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. I have completed four weeks of “lock down” due to Covid-19. I left the house only to do phenology at the meadow, take a photo of the pink moon, and drop off elastic at my friend’s porch. My husband and I have walked, mostly to the local mailbox. I love taking photos of birds and plants for my friends on Facebook. Genealogy Blog Writing : 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 15: Fire-“A Piece of Bad Luck”. I had written this post in 2015 about Daniel Matt Coor’s grinding mill catching on fire and he lost his life. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – The Games Your Family Played .  I had fun describing the games we played as children from board games to outside games. Webinars/Study Groups Attended:     Many more online meetings again this...

It's Saturday Night - time for more Genealogy Fun! Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has our assignment for this week: Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music here) is to: 1)  Think about the games that your whole family would play when you were a child. 2)  Tell us about one (or more) of them - what was it called, what were the rules (as you remember them), who played the game, where did you play the game, who usually won? 3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a post on Facebook. Here is mine: We loved playing games when I was growing up. We had many board games in our hall closet such as Cootie, Mr. Potato Head, Candyland, and Chutes and Ladders when we were young. As we got older, we played Clue, Monopoly, and Life. We even had Risk, but no one knew how to play, so we made up rules to play with the game pieces on the big map. Other games we played were ca...

Today, April 6, is the 103rd anniversary of the United States declaring war on Germany and the beginning of our involvement in the “War to end all wars” (i.e. World War I). In the beginning, President Woodrow Wilson hoped that there would be enough volunteers to support the U.S. army, but by six weeks later, only 73,000 men had volunteered. [1] Congress enacted the Selective Service Act of 1917. The first of four registrations was conducted on June 5, 1917 and all males between the ages of 21 and 30 were to register. [2] My great-uncle, John Cyril “Jack” Sullivan, is not listed in this draft. [3] There may be two reasons. First, he enlisted in the army on 4 June 1917. [4]  Second, he had already turned 30. [5] It wasn’t until the third registration on 12 Sep 1918 that men 18 to 45 had to register. [6] It is important to understand why someone is not in a record when one expects them to be there. One way is to understand why the record was created. Usually there is...

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. I have completed three weeks of “lock down” due to Covid-19. I left the house once to do phenology at the meadow. My husband and I have walked, mostly to the local mailbox. I continued taking photos of birds or plants and posted on Facebook. My friends seem to appreciate them. Genealogy Blog Writing : 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 14: Water-Daniel Coor’s Land on the Little Coharee in Sampson County, North Carolina. I wrote the eight children of Thomas and Mary Davey who did not live to adulthood. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – Your Oldest Family Photos .  We were asked show our favorite genealogy reference books. I made a small list and showed the images from my Library Thing account. Webinars/Study Groups Attended:     I cont...

It's Saturday Night - time for more Genealogy Fun! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing is:  Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music here) is to: 1)  What are the oldest family photos that you have?  Can you date them?  Do you know who is in them? 2)  Show us one or more of your oldest photos and provide a date and the subjects. 3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a post on Facebook. Here's mine: My Gleeson family passed down a wonderful photo album full of photos of the Gleeson and Tierney families who lived in Ontario, Canada; British Columbia, Canada; and South Dakota and Oregon. The album has numbered slots for photos and a key at the front where the photos were labeled. These photos appeared to be labeled by my first cousin 2x removed, Muriel Martha Gilbert. She made very distinctive Ms and Ns. It also fit that wh...

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. I have completed two weeks of “lock down” due to Covid-19. I left the house twice: to do phenology at the meadow and to pick up a bird feeder set-up. I did stop on Thursday at a drive-through Starbucks to get a London Fog latte. My husband and I have walked, mostly to the local mailbox. I continued taking photos of birds or plants and posted on Facebook. My friends seem to appreciate them. Genealogy Blog Writing : 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 13: Nearly Forgotten “Three Sons Named Edward” . I wrote the eight children of Thomas and Mary Davey who did not live to adulthood. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – A Facebook “Have You Done This? Meme We were asked show our favorite genealogy reference books. I made a small list and showed the images from my...

It's Saturday Night - time for more Genealogy Fun! Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music here) is to: 1)  Another "Have you done this?" meme was going around Facebook this past week.  Let's do it!!   2)  Copy and paste the list below, delete my answers, and add your own.   3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a post on Facebook . Here is the list: 1)  Driven 100 mph : I was not doing the driving, but my friend was driving her Cadillac and she got up over 100 mph on Highway 13 with us in the car. 2)  Ridden in a helicopter: No. I once had the chance but turned it down. I regret it. It was above a PG&E hydro-electric power plant where they were doing repairs and I could have taken wonderful aerial photos. However, I’m afraid of heights. 3)  Gone zip lining: No. Don’t like heights or speed. 4)  Been to an NFL gam...