Day 13 on the Seaver Family History Mystery Tour

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It was a gray, windy and rainy day in southeastern Wisconsin today - just perfect to go to Old World Wisconsin to visit the Four-Mile Inn built by my third great-grandfather, Ranslow Smith (1805-1875). 

It didn't open until 12 noon, but we were there by 11:30 a.m. and spent the wait in a shelter near the entrance talking to a family from the Milwaukee area. 

After paying our $14 each admission (senior rate), we boarded the tram and got off at the Crossroads section which features the Four-Mile Inn, built in 1853 in Rolling Praiirie, Dodge County, Wisconsin.  It was "rescued" in 1980 by Old World Wisconsin, affiliated with the Wisconsin Historical Society, and moved to the present site. 

Here is a photograph taken today of the front of the house:

That's me in the doorway...

From the corner of the house:

My attempt at the "My Photo" thing from the corner of the house (the vintage photo is from 1930 on the site in Rolling Prairie):

As you can see, the house was changed between the 1930 photo and the 1980 restoration at Old World Wisconsin.  The major difference seems to be the porch on the first floor, and the railing on the second floor above the porch.

When we got there, we explained to the docent that Ranslow Smith was my third great-grandfather, and she told us about the house and some of the occupants.  A second docent came by, and when we explained who we were, she encouraged me to explore the basement and the two upper floors also (which were blocked for other patrons).  We were the only ones there at the time.  I did so, and took many pictures, but my camera battery became exhausted, and fortunately we had Linda's camera to use.  The second docent knew that Martin Perkins, the Curator of Research at Old World Wisconsin, was on the site on Sunday, and she called him to see if I could talk to him about the house, the process used to obtain and restore it, etc.  We had a 4 p.m. appointment! 

We took the tram back to the visitor center and had lunch in the Clausing's Barn restaurant.  Linda went to the museum and shop, while I took the tram over to the Norwegian settlement and explored the Kvale house.  I watched a docent working with the spinning wheel and a second docent explaining the life and times in the Norwegian community in the 1840s time frame.  I took more pictures, and caught the tram back to the museum for my appointment.

Martin Perkins was there talking to Linda, and we discussed the house history (he did most of the excellent newspaper research back when they obtained the house); the position of the house in Rolling Prairie (it faced east on the southwest corner of the present County Road I and Prospect Road); and the restoration (the stairs up to the porch is "new," and the livery stable was not included).  We had a wonderful 30 minute conversation.  The museum had a beautiful 10 x 14 color photo of the Four-Mile Inn, and an Old World Wisconsin booklet, for us, which I greatly appreciate!  Martin told me that they knew I was coming to Old World Wisconsin, but didn't know exactly when, because they have a Google Alert and read my blog about the visit.

We headed back to Delavan to our hotel so that we could watch the Chargers-Patriots game (it ended badly for my Boltz - 35-21).  Oh well!  Then it was off to dinner at the Perkins Restaurant across the street (it was raining harder now), and then back to the room to download all of the photos from two cameras to the laptop, and to charge the camera batteries. 

All in all, it was a very good day (except for the Chargers game), and I really enjoyed exploring the four floors of the Four-Mile Inn and hearing the stories of the building.  My thanks to the docents and to Martin Perkins for their kindness and hospitality! 

I will have more information about Old World Wisconsin in a future post, and will have more pictures.

Best of the Genea-Blogs - Vacation Edition

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As devoted Genea-Musings readers know, I am on vacation experiencing the surroundings, weather and food of southern Wisconsin, so I won't have any Best of the Genea-Blogs list for this week (or even next week).  However, several of my geneablogging colleagues have been busy collecting excellent blog posts and other features, and I hope that you will take the time to read their lists and to read the blog posts that they have linked.

Several genea-bloggers wrote weekly pick posts and news summary posts this week, including:

*   Monday Morning Mentions by Lynn Palermo on The Armchair Genealogist blog.

*  Monday's Link Roundup by Dan Curtis on the Dan Curtis ~ Professional Personal Historian blog.

*  Ruth's Recommendations by Ruth Blair on The Passionate Genealogist blog.

*  Genealogy Round Up, September 15 by Megan Smolenyak on Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's Roots World blog.

