My Trails into the Past

Everything is not online and I recently received from the National Archives the World War II Draft Registrations for my two grandfathers and for my husband’s father. During World War II, there were six draft registrations. The registrations are in two different groups at the National Archives. One group is the 4th registration, known as the “Old Man’s Draft” which registered all the men who were born between April 28, 1877 to February 16, 1897. [1] Images of this draft can be found on FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com as “United States World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942.” The other group are the rest, those men who were born between February 17, 1897 to July 31, 1927. These records are not available online and I had to order the records from the National Archives in St. Louis. Information about it is here . There is a special form you fill out for the registrant you’re seeking and when the archives personnel find the record, you’ll receive a letter with an invoic...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has a new Saturday Night Genealogy Fun for us this week. 1) Are there persons in your genealogy database that has the same exact birth date that you do?  If so, tell us about him or her - what do you know, and how is s/he related to you? 2) Are there persons in your database that are your ancestors that share your birth day (but not the year)?   How many, and who are they? 3) Are there other persons in your database that share your birth day (but not the year)?  How many, and who are they? 4) For bonus points, how did you determine this?  What feature or process did you use in your software to work this problem out?  I think the Calendar feature probably does it, but perhaps you have a trick to make this work outside of the Calendar function. 1) I am the only one in my database to have the exact birthday of March 26, 1954. 2) I have no ancestor who shares my birthdate. I have 7,030 ...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has a new mission for us: 1) Pick one of your sets of great-grandparents - if possible, the one with the most descendants. 2) Create a descendants list for those great-grandparents either by hand or in your software program. 3) Tell us how many descendants, living or dead, are in each generation from those great-grandparents. 4) How many are still living? Of those, how many have you met and exchanged family information with? Are there any that you should make contact with ASAP? Please don't use last names of living people for this - respect their privacy.   5) Write about it in your own blog post, in comments to this post, or in comments or a Note on Facebook. 1) My Great-grandparents were Johan Anton Hork (1843-1906) & Julia Ann Sievert (1854-1928) . 2) I used RootsMagic7 to make a Descendant’s Report. 3) Their descendants are (the best that I know): Children = 10 (all deceased) Grandchildren = 16 (1 still living) ...

I will be attending the Southern California Genealogical Society's Jamboree in Burbank, California from June 9-11, 2017. This will be my second time, the last time many years ago. Finally, I don't have any college and high school graduations to interfere with the seminar. If you want to register, click here . I am very excited to also be attending the DNA day on June 8. I am ready to learn more about using DNA in my genealogy research. On my last train trip across the country, I worked through the workbook, Genetic Genealogy in Practice ,  by Blaine T. Bettinger, Ph.D., JD, and Debbie Parker Wayne, CG, CGL. This has been really helpful and I know that some of the sessions at Jamboree will help me, too. I will blog about my experiences during Jamboree. I will meet many other bloggers, speakers, and friends who will also be there. It will be lots of fun. Copyright © 2017 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

A newspaper account of the marriage of Frederick H. Davey and Matilda Wollenweber was a bit surprising by the title, “More Trouble.” [1] There were two marriages listed under this title and Fred and Tillie’s was first. What was the trouble? ( Jeffersonville, Indiana) Evening News, 26 June 1878, p. 1, col. 1 A transcription in case you can't read the image: “Married, June 25, at the residence of the bride’s mother, on Prison Hill, by the Rev. Dr. Wm. H. Sheets, Mr. Fred Davey to Miss Tillie Wollenweber.” There is not much in this announcement. They were married the previous day. They were married at Tillie’s mother’s home on Prison Hill. They were married by Rev. Dr. Wm. H. Sheets. Each of these statements bring questions I want to answer: Is there a marriage record? Where is Prison Hill? Is it in Jeffersonville? Or is it in Louisville, across the Ohio River? Tillie’s mother was Philippina Wollenweber. Where was she living in 1878? Who was Rev. Sheets? Whic...

Another assignment from Randy Seaver at Genea-musing : Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to: 1)  What was your best research achievement in 2016?  Tell us - show us a document, or tell us a story, or display a photograph.  Brag a bit!  You've earned it!   2)  We all have elusive ancestors.  What research problem do you want to work on in 2017?  Tell us where you want to research and what you hope to find.   3)  Put the answers in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post. My biggest accomplishment in my research in 2016 was finding the probate packet for Robert Lancaster. This was a big estate and the inventory was several pages. What excited me most was learning that he had two whiskey stills. I wanted to learn all about how whiskey was made in the 1840s and I even got to taste some bourbon whiskey. I made the posts on my ...

We began the search for David Shotts’ estate records from a newspaper notice submitted by the administrator, Daniel Shotts asking for debtors to pay up and anyone with debts against the estate to come forward. The complete story about the notice is here . Because the notice was found in the newspaper, the probate records were searched for David Shotts. In the Testamentary Docket, the index gave two pages for David Shotts. [1] Index for Testamentary Docket showing David Shotts, decd. So on page 180, there was a summary of what happened when Daniel Shotts came to the October Term 1825 term on the 14 October 1825. “On motion and it appearing to the satisfaction of the court that the widow has relinquished her right of administering. Ordered that Letters of administration be granted unto Daniel Shotts on the estate of David Shotts decd on his being qualified and giving bond and security to the satisfaction of the court whereupon the said Daniel Sho...