Saturday, July 24, 2010

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - your dream research trip

Greetings, genealogy dreamers! It's Saturday Night - time for more Genealogy Fun!

Have you been following Becky Wiseman on her kinexxions blog as she travels around the USA? Now, she's going into western Canada and north to Alaska. It's her dream trip, although she is not doing a lot of genealogy research along the way. Her trip inspired this SNGF challenge.

Your mission tonight, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1) Think hard about the genealogy research trip that you would take if money were no object. Where would you go, how long would you stay, what research would you do? What is your "dream research trip?"

2) Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a comment on Facebook.

Here's mine:

I would like to trace the life places of my second great-grandfather, Devier James Lamphier Smith. From his birth in Jefferson County, NY as a Lamphier(?), to his adoption by Ranslow and Mary (Bell) Smith of Henderson in Jefferson County, NY. There are records in Jefferson County that I need to search for the Lamphier family, and hopefully I could find a lead on his birth parents. The Ranslow Smith house in Henderson is still there, and I would like to visit it.

Then there is the Smith family's migration in 1843 to Dodge County, WI. It might be interesting to take the boat route they did through the Great Lakes. I'm sure that there are many records of this family to find in Dodge County WI. A side trip to the Wisconsin Historical Society might also be in order to see if they have any files concerning Devier's official name change from Lamphier to Smith in 1866. I would visit Old World Wisconsin in Eagle WI also - the Ranslow Smith Four-Mile House was moved there years ago and it would be interesting to see what it was like.

The growing Devier Smith family moved to Taylor County, Iowa in about 1867. And then to Andrew County, Missouri for a year in the early 1870's. Ranslow Smith died in 1875 there. I need land records and any other records from these two places.

Devier Smith moved his family to Cloud County, KS before 1875, and stayed there until 1885. There must be some land records, newspaper records and other records for his stay there. I don't know exactly where he lived, but perhaps some records are available to help me find their residence(s).

Then it was up the Republican River to McCook, Red Willow County, NE in early 1885 to start a livery business there, and still further up the river to Wano in Cheyenne County, KS where he bought land in 1885. Wano is apparently a ghost town now, but it was a thriving little town in the late 1880s. Devier died in 1894 in McCook, and there may be a probate record for him in the courthouse files. I hope so! I wonder if his livery stable is still standing?

That's my dream trip. I thought about saying that I'd like to travel as the family did - by boat, wagon and foot, and perhaps by train, but that might take too long. I'd probably have to experience a NY, WI, IA, MO, KS or NE winter too (or more than one!).

Looking back on what I wrote, it seems so very mundane, doesn't it? How exciting would that trip be? Probably not very exciting, but who knows! If I found Devier's birth parents in Jefferson County, I might just stay there for awhile and gather as many records as possible.

Hmmm, I see that I posted another SNGF back in February along these lines. Oh well, Ive written this up and we'll go with it today. Maybe some other readers will have some neat dream research trip ideas!

3 comments:

Elf Flame said...

Love this idea. I think about it all the time. I still don't have all the locations plotted out for some of my ancestors, but here's my answer: http://ohspusch.blogspot.com/2010/07/dream-genealogy-trip.html

Dorene from Ohio said...

"It's a long way to Tipperary," but that is where I would take my mom on a research trip...see my post at:

http://tinyurl.com/257d3z2

The Generalist's Post said...

Oh, I've been thinking about this for a number of years. My dream trip is to the town of Varese Liguire, in the province of La Spezia, in the region of Liguria, Italy. This area of Italy probably hasn't changed all that much from the time my grandparents lived there in the early 1890s. I may have living relatives there. My husband and I almost made the trip this past April, but our budget was quite tight at the time, so we postponed it. Although my father's family was German, my heart has always identified itself with my Italian heritage. Either way, we eat well!