*  Genealogy News Corral, September 12-16 by Diane Haddad on the Genealogy Insider blog.

*  Follow Friday Gems by Deb Ruth on the Adventures in Genealogy blog.

*  Best Bytes for the Week of September 16, 2011 by Elizabeth O'Neal on the Little Bytes of Life blog.

*  Week in Review by John Newmark on the TransylvaniaDutch blog.

Enjoy!  My weekly Best of the Genea-b logs will return in two weeks, on 2 October.

Day 12 of the Seaver Family History Mystery Tour

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Saturday was cool and pretty clear in southern Wisconsin - ideal weather to go exploring around the homesteads and cemeteries of Linda's Leland and Natvig families.  Here are the highlights:

*  We left the Super 8 in Madison around 9 a.m. and headed for Cottage Grove, where her Natvig family settled in 1862 and lived in Section 28.  Using the 1873, 1890 and 1899 plat maps, and then comparing Google satellite maps, I was able to identify where their land was located.  What is now Natvig Road was part of the road south from Cottage Grove to Pleasant Springs town.  We drove around, and took pictures of some of the houses now on the land owned by the Natvig family.  There are many dilapidated barns in this area, but I didn't see any buildings that looked like they were over 100 years old. 

*  The second stop was at the St. Paul Liberty Lutheran Church in Deerfield town, which is on Oak Park Road just north of US 12.  The church is absolutely beautiful, with large stained glass windows on the east and south sides of the building.  I knew that Linda's great-grandparents, Torger and Ann (Natvig) Leland, and her great-grreat-grandfather, Severt Leland, were buried there, along with Torger's brother, Frank Leland.  I just didn't know where.  We both walked it, and I finally found Severt in the back of the south section, directly in back of the church, almost to the cemetery line and on the right-hand side of the cemetery.   We then walked the right-hand section on the north side of the church, and I finally found the stones for Torger, Anna and Frank near the cemetery line in back and on the right-hand side of the cemetery.  I took pictures of the cemetery entrance and the stones.  They look pretty much like the ones on Find-a-Grave! 

*  We drove up to Deerfield and stopped at a gas station to ask directions to London.  The library was next door, so I went there and copies some pages from the 2005 Dane County government book, which was a plat map of each town with the current owner names, and the roads well defined. 

*  We drove to London (a small town in Deerfield town right on the Dane County border with Jefferson County) via London Road, and went down to Cambridge (in Christiana town south of Deerfield town).  We had lunch at the Lake Ripley small family diner - it was great and cheap.  Then it was back to London to find the Leland land in Section 23.  There was only one house on that 40 acres, and it didn't look 140 years old.   I took pictures, and other pictures of the countryside.  There sure are a lot of corn and soybean fields!

*  We were done exploring, so we headed for our next stop in Delavan in Walworth County.  We checked into the Super 8 there at 2:30 p.m. and I spent three hours on the computer reading my email, blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus.  I ran a little SNGF asking readers to guess where we were, based on the clues provided.  Kerry Bailey guessed the town we were in. 

*  We ate dinner at the Delavan Family Restaurant and had an excellent waitress who was very concerned about Linda's soy allergy problem, and bent over backwards to make sure she ate safely.  The wait staff at family restaurants seem much more attentive and concerned than the staff at chain restaurants. 

There were no great discoveries today - but it was interesting to walk around, and drive through, the areas where Linda's ancestral families lived and died. 

I probably should have taken the time to check the telephone directories for these areas to find the current residents and to call them for information.  I didn't have addresses for the houses however, so I didn't do that.  The Dane County plat maps provide the information so I can try to contact them when we get home.

On Sunday we will visit Old World Wisconsin, where the Four-Mile House, built by my third great-grandfather Ranslow Smith, has been moved to and restored, along with 50 other historic buildings. 

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - What did you do on your summer vacation?

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Hey genea-philes, it's SATURDAY NIGHT -- time for more GENEALOGY FUN!!

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

1)  Tell us what you did, genealogy-wise, on your summer vacation.

2)  Write your own blog post, comment on this post, or comment in a Facebook status post or a Google Plus stream post.

