My Trails into the Past

Our home in Walnut Creek, California, was located adjacent to the I-680 freeway. If you are familiar with California and our ever-growing traffic, freeways are constantly being widened. In 1988, there was to be a start of a major renovation and widening project through Walnut Creek and my parents’ home was to become a casualty. CalTrans, the transportation department for the State of California, contacts the people who own land where they want to widen and offer funds to be resettled. I believe they had real estate agents help my mother view comparable homes by price in Walnut Creek that they could move into. My mother hated them all. You see, we lived on a narrow, one-lane country road right in the middle of town. There were about a dozen houses. One side of the road was in the city limits of Walnut Creek, the other side in the county. Mature trees surrounded our homes. No sidewalks. The neighbor to our south had horses. At the end of the street was access to Las Trampas Creek. ...

I have completed one hundred fifty-seven (157) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. My outside activities included working at the History Center, doing phenology, attending the train club meeting, and attending a concert by Lowell Ensemble. Genealogy Blog Writing : Translation - A Will Recorded in Jefferson County, Kentucky Agnes Marie Vohringer’s will was transcribed in German but also translated! SNGF: 100 Word Genealogy Challenge - An Ancestor I'd Like to Mee t I would like to know why my 3-x great-grandfather, George W. Lancaster was divorced from his wife, Martha Jane. Women’s History Month posts : Aunt Virginia Worked at Mare Island Navy Yard during WWII The personnel file from NARA St. Louis gives details about her work at the Naval base on Mare Island. Cousin Carrie: An Unmarried Woman Traveled Often . Newspaper articles tell of Carrrie’s travels. Thelma Begins Her Household -- Wedding Gifts . Her bridal book had pages of the gifts she received and wh...

A wonderful artifact of early marriage life is the wedding book. Besides information about the bridal party and guests, there are pages where gifts are listed and the gift-giver. This is true in Thelma Marie Nilsen Gorrell’s bridal book. She recorded three pages of gifts, who gave it to them, and the date she wrote the thank you note. She married George J. Gorrell on 6 October 1951 at Westminster Presbyterian Chapel in Sacramento, California. Their reception followed immediately in the patio room. The guests included family, friends, and co-workers (hers and his). It is interesting to see the signatures written in each guests’ own hand. She was pretty prompt in writing the thank you notes, finishing up about a month later, though some were written in January. Perhaps those gifts came later. They received a lot of linens and decorative items, but their parents gave substantial gifts. Her parents (#20) gave them an automatic toaster and his parents (#14) gave them silver salt and pep...

To my surprise, the will of Maria Agnes Vohringer was transcribed into the Jefferson County, Kentucky probate minute book in German, just as she had written it (or her attorney). [1] It is even written in old German handwriting. The witnesses were C.C. Godshaw, L.Koellner, and T.L. Bloch, who all must have spoken German. Oh, wow, I was going to need to write it out in modern letters first and then translate it. Luckily, on the opposite page was the English translation!  At the bottom of the translation was written “Jos. J. Schene states that he is acquainted with the German and English language and that the foregoing translation made by him from the German to the English language of the last will and testament of Maria Agnes Vohringer, deceased, is a true and correct translation of said will as he verily believes." Thank goodness for Mr. Schene. I’m sure the deputy clerk M.G. Stewart was thankful, too! #52Ancestors: Translation This is my sixth year working on this year-long ...

My paternal grandfather’s sister, Carrie, never married. By the time the family arrived in Hamilton, Montana, she was nearly an adult. She performed in plays, participated in social groups such as the Catholic ladies, and worked as a sales lady in clothing and millinery stores. In her spare time, she visited family often in Missoula, where her sister, Mary, lived, and in Tacoma, where her sister, Urselle, lived. She also made trips to Southern California to visit her sister, Ida, and Lexington, Kentucky, to visit her niece. Other times, she traveled with girlfriends and traveled along the countryside in an automobile. In 1936, she took an ocean trip to Alaska with friends, where they visited Juneau and Sitka. On another trip in 1949, she took a seven-week trip to Tacoma, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Monterey, and Carmel and visited friends in Great Falls, Kalispell, and Flathead Lake on her return. These are just a few of the travels recorded by newspapers in small towns, that give g...

My dad’s next oldest sister, Virginia, graduated from Napa Union High School in 1942 and went on to work at the Navy Yard at Mare Island in Vallejo. [1] I have no idea how she got to work, but perhaps there were buses from Napa to the base. This is something I wished I had asked, but I only learned about my aunts working there after they had passed. I ordered her civilian personnel file from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, a branch of the National Archives, and the papers in the file tell a bit of her story. She applied on 8 June, just days after graduation. Her sister, Lorene, and her cousin, Margaret, were already working there. She started out as a junior messenger in the Planning Division of the Industrial Department, making $600 per year. Less than a month later, she resigned from the position in order to accept a new position. On 30 June, she accepted the position of junior typist in the same department, paying $1260 per annum. On 16 December 1942, she w...

I have completed one hundred fifty-six (156) weeks of semi-lockdown due to Covid-19. I spent the week in Salt Lake City at RootsTech and the FamilySearch Library. Genealogy Blog Writing : Gone Too Soon: Nell Hutson Johnston Dead at 31 Year s . For week 9 of the 52 Ancestors, I wrote about my great-grandmother who died in 1919 at a very young age. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Best RootsTech 2023 Experience . I wrote about my experience attending RootsTech in person. I wrote several extra posts this week as I am attempting to write about a woman family member each day for Women’s History Month. I will attempt to a post each day. My Mother Loved Crafts Nana Was the Fun Grandmother My Grandma was a Seamstress Lorene was a World Traveler and I have Letters to Document it Aunt June’s High School Activities Documented by Newspapers Meetings/Discussion Groups Because of my trip to Salt Lake City, I did not attend many meetings. Monday was busy. I started the Monday...