LOS ANGELES UNION STATION TRAIN FESTIVAL : MODEL RAILROADING GROUPS : ZOCAL SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Z SCALE MODEL RAILROADING GROUP

I was able to attend the "annual" train event recently for the first time. I went with a friend whose father road the rails during the Great Depression, hoping the coal fed steam engine trains to follow construction work. We got to see a black iron locomotive up close, hear the whistle, and see the smoke.

Although I've seen some model train displays over the years that featured some interesting scale set ups, I was unfamiliar with Z SCALE.  We loved the set up so at this time I want to give a little free advertising to the group.

ZO CAL SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Z-SCALE RAILROADING GROUP

FACEBOOK ZOCAL Z-SCALE GROUP

This isn't from the Union Station Show but is a display from the same group.

Link to some phots from the last show.  Maybe you'll want to go to the next. This link has a list of other model railroading groups...

UNION STATION LOS ANGELES TRAIN FESTIVAL 2025

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA "S" GAUGERS ORG : MODEL RAILROADING GROUP : UNION STATION TRAIN FESTIVAL LOS ANGELES

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA S GAUGERS ORG  

Model train layouts always evoke the Christmas holiday season for me.  However,I also have he memory of being in the car and stopping because a train was coming through, and counting the cars. If one was lucky, you might get a wave from someone riding in the caboose!

Back in the day the model train layouts I saw tended to portray quaint villages but as this video shows, these days city buildings and factories show another reality.

SLAVERY IN PENNSYLVANIA : RESOURCES? : QUESTIONS FROM READERS of ANCESTRY WORSHIP - GENEALOGY

Question :

Growing up back east, I didn't realize there was ever slavery in Pennsylvania. But now I think one of my ancestors might have been involved in that. Can you give me some input on how to proceed?

Walter G.

Philadelphia area

Answer : Every few months I look at what's new on the popular Ancestry TM *** genealogy databases, as well as some others, and I ran a search for you.  At the top of the site there is an option for New Collections.  Actually this is where you find the entire "card catalogue." Run a search for Pennsylvania and run down the list.

Pennsylvania, U.S., County Records of Enslaved and Free People, 1780-1834 

Here are some things to consider:

1) The issue of slavery connects to Civil War records. Some slaves did fight. Some were forced to fight for the Confederacy. Some fought for the Union. And some escaped from slavery during this period - and signed up to fight for the Union.

2) Pennsylvania did not have the sharp Western and Southern boundaries it has today. Some of that territory belonged to Virginia where slavery was legal. (And Virginia included what is now mapped as West Virginia.) The Underground Railroad ran through Pennsylvania. 

3) This doesn't mean that the slave catchers stopped trying to capture escaped slaves just because they were in free territory. In Pennsylvania newspapers ads appeared offering rewards for captures. As well, you may find reportage, opinion pieces, and other information that shows what the arguments were, and who was who. Consider the Quakers and the Abolitionists. See if your ancestors shows up in any biographies and check the newspapers too.

4) If your ancestor did hold slaves in Pennsylvania, you may want to see if there are any wills or court records that mention the transfer or sale of slaves.

Actually, I've been planning some posts in January-February 2026 regarding Pennsylvania so do check back!

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*** This blog is not associated with the Ancestry TM genealogy database company.

ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY BLOGSPOT

Our genetic and spiritual ancestors help us with our research quests 

and, while we follow a linear research path, 

amazing dreams and synchronicity abound. 

We explore multicultural ancestry worship 

and the use of genealogy for past-life verification, 

as well as practical ways and means to achieve your research goals.

FAMILY RECORD

 

A PATRIOTIC THANKSGIVING

Perhaps you family genealogists will ask your relatives about their

 politics or military service after you've given thanks this day.

Perhaps you'd like to write out some memories to contribute to the family history project?

 

VISIT THE MAYFLOWER II and A REPRODUCTION OF THE PLYMOUTH COLONY and A WAMPANOAG NATIVE AMERICAN VILLAGE

PLIMOTH ORG : MAYFLOWER II The museums include other exhibits that will teach you this early American history in a special way - beyond reading a book. Go to the burial site of the pilgrims. See a gristmill and a reproduction of the first colony that the Mayflower voyagers lived in, Plymouth. You'll also be able to go to a reproduction of a Wampanoag Native American Village called Patuxet.

Excerpt: When you encounter someone wearing historical clothing, they are playing the role of an actual inhabitant of Plymouth Colony. They will talk about historical events and lifeways as if they are happening in the present, and will express their hopes, fears, and viewpoints. Modern-day guides will help you better understand the 1600s.