Here's mine:

I am currently on my summer genealogy vacation, so it's not done yet.  The vacation has included the FGS 2011 Conference in Springfield, Illinois; a one-day research opportunity at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana;  a visit with geneablogger Jasia (and her husband) in St. Joseph, Michigan; one day of research in Dodge County, Wisconsin; one day of research at the Wisconsin State Historical Society Archives and Library, along with a visit to the Norwegian-American Genealogy Center.  It's not over... maybe I should have saved this topic until next week when summer is officially over (it's been cool here in Wisconsin - fall has arrived early).

Surname Saturday - CLARK (England > Medfield MA)

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It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week. I am up to number 275, who is  Hepzibah CLARK (1699-1791), one of my 6th-great-grandparents. [Note: The 6th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts]

My ancestral line back through four generations of CLARK  families is:

1. Randall J. Seaver

2. Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983)
3. Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002)

4. Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942)
5. Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962)

8. Frank Walton Seaver (1852-1922)
9. Hattie Louise Hildreth (1857-1920)

16. Isaac Seaver (1823-1901)
17. Lucretia Townsend Smith (1827-1884)

34. Alpheus B. Smith (1802-1840)
35. Elizabeth Horton Dill (1791-1969)

68. Aaron Smith (1765-1841)
69. Mercy Plimpton (1772-1850)

136. Moses Smith (1732-????)
137. Patience Hamant (1735-????)

 274.  Timothy Hamant, born 25 March 1699 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States; died 06 June 1774 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.  He was the son of 548. Timothy Hamant and 549. Melatiah Clark.  He married 19 October 1727 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States.
 275.  Hepzibah Clark, born 02 February 1699 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States; died August 1791 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.

Children of Timothy Hamant and Hepzibah Clark are: Mehitable Hamant (1728-1814); Elias Hamant (1730-1730); Timothy Hamant (1731-1731); Seth Hamant (1733-1771); Patience Hamant (1735-????); Timothy Hamant (1736-????); Basmath Hamant (1738-????); Dinah Hamant (1739-1813); Francis Hamant (1741-1808).

 550.  Joseph Clark, born 14 June 1664 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States; died 13 July 1731 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.   He married 08 April 1686 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.
 551.  Mary Wight, born 20 February 1667 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States; died 16 December 1705 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.  She was the daughter of 1102. Thomas Wight and 1103. Mehitabel Cheney.

Children of Joseph Clark and Mary Wight are:  Mary Clark (1687-1717); Mehitable Clark (1690-1765); Hannah Clark (1692-1773); Esther Clark (1695-1774); Joseph Clark (1697-1731); Hepzibah Clark (1699-1791); Thomas Clark (1703-1776).

 1100.  Joseph Clark, born 27 July 1642 in Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States; died 04 September 1702 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.  He married  25 June 1663 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.
 1101.  Mary Allen, born 11 December 1641 in Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States; died 05 May 1702 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.  She was the daughter of 2202. James Allen and 2203. Anna Guild.

Children of Joseph Clark and Mary Allen are:  Joseph Clark (1664-1731); John Clark (1666-1691); Jonathan Clark (1668-1690); Esther Clark (1670-????); Thomas Clark (1672-1690); Mary Clark (1674-1675); Daniel Clark (1676-1694); Lya Clark (1676-1676); Solomon Clark (1678-1748); David Clark (1680-1714); Moses Clark (1685-1685); Aaron Clark (1685-1759).

2200.  Joseph Clarke, born before 11 April 1613; died 06 January 1684 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.  He was the son of 4400. Thomas Clarke and 4401. Mary Canne.  He married 15 April 1640.
 2201.  Alice Fenn, born about 1619 in England; died 17 March 1710 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.

Children of Joseph Clarke and Alice Fenn are:  Joseph Clark (1642-1702); Benjamin Clark (1644-1724); Ephraim Clark (1646-1699); Daniel Clark (1647-1676); Mary Clark (1649-1732); Sarah Clark (1651-1704); John Clark (1652-1720); Nathaniel Clark (1658-1733); Rebecca Clark (1660-1740).

The vital records for these families were obtained from the town vital record books (the "tan" books). 

Information about the English ancestry is available in:

Christophet Gleason Clark, "The English Ancestry of Joseph Clark (1613-1683) of Dedham and Medfield, Massachusetts," New England Historic Genealogical Register, Volume 152, pages 3-23 (January 1998).

