July Theme’s and Week 27: The Great Outdoors (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

The theme for Week 27 is "The Great Outdoors." (It's ironic that's the theme this week, considering I've had to stay inside most of the time due to smoke from the Canadian wildfires. Yes, I'm in Ohio.) Has your family enjoyed hunting, fishing, camping, or hiking? Or maybe their experiences with nature weren't so pleasant. Either way, this is the week to write about it. Click here to check out all the themes for 2023.

This week, I am writing my story for “The Great Outdoors”. As a child, my family went on 3-week camping trips during the summer, mostly in the month of July. My father, as a bachelor married a widow with six children and then had three more. I am the youngest.

Anyway, when I was about 4 or 5, my parents borrowed my aunt and uncle’s camper to see if they would like camping. I don’t remember much of that trip. We went down to New Orleans; I have a few memories of that city. I remember eating at a restaurant, which is something we rarely did with a family of eleven. I remember the hamburger I got was the size of the plate, at least that is how I remembered it. Story has it that a hurricane hit the area shortly after we left the area.

The camping trip must have been a success because my parents bought a pop-up camper that had an awning room addition, where my parent’s slept on cots. I can tell you; those cots were not comfortable; I don’t know how my parent’s survived. Well, they only did that a few years, because soon, the oldest kids had moved out of the house and they slept in the camper. I mostly remember camping with my three sisters and one or two brothers.

We traveled all over the United States and Canada over the years. By the time I was 18, there was only about 2 states I hadn’t visited, Alaska and Hawaii. I finally visited Alaska in May of 2022. I went to Hawaii in 1997 and in 2002, I will be going this October to celebrate my 40th wedding anniversary.

My love for history was developed during those trips, we visited many historical homes and sites. I was amazed how our ancestors lived. I learned how to read a map, because lucky me, I got motion sickness and was delegated to the front seat, between my parents. I would follow our route on the map, learned about how highways were numbered, how mile markers work while traveling through the states. 

As any normal child, I didn’t appreciate the trips when they happened, being away from my friends for 3 weeks every summer seemed like a life time. Plus, it was usually during the county fair, and I only managed to see maybe two when growing up. I even missed going to my friend’s wedding during my 17th summer, after graduation because we were camping.

My parents did trade in the pop-up camper for an Argosy trailer (a painted Airstream) when I was in sixth or seventh grade. I felt like we were in luxury. It had a TV, bathroom, A/C and heat. My parent’s slept on the pull-out sofa and my three siblings and I slept on bunks that folded down to couches that faced each other. My parents sold that camper a few years after I got married. It was easier for them to just get hotel rooms for vacation. 

I tried tent camping a few times with my husband and children. However, my husband never enjoyed camping, being a farmer boy, he just didn’t get the thrill of being that close to nature. I still long for camping and I would love to have a small Class C RV so that I could travel with my cats and not worry about finding someone to come and feed them. 

I think a Class C RV would come in handy for genealogy road trips. I could bring all my necessary supplies. How convenient it would be when visiting those remote cemeteries and you need a potty break. Plus, I could park at the cemetery and make a day of it and still have all the amenities of home. My husband could stay in the Camper in the parking lot while I was researching in a courthouse, library, or other repository. He could always explore the area too, no more worrying about finding a place to eat.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

Week 26: Slow (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2023 Version)

The theme for Week 26 is "Slow." We living in a rapid world. Everything seems instantaneous. What is something an ancestor did that would seem slow by today's standards? (Farming and laundry come to my mind.) What about a line that has been slow for you to research? Click here to check out all of the themes for 2023.

Last week I talked about how Genealogy is not Fast, but some things with Genealogy seem to take forever. I remember when I started my Genealogy journey back when I was 20 years old, that was forty years ago. Anyway, if we couldn’t visit the repository, we might have to write for information. 

I kept a correspondence log to record my outgoing correspondence and then would patiently, or not so patiently, wait for a response. It wasn’t uncommon for months and even years to go by before hearing anything back. My mailbox became my wishing well.

I would write to older family members, introducing myself by giving my parent’s names and ask specific questions, such as “Do you know who your maternal or paternal (depending on which side I was needing) grandparents were?” I would send them a pedigree chart, and many didn’t know how to fill it out, so I made sure I would start with the information I had about them, their parents and ask for the next few generations. Whatever they knew. I even sent family group sheets to know more about them and their children.

I had people write back and attach their own hand-drawn charts that I didn’t know what I was looking at. It didn’t matter, they replied. Many didn’t. I even had a reply many years later, when a spouse was going through her deceased husband’s files and found my letter. It arrived when he was alive, but he set it aside. Oh, the information that was lost when he died.

I still have the treasured letters, I have scanned them and placed them into my computer, however, I have also kept the originals. They seem too valuable to just toss after I scanned them. These are one-of-a-kind letters, with valuable family information, I will never throw them away.

Talk about slow, scanning all my documents from pre-computer days, I purchased my first computer back in 1988. But scanning didn’t really become affordable or easy until about the early 2000’s. I had a hand-held scanner before that, but for big scans, you had to scan sections and piece them together. Plus, you had to be smooth with your movement. Later I purchased a flat-bed scanner and just placed the sheet on the scanner. It did an okay job, but still it was a lot of work sometimes just to get my computer to talk to the scanner. Plus, it took up so much space, I had my hubby create a small roll out table that stored underneath my desk when not in use. Now I have an all-in-one printer, that prints, faxes, scans, copies, and web. Even though I don’t fax because I don’t have a landline, I can fax by scanning and sending it through a special online website. Anyway, the scans are so much nicer and in color. Plus, with smart phones, we have scanners on our phones, just take a picture, send it to our email and like magic, we have a scan or copy of whatever we want!

Now the only thing slow might be my internet connection. If I am on the road and want to look something up, my bandwidth might be slow or not found. Then I would have to wait until I was in a better reception area. 

Since, not everything is available on-line, many aspects of Genealogy can be slow. It might be months before I am able to take a short road trip to the desired courthouse to view records in person. Or if I send for a request, it might take a while before I hear anything back. Anyone who has sent a request to the state of New York, will tell you that they may still be waiting for over two years. Plus, when Covid reared its ugly head, Genealogy requests took a back burner to all other requests.

I am a firm believer that all good things come to those that wait. But why do we Genealogist have to wait so long.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!