AMAZING MAYFLOWER DESCENDANTS : TAYLOR SWIFT IS ONE OF THEM : HUMPHREY BOGART : KATHERINE HEPBURN : MARILYN MONROE : SEE THIS LIST!

United States Presidents, an astronaut, and many who went into acting and so many more; up to 3 million Americans! You can see why you just might qualify for the Mayflower Society; the odds may be in your favor! This site design was so much fun. You put your pointer on the photo and it flips to information!

AMERICAN ANCESTORS: MAYFLOWER PASSENGER LISTS  Click on the name of the passenger and read a small bio via the New England Historic Genealogical Society.  Other ships arrived to the colony and brought more people.  Not all passengers were pilgrims by the way. Then click to photos of present-day descendants.  These people are in Great Britain as well as the United States.

By the first winter half the original settlers had died.  Native Americans must have been keeping track of the new settlers. One Chief needed allies to fight with other tribes so a deal was made and this deal helped people survive. 

PILGRIM COUPLE

 Image from Graphics Fairy

 

JAMESTOWN... ROANOKE... AND THEN THE PILGRIMS : HOW THEY MADE IT

The earliest American history is that of the Native Americans or pre-Colonial. Then Columbus and the Spanish explorers, then early colonies of the English, Dutch... Of course, there's a possibility that many others made it to our shores through migration, exploration, and ship wrecks.

I thought this video by the World History Channel was well made and interesting... 

The Pilgrims were religious Christians who were in conflict with the Protestant Church of England. They fled due to religious prosecution. King James gave permission for them to establish a colony in Virginia and Virginia was a great expanse at the time including parts of what is Pennsylvania and North Carolina today. William Bradford, one of those passengers on the ship named the Mayflower, left a journal and so we know a lot about their voyage... They departed weeks late and their provision ship, the Speedwell, leaked so they went on without it. They bravely went to an unknown country, going onshore far from their original notions of a destination and faced a harsh winter climate. They had not landed in Virginia at all.

CANNIBALISM HEADHUNTING and HUMAN SACRIFICE IN NORTH AMERICA by GEORGE FRANKLIN FELDMAN : THREE MILLION NORTH AMERICANS HAVE AN ANCESTOR WHO WAS ON BOARD THE SHIP

CANNIBALISM HEADHUNTING and HUMAN SACRIFICE IN NORTH AMERICA by GEORGE FRANKLIN FELDMAN

From Chapter 4:

"Curses on You, White Men!" Pilgrims and Indians page 50 "An examination of the invasion of North America by Europeans during the first 150 years after Columbus invites certain generalizations about the motivations and actions of the Spanish and French when compared to the English. The Spanish searched for gold, and cared little for the natives they met and showed them no mercy. The French were more interested in trade, and by the Indian's own accounts, were reasonably kind and tolerant. In a broad sense, during those early years, both the Spanish and the French came to the New World to find something of value to take home to the motherland. Not so, the English. They came to take the land. Some three million North Americans claim an ancestor who was aboard the MAYFLOWER when that ships' first few explorers came ashore at Cape Cod in November,1620, hundreds of miles from their intended destination.

C 2010-2025  Ancestry Worship Genealogy - BlogSpot

All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights

THE GENERAL SOCIETY OF MAYFLOWER DESCENDANTS : SILVER BOOK PROJECT

https://themayflowersociety.org/ featuring genealogy tips, and much more.... Have you heard you're a Mayflower passenger descendant. Is this the time to find out for sure?

SILVER BOOK PROJECT


Excerpt: Today, there are twenty-two volumes of the Silver Books with multiple parts that make up the forty-two book catalog. Volumes One, Two, and Five have been superseded and are no longer in print. The Mayflower Society publishes all the Silver Books which are for sale in the The Mayflower Society store and on the website. The fifth generation is digitized, indexed, and available on the New England Historic Genealogical Society website in a database called Mayflower Families Fifth Generation Descendants, 1700-1880.The Silver Books Project team consists of researchers, reviewers, and editors. They are skilled genealogists and writers that analyze complex genealogical problems and time periods where various records may or may not be available. When vital records aren’t available, other sources are used to link the generations together.

There are various volumes being revised and updated at any given point. The goal is to publish research on all families through generation seven, naming generation eight. Some volumes have not been updated for decades, but we plan to address every family. It takes many hours of research to complete a book, often years in the making.

For an idea imagined in 1959, the project is still going strong with more and more books added every year. Little did they know they were creating one of the crowning jewels of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants. It’s a privilege to be a small part of this decades-old endeavor.