Day 11 of the Seaver Family History Mystery Tour

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Friday, September 16th, was an interesting research day, and fairly productive too.  Here are the highlights:

*  I arrived at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin (816 State Street) in Madison, Wisconsin shortly after 9 a.m.  My first stop was the Archives section on the 4th floor.  After filling out the registration form and receiving my researchers card, I asked the gentleman helping me where I might find Wisconsin State Senate records from March 1866 (the Devier J. Lamphier Smith name change).  My hope was that there would be something more - like a supporting file - than just the Senate Act granting the name change.  This Archive is very well organized - you check the online catalog, write the call number, box or volume number, shelf location, title and your name on a form and they bring the item to you within 5 minutes.  However, you can work on only one item at a time.  Because these were oversized books difficult to copy and fairly brittle, they permitted me to use my digital camera to obtain an image.  I found the Devier Smith name change in the Senate minutes, but nothing more.  Drat.

*  My next foray was into the Wisconsin Naturalization records for Linda's Leland and Natvig families.  I found a declaration for several of them, and several certificates too.  This was a two-step process - look in a physical card file for the names, note the box or volume, and then order the box with the documents.

*  I met Linda for lunch at the local Jimmy John's.  The WSHS is located on the edge of the University of Wisconsin campus, and there was lots of foot and bike traffic on the State Street pedestrian mall.  Then we walked back to the WSHS building and went into the Library section. 

*  I made a quick tour around the reading room, and only saw government documents, including many US census indexes, some cemetery transcription books, etc.  I asked where the county and family histories were located - there are four floors of book shelves in addition to the reading room!  I explored the county histories floor but many books of interest were off the shelf being imaged by Google Books.

*  Back in the reading room, I checked the catalog and then asked how to find pamphlets for several of the Dane County towns where Linda's ancestors resided in the 1860 to 1910 period.  I had to fill out order cards and submit them to the circulation desk.  I ordered four, but only two were available, so I sat in a big easy chair and read them.  I copied one of them on the copy machines - they were different - the copy is made face up.  I had to hold the pages down so that they could be scanned, so my fingers showed up in the copies.  The quality was poor.

*  I was done by 2:30 p.m., so we decided to go to the Norwegian-American Genealogical Center and Naeseth Library (415 West Main Street in Madison).  My goal here was to find local family history in Dane County for Linda's Leland and Natvig families.  The Center has a very helpful and knowledgeable staff, and a wealth of genealogical material concerning Norwegian records and American records of persons with Norwegian heritage.  I was really impressed!  I obtained copies of transcribed church records, articles from a book of Voss emigrants, and more.  The director worked with my genealogy reports on the families, and looked up material in his 300,000+ person database which included vital records, cemetery records, probate, and more.  I was able to add some dates to my database.  A visit by a non-member of the library costs $15, but it was well worth it to see the records and to discuss Norwegian research with the director.  It was a fast two hours!  Thank you to Linda's cousin, Bonnie Larson, a Genea-Musings reader, for the suggestion!

*  We rewarded ourselves for a long day in the stacks with a cocktail and a nice dinner at Outback Steak House, then back to the hotel to get ready for our trip into the Dane County countryside on Saturday - we'll be looking at Leland and Natvig home sites, gravestones, and churches. 

I wish that I could have had a whole week to explore everytihng at these repositories.  The Archives in particular has a wealth of resources all in one place.  The Library has a treasure trove of published books, and I didn't even try to look at newspapers there.  The NSGCNL has many more published books on Norwegian records since I did all of the research back in 1999.  Beggars cannot be choosers - I have to balance my research wants with Linda's absolute boredom when I do research in repositories. 

Stay tuned for the next riveting chapter in the SFHMT.

Follow Friday - Weekend Genealogy Fun

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Here are my recommendations for Genealogy Fun this weekend:

1) Listen to Geneabloggers Radio tonight (Friday night, 10 p.m. ET, 9 p.m. CT, 8 p.m. MT and 7 p.m. PT) hosted by Thomas MacEntee. This week's topic is  " Ancestors in Place – Genealogy, History and Context."  The special guests include:

*  Jane E Wilcox of the “Your Ancestors Want Their Stories To Be Told” radio show on Blog Talk Radio. Jane will discuss why it is so important to understand your ancestors in the proper context and in their own history.
*  Professional genealogist, author and genealogy educator Lisa Alzo about the various tools you can use to incorporate history into your family history research and writing.

