My Trails into the Past

This is my fourth year working on this year-long 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 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. I don’t have a lot of photos taken in the kitchen, but that was where everyone in our family hung out. It was a big room, with a cooktop island in the center. A large table to hold eight people on one side and knotty pine cabinets on the other side. Here is the kitchen side. We were celebrating a birthday. A banner can be partially seen hanging above the island. The countertops were red Formica, the stove was electric, and we had a portable dishwasher in the center. The dining side had vinyl wallpaper with white bricks. Lots of doodads hung on the walls. I think a lot of these items were found by my mother at antique and junk stores. You can see the café curtains hanging in the corner win...

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 forty-six (46) weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I literally only left the house to get a book from the will-call at the library. On Sunday, I pulled weeds and pruned the roses. We had some rain this week, but I was in classes during the day. Genealogy Blog Writing : Week 4: Favorite Photo—Nana with Her Sisters . I showed a shot of my grandmother with her two living sisters, Nellie and Loretto, all three wearing pearls. Social History Adds Context to Our Families—An Example for My Coor Family . The SLIG institute class I attended this week was about using social history to add context, so I found some newspapers to describe James M. Coor’s decision to move to Erath County, Texas, and some possible resources to describe farming in...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Here is our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing :  1) Tell us about a memorable summer vacation when you were a child. What are your memories of summer vacations with your family? Did you travel? How? Did you visit extended family? Who? 2) Put it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook post. Please leave a link in a comment to this post. Here’s mine: The summer in 1969 was between my freshman and sophomore year. My grandmother, Anna M. (Sullivan) Hork, who we called Nana, wanted to go down to Pomona, California, and spend some time with her older sister, Loretto (Sullivan) Patterson. After three weeks, there would be a trip down to San Diego to visit with her daughter, Lorene (Hork) Waldron. She had done this trip many times and in 1969 I was invited to accompany her. I was both excited to make this trip with her, and equally scared. T...

I am very interested in the family members who never had children. There is no one to remember them. Ida Marie Colmann, formerly Ida Marie Hork, lived in Los Angeles area for many years after the death of her husband Martin J. Colmann on 17 December 1908. She never remarried and lived alone most of her life. In November 1947, Ida spent the winter with her sister, Carrie Hork, at the Grube apartment, and with her brother, Anthony Hork and family. [1] She likely stayed as in March 1949, a newspaper article mentioned she had moved to Hamilton from Los Angeles a year and a half ago. That same month she was visiting Missoula at the Hotel Florence for an indefinite stay. [2] However, in October 1949, Carrie Hork left for Long Beach, California, to be with her sister, Ida Marie Colmann, who was ill. She was accompanied by her brother, Anthony and his wife. [3] She and Ida returned to Missoula later that month. [4] In March 1950, Ida recently moved to Missoula following a stay in Hamil...

This is my fourth year working on this year-long 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 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. My grandmother, Anna M. Sullivan, was born in Anaconda, Montana, the youngest child of five. She had just one brother, Jack, and three sisters, Helena (Nellie), Loretto, and Ethel. [1] After attending the Normal School in Dillon, Montana, she then taught school until her marriage to William Cyril Hork on 30 Nov 1922. [2] Shortly after their marriage, the couple moved to Los Angeles, California. [3] They did make visits back to Montana over the years. I have a photo of their first child, Lorene in Hamilton, where Cyril was from. After Anna and Cyril separated, Anna made several trips to Montana to visit her sister, Nellie, who lived in Anaconda. One of the trips in 1946, her sister,...

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 forty-five (45) weeks of semi- “lock down” due to Covid-19. I got books from the will-call at the library, took a walk, and went to the meadow for phenology.   Genealogy Blog Writing : I published two posts this week, catching up on the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks meme. Also, GeneaBloggers highlighted my Mam-ma’s Southern Family blog for its 10 th anniversary. That was a nice surprise. Week 2: Family Legend-Did David Shotts Participate in the Whiskey Rebellion with George Washington? . This is one of my husband’s ancestors and county histories written over 50 years past his death make this claim. There might be records at the Pennsylvania State Archives to help me. Week 3: Namesake-How Many Named George Washington? . I found five family...

This is my fourth year working on this year-long 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 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. Last week I wrote about my daughter’s 5x-great-grandfather, who might have served in a Pennsylvania militia under George Washington. That got me thinking about how many of our ancestors and collateral family members were named after George Washington. I only found a few. George Washington Shotts (1840-1927), was the son of Daniel Shotts and Mary Ann Bishop. Daniel was the son of David Shotts, our legendary militiaman. Was he named because of the legend? George went by George W. Shotts. George Washington Quigley (1875?-1946) was the brother of John Vir Quigley, who married my grandmother’s sister, Ethel Sullivan. The only record found with his full name was the 1920 census. Otherwise, ...