My Trails into the Past

Better a little late. This is my blog's 5th Anniversary which started in 2011. I'm busy this week at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP) and completely forgot about the anniversary! However, I am learning a lot about records for women and children and hope to report on successes in this blog in the future. Copyright © 2016 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings, has a wonderful meme called Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. Mostly I get to it on Sunday morning. My mission is to: 1) Determine where my ancestral families were on 25 June 1866 - 150 years ago. 2) List my ancestors, their family members, their birth and death years, and their residence location (as close as possible). Do you have a photograph of their residence from about that time, and does the residence still exist? 3) Tell all about it in my own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status or Google+ Stream post. Well, I created a table with the list of ancestors. The ones shaded in blue are my paternal ancestors and the ones shaded in pink are my maternal ancestors. Interesting that the generations are so different between my maternal vs. paternal. My paternal grandmother was old enough to be the mother of my maternal grandmother. I have no information about houses these ancestors lived in during 1866. For some, I hav...

Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun is timely. We’re writing about our father’s for Father’s Day. Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is: 1) Sunday, 19 June, is Father's Day. Let's celebrate by writing a blog post about your father, or another significant male ancestor (e.g., a grandfather). 2) What are three things about your father (or significant male ancestor) that you vividly remember about him? 3) Tell us all about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook status or Google+ stream post. My father, William Joseph Hork was born 23 April 1930,  just days after the 1930 census was taken and thus was not on it. His parents were William Cyril Hork and Anna Marie Sullivan . He married Lela Nell Johnston (1934-1992) on 19 April 1953 and they had 6 children. I’m the oldest. He died 13 Oct 2007. SPORTS . He kept track of all the football teams My father loved sports. He pl...

For this week's mission, Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has challenged us to:  1)  Tell us about your "other" hobbies or interests outside of genealogy and family history research, writing, speaking, etc.  Be mindful of your family's privacy, though! 2) Write a blog post of your own, respond with a comment to this post, or write a Facebook status post or a Google+ Stream post. I do have another life outside of genealogy, even though I could spend 8-10 hours per day doing genealogy research and writing. I do have other kinds of fun as well. a. Birding. I’m a birder and try to go out at least once a week, even if only in my yard and neighborhood. I do try to get to Moorhen and McNabney Marshes, Heather Farm Park, or the Martinez Shoreline to watch for birds. b. Gardening. I have a small native plant garden that is in full bloom right now. I also care for many varieties of geraniums in pots. c. Reading. I love mysteries and historical fiction and if I c...

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to: 1)  We each have 16 great-great grandparents.  How did their birth and death years vary?  How long were their lifespans? 2)  For this week, please list your 16 great-great grandparents, their birth year, their death year, and their lifespan in years.  You can do it in plain text, in a table or spreadsheet, or in a graph of some sort. 3)  Share your information about your 16 great-great grandparents with us in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, or on Facebook or Google+.  If you write your own blog post, please leave a link as a comment to this post. I didn't get to this until Sunday afternoon, but here are my 16 great-grandparents with their lifespans. The blue are my paternal great-grandparents and the green are for my maternal. Joseph Heinrich Horoch 1804 1857 53 years M...