2) Listen to the FGS Radio - My Society show on Saturday (2 p.m. ET, 1 p.m. CT, 12 noon MT, 11 a.m. PT) hosted by Thomas MacEntee this week. The topic is "TechSoup.org: Technology by the Bowlful for Non-Profits."  The  special guests are:

*  Ricci Powers, National Accounts Manager at TechSoup.Org. Ricci will explain how TechSoup.org works and how your non-profit society can reap the benefits of this amazing technology program.
*  We will highlight the The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania in our weekly Society Spotlight feature.

3) Check out the recent Webinars on:
*  Exploring FamilyLink.com and WorldVitalRecords.com by their founder, Paul Allen.
*  Facebook for Genealogists, by Thomas MacEntee (free until 26 September 2011).
*  Watch Geoff Live: Adding a Census Record, by Geoff Rasmussen (free until 19 September 2011
* "Newspapers for Genealogists: Using GenealogyBank.com to document every day of your ancestors' lives" with Tom Kemp.
* "Organizng for Success" with Karen Clifford (available free indefinitely from Legacy Family Tree)
* "The Power of DNA in Unlocking Family Relationships," with Ugo Perugo (available indefinitely from Legacy Family Tree)
* "Leveraging the Power of "We": a Watershed Event in Discovering Where to Find Your Ancestors (Research Wiki, Research Courses, and FamilySearch Forums)," with Michael Ritchey (available from Legacy Family Tree).
* RootsMagic Webinars (all free) available at http://www.rootsmagic.com/Webinars/
* National Genealogical Society (NGS) Videos (free to view) at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/videos_online
*  Thomas MacEntee's Explorinar on Easy Website Creation (free to view).
*  Thomas MacEntee's Explorinar on Evernote - Easy Note Taking UPDATED (free to view)

4) Respond to my Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge, posted on www.geneamusings.com soon after 12 noon Pacific time (that's 1900 GMT for those who understand time zones).

5) Go to a local genealogical society program, or go to a library or repository with genealogical resources.  I'm on the road this weekend doing research in Wisconsin, but you can go to your local society program!

6) Add material (names, dates, places, notes, images, sources, etc.) to your genealogy software program. I can't do that this weekend, but you can.  Would you do some for me too?

7) Spend time with your family doing fun things.  

8)  Go to a local cemetery and clean stones, take gravestone pictures, or transcribe epitaphs for your local society, for Find-a-Grave, or a similar online service.

Whatever you decide, please tell us about your genealogy endeavors on a social network or in a blog post. You never know when your experiences may stimulate or encourage others to do useful genealogy work.

Day 10 of the Seaver Family History Mystery Tour

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We ate breakfast at Frank's Family Restaurant in Jefferson WI, then were off to Dodge County for exploration and research this morning.  We found Rolling Prairie in Dodge County easily (the intersection of County Rd I and Prospect Rd).  There was even a sign on a tavern announcing that it was Rolling Prairie, but the door was locked (it being 10 a.m.).  We took some pictures, and the owner came out wondering why we were around so early.  I explained, and asked if there were any oldtimers around who remembered the Smith Inn that was on the corner 30 years ago.  Nope... the southwest corner of the intersection had a relatively new house on it, so there were no vestiges left.  The northeast corner was also Ranslow Smith's land, and the Waldmeyer farm is now there. 

Then we were off to find the Burnett Corners Cemetery.  Find-a-Grave says that it is 1.7 miles west of County Road I on County Road B.  Not exactly... it is about 0.5 miles west of County Road I.  We almost whizzed past it.  Find-a-Grave has over 800 listings, and one of them is for the wife of R. Smith who died at age 60 in 1865.  That's my Mary Smith!  The photo on Find-a-Grave shows an in-ground stone with stone pieces nearby.  What are the chances I would be able to find it?  I reasoned that since it was 1865, there were few stones at that time, and it would be close to the entrance.  Sure enough, I essentially walked right to it while looking for in-ground stones.  I pulled some of the grass/sod/weeds around the stone so that I could see at least as much as is in the Find-a-Grave photo, and took my own photos.  I thanked  my third great-grandmother for raising such an interesting son, Devier J. Smith, and asked for her guidance to help me figure out who his birth parents were.

