My Trails into the Past

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's Saturday Night again -  Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings, is to: 1)  We all have ancestors who were alive in 1776, and some of them may have celebrated the signing of the Declaration of Independence or even served in the military during the War.  2)  Describe one or more of your ancestors who lived in that time or served in the military.   Here's mine: Well, one cannot assume that every genealogist has an ancestor in America during the revolution. I do, but I have not documented many of my ancestors in that time period. My husband does have some early German immigrants who may have been here then, too, but I also, have not documented them. I first searched my RootsMagic database for “revolution” to see what folks might turn up. This is what I found. None of these people have been documented by me. William Whitfield , father of Elizabeth Whitfield who m...

Fifteen years ago, I started a blog on January 15, centered around my maternal grandmother’s family. It was too confining, so in June of 2011, I started this blog, so I could also write about my grandfather’s family, my father’s family, and my husband’s family. That began the start of My Trails into the Past . 15 years is a nice round number and I still enjoy blogging. I write at least three posts a week: one for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks , one for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun , and one for Genea-pourri about my genealogy pursuits of the past week. So doing that means close to 150 posts a year. Of course, some are posted on my other blog, Mam-ma’s Southern Family , if the theme has something to do with her family. This year, I started a new meme, working on twelve family lines, one per month. That has increased the number of posts I have written per week. So far in 2026, I have written about 80 posts and I wrote 80 posts last year since June 27. 12 for ‘26 This is a new theme this...

I am taking the virtual GRIP class “Marching Toward Change: Reformers, Crises, and Movements that Transformed 19th and 20th Century America,” coordinated by Katherine R. Willson. One session yesterday (Tuesday) was about women’s rights and suffrage taught by Gena Philibert-Ortega. I started thinking if I had checked out that database for my female family members. California gave the vote to women in 1911. My grandmother’s aunt, Mary Martha (Gleeson) Gilbert, was living in California at that time. She was the daughter of John Gleeson and Margaret Tierney, and my great-grandaunt. Warren, Mary, Anna (her sister), Lorene (Anna's daughter), Muriel, John Sullivan (Anna's father) c. 1923 Did she register to vote? Ancestry has a California Voter Registration collection, so let's check it out. I did not find her in 1912, but did in 1914. She and her husband, Warren E. Gilbert, were listed living at 2343 Scarff Street in Los Angeles. He registered as a Democrat and she registe...

Father Albert Hork, my great-grandfather’s brother, was a Roman Catholic priest. He was assigned to many parishes in Nebraska, Arkansas, and Oregon. He served in Nebraska between 1888 and 1904, when the communities were small and the areas just being settled. He tended to serve those communities with German immigrant settlers. Learning about his service from diocese records only gave the facts of locations where he served and dates of those services. Newspaper articles tended to fill in the rest of what I know. Sometimes he served as the parish priest of one church and the roving priest for neighboring church whose parish were not large enough to support a full-time priest. He was assigned as the first full-time priest at Frances Church in Randolph, Nebraska. Before his arrival, visiting priest served the parish on an irregular basis. They might say a mass once a month, baptize any children born since the last visit, and then come back again in a month. The first priest who did tha...

Outside activities included a trip on the weekend to Santa Rosa to babysit the granddog and give a genealogy presentation. Otherwise, I was sick the early part of the week and stayed home.   Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: The only work I did was to give a presentation about research plans to the Sonoma County Genealogical Society, an in-person seminar. This was my last event with the group. I turned my secretary binders over to the new secretary. The seminar went well and many people came up to me at the break thanking me for the talk. I think they enjoyed how I involved the audience during the presentation. They all seemed to enjoy the second presentation on railroad records, too, which was very good. Genealogy Meetings:  I attended the Kinseekers NARA SIG on Monday but didn’t participate much as I was not feeling well. I shared that I am getting a bankruptcy file from NARA Kansas City soon. Genealogy Writing/Research : I attended two session of Level Up writin...

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)  Sunday is Father's Day in the USA, and usually a time for memories and gratitude to our paternal birth person. 2)  For this week's SNGF, tell us three things about your father that are special and memorable to you. Here's mine: We did this this topic last year, https://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/2024/06/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-three.html . Now to think of 3 other things about him. 1. My dad was the youngest with three older sisters who likely spoiled him. They called him Billy. Napa 1940 - Virginia, June, Lorene, Billy & a young Nappy 2. He liked sports and playing football. When he played quarterback, he could throw with either arm. 3. He was a Boy Scout and had a dog named “Nappy” when living in Napa. Copyright © 2011-2026 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Re...

This month, I am working with my Tierney family, who are of Carleton County, Ontario, specifically Nepean, which is now part of the Municipality of Ottawa. John Tierney and Ann Murray had a large family of eleven known children. The youngest, Mary Martha (1857-1950) entered the Sisters of Charity (Grey Nuns of Ottawa) at the young age of 16 years, 5 months on 24 December 1874. Three years later, she made her profession on 13 December 1877. [1] She was known as Sister St. Melanie. I have written about her before: Spirit – Mary Martha Tierney & her Spiritual Connection to God as Sister St. Melanie . After reading Sunny Jane Morton’s book, Searching for Sisters: A Guide to Researching Catholic Nuns in the United States (Genealogical Publishing, 2026), I have not been able to put her out of my mind. My cousin was named after her, and I took Melanie as my confirmation name. So, I feel a connection to her. I have a photograph of her as well as a couple of obituaries, which can he...