My Trails into the Past

I have completed one hundred twenty-nine (129) weeks of semi-lock down due to Covid-19. I had a much quieter week with little outside activity besides having lunch with Peter and visiting the History Center, doing phenology, and going to Train Club for our last of the month show.   Genealogy Blog Writing : Timelines – A Great Way to Jumpstart Your Writing . I wrote about how I use timelines in my writing. This post was highlighted on Friday's Family History Finds . Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What is Next on Your ‘To-Do’ List . I wrote about some of the items on my immediate to-do list. O nline Study Groups & Meetings Attended: Monday was a busy day for meetings and study groups. Monday Morning Zoom met with eight or nine people and we had a good conversation about what we have been doing. I met with Jacqueline and talked about our Fitbits and how they can map out our walks. I also attended the AppGen founders meeting where we discussed which courses we were inte...

It's  Saturday Night  - time for more  Genealogy Fun! Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing is to: 1) What is next on your genealogy "To Do" list? [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: One item on my genealogy to-do list is finishing up the lesson plans, handout, and in-class exercises for my upcoming AppGen course called Foundations 2. My goal is to finish everything by September 1. So, I have four more days. I’m working on the last week, so I am close to my goal. This week, I listened to the Genealogy Guys podcast while walking and heard mentioned a new database at My Heritage called “Germany, North Rhine Westphalia (Arnsberg, Detmold, and Münster), Deaths 1874-1938.” I did a preliminary search and found some promising returns, but I don’t have a subscription. I need to take ...

This issue never got published, so it is late. I have completed one hundred twenty-seven (127) weeks of semi-lock down due to Covid-19. Did anyone expect the pandemic to last this long? We may have Covid forever. Because a research trip to Turlock took up three of my days, I did less volunteering and more getting out in the public. The details are below. Genealogy Blog Writing : My 52 Ancestors post about Rootsweb Message Boards was highlighted by Friday’s Family History Finds .     Library – Research Trip in Turlock, California . I wrote about my trip to Turlock to research in two libraries and at the historical society. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: A “New to You” Resource Helping Your Genealogy Researc h I don’t have a new resource online, but wrote about the joys of researching in archives and libraries to find “new to me” resources. O nline Study Groups & Meetings Attended: Jacqueline and I met on Monday and we hosted the CGS Roundtable on Wednesday n...

Creating a timeline is a great tool for a variety of genealogy research tasks. Timelines can help see holes in the research, can be used to analyze and correlate data, and can help distinguish between two same-named people. The best way I use timelines is to assist in my writing. My timelines include all the events of a person’s life and each is fully cited. I like to create my timelines in a word processing program to utilize the footnote feature. However, timelines can be created in a spreadsheet program or by using tables in a word processing program. Just be sure to have a column for your citations. When I’m ready to write about one of my ancestors or collateral lines, I take out the timeline. I have all the events in their life from birth to death recorded on the timeline, and the events I include come from census, directories, newspaper articles, military records, deeds, court records, and vital records. Any source that references them would be included. Writing becomes eas...

I have completed one hundred twenty-eight (128) weeks of semi-lock down due to Covid-19. I had a much quieter week with little outside activity besides the History Center, Oakland FamilySearch Library, phenology, and shopping at Penney’s. Genealogy Blog Writing : Service – Fountain Service at Quig’s Fountain . I wrote about the restaurant my great-uncle ran using ads I found on newspaper websites. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What Are You Reading This Summer? We were to list books we were reading and state how they help our genealogy research. None of the books I’ve read were useful for research. I read mysteries for enjoyment, but I also had some non-fiction books I read for book club. O nline Study Groups & Meetings Attended: On Monday, I attended three meetings: CGS hosts where we discussed Zoom issues, the AppGen founders meeting where we placed students into the classes after registration, and a Zoom meeting with Jacqueline. I sat in on the NGSQ study group on T...

It's  Saturday Night  - time for more  Genealogy Fun! Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to: 1) What are you reading this summer?  Does it help your genealogy research? [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 read a lot, both fiction and since the pandemic started and I joined a book club, nonfiction. I have been making note of the books I have read in my weekly Genea-pourri blog posts. Currently, I’m reading The Birth Certificate: An American Histor y by Susan J. Pearson for a book club. We’ll discuss the book over three Zoom meetings. I also started Singin’ in the Rain: The Making of an American Masterpiece by Earl J Hess & Pratibha A. Dabholkar . “Singin’ in the Rain” is one of my favorite movies and it’s interesting how they came up with the idea and make...

To come up with a person to write about each week, I do an “everywhere” search in RootsMagic for the themed word. This week, service came up in hundreds of events for funeral services, military service, and even social services as written on state vital records. However, I did find this ad for John V. “Vir” Quigley’s restaurant Quig’s. [1] What makes this ad meet the theme is the fact there was fountain service, where milkshakes, sodas, and floats were sold, and drive-in curb service with a large parking lot. Other ads found include these two: At left: Napa Journal, 17 July 1949; at right: The Mid-Week Shopping News, 3 Sep 1947 His fountain café was located on Main Street at Lincoln in Napa, California. It’s gone today and newer buildings are in its place. In fact, I found two notices in the newspaper where he tried to sell the business in 1954 and 1956. [2] He moved to Redding sometime between those years as his obituary in 1959 stated he had lived in Shasta County for five years. [3...