My Trails into the Past

What does one write when our families do not have cultural traditions? Are our family traditions cultural at all? Hork Family Traditions When growing up, we had some holiday traditions. Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners were always at the Hork house, as our house was large enough to seat everyone. The maternal grandparents and great-aunt came to us, bringing salads and dessert. Mom cooked the rest: turkey for Thanksgiving and a ham for Christmas. The side courses were always candied yams, mashed potatoes and gravy with giblets, cornbread stuffing, and peas with onions. Hors d′oeuvres consisted of potato chips with onion dip, carrot, celery, radish, and green onion sticks, and smoked baby oysters. Dessert was a variety of pies: pumpkin, mincemeat, pecan, or apple. My mother made us recipe books when we married and here is her recipe for the turkey and stuffing. Gorrell Family Traditions At the Gorrell house, they also had turkey on Thanksgiving with a sage stuffing, mashed potatoes, gr...

I have completed two hundred and forty-two (242) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My only outside activities were trips to the History Center, Oakland FamilySearch Center, to the bank and bookstore, and to Tony’s for an ops session.  Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:    I met with Jacqueline on Thursday instead of Monday, due the the AppGen class starting this week. I also met with the NGS conference committee. At the FamilySearch Center in Oakland, I was interviewed by members of the Project 2026 committee for the California Genealogical Society. The APG NorCal group also met this week. Our two field trips were included in this month’s eNews and we discussed future field trips. Genealogy Writing/Research: I worked on my case study adding visual effects of bullet points and a map. I met with two others separately where we gave feedback to each other on our work. I got some great feedback and we promised to meet again in the new year after working on our papers. Blog Po...

In the years I knew my aunt, Bev, she wore what I considered drab clothing. She came to our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners wearing black, white, or silver outfits. I could never understand why she had to be so uncolorful. These colors did match her silver-gray hair, and she always wore bright red lipstick to brighten up her face. Beryl on the right, her sister-in-law, Pansy on the left Pansy (left) & Beryl (right) It wasn’t until later that I learned that black and other dark, solid colors have a slimming effect, and that was likely why she dressed that way.  I have a collection of color slides of my aunt. These images delight my sisters and me. They are of her posing in various outfits probably in her home so that she could change into them easily. I have no idea who took the images, but as we can see, she was very photogenic. These images prove she wore lots of color in her younger years. #52Ancestors-Week 45: Colorful This is my seventh year working on this year-long pro...

I have completed two hundred and forty-one (241) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My only outside activities were trips to the History Center twice and Kaiser for Covid & flu vaccines.  Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:    My recertification accountability group met on Monday morning. We’re meeting twice a month. The CCCGS Roundtable met next on Monday and there was lots of discussion about DNA and I shared about my trip to the FamilySearch Library. Jaqueline and I met on Tuesday and we discussed the webinar we attended on blueprints to help with writing.   Genealogy Writing/Research: I continued working on my Polly case study. The Assemblage class’s homework was to work only on the title, pull quote, introduction, and conclusion. I submitted it in time for peer review. I like that Jan also gives us feedback. It’s becoming obvious that I still need a little more research and some correlation and analysis before the main writing can be completed. One after...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's Saturday Night again -  Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Our mission tonight from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to:  1)   Do you have any ancestors from which you descend two (or more) times ? [thank you to Linda Stufflebean for suggesting this topic!]  Here's mine: I do not have this situation. My parents are not related in any way, one family has been here in the U.S. since colonial times, and the other came in the 19th Century. My husband’s family is the same. His mother’s family is from Sweden and his father’s family is from Cornwall and Germany. However, my husband’s mother, Thelma, is related to her cousin in two ways: first cousin and second cousin. Her mother’s brother, John Lundquist married Signe Johnson. They were first cousins. John’s parents were Matilda Erickson & Per Alfred Lundquist. Signe’s parents were Carolina Eriksson and Charles Emil Johnson. Carolina and Matilda were sisters, daughters of...

I have many challenging research subjects, both in my family and in my husband’s family. This past week, I have chiseled away on one of them. FamilySearch Full-text Search In the new FamilySearch full-text search, I decided to expand a targeted search out a bit. [1] I searched on “Thomas Davey” and instead of focusing only on Clark County, Indiana, where he lived, I decided to see what else I could find. Sometimes records come up in unexpected places that I would not have searched. A deed record came up for Thomas and his wife, Mary, in Franklin County, Kansas. Upon reading the deed, I discovered that this was likely my Thomas and Mary Davey because their residence on the deed was Jeffersonville, Clark County, Indiana. Also, one of the witnesses was Fred H. Davey, who was likely their son. What puzzled me about the deed was the amount they paid for several pieces of land: $12,000 for 423 acres. They purchased this land from Henry and Mary Jane Hawkins. [2] I wondered if they bought ...

I have completed two hundred and forty (240) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. Outside activities included going to the History Center, train club for our monthly show, and dinner with my sisters. Genealogy Genealogy Meetings:   First was a quick meeting with the NGS conference committee. Jacqueline and I met and reviewed an electronic notebook. Wednesday at the RootsMagic SIG, Sue Severson gave a great talk on how she used RootsMagic to help her create her family books. Genealogy Writing/Research: I continued working on my Polly case study. Part of the work was the homework for the Assemblage class and part of it is to try to finish it. I realize I have a couple of documents I need to locate but they are not online. I have a request with the state archives in Frankfort, Kentucky and am awaiting their research. I also continued working on the Davey problem I mentioned last week. I have determined the land Thomas and Mary Davey bought was of their daughter, Mary J...