My Trails into the Past

My husband’s grandfather, Arthur Nilsen, lived in Rio Linda in 1950 on a chicken ranch at South Sixth Street. [1]   The ranch was in the lower left corner The ranch was one of the houses in the circle One of my success stories in locating family in the 1950 census on the National Archives website using the index was with the Arthur N. Nilsen family. I used a census map to determine the Enumeration District number, so I could use that with the search parameters. Nilsen came up with "Wilsen" instead, but I could see the members of the household as I expected: Arthur, Lena, Leonard, and Bernice. I corrected the error on their index. Nilsen Household Details Arthur N. Nilsen, aged 56, was listed as a chicken raiser in poultry production. He said he worked seventy hours the previous week at his business. I assumed that his wife, Lena, also 56, would be listed as helping him. However, she worked seventeen hours the previous week on the belt feeder at a cannery. There were several c...

I have completed one hundred seven (107) weeks of semi-lock down due to Covid-19. I was out more this week. Besides my normal visits to phenology and the history center where I see the same people, I visited the East County Historical Society, the train club, and ate in a restaurant where we celebrated Ed Mackinson’s memories. That was the most strangers I have been around in a long time. I also had a doctor’s appointment, but we wore masks. Finally, I met a group to hike in a newly acquired piece of property for the national park. Being outdoors is safe enough.   Genealogy Blog Writing : Sisters: Five Gleeson Daughters I wrote about the five daughters of John and Margaret Gleeson and shared a group photo of them. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your 1950 Census Finds I wrote about locating the census pages for my Hork family, which included my dad with his mother and oldest sister, the Horks in Hamilton, Montana, and my dad’s youngest sister and her husband and first daught...

It's  Saturday Night  - time for more  Genealogy Fun! Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing is to: 1)  The 1950 United States Census was released by the U.S. National Archives on Friday, 1 April 2022.   2)  Did you make a list of your census targets and try to find them in the 1950 census?  How did your plans pay off - did you find everyone, or just some of them? 3) Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook post. Be sure to leave a link with your answers in a comment. Here's mine: I planned to write about my first endeavors in locating my family in the 1950 census, so I am glad Randy chose this as our theme. I had other tasks to do and finally got researching in the evening of April 1. My first tries were unsuccessful. The search feature on the National Archives website was not bringing up my family at all. But no worries. I had used Steve Morse’s website and the tool Unifi...

John Gleeson and Margaret Tierney reared ten children, five sons and five daughters. Born in Ontario Province, Canada, they migrated to Dakota Territory in 1879. Two daughters married and raised families. The other three were teachers. Anna Marie (1860-1912) married John H. Sullivan in Davison County, Dakota Territory, likely at the Holy Family Church in Mitchell, though no record of their marriage exists. Before her marriage, she filed for 160 acres through the homestead act, as did her father and two of her brothers. John also received 160 acres. They later sold the land and moved to Anaconda, Montana, where John worked at the Anaconda Copper Works. They raised five children, four daughters and one son. When the youngest was just twenty, Anna died. Mary Martha (1863-1962) married Warren Edmond Gilbert in Mitchell, Dakota Territory. They had one daughter. They moved to Los Angeles sometime in the 1890s. He was a salesman. Warren died in 1930 and Martha continued living in Los An...

I have completed one hundred six (106) weeks of semi-lock down due to Covid-19. I was out more this week around other strangers. I ate at two restaurants and visited a grocery store without a mask. I also did phenology and went hiking with my Friday group. Genealogy Blog Writing : Joined Together: Finding & Transcribing Marriage Records I compared boiler plate language in a variety of marriage records. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Fearless Females Education I wrote about my, my mother, and my grandmothers’ education. O nline Study Groups & Meetings Attended: I attended few meetings and study groups this week. On Tuesday, a small group met to discuss our start up meeting re-organizing the APG NorCal chapter, which will be next week. Our AppGen founders meeting was this week and so far, our classes are going well. Three of us met on Friday at the Peer Group and spoke about our current research and writing efforts. Client Work/Presentations : I began the seco...

The best source for locating marriage records is the Catalog at FamilySearch . I always begin with the county where the person of interest lived. Marriage records are found in the category of Vital Records, and the best source for original records is the local county government, whether it is the county clerk or the court clerk, depending on how the government is organized. Many of these vital records have been indexed and placed in larger databases that can be searched at the Records menu on the FamilySearch website or at other subscription databases like Ancestry . If the index includes an image, even better. If the person who married the couple was a minister, priest, or rabbi, do try to locate the church record of the marriage as it may contain additional information. After locating marriage records, do you transcribe them or just extract the information you want from them? I tend to do one or the other. Marriage records have a lot of boiler plate wording that is common from...

It's  Saturday Night  - time for more  Genealogy Fun! Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to: 1)  It's National Women's History Month, so I'm going to use   today's prompt from Lisa Alzo .  What education did your mother receive? Your grandmothers? Great-grandmothers? Note any advanced degrees or special achievements. My mother, Lela Nell Johnston attended many elementary schools in Texas, Idaho, Oregon and California, until they moved to Walnut Creek, California, and she attended Walnut Creek Grammar School until the eighth grade, and then attended Acalanes High School for two years and Mt. Diablo High School the last two years. She did not attend college. She was very artistic. She painted and loved making crafts. My maternal grandmother Pansy Louise Lancaster attended grammar school and high school in Stephenville, Texas. She was athletic and like playing basketball and softball. Later she played tennis and bowled....