My Trails into the Past

In one week, I will start a trip to Kentucky to attend the National Genealogical Society’s Family History Conference in Louisville. We are leaving a week early by train, traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago and then from Chicago to Indianapolis, where we will rent a car for the next two weeks. My husband’s Davey, Wollenweber, and Voehringer families lived in Indianapolis and Jeffersonville, and in Louisville, Kentucky. My Lancasters were from Shelby County, Kentucky, and my Pollys from Lewis County. I have lots of planning to do to make the best of my research time. Indianapolis My first stop is Indianapolis. After touring the Capitol building (8 to 5), I will check out the Indiana Archives and the Indiana State Library. In checking the archives’ website ( arc@iara.in.gov ), they are open from 9 to 4. I see there are license records for Edward N. Flynn and Rose C McFall, who were physicians in Indiana. The military record for Joseph H. McFall is also there. The final record I wa...

My outside activities included four trips to the History Center. I joined other friends on Wednesday and Saturday for hiking. On Sunday, I volunteered in the afternoon at the Muir native garden for the tour, and later that evening, went on an evening bird walk with the Mt Diablo Bird Alliance at the Marina here in town. Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: During three trips to the History Center, I worked on accessions. Earlier in the week, we took inventory of the long-term stored items in Benicia. I also created the draft for the upcoming BCG-sponsored webinar and sent it out for approval. Genealogy Meetings:    I attended the meeting this week with the CDG Accountability Group; only Jen was there, so we had a good talk. Genealogy Writing/Research : It was quiet at the OFSC, so I got some newspaper items from MyHeritage for my Loveless family in Faulkner County, Arkansas. I also did some extra research for my blog post about Margaret T. Gleeson.   Blog Posts P...

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)  How many autosomal DNA matches do you have descended from your eight 2nd-great-grandparents (they would be your third cousins)?  Do you know how they are related to you?  Have you corresponded with them?  Why are your numbers high or low? 2)  Share the number of your autosomal DNA matches for each of your 2GGP, and answer my questions above on your own blog, on Facebook or other social media, or in a Comment on this blog.  Share the link to your post on this blog, so readers can respond. Here's mine: The number of autosomal DNA matches I have on Ancestry, as seen on Thru-Lines for each 2nd-great-grandparent pair, is as follows: Paternal side: Joseph Heinrich Horoch (1804-1857) and Maria Catherine Trösster (1813-1874) have 2 matches . They are both descendants of Urselle Hork (...

Madison, South Dakota, was sixty-seven miles from Mitchell, South Dakota, if traveling on main roads, and about the same if traveling diagonally across smaller roads between farm fields to Madison. That’s how far Margaret would have traveled to attend normal school in Madison, a town in Lake County. The Dakota Normal School was founded in 1881 and was the first to train teachers in Dakota Territory.[1] Margaret’s older sisters, Helena and Elizabeth, were also teachers, but no documentation has been discovered for their teacher training. Margaret graduated from the school on 12 June 1895 along with another Mitchell girl, Viola I. Mills.[2] According to a publication published in 1890, the institution was “a four-story structure, 76 x 84 feet. West Hall The course of study consists of four divisions, namely: elementary, requiring three years to complete; advanced, which runs with the elementary and requires four years; commercial, of one year; and professional for those who, having taken...

My outside activities included two trips to the History Center. I joined other friends on Friday at the John Muir National Historic Park, waving signs in front to get people to honk their support for the rangers at the park. I operated trains for the train club show on Friday. On Saturday, I worked our California Native Plants booth at the Earth Day Birthday event at the JMNHP. I got in three good walks this week and weeded several days in my yard. I also did phenology at the meadow and collected lots of ticks, even after being careful to remove them, brought a couple home, hiding in my pants. Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: During two trips to the History Center, I worked on clearing off the accession desk and met with John about some finding aids that need updating.  On Saturday, I presented to the San Mateo County Genealogical Society about the Bureau of Land Management’s website for researching federal land records. I love how questions from the audience get me thinking abo...

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)  We all wish that we knew more about our most elusive ancestors - the ones we might not know the surname for, or the one who was probably adopted, changed his name for some reason, or lived through war or a natural disaster. 2)  Be a time traveler - where would you go, who would you speak with, what would you ask them?   Here's mine: My paternal tree is a bit pathetic. I don’t know the parents of my 2x-great-grandparents, Jeremiah Sullivan and Mary Sheehan of County Cork, Ireland. Some questions I would ask of them: 1.  When and where did you marry? 2.  When and where were your children born? 3.  Who were your parents? 4.  When and where were your parents born, married, and died? 5.  What did they do for a living? 6.  When and where were your grandparents b...

I have not looked at my matches at Family Tree DNA in a long time. For this post, I’ll concentrate on my paternal side. My dad’s ancestry is half Irish and half German.  Closest Match My strongest match is my dad’s sister at 1962 centimorgans (cM), with the longest block at 167 cM. I also match 107 cM on the X chromosome. The 1962 cM is consistent with matching at a half-sibling, uncle/aunt/niece/nephew, or grandparent/grandchild. [1]  Next Closest Matches My next closest match is a 2nd-4th cousin range at 170 cM. Our longest block is 28 cM. There is no X match. I have communicated with this person in the past and she is my second cousin once removed, a granddaughter of my great-grandfather, John H. Sullivan’s brother.   The third closest match is also at the 2nd-4th cousin range with 117 cM, 42 cM as a longest block, and 10 cM on the X chromosome. I don’t know this person and they provided no surnames. Since she was an autosomal transfer, I found her on Ancestry DNA. Her...