My Trails into the Past

It's  Saturday Night  - time for more  Genealogy Fun! Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to: 1) Who is your current favorite ancestor to research and why? [Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for suggesting topics!] 2)  Write your own blog post, or add your response as a comment to this blog post, in a Facebook Status post or note. Here’s mine: My current favorite ancestor is my great-grandfather, Johan Anton Hork’s brother, Albert M. Hork. He was his younger brother, born ten years later in Oberhundem, Westfalen in 1853. [1] I am fortunate that much of what I know about Albert is through newspaper articles. He was a Roman Catholic priest, who was ordained on 7 June 1884 in Malines, Belgium. [2] Prior to that, he had studied in Milwaukee at the St. Francis de Sales Seminary in 1876. [3] Likely he learned English there, though he may have studied some before coming to America. He made his intention to naturalize in Lee...

I have completed one hundred twenty-four (124) weeks of semi-lock down due to Covid-19. I volunteered at the history center, did phenology, and went to Angels Camp & Murphys for a family reunion. Genealogy Blog Writing : My 52 Ancestors post showing the signatures of ancestors was highlighted last week and my post about Aunt Virginia was highlighted on Friday’s Family History Finds . Fun Fact – My Aunt Virginia Was a Stewardess for Western Air Lines . I wrote about how my aunt Virginia, as a stewardess, took care of male passengers who asked for her phone number. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Plans to Travel for Onsite Genealogy Research I wrote about the articles I found in the newspaper about my grandfather playing baseball in Hamilton, Montana. O nline Study Groups & Meetings Attended: Jacqueline and I discussed an upcoming trip to Turlock for research. I met with my Cert mentee, attended the Der Blumenbaum meeting, and took minutes of the Contra Costa Cou...

It's  Saturday Night  - time for more  Genealogy Fun! Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to: 1)  What is the best or most important image or document that you have recently found online? [Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for suggesting topics!] 2)  Write your own blog post, or add your response as a comment to this blog post, in a Facebook Status post or note. Here's mine: I was working today cleaning up files in my download folder that I had collected over the past months. I have a folder called genealogy and it’s where I put images I have downloaded but am not ready to process. This morning I decided to process some of them. I had found several articles about my grandfather playing baseball in Hamilton, Montana. I carefully transcribed the articles into my RootsMagic database. In all of the articles, he is a pitcher. The earliest one was a baseball game played by the boy scouts. [1] In another game on the high school team...

I always knew that she had been a stewardess for Western Air Lines, but today I found a newspaper article with two photos of her. [1] It describes the hassles that she and another stewardess, Jessie Bathgate, had to put up with from male passengers. [2] Both women were interviewed and gave their tips on how to deal with passengers. The paper described my aunt as a honey blonde who had been flying with Western Air Lines for two years. I learned some information about the plane, a Convair ’49, and that there were 40 passengers aboard. They printed two photos of her, one on board the plane helping a male passenger and the other in her apartment listening to jazz records. The funniest fact: when asked for their phone number, they gave the number of the zoo. #52 Ancestors-Week 29: Fun Fact -- My Aunt Virginia was a Stewardess for Western Air Lines This is my fifth year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow ( https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/ ) at Generations Cafe....

I have completed one hundred twenty-three (123) weeks of semi-lock down due to Covid-19. I volunteered at the history center, got a haircut, did phenology, and visited with Elizabeth twice. Genealogy Blog Writing : Character – A Collection of Ancestor Signatures .  I highlighted the signatures of my parents, grandparents, and a set of great-grandparents. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Plans to Travel for Onsite Genealogy Research I wrote about the trips Jacqueline and I have planned as well as one I would like to do in Texas. O nline Study Groups & Meetings Attended: I attended the military SIG at Kinseekers this week and the focus was on locating sources for WWII Army Air Forces personnel. I keep notes of the websites she showed us.  I also attended the Sonoma County Genealogical Society’s board meeting where I was appointed recording secretary.  Amigos met and we discussed genealogy numbering. It’s not easy to figure out when immigrants return to th...

It's  Saturday Night  - time for more  Genealogy Fun! Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing is to: 1)  Do you have plans to travel to do onsite genealogy research?  [Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for suggesting topics!] Here’s mine: I have lots of on-site research that I would love to do. There are none planned for the near future, so these are on the back burner: Research trip to Texas . I would visit Comanche, Erath, and Rockwall counties as well as the NARA facility in Fort Worth and the state archives in Austin to see if there are more records besides what has been digitized by FamilySearch. I would also visit libraries and archives in the area. I made a trip to Stephenville in the 1990s with my grandmother and we visited family and toured the area, but I did hardly any research besides taking photos at cemeteries. Research trip to Kansas & Missouri . My friend Jacqueline and I are planning this trip. Besides NARA Kansas C...

Last week when working on a presentation about resources for school-attending ancestors, I discovered I had the signatures of a set of my maternal great-grandparents. These were from the report card of my grandfather’s sister, Beryl Johnston.  Home sources are likely to be the best place to locate signatures of our ancestors. Many of the signatures we see in governmental records are clerk-recorded signatures. To be sure, check the handwriting of the signature against the other writing from the clerk. If it looks similar, likely the clerk wrote it. Chances for real signatures might be in probate case files of loose papers, actual deeds (not those recorded in deed ledgers), passport applications, and naturalization certificates. My marriage certificate has the signatures of my husband and me, as well as his brother and my sister, who were our witnesses. It is wonderful to have the handwriting of my ancestors. It makes me feel connected to them. My parents: William J. Hork L...