January: Anna (Jorgensen) Dorman

Since my genealogy meeting got postponed, it's a good time to do a blog post. This one is not an ancestor, but is a relative. My paternal grandfather's sister, my great aunt, Anna (Jorgensen) Dorman.

Anna Marie Jorgensen was born June 23, 1905 at Minden (Kearney county), Nebraska to Jorgen Christian "Chris" and Inger Katrina "Katie" Jorgensen. She was the youngest of three siblings, and also the only one I met as she lived the longest of the three.

In 1907, the family moved to Sidney, Cheyenne county, Nebraska. Her father was farming. They remained there for a long time. The family is still in Cheyenne county, Nebraska in the 1920 census. A short time after that census, her older sister passed away. Martha Irene Jorgensen died March 9, 1920 at the age of 17 from influenza at their home in Cheyenne county. It must be hard to lose a sister when you are 14 years old.

Anna absorbed all the "book learning" she could in school. Anna kept herself busy working and writing the local gossip column. In the 1920s and1930s, from 1932 to 1940, she wrote the social news under the heading "Grand Prairie" for The Telegraph newspaper. She was paid 50 cents a week, and was supplied with paper, pencils, pens, envelopes and 3-cent stamps.

Anna got married a little later in life. At the age of 35, she married Clarence A. Dorman in Sidney, Cheyenne County, Nebraska. To this union three sons and one daughter were born. To my knowledge, two of the sons are deceased, David and Robert. One son and one daughter are still living.

They bought a farm northwest of Sidney, and not long after, oil was discovered on their property. They raised cattle and used the profits from the oil wells for a few additional conveniences.

On December 16, 1971 she lost her husband as he passed away at the hospital in Sidney, Nebraska.

Anna Dorman celebrated her 90th birthday in June 1995 at the Mountain Vista Health Center in Wheat Ridge, Colorado with many cards from her friends from Sidney. Shortly after, on August 11, 1995 she passed away in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.

I should have a few photos of Anna somewhere. For records on her, I used the census, newspapers online, gravestone photos and family notes. If/When I find more family photos, I will add them. For now this will have to do. Rest in peace Great-Aunt Anna (or should it be Grand-Aunt). Another post to debate that.

Genealogy Review of 2018

About one more week left in 2018 when I started this. I do these mostly for me, I admit. I like to keep track of the year, genealogy wise. So here is what I accomplished in 2018 and a little of what I'm looking forward to in 2019.

PERSONAL:
1. Laptop died in November, but luckily much of my genealogy is online so I lost some but not as much. If Ancestry is good for something, it's good for storing your tree online and knowing you can get your gedcom there. This reminded me of the need for backups, online or on separate drive.
2. Several Nebraska newspapers have gone online on Advantage Preservation, so I have spent a little time looking up myself and my paternal side.



VOLUNTEER:
1. Findagrave & BillionGraves: 9981 memorials and 21,075 photos; 2336 images and 2224 transcriptions. I basically just started contributing to BG this year, since June. Findagrave I have been on for 16 years, which is still over 1000 photos per year. This last year I added about 980 memorials and just over 4200 photos. I try to take photos in many states. This summer we are taking a vacation to a "new" state so hopefully I get a few moments to take a few photos in a cemetery.
2. NSGS: Organized a good conference with Judy Russell which was well attended and we made some money. Then I became president in the summer.
3. GenWeb: Well with the Rootsweb server problem, I moved my site. Right now it is actually on both sites/servers. This reminded me of the need for backups.
4. I also have done some indexing of marriages, which has been online on GenWeb and in print as part of NSGS quarterly publication.



PROFESSIONAL:
1. I helped a small number of clients (about 5) getting documents or researching.
2. I had my first out of state speaking engagement. Thanks to the Swedish Genealogical Society of Colorado for having me. I was supposed to speak at Homestead National Monument and got cancelled TWICE due to weather.
3. I attended around half of my APG meetings (mostly online) and a few Twitter genchats.

Next year I look forward to speaking 2-3 times all within the state. Also I look forward to learning more about DNA from Blaine Bettinger since he is coming to Nebraska for NSGS. Otherwise I am not sure what else 2019 will hold. Happy New Year! May all of you make progress on your genealogy goals.