My Trails into the Past

Our family is fortunate that Amos Gorrell kept a yearly diary, at least from 1861 through 1872. Those are the years that we have transcribed. The early diaries are of his time during the Civil War, though 1862 & 1863 are missing. He might have lost them sometime in battle. They picked up again in 1864 and continue yearly through 1872. Like many farmer diaries, they are full of weather observations, purchase and sales figures, and the work he did on his farm or a neighbor’s farm. When I share entries during a talk I give about researching our farming ancestors, I point out that these need to be read over a period of time to get an understanding of their life. However, today, I shall share a few entries from 1866. I have not read these in a long while and I might pick up something I hadn’t realized earlier. That’s a good thing. Read diaries more than once. You’ll notice different things at different readings. These diaries I'm working from are transcribed. The originals were ...

Outside activities included phenology, History Center, and a memorial service. Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: None this week. Genealogy Meetings:  This week I met with Jacqueline and we discussed the trip we made to GRIP and her trip to California in September. I met with the Kinseekers program committee to discuss the upcoming year’s programs. I attended the NARA SIG where we learned all about Jacqueline’s document she found at the Pitt Library about one of her ancestors. With no hike this week, I was able to attend the Certification Discussion Group meeting and the discussion was about AI. I later attended the RootsMagic SIG but my computer kept kicking me out. Genealogy Writing/Research : I continued writing and researching the Gorrell families in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, tackling the 40 years of tax records, trying to sort out the people. I listed out the tax and census records in chronological order. I then asked AI (in incognito mode) to reorganize the re...

According to many online trees, Amos Gorrell, Sr. (1804-1890), was the son of James Gorrell and Sarah Mulholland. I have no documentation to that affect other than a little undated history written by Joseph J. Gorrell, of Winamac, Indiana. It was later revised about 1930 by Edmund C. Gorrell, and revised again in 1953 by Janet Gorrell Meyer. The beginning of the book starts out with brothers, James and William, sons of Oliver Gorrell, who came to America. One settled in Virginia and the other in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. James married Sarah Milholland, native of Virginia, born 6 April 1771. The book claimed James was born in Ireland on 13 March 1770. Amos was one of the twenty-one children born to them, seventeen named. The book then continues covering James’s son, Joseph’s lines down to him. [1] I am hesitant to believe the story of Oliver being James’ father, nor that the sons were soldiers of Robert Emmet, the Irish insurrectionist. In Beaver County tax records, I discover tw...