My Trails into the Past

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing's mission this week is: 1)  What Genealogy Resource are you thankful for?  Is it an organization, software, websites, repositories, persons, or something else? 2)  Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment on this blog post, or on Facebook.  Please drop a link in a comment to this post so that every reader can read about your resource. Here's mine: I would echo Randy’s post of being thankful for FamilySearch . The best thing they did was put up the digital images of records even though they had not yet been digitized. The next best site I’m thankful for are all of the newspaper sites that have digital images of newspapers. Many that I use are: Free Sites: Chronicling America at the Library of Congress website. There are lots of newspapers from every state that were published before 1923. There is no copyright so can be freely used in our work. The Portal to Texas History has many newspapers useful for my r...

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. The college newspaper of John Tarleton College, The J-TAC , is available on the Portal to Texas History website. I have found numerous articles about my grandfather’s younger brother, Luther E. Johnston (1918-1970), playing center on the football team. However, Luther was better known as “Toofer” and searches in the newspaper of “Luther Johnston” did not bring up matches. Yet, as "Toofer" Johnston, there are many articles about his football games and social activities in the years of 1936 through 1938. He was first mentioned in newspaper in the fall of 1935, about his football exploits on the Yellowjackets team while still at Stephenville High School. He played center for the junior college and w...

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 . I spent most of the 11th, working on the Johnston-Couch line, picking up some 1940 U.S. census death, cemetery, and newspaper records on Ancestry , FamilySearch , and Findagrave . Two of my great-grandfather’s sisters married Couch brothers. There were a lot of Couch surnames found in the Comanche Chief newspaper of Comanche Co, Texas. SLIG Virtual Practicum . I worked on Week 3's assignment while in New York and Week 4's when I got home. I have found that using a research log can be useful, but there is not enough space to write some analysis. I’m going back to a research report for Week 5. Week 4 was a kicker, with DNA analysis and research in English records! Thanks to Sheri for the help. Blog Writing : I wrote t...

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. I wrote previously about my grandfather, Tom Johnston's beard in this blog post . For this week, I'll present my great-great-grandfather, John Gleeson's beard. John Gleeson was born about 1835 probably in Ottawa, Canada. He married Margaret Tierney around 1858 in Carleton County, Ontario. They had ten children. In 1879, they moved to Dakota Territory to what is now Mitchell, South Dakota. Sometime after 1900, they moved to Portland, Oregon where he died in 1915. John with 2 children c. 1860s John, taken in Mitchell, South Dakota John wore his beard all through his life. Copyright © 2018 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun ’s assignment this week: Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!): 1)  What is your father's Zigzag Ancestor line (NOTE: I just made that up...}?  In other words, your father's mother's father's mother's etc. line back as far as you can go. 2)  Tell us in your own blog post (and drop a link here in a comment), or on Facebook with your response . Here is my father’s Zigzag line: 1.  My father was William Joseph Hork (1930-2007) of Ontario, California and Walnut Creek, California. 2.  His mother was Anna Marie Sullivan (1892-1979) of Anaconda, Montana and Santa Clara, California. 3.  Her father was John H. Sullivan (1854-1931) of County Cork, Ireland and San Bernardino, California. 4.  His mother was Mary Sheehan of Ireland and Todd Co., Minnesota. I can only go back this far with the Irish line. The records are ...

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. I tend to steer away from anything that would be frightening to me. I do not watch horror movies or read horror books. I have watched a few movies that scared me, not in a frightening way, but left me scared for the people in the action. Such as the runaway train in Silver Streak and the first scenes in the Indiana Jones movies. So this topic is a tough one for me. Instead, because it is also Halloween week, I thought I would share photos from Halloween parties my parents used to have. Some of the costumes were frightening! This was from 1993: Sister, Sabrina & her husband, Steve My brother, Steve and his daughter, Krissy   My dad as a nun with son-in-law, Mike My aunt, Lorene and brot...

Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun .   Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!): 1) Go take the Hallowe'en Personality quiz at http://www.blogthings.com/whatsyourhalloweenpersonalityquiz/ 2) Post your answers on your own blog, as a comment on this blog, or on your Facebook page. 3) Tell us if this is "right on" or not. Have fun with it! My answers from the quiz are: A bit of an introvert, you like the special occasions just as much as everyone else. You just have your own unique way of celebrating Halloween.   Sneaky and devious, people should really watch out for you. You are usually underestimated and forgotten. Your inner child is curious, brainy, and maybe even a little gross. You fear those closest to you finding out who you really are. You dread people discovering your secrets. You're logical, rational, and not easily affected. Not a lot scares you... especia...