My Trails into the Past

Outside activities included two trips to the History Center, phenology, hike in Crockett Hills, Oakland FamilySearch Center, and attending a luncheon meeting.     Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I made two trips to the History Center on Tuesday and Friday. I’m still working on the library database, but I also answered some email research requests. I gave the presentation “General Land Office: Get the Most Out of the BLM-GLO Website” at the Oakland FamilySearch Center during my stint on Wednesday. It was a hybrid meeting, with about six in the classroom and about eight on Zoom. I was too busy presenting to actually count. Saturday was the Contra Costa County Historical Society’s annual meeting and I helped set-up and tear down afterwards. Our society is celebrating 75 years. We had two presenters after lunch: one about the formation of the society and the other talking about the 250th anniversary of the Anza Expedition into California. It was well-attended. We had...

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)  Are you registered for  RootsTech 2026  yet?  It's less than six weeks away - March 5-7, 2026.  2)  What are you looking forward to either attending in-person or online?  What keynote talks, classes, or other events are you planning to attend?  For each day, list at least one class that is a "can't miss" for you. At present, there are 206 online classes listed, but some are foreign language Keynote talks and replays . Here’s mine : I have registered for the online version this year, as I’ll be just getting back from vacation right before it begins. I am not a fan of keynote speeches by “famous” people that I don’t know. I am most interested in talks given by Certified or Accredited genealogists, that are more advanced. I am also inte...

Outside activities included three trips to the History Center, lunch with Nancy and Terry, phenology, and a walk in the marina.   Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I made three trips to the History Center on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. I’m still working on the library database but also did some email and in-person research requests. I also took minutes for the historical society board meeting and the Sonoma County Genealogical Society board meeting. I also meeting with the History Center volunteers about the Stein Collection. I gave a presentation to the Fiske Library in Seattle on Wednesday called “How to Leave Your Genealogy.” Genealogy Meetings:  Jacqueline and I met. I also attended the renewal accountability group and the Kinseekers Military SIG. Josh and I met in the Peer Group meeting and talked about certification. Genealogy Writing/Research : Josh and I wrote for an hour during our writing accountability session on Friday. Other research I did was ...

I have no one story that means a lot to me. I have many. Each story adds on to another story. My children’s ancestors were not famous. They did not do super remarkable things that made the history books. We have no Mayflower ancestors. Likely no Jamestown either. Our families came later to the United States, some in the late 1600 and 1700s, many in the 1800s, and a few in the 1900s. Some came from Britain, some from German States, and a few from Ireland and Sweden. They settled in the South, Midwest, and the West. We do not know their reasons, except those who came to the US from Sweden, as they came later and left a few stories. But most likely came for the same reasons other families came: opportunity, for something that might be better than where they were, whether for better jobs or for land they could own. Most of our ancestors were farmers. Later comers had factory jobs and trade skills such as blacksmith, machinist, electrician, or tailor. Some were entrepreneurs, owning a poo...

Outside activities included a History Center, Soup Day party, Oakland FamilySearch Center, the bank in Cotati, and train club.   Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: I covered for our Executive Director on Tuesday at the History Center. I spent most of the day adding data to the library database. I created the BCG webinar press release and scheduled it to be sent on Monday. Wednesday at the Oakland FamilySearch Center, after helping a new genealogist get started with FamilySearch , I did more scanning of my grandmother’s photos. On Saturday, I gave a presentation about researching cemetery and funeral home records to the Seattle Genealogical Society. Genealogy Meetings:  Jacqueline and I met and we discussed using AirTable some more. She showed me her AirTable base. I hosted the writing group on Thursday and we spent time talking about creating goals for the year. Hopefully, this will spark some writing. I drove up to Cotati to meet with two Sonoma County Genealogical S...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's  Saturday Night  again -  Time for some more  Genealogy Fun!! Our mission from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to:  1)  Do you have Research Notes for some of your ancestors in a number of sources and papers, or perhaps in a Person Note or Research Note in your desktop family tree program, and dread trying to put them into a coherent genealogical sketch or research note?   2)  This week, take all of the Research Notes you have for one person in your tree and put them all in one word processor document. Organize them if you want - you don't have to.  Make a PDF file of your new word processor document and name it.   3)  Go to your favorite LLM (you know, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, or any other LLM), load the document, and ask the LLM to "Please organize the research notes in the attached document for [your ancestor's name, birth and death year] and c...

Outside activities included a German party, visit with niece & nephew from England, phenology, History Center, and a hike with Elaine & Phred. Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: A few of us met at the History Center on Saturday even though we were closed. I got a lot of book descriptions entered into the library database. I might be getting close to halfway done. I also got out a press release for the 2026 BCG-sponsored webinars at Legacy Family Tree Webinars. A great line up. Genealogy Meetings:  Jacqueline and I met and we discussed using AirTable. I showed her the one I started for my Hutson-Selman research project. Genealogy Writing/Research : This week I wrote a couple of extra blog posts and worked on researching in FamilySearch Full-text search for the Hutson family in Comanche County, Texas. There are a bunch of deeds, court records, and tax records to go through. I am either transcribing or extracting the information, first in a Word document, then into...