Back in the car, and Maggie (the GPS voice) guided us to the Beaver Dam (WI) Community Library, which was said to have Dodge County newspapers on microfilm with an index, plus more local resources.  We walked in, and I asked a young lady where the local history material was, and she showed me.  Then she asked if I was a genealogy blogger - it turns out her aunt has a Google Alert for "Beaver Dam" and saw my blog posts about the Smith family.  While Anita was telling me about their resources, a local newspaper reporter took some pictures, and asked me if I would permit them to be used in an article about local family history.  I said sure, gave her my name, and got to work in the newspaper indexes.  Anita said that the two major county history books were online, and she volunteered to email the links to me. 

The newspaper indexes spanned 1853 to the present, but included only births, deaths, marriages, probate and anniversary stories.  Unfortunately, there were no listings for my particular Smith or Vaux families.  Next was the cemetery books - they have a book for transcriptions (done back in the 1970s) of cemeteries in each town in the County - a whole shelf of books well organized with typed pages.  I found Mrs. smith and Walter Vaux in the Burnett town book.  There were plat map books (1859, 1873, etc.) and farm books (up to recent times) with nice maps of each town and the farm outlines with names.  There were several other sets of records also, but mostly for the 20th century.  This was an excellent local history collection with a lot of volunteer work to index and organize the material. 

I met Linda for lunch at a tavern in downtown Beaver Dam, and used the wait time to list the newspaper entries that I wanted to obtain using the Old World Wisconsin manuscript that I have.  I copied a few of the  pages that mentioned Ranslow Smith's Inn or house, but was unable to find about half of them.  The Dodge County Citizen newspaper in the 1855-1870 time frame was a weekly with four pages crammed with national news, local news, government information and advertisements in small type over 7 columns.  It is impossible (for me, at least) to scan these pages easily...lots of scrolling up and sideways using the keys on the microfilm reader.  I checked the dates for the marriage of Devier Smith and Abigail Vaux (4 April 1861), Mary Smith's death on 12 May 1865, the births of the children of Devier and Abby between 1862 and 1868, and the time of Devier J. Smith's official name change in March 1866, with no luck.  There were not routine listings of births, marriages or deaths.  I had more luck with the two obituaries of the brothers of Ranslow Smith in 1876 and 1889 - in that time period, there were long lists of births, marriages, deaths, travel news, etc.  So the newspapers were not as revealing as I had hoped...so I go onward to Plan C.

Anita told me that the Dodge County Historical Society had lots of old photographs, so we left at 3:15 p.m. to go there.  They close at 4, and Kurt Sampson, the archivist there, was closing up early.  I explained what I was after - a 1930 photograph of Ranslow Smith's Four-Mile Inn in Rolling Prairie, and we quickly found it in the photo files (which are separated by town in Dodge County).  He scanned it for me, gave me a print, and will send a digital copy by email tomorrow.  That was FREE (thank you, Kurt!) and was the "Catch of the Day" - no doubt!  I wish that I'd had more time there to inquire about vertical files and oldtimers stories, etc. 

We headed off to Madison and are safely ensconced in a Super 8 for the next two nights.  We ate at Cracker Barrel again, which is now off our "like" list because their salads are crummy.  All Linda could eat on the menu was Meat Loaf (yuck she says) and salads due to her allergies.  She's really struggled to find good meals on the trip. 

Friday is the visit to the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison in search of Devier's name change information, plus newspaper information for Linda's Leland/Natvig families in Dane County.  If we have time, we may visit a Norwegian Heritage Museum too. 

Days 8 and 9 of the Seaver Midwest Genealogy Tour

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Day 8 of the vacation tour took us from Fort Wayne, Indiana (a Genea-Mecca, if you know what I mean) to St. Joseph, Michigan to see genea-blogger Jasia (Creative Gene and several others) and her husband, Mr. Jasia.  We got there at about 11:30 a.m., sat and talked for an hour (big surprise, that, isn't it?), went to Jimmy John's for lunch (again...Linda can eat it), then MrJ and I took a walk about town while the ladies went shopping, visited the Nina and Pinta replicas at the harbor (interesting docent talks, small ships, absolutely mind boggling how they could sail those ships to the end of the earth), back to the house for more talking, and then to dinner at Clementine's and an ice cream afterwards.  Whew.  Their Internet service was down, so I was blogless yesterday (well, except for the one post I had pre-written). 

