My Trails into the Past

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!   Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to:   1)  Who is one of your most elusive ancestors?  What research have you done to identify him or her?  What research do you need to do? Here's mine: On my Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post on 12 August 2023, I posted the fan chart of my ancestors. The closest blanks on the chart are at my paternal third great-grandparents. I do not know the parents of Susana Raduntz , who was born about 1831, likely in Posen, and who married Winzent Siewert (Vincent Sievert in US). Both immigrated to the United States in the 1850s. A researcher in Poland discovered the parents of Winzent, but not of Susanna, who perhaps had lived in a different village. Susanna’s sister, Wilhelmine, also came to the U.S., but her records have not revealed their origin either. The other set of 3x-gg-grandparents, Jeremiah Sulliva...

From 28 July 1937 to 21 December 1938, Arnold Nilsen served with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), specifically in Yosemite Valley with Camp YNP-6. [1] He worked primarily with a pick and shovel building stone retaining walls. When he joined, he was a month short of his eighteenth birthday. He was probably settled in well, working hard at his camp along with the rest of the crew. On 9 December 1937, it started raining, light at first, but then it poured for two days. The valley received over eleven inches of rain, causing the Merced River to flood. The flood damaged roads, bridges, and buildings. Arnold’s CCC camp was evacuated and the camp lost twelve buildings. [2] The rain was not only in Yosemite but the whole state. The Red Cross worked hard to help efforts in Downieville, Yuba City, Marysville, Colusa, and other places. They sent an airplane to drop food and medical supplies to the 150 members of the CCC who were evacuated to El Portal, at the entrance to Yosemite. [3]...

I have completed one hundred eighty-one (181) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. It was a quiet week: one trip to the History Center, a hike, phenology, the Train Club show, and dinner with my husband’s brother and sister-in-law. Genealogy Genealogy Meetings Jacqueline and I zoomed in on Monday and I learned my sound was coming in garbled. Amigos met as well this week. Friday, our Der Blumenbaum team met about the upcoming issue. My articles won’t be needed until the next issue. I also caught up with my certification mentee. She is so close to submitting. Genealogy Writing This week, I have spent most of my free time working on the presentation for the upcoming Maine Genealogical Society seminar. I also wrote my normal three blog posts during the week. The post, Newest Discover, was highlighted in Linda Stufflebean’s post "Friday Family History Finds". Blog Posts: Newest Discovery: George Gorrell was the Executor of Mrs. Hardin’s Estate . For Week 34, I wrote ...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!   Here is our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings : 1)  Did you follow a research trail down a genealogy rabbit hole this week?  Tell us about it. Here's mine: Last week when searching Newspapers.com for some articles about my father-in-law and discovering he was the executor of his landlady’s estate (which I wrote about here ), I decided to see what articles I could find about my mother-in-law. Surprisingly, I found a lot. She was the executor of the estate of her uncle, David L. Lundquist, and two notices about the estate were found in the Merced Sun . [1] This estate took several years to complete due to almond contracts with Blue Diamond, but I found no more articles on this website. I found several different letters she wrote to the Sacramento Bee. One was to answer another reader whose cake didn’t rise. Her advice was to check the expiration da...

Before George J. Gorrell married Thelma M. Nilsen in 1951, he lived with Mrs. Annie G. Hardin at 2300 Portola Way. [1] She was a widow, forty years older than George. It was her suggestion that he attend the youth group at the Presbyterian church where he met Thelma.  After he married, he still visited her often, bringing their children along. At this point, she had sold the Portola Way home and bought a home at 1640 Los Robles Boulevard in North Sacramento, probably to be closer to George. [2] I have recently found a newspaper article about the proposed private sale of her real property. The private sale was to be to “the highest bidder for cash, subject to confirmation by the Superior Court, on or after the 29 th day of April 1963. The land, located in Placer County, California, was described as “the southwest quarter and the south half of the northwest quarter of Section 28; the north half of Section 33; the northeast quarter of Section 31; the Southeast quarter and the sout...

One hundred eighty (180) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19 have passed. I left the house for phenology, four trips to the History Center where I volunteer, Oakland FamilySearch Center, and to the train club for the DCC clinic and the Campbell Theatre to see a play. I also had lunch with Jacqueline in Oakland. By Saturday I had an ear and throat ache but tested negative for covid. I wore a mask in the theater to be safe Genealogy Genealogy Meetings Jacqueline and I talked for a while on Tuesday and I attended the staff meeting of the Oakland FamilySearch Center on Friday. Later, I had a nice conversation over Zoom with Kristin about military research and teaching about it. Genealogy Writing I finished the preparation for the upcoming AppGen course on land research. I worked some on the article on railroad travel and on the presentation about how to leave your genealogy. Blog Posts : The Strength of Her Faith . For Week 33, I wrote about my great-uncle’s wife, Effa Sullivan...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - Time for some more Genealogy Fun! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings today is to: 1)  Have you made an Ahnentafel report ("name table" in German) recently?  Show us yours!  How did you do it?  Which program did you use? Here's mine: Unlike Randy, I started with my father in the number one spot. I also use RootsMagic and used the publish menu to produce the ahnentafel report. An Ahnentafel is a genealogical method of numbering. How it works the ancestor’s father is always double their own number and the mother is plus one. So, my father is number one, his father twice that at number two, and his mother is plus one, making her number 3.  His father’s parents would then be 4 and 5 and his mother’s parents 6 and 7. The Ahnentafel report then lists these people in numerical order but separates them by generation. My dad is in generation one, his parents in generation two, and h...