Saturday, October 3, 2015

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Your Best Genealogy Day Ever

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 
time for some more Genealogy Fun!!



Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1) What was you very "Best Genealogy Day Ever?"  It ight be the day you solved a thorny research problem, or spent the day at a repository and came away with more records than you could imagine, or the day you met a cousin or visited an ancestral home.


2)  Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post.  Be sure to drop a comment to this post if you write your own blog post and link to it.

Here's mine:

I pondered this question, and it's hard to pick one day.  After 27 years, I've forgotten many of the "best days" in repositories.

The one that sticks in my mind was 14 August 1999 - in Voss, Norway.  We were on our Scandinavian vacation (Sweden, Finland, Norway), and visited Voss, the ancestral town of Linda's Leland ancestors.  Some background:

Linda's brother had done quite a bit of Leland family history and had visited the Liland farm near Voss in Norway back in 1980. To prepare for our vacation, I tried to find Linda's Norwegian ancestral families and had some luck - I used the Voss bygdebok (farm book) and Voss Parish Registers at the FHC to trace her families back into the 1600's before we went. 

The Voss scenery is breathtaking. There is a long lake, mountains all around, many rivers and streams, very green in the summer, and very white in the winter (it is a ski resort then).  We arrived on 13 August after a six hour train trip through the mountains from Oslo.

One of my message board friends had been to Voss the year before, and recommended that I contact Bjorg Liland, who was related by marriage to the Liland farm families. We called the first night, and Bjorg graciously offered to drive us around the lake the next day. Voss is at the east end of the lake, and Liland farm is at the west end of the lake.  We visited Gjelle farm, Midtun farm, Molster farm and Liland farm, all ancestral farms. At Liland farm, Bjorg had arranged to talk to the family, compare genealogy notes and have a snack there - it was quite enjoyable, although the Liland ladies didn't speak English, but Bjorg translated. 



Linda (second from left) with the Liland farm ladies and Bjorg (far right)

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at Molster farm, which was where Linda's ancestors lived just before they left for Wisconsin in 1855. It is now a "living history museum" vintage 1855, with docents in each room, and a small artifacts room. I enjoyed it tremendously, especially the food cooked in the kitchen.

Needless to say, we really appreciated Bjorg's efforts on our behalf and we treated her to a nice dinner at the Park Liland Hotel in downtown Voss (she used to work there). 


This was a memorable day of experiencing family history.  The best benefit of all was that Linda really enjoyed this part of our vacation - and we have been taking genealogy vacations ever since.

The URL for this post is:   http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-your-best.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver


Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.




9 comments:

Yvette Hoitink said...

Here is a column I wrote about my best find:
http://www.dutchgenealogy.nl/best-find/

Dorene from Ohio said...

Here is a post about my best genealogy day in the past year:

http://graveyardrabbitofsanduskybay.blogspot.com/2015/06/a-piece-of-puzzle-of-where-was-daniel.html

Elise Ann Wormuth said...

Here's my post: http://ortburg.blogspot.com/2015/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-my-best.html

Janice M. Sellers said...

Here's my post about one of my best genealogy days:
http://ancestraldiscoveries.blogspot.com/2015/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-your-best.html

Lynn David said...

The best day ever is a long time in coming. For me that was after 36 years of genealogical research. For the families, working with inaccurate information, that was much longer - well over century.

From ENGLEBERT of Belgium to DeBUISSERET of Indiana

For a look at some of the documents mentioned see my Ancestry.com Story-form.

. . .

. . .

Carol said...

A few hours late, but, here is one of my best genealogical days:

http://reflectionsfromthefence.blogspot.com/2015/10/one-memory-my-best-genealogy-day-well.html

Dana Leeds said...

I enjoyed reading your story. Some day, I hope to take a trip back to Europe and visit some ancestral villages. I hope my experience is as nice as yours!

Mel said...

My best genealogy day ever was the first day I did real research and found my people. http://www.researchjournal.yourislandroutes.com/2015/10/sngf-my-best-genealogy-day-ever/

Signe said...

Just recently started following you... have enjoyed your site.
My best day... oh so many... but after a bad day this was bliss http://nanasigginews.blogspot.com/2013/08/who-am-i-well-yesterday-it-was-not.html