Jasia is everything I imagined and more - beautiful, funny, smart, opinionated, happy.  We've been blogging for five years or so, and we've shared our lives and interests online, so I knew her family background and interests.  They share time between their Detroit home and their condo in St. Joseph, which provides relaxation, photography and fun times.  I even know her "real" name, but I'm not telling!  What did we talk about?  The usual - our lives, our genealogy research, and genea-bloggers we know or know about.  You should see their dog, what a majestic and graceful animal.  He was very eager to get to know us and very well behaved.

Day 9 started with a sumptuous breakfast prepared by MrJ, and then we left at about 10:15 a.m. for our drive through four states to our hotel in Jefferson, Wisconsin.  It took five hours... due to the traffic in Chicago, the road repairs in every state, and two stops at the Oasis (food, restrooms, etc.) along the highway.  After getting into the room, I took Linda to the Wal-Mart across the street and took off for the Watertown WI library.  I found it, but it didn';t have much of interest to me.  The Dodge-Jefferson Counties Genealogical Society building in Watertown was not open (my mistake, I didn't double check the open times recently).  So I went back to the hotel in Jefferson early and Linda came back from shopping.  We went to dinner at Frank's Family Restaurant (excellent, cheap meal) and then for an ice cream (hey, I'm on vacation). 

Tonight I finally had a chance to check my email (about 100 messages) and Google Reader (about 500 messages) since Monday night.  Then a couple that Linda met at the pool knocked on the door, and wanted to talk about genealogy.  I can't resist being an evangelist!  They were nice, and I gave him my card.  I even showed off my blog!  Then I wrote this post. 

On Thursday, we are off in the morning for the site of the Ranslow Smith Four-Mile Inn in Rolling Prairie in Dodge County, the Burnett Corners Cemetery, the Beaver Dam Community Library (which has newspapers from the 1850-1870 time frame), and finally to a hotel near Madison. 

Stay tuned - I'm hoping for more genealogy fun on Thursday and the next three days!

CGSSD Meeting on Saturday 17 September Features Joel Weintraub

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The September meeting of the Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego (CGSSD) is this Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to noon, on the campus of UCSD, University of California, San Diego. See our map page for directions.

The next meeting will be held on 17 September 2011 from 9:00 am to noon. Here are the details:

9:00 - User groups: Family Tree Maker and Macintosh; SIG: New Websites
10:00 - Break, refreshments
10:15 - Announcements followed by:

Search Tools for the 1940 Census Opening -- by Joel Weintraub

While the 1940 U.S. Federal Census will not be available to researchers until 2012, preparations are already underway to make the geographical search tools and indexing available. Mr. Weintraub will discuss the unique aspects and questions of the 1940 Census, the 'undercount,' and divulge why we have to wait 72 years to access the Federal census returns. He will explore the Enumeration District Numbers and what the National Archives and the Morse One-Step web site are planning.

Mr. Weintraub is an emeritus Biology Professor at California State University, Fullerton and has won awards for his science teaching. He became interested in genealogy about 12 years ago, and volunteered for 9 years at the National Archives and Records Administration in southern California. Joel started transcribing streets within census districts in 2001 to help researchers search the 1930 U.S. Census (released in 2002). He was joined in the venture by David Kehs and Stephen Morse in 2002, and together, they have produced a number of online census searching utilities for both the federal and the New York State censuses on the Morse One Step Website. Joel has been working on finder aids for the 1940 census since 2005, and has given talks on that census starting in 2006.

We meet at the Robinson Auditorium complex on the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) campus in La Jolla. From North Torrey Pines Road, turn at Pangea Drive into UCSD. Free parking is available in the parking garage on the left; use any space other than those specifically reserved for UCSD vehicles. Signs will mark directions to our meeting room. Please refer to our website http://www.cgssd.org/; or the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies website http://irps.ucsd.edu/about/how-to-find-us.htm for driving directions and a map.