My Trails into the Past

I have completed two hundred and four (204) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. Outside of the house activities included volunteering at the History Center, getting a haircut, going to the bank, and visiting the Crockett Museum.   Genealogy I continued with the computer problems while the laptop was in the shop. The old computer is wonky. The cursor jumps all around while typing, the main screen is sideways, and it is hard to deal with Zoom. The good news, it came back on Saturday and I spent Sunday getting stuff done I had postponed. Genealogy Meetings:   I met with Jacqueline for a short time this week. We made some plans for our Modesto trip next week. I need to make hotel reservations. I also met with my cert peer group on Friday. We all were present and discussed the first chapter in Debbie Parker Wayne’s DNA book. I found the triangulation chapter confusing. Genealogy Writing/Research: I have a few deadlines coming up, so I worked on bits of lots of proj...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans It's  Saturday Night  again -  Time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has our assignment today:  1)  Are you going to RootsTech 2024 (29 February to 2 March) in person in Salt Lake City?  Or are you going to experience RootsTech 2024 virtually, watching online from home as it occurs, or watching it after the event? 2)  What events in Salt Lake City are you looking forward to attending?  What events are you going to watch virtually?  What classes do you want to see from each day?  The RootsTech 2024 schedule - both in-person and online - is available at   https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/schedule .  Note that not all the in-person classes can be viewed online.  Here's mine: I am not attending RootsTech in person this year. I went last year but spent most of the time either in the exhibit hall or at the FamilySearch Library. I worked at...

My grandmother, Anna M. Hork, was sixty-two years old when I was born. I was the fifth grandchild of fifteen and my parents gave her six altogether. My dad’s two sisters gave her nine between them. Anne, as she called herself, was a school teacher when she met my grandfather, William Cyril Hork. They married in 1922 and moved to Southern California. Likely, Cyril liked the climate that he experienced there when he was in training in San Diego and stationed in San Pedro during World War I. Of course in those days, once married, women teachers became housewives. This she did until she and Cyril separated. Raising four children alone, she worked in coffee houses and cafes both in Southern California and later in Napa, where her brother-in-law, Vir Quigley urged her to move to. Because she had studied teaching in Montana, she had to return to school in California to be able to teach there. She attended San Francisco State and received a teaching credential. Her teaching exper...

I have completed two hundred and three (203) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. Outside the house activities included volunteering at the History Center, visiting Kaiser for doctor’s appointment and lab test (wore mask), and attending the Contra Costa County Historical Society’s annual luncheon and meeting.   Genealogy Genealogy Meetings: I hosted Monday Morning and we had about ten show up. I shared my blog post about finding the comic book. Later Jacqueline and I spoke about Feedly , possibly attending the in-person GRIP, and our blogs. Wednesday, I attended the CGS RootsMagic SIG and we spent the time answering questions that members had. Genealogy Writing/Research: Besides attending some webinars, I worked on processing the files I scanned at the OFSC last week and then recycling the paper I don’t need. Slowly I’ve whittled down the files to a few for each family in generations three and further back. I will be keeping most of the files and papers for my parents ...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It’s Saturday Night again  Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!          Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing s has asked us to do a problem check on our family tree, however, he discovered we did this in October. So we’re to put our link in, then do some research and report on that.  Here’s Mine: I did do the problem check previously and here is the link: https://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/2023/10/sngf-do-genealogy-software-problem.html   Well, I would love to report on some research but I cannot. This morning, after a Windows Update, my computer's sound devices stopped working. I tried everything I could think of but could not solve it. So I took my computer to our trusty repair guy and I’m working on an old Win7 computer.  Now, the crazy thing with this old laptop, my desktop image is sideways and I cannot get it to turn, no matter what setting I use. When the image is sideways, it is difficu...

I have completed two hundred and two (202) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. Outside the house activities included renewing my driver’s license (wore a mask), getting certificates from the recorder’s office, going to a memorial service, and running trains at the Train Club.   Genealogy Genealogy Meetings Monday, I met with Jacqueline and she relayed what I missed at the Kinseekers Military SIG meeting. Wednesday, we got back early enough from our walk for me to attend the Certification Discussion Group (CDG) where we discussed time management. Genealogy Writing/Research This week, besides my blog posts, I started a story about my great-uncle being portrayed in a comic book during World War II. It took some research and I am working on a blog post about it. I entered the information from the newspaper articles I found last week into RootsMagic and still have a few more to do. Blog Posts Published: 4 Generations ofLancasters: Favorite Photo . I shared two photos ta...

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 are your favorite genealogy researchers, speakers or writers?  Who do you learn from?  Please list ten or more genealogists who contribute to your genealogy education and experience through books, magazines, videos, podcasts, social media, websites, blogs, webinars, seminars, conferences, presentations, workshops, meetings, other ways or venues, etc.     Here’s mine: After thirty years of doing genealogy research, there are many genealogy speakers and writers who influenced me over that time. Elizabeth Shown Mills was my first influencer. I had a copy of that little book Evidence! and when she was to be the speaker for a seminar at the Sonoma County Genealogical Society, a group of us went to hear her. I took the book and she signed it. Since th...