My Trails into the Past

Because I am not a direct descendant of my Aunt June, I do not have any paraphernalia of her life. However, I can learn about some of her activities before her marriage by newspaper articles published in the towns where she lived. In the summer of 1939, she returned to her home in Ontario, California after a visit with her aunt and uncle, Nellie and Harold Goe in Anaconda, Montana. [1] It does not state how long she was there, but my aunt told me she lived with her Aunt Nellie for one year and attended school in Anaconda. This would have been the school year 1938-39 and if her schooling was on a normal track, she would have been twelve years old and likely attended seventh grade. In high school, she attended Napa High School in Napa, California. She was busy with school and church activities. She was a member of two church clubs. One was the Young Ladies Institute, a Catholic women’s organization, where they helped the ill. She was initiated as a new member of the St. Cecelia ...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's  Saturday Night  again -  Time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Here’s our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings: Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.  1)  Did you attend the RootsTech 2023 conference this weekend in-person in Salt Lake City or virtually in your genealogy cave on the computer?  What one keynote talk, class session, or Expo Hall feature impressed you the most? Here's mine: Although I paid for an in-person registration to RootsTech and was here in Salt Lake City, I attended no presentations. I worked two stints in the Board for the Certification of Genealogists’ booth where lots of people stopped by to view the portfolios and ask questions. Being that we are in Utah, a lot of the queries were from students and graduates of BYU Provo and Idaho. After each stint, I walked around the exhibit hall checking out some of the booths. Lo...

My dad’s oldest sister, Lorene, had many adventures before she married. During World War II, she worked for the Navy at Mare Island, and later in the early 1950s, she worked for the Army in Japan. After a year in Japan, she and three other girls decided to return home the long way – across Asia and Europe. They quit their jobs and boarded freighters that took in passengers. I know all about her adventures both in Japan and on her travels because the letters she wrote home were saved. She was very candid in her letters and today some statements would be considered politically incorrect. Today’s post is about the letters she wrote. It is so nice to have samples of the letters our ancestors have written. I enjoy reading their thoughts and seeing their handwriting. Sometimes handwriting of family members is similar and many of the ways Lorene wrote her letterforms were like her mother’s letterforms. Here is a sample of one letter written shortly after they sailed from Japan: If int...

My paternal grandmother, Anna Marie Sullivan, whom we called “Nana,” was our fun grandmother. Because she had been an elementary school teacher, she was used to being around young children and enjoyed it. She taught grades one and two mostly, though had taught in a one-room school in Napa. The school building still stands though is a private residence now. Nana lived across the street from us in Pittsburg, California, where we lived until our move to Walnut Creek in 1963. There were four of us then, and Nana had us two oldest kids over to her duplex often, probably to relieve my mother, who was taking care of the younger ones. She had a nice collection of books, from readers to picture books, and loved to read to us. One of my favorite books was Angus and the Ducks . The little dog just cracked me up. I enjoyed the readers, too, and probably helped me learn to read. Nana also loved to sing and she taught us all kinds of kid songs. We would sing them together as we did chores such a...

For as long as I remember, my mother loved to do crafts. She either got her ideas from various ladies’ magazines like Good Housekeeping , Family Circle , or Women’s Day , or she just made up the craft by reusing items into new things. One early craft I remember her making: she took a metal coffee can and placed a 78-rpm photograph record on top and placed both in the oven. The record melted down with slight folds into a bowl. She then spray-painted them gold, silver, or bronze. These became useful for candy dishes or holding a potted plant. This is why we have no 78s left in our family. Every Valentine’s Day, she made a valentine’s box to be used in one of the children’s classrooms. She started with an apple or orange cardboard box and covered it with colored paper, crepe paper, and cutout hearts. Too bad we don’t have a photo of one of her boxes. For Christmas one year, she made Christmas trees out of egg cartons. She cut out the cup portion of the cardboard cartons and arranged...

Not much is known about my maternal great-grandmother, Nell Hutson. Few records were created that name her. Her nephew, Pete White stated on Nell’s sister, Annie Pearl’s death certificate that she was born in Gustine. [1] Perhaps Nell was born there, too. Her tombstone lists her full birth and death dates: born 8 February 1888 and died 14 July 1919. [2] No death certificate has been found for Nell. Even searching line by line in the Comanche County death register found no record. Deaths had been recorded since the early century. Only a short and very uninformative obituary marked her passing and doesn’t even mention her first name, typical of the era. Mrs. Tom Johnson Dead. Mrs. Tom Johnson died on Monday, July 14, at the family residence in Comanche and was buried Tuesday at 10 a.m. at Union cemetery at Gustine. The many friends of the family will learn with keen regret of Mrs. Johnson's untimely death, passing away as she did in the prime of life when so much of her life was ...

I have completed one hundred fifty-five (155) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. I did my volunteer stint on Tuesday, phenology on Thursday, and visited with my husband’s brother on Sunday. Genealogy Blog Writing : I Can Identify Because of Muriel . For week 8 of the 52 Ancestors, I wrote about a Gleeson Family photo album I received. The photos were labeled in such words as “grandfather” this and “grandmother” that. Once I identified the possible writer, I was able to place each person in my family. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Family History Time Capsule . This was a post about what I would put into a time capsule for my descendants to open later in time. I included items from my childhood through today plus some family artifacts we have. Meetings/Discussion Groups Jacqueline and I met on Monday since it was a holiday and I didn’t have my adult school class to teach. We talked about our trip this coming week to Salt Lake City for RootsTech and a possible trip to...