and Axel Fredrick. Household Examination, AI-13 1866-1870," Karl Johan Eriksson, Bjerkefall, p 2 Here is a household examination in about 1866. They were living in Bjerkefall. This record shows Carl and Stina with their first two daughters, one of whom had died the previous year. This record g...

Today is November 11, a day we honor veterans who served in the Armed Forces. I do not have many direct ancestors who were veterans, but I still want to honor those who were. This list includes those ancestors of my husband (in blue) and mine (in red). World War II Tom J. Johnston Jr. Tom J. Johnston Jr ., U.S. Navy. He served just a short time and was discharged due to a medical disability. He had been stationed in Idaho. George J Gorrell George Joseph Gorrell , U.S. Army. He was a staff sergeant with the 913th Air Engineering Squadron. He served in England and Germany. World War I William Cyril Hork William Cyril Hork , U.S. Navy. He served in submarine service and was last stationed in Long Beach aboard the submarine tender, USS Alert . Civil War Amos Gorrell Jr. Amos Gorrell , Jr., Union Army. Co A, 18th Ohio. George Wilson Lancaster , Confederate. He ...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has a new assignment this week: What is your computer history - what have you used, when did you get it, what did you do on it, etc. I started with computers at California State University, Hayward by taking a computer class given in the Math department. I think it was 1977 and I don’t think there was a computer science department yet. The teacher taught us 3 languages at the same time: BASIC, FORTRAN, and COBOL. We could turn in assignments in any language we wanted. For Basic, we had terminals where we wrote code, however we needed to punch cards to write code in Fortran. Once the cards were turned in, we waited a hour for the result: often some type of typo that caused the program to fail. I never bothered with Cobol. I liked the orderliness of writing code but couldn’t figure out a way to make use of it outside of school. I majored in Biological Sciences and was graduating the next quarter. The next year, I was working in the office of...

Randy Seaver from Genea-Musing has an assignment today to discuss our memories of Halloween. I don’t have any pictures of me dressed in Halloween costumes and I don’t remember many costumes, but once I was a ghost made from a sheet. I don’t remember Trick or Treating before we moved to Walnut Creek in 1963. In Walnut Creek, we lived on a quiet country road with about a dozen houses. We would go to these houses first, and then our parents would drive us over to the next block or to another neighborhood where there were more houses. I made the wizard costume on the right. Our favorite house on our block to visit was Mrs. Peterson’s. She had freshly baked cookies and homemade fudge. These were delicious treats. She always oohed and ahed about our costumes.  Mr. Gardner lived across from her and his treats for us were usually an apple from his tree and boxes of raisins. At the time we didn’t appreciate the “healthy” treats. I remember when kids stopped Trick or Treati...

I am participating in the DearMyrtle study group called Tracing Immigrant Origins - Passenger Records Study Group. The 1860 census revealed more detail in the place of birth than more recent census records. Here is the census for my husband's family, Ludwig & Philapena Wollenweber in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky. [1] 1860 Jefferson Co, Kentucky census, pop. sched., 2nd Ward Louisville, p 563-64, dwelling 1970, fam 3256, L.W. Wollenweber household,  Ancestry.com  (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 Jul 2010), citing U.S. National Archives and Records Administration M653, roll 375. What can be seen on this census for the place of birth are the actual countries. At this time, Germany is not yet a country by the name of Germany, but rather, many small countries and principalities, such as Bavaria, Wurttemberg, Saxony, and Hessen. I wondered about the instructions for the census enumerator and found the instructions for recording the place of birth...