My Trails into the Past

We were not well off and rarely had a new car. I remember some of the cars my parents owned but I don’t have photos of all of them. I located photos online for illustration. When my parents were married in 1952, my dad was driving a 1948 Chevy. Here’s a shot of them leaving on their honeymoon. And another shot of the car with Dad holding me in 1954. Sometime before 1963 or 64, they had another Chevy but I don’t have a photo of our car. I kind of remember it looked like this one, which is a ’57 station wagon. We loved sitting or lying in the back portion and looking out the back window. After we moved to Walnut Creek, they bought a Rambler Ambassador station wagon. Here’s a shot of three of my siblings in front of the car. I’m not sure what happened to that car. My dad was promoted at work and was given a company car to drive. It was a Ford Country Squire station wagon and he was allowed to use it on the weekends. So perhaps that is when he sold the Rambler. The wagon can be seen in t...

I have completed two hundred and twenty-seven (227) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. I went out to an eye appointment (masked), the History Center, the lab for a blood draw (masked), phenology (outdoors), Roseville to see a steam engine (outdoors), and Mill Valley to give a genealogy presentation. Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:   Monday was Kinseekers Military SIG and I shared a WWII Classification list. I met with Jacqueline on Tuesday afternoon via Zoom and we discussed the CGS trip to the FamilySearch Library. During Amigos, Jacqueline and I discussed Family Tree Notebooks. At Roundtable on Wednesday, the group talked about writing. It was a very good discussion. At book club on Sunday, we all shared books we had read during the past few months since the last BYOB (bring your own book). Genealogy Writing/Research: I did not do any writing or research this week. I had too many meetings that took up my spare time, especially those meetings where I took minutes. ...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment tonight from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to: 1)  Do you watch YouTube videos regularly?  What are your favorite YouTube channels for genealogy research? Here’s mine : I don’t watch many YouTube videos. I went to YouTube and I see I am subscribed to the following genealogy channels: FamilySearch ( https://www.youtube.com/@familysearch ) RootsMagic ( https://www.youtube.com/@RootsMagicTV )    Genealogy with Dana Leeds ( https://www.youtube.com/@DanaLeeds ). She’s had some great videos about AI. DearMyrtle’s Archive ( https://www.youtube.com/@DearMYRTLEArchive ) Germanology Unlocked ( https://www.youtube.com/@germanologyunlocked ). Katherine Schrober posts tips about Germany genealogy. Just Genealogy ( https://www.youtube.com/@JustGenealogy ) with Craig R Scott, who posts about military and National Archives topics. Who is Nicka Smit...

We are fortunate that family saved the letters that my father-in-law, George J. Gorrell, wrote during his service in England and Germany during World War II. These letters have been passed onto me and it’s time now to get them transcribed and shared to the rest of the family. I have written other posts about George’s service. George J Gorrell Served in the Army Air Corps During WWII US Army Air Corps Base in England Where George J Gorrell Served Letters Home, Using V-Mail George J Gorrell's WWII Service at Burtonwood Air Depot He served in the Army Air Forces at Burtonwood, a base northwest of Warrington in Cheshire, England. He was a landing gear repairman and served there from August 1943 until the war’s end, when he was shipped to Germany to do the same work there. In a letter to his oldest sister, Bertha, dated 17 September 1945, he described the trip to Germany from Montescourt, France aboard a train. It is ten pages but I will share only the parts where he descr...

I have completed two hundred and twenty-six (226) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. I went out to a doctor’s appointment, to the History Center, to Oakland FamilySearch Center, phenology (outdoors), and to watch fireworks (outdoors). Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:   I met with Jacqueline on Monday on Zoom and Friday by phone. We talked about OneNote and attending the CGS research trip to FamilySearch Library in SLC in October. On Friday, I met with our certification peer group and discussed the chapter “Unknown and Misattributed Parentage Research” in Advanced Genetic Genealogy . Finally a chapter that wasn’t over my head! I also had two meetings with NGS staff about the upcoming conference and its call for proposals. I am the co-chair of the conference program. Genealogy Writing/Research: Someone in a Walnut Creek history Facebook group posted a photo of my grandfather’s billiard parlor and that got me searching in the newspapers for more articles. This time I sear...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment tonight from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to: 1)  Have you worked on the matrilineal line of your significant other?   Who are the mothers of the mothers of your significant other? Here's mine: My husband’s mother is Thelma Marie Nilsen , born 29 January 1926 in Hilmar, Merced County, California. She died 24 March 2018 in Caldwell, Canyon County, Idaho. Her matrilineal line is: Agnes Hilma Carolina Lundquist , born 16 July 1894 in Stanton, Montgomery County, Iowa. Agnes married Nils Arthur Nathaniel Nilsen on 29 November 1917 in Hilmar, Merced County, California. She died at age 42 on 31 July 1936 in Modesto, Stanislaus County, California. She and Arthur had ten children. Mathilda Lovisa Eriksson , born 21 December 1871 in Tidersrum, Östergötland län, Sweden. She emigrated to the United States in 1888. She married Pehr Alfred Lundquist on 15 M...

In 1980, I went on a plane ride with a friend from the model railroad club. We left from Buchanan Airport in Concord, California and flew to Stockton Airport where we took a break and then flew back. It was a two-seater plane and very noisy. I had to wear headphones so we could talk. I don’t remember exactly what we flew over except that I requested we fly over the Junction, what we called the California Railway Museum (now called the Western Railway Museum), located on Highway 12 between Fairfield and Rio Vista. John was a little nervous to fly over the museum, as the Travis Air Force Base air space was very near the edge of the museum. So we flew on the east side, away from their air space. I had brought my camera and took a few shots. This is what the museum looked in in 1980. The long building is a car barn, housing many of the old streetcars and interurbans. The smaller, but wider building is the shop. The building on the west side next to the railroad tracks was called “Terry’s...