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 twenty-one weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I left the house this past week only to do phenology at the meadow. My illness of last weekend cleared and I’m feeling fine. Genealogy Blog Writing : Blogs posted this past week: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 32: Small—A Small Woman-Mathilda Lovisa Erickson-Holm Lundquist.   I wrote about my husband’s great-grandmother. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun—Play Ahnentafel Roulette – John H Sullivan (no. 26)   I about John H. Sullivan, who was no. 26 in my daughter’s Ahnentafel. Study Groups Attended:     Monday Morning Group . Thirteen people attended and we talked about webinars, DNA, settler’s guides.     NGSQ Study Group discussed Jill Morelli’s art...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's  Saturday Night  again - time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has our assignments today. Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!): 1) What year was one of your 2nd great-grandparents born?  Divide this number by 70 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number." 2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an "ahnentafel" - your software will create this - use the "Ahnentafel List" option, or similar). Who is that person, and what are his/her vital information? 3) Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the "roulette number." 4) Write about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook post, or as a comment on this blog post. 5) NOTE...

This is my third year 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 have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. Mathilda Lovisa Eriksson was a small woman. Born 21 December 1871 in Tidersrum, Östergötland län (county), Sweden, to parents Karl Johan Ericksson and Stina Maja Samuelsdotter, she came to America in spring of 1888 with her sister, Karolina, who was a year older. [1] Their travels included the trip to Hull, England by the ship Marsdin , a train across England to Liverpool, and then the ship Republic to New York. [2] Their jobs in America were supposedly as au pairs and they assumed the name Holm. There are no records of their lives before marriage. Mathilda was called Lovisa. She married Per Alfred Lundquist in Red Oak, Montgomery County, Iowa on 15 March 1892. [3] Per Alfred and Lovisa had three children: J...

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 twenty weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I left the house this past week to pick up my glasses, get some donated WWII books, and go to the History Center. By Friday this week, I became sick with sore throat & chest, headache, and slight fever. We’ll see what this ends up as. Genealogy Blog Writing : Blogs posted this past week: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 31: Large—A Large Stout Woman, Matilda Davey .   I wrote about a story that a cousin wrote to my husband’s aunt about her grandmother. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun—Did You Or Your Children Know Their Great-Grandparents.   I wrote about my daughters knowing their Mam-ma. Study Groups Attended:     I did not attend as many online meetings ...

This is my third year 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 have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. Sometimes, it’s difficult to get a physical description of our ancestors. If men filled out draft registrations or pension applications, we might get some physical descriptions. With a photograph of the person, we might be able to describe their physical appearance. When we can get first-hand accounts of someone’s physical appearance and even some sense of their personality from remembrances that family members write, that is a bonus. Such is the case with Matilda “Tillie” Wollenweber, who married Frederick Henry Davey. [1] In a letter written from Marie (Davey) Korn to her first cousin, once removed, Ada May (Gorrell) Thomason, is such a description: “As I remember, the appearance of Aunt Tillie, she had...

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 nineteen weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I left the house this past week do phenology at the meadow, go for a walk to the mailbox, and ride to Oakland to check out a grocery store in Piedmont that had the brand of mustard my husband liked. I was going to stay in the car, but the produce stand outside caught my attention—fresh peaches and apricots! This is only the third time in a store for me. Genealogy Blog Writing : Blogs posted this past week: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 30: Old Country—Thomas Davey Family in Cornwall.   I wrote about trip to St. Agnes in Cornwall where my husband’s 2x-great-grandfather was married. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun—Major News Events During Your Life.   I wrote about where I was ...

It's  Saturday Night  - Time for more  Genealogy Fun! Our mission (from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing ), should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to: 1) What are the major news events that happened during your life that you remember where you were when you heard about them? 2) Tell us in your own blog post, or in comments to this post, or in comments on Facebook.  As always, please leave a link to your work in Comments. When John F. Kennedy was assassinated on 22 November 1963, I was in the fourth grade at Parkmead Elementary School in Walnut Creek, California. The principal, I think it was Mr. Sloan, announced it over the loud speaker. We all sat there in the class in silence, not believing it. I do not believe we went home early. I do remember classmates talking about it in the lunch line. The T.V. was on all weekend at home—I think that was the only programming that was on. As I think back on it now,...