My Trails into the Past

I have completed one hundred eleven (111) weeks of semi-lock down due to Covid-19. After being away from home last week for the PCR convention, I pretty much stayed home, only going to the history center, phenology, and to Oakland (where I stayed in the car). Genealogy Blog Writing : How a Family Archive Can Help Document a Person’s Life   I wrote about the kinds of ephemera I have about David Lundquist that adds to the story of his life and how these can jumpstart for future research. It was highlighted in Friday’s Family History Finds. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What Keeps You from Doing Genealogy? I have many other hobbies besides genealogy, even though I spend a lot of time each week on researching and writing. I enjoy being outdoors in nature and am active with a local model railroad society. O nline Study Groups & Meetings Attended: All four Amigos met and it was great seeing everyone. We will have to have an official meetup at the NGS Conference later thi...

It's  Saturday Night  - time for more  Genealogy Fun! Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing is to: 1)  What keeps you from doing Genealogy?  What real life activity do you have to do, or like to do, that takes time away from genealogy research? Here is mine : So, what do I do besides genealogy? Even though I spent many hours every day on genealogy, researching and writing, I do have other interests. Model railroading . I am a member of a local model railroad club where we have a huge layout that is open to the public at least once a month. I am also a member of the National Model Railroad Association and attend activities in the region (Pacific Coast) and division (Coast). I attend often the yearly convention of the region and just finished a four-year term as a director of the Coast Division. Our convention was last weekend at Rohnert Park and it was lots of fun with clinics, layout tours, and model exhibits. The Region also has m...

We are fortunate to have miscellaneous ephemera saved for various people in our family. My husband’s aunt was the receiver of these items, as everyone knew she would save them. She had filing cabinets organized by family with multiple file folders for each person. When I was working on the Kinship Determination Project (KDP) for my certification portfolio, I visited the archive and made images of many of these “one of a kind” documents. I used the documents to help fill in some personal information about David Lundquist, the person of interest in the third generation. One such document is a report card from his 8th grade. His teacher was Gladys Greeley and his school was in District 9 in Montgomery County, Iowa. No year is filled out, either on the front or inside. He was fourteen, which would put it about 1912. Inside the card, only the fourth, fifth, and sixth months were filled in. He scored high marks (in the nineties) in spelling, arithmetic, grammar, history, civics, and phys...

I have completed one hundred ten (110) weeks of semi-lock down due to Covid-19. I really can’t say I was in semi-lock down this week. I attended the Pacific Coast Region of the National Model Railroad Association’s yearly convention, the first in-person one we have had in three years. I attended clinics, meal events, and layout tours, mostly without masks. Genealogy Blog Writing : Turning a Negative into a Positive .  I wrote about how I dealt with the negative I found in my grandmother’s papers using a scanner and Photoshop Elements. Last week’s post, Locating Information about a Locality Using Gazetteers and Maps , was highlighted on two blog roundups: Friday’s Family History Finds and This Week’s Crème de la Crème – April 23, 2022 . O nline Study Groups & Meetings Attended: I met with Jacqueline and we discussed our Trello boards where we are keeping track of future research trips we want to take. I attended the NGSQ study group meeting early Tuesday morning. ...

I have completed one hundred nine (109) weeks of semi-lock down due to Covid-19. I did not go out of the house this past week except to go to the History Center. Either I had a bad cold or allergies that kept me home. Genealogy Blog Writing : How Do You Spell That?   I discussed the various ways my grandmother’s ancestor’s names have been spelled in records. Locating Information about a Locality Using Gazetteers and Maps . We had homework from the presentation given to the Contra Costa County Genealogical Society and this is what I found. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What Did You Do in 1997? We were to write about our activities in the year 1997. Luckily, I could look at my daughter’s photo albums to see what they had done.  Happy Easter! I shared photographs of past Easter Sundays. O nline Study Groups & Meetings Attended: None this week. Client Work/Presentations : I had the last session of the AppGen Foundations I course, reviewing homework and ans...

Views of Easter past: 1957 In front of my grandmother's house 1961 side yard on E 9th Street, Pittsburg - My sibs  plus two cousins 1968 On our way to church Early 70s 1988  1998 Copyright © 2022 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.

It's  Saturday Night  - time for more  Genealogy Fun! Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing , is to: 1)  We all have a family history.  What did you and your family do in 1997? 2)  Share your answers with us in your own blog, in a Facebook or Instagram post, or in the comments on this blog post.  Please leave a link to anything you post elsewhere in a comment. Here's mine: I rarely did a Christmas letter, so I have to look at the photo albums to get a hint of what we did during the year 1997. Our oldest daughter was in second grade in Mrs. Davis’ class and the youngest in kindergarten in Mrs. Jones’ class, both attending John Muir Elementary School. I was working at the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) as an Employee Development Specialist (EDS), training mostly new train operators. Norman worked at County Quarry Products running the rock crushing and asphalt plants. I tried to volunteer once a week helping in eith...