Saturday, September 23, 2006

My Carnival of Genealogy Vacations

The topic for the next Carnival of Genealogy at Jasia's Creative Gene site is Genealogy Vacations.

I have posted several times about some of my own genealogy vacations, so I thought I would summarize them here for submission to the Carnival. Also, all my new readers can revisit any deathless prose they missed before.

1990: my brother and I attended the 50th wedding anniversary of our aunt and uncle in Leominster MA (my wife couldn't go - she had to teach). We renewed contacts with the living aunts and uncles, and with all of our cousins who attended. After the service and the party, the whole group visited the Seaver home in Leominster and Evergreen Cemetery. The Salem NH cousins were gracious hosts for several days for us, and we really enjoyed ourselves.

On a whim, we took off one day to Putnam CT to see if we could find some Richmond cousins there. We got a motel room, looked in the phone book, and cold called one of the Richmond's listed in the phone book. We managed to connect with the cousin who had all of the photos and papers and knew the family history - he was very surprised. He came and met us, escorted us through the cemetery, and then out to his house, near the family dairy farm. He allowed me to copy pictures and papers down at the local copy store. It was great!

1991: I took my wife back to visit the cousins and we had a wonderful time in Salem NH and Westford MA. I was able to do quite a bit of research in Leominster and Westminster MA, including finding all of the family in the cemeteries. We had planned to visit my Aunt and Uncle on Lake Cobboseccontee in Maine, but Hurricane Bob had wiped out the roads into their camp, so we settled for lunch in Brunswick ME. We took my cousin Virginia to Plimoth Plantation, and interviewed several of our Pilgrim ancestors. We did some sightseeing in Boston - I knew the answers to the Boston tour better than the guide.

I made my first visit to NEHGS in Boston, and found mounds of data. I went to Eastham MA, Providence RI and Killingly CT for more research, and tried to find the family home locations. It was another good research vacation.

1993: A vacation in England, with some research on my Seaver and richman lines is here.

1994: My wife and I returned to Bew England, and stayed with the cousins again. I planned this trip better - we visited Cape Cod, Killingly CT and Sturbridge MA for sightseeing or more research. I also visited NEHGS again and came back with more data. We looked up the Richmond cousins in Putnam CT again, and they met Linda.

1999: A vacation to Scandinavia, with a description of my Norway research and finds are here.

In 2000, we combined meeting Linda's cousins in Seattle with sightseeing, visiting friends and an Alaska cruise in 2000. I handed out my research summary from the Norway research to the cousins.

2004: We took a two week vacation to the Northeast to attend my cousin's 50th anniversary party in NJ< then traveled through NJ, NY, Ontario, PA and MD to sightsee at Cooperstown, Toronto, Niagara Falls and DC, while doing genealogy along the way. There are 4 posts:

** Post 1 about the trip is here.

** Post 2 covers my research in Newton NJ here.

** Post 3 covers my research in the Watertown NY area here.

** Post 4 described my efforts in Mercer County PA here.

In August 2006, we visited New England, and my vacation/research summary is posted here.

How about you - what genealogy research vacations have you taken? Blog about it and submit it to the Carnival of Genealogy before 1 October.

Note: I updated my 1990, 1991 and 1994 information on 9/24 at 10:50 PM PDT.

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