GenTraveling – Friday Finds

Posted on June 29, 2018 by gentraveling

fridayfinds

Hello! I have some Fabulous Friday Finds to share with you!

All over the internet, there are articles about places where you might want to GenTravel to or some other aspect about GenTraveling! Each Friday I hope to share links to some of those articles. There might be one link, or if my time management skills are stellar that week, and I have time to hunt for more, I’ll link to more than just one. :o)

Here is this week’s:

I enjoyed reading an older post at Family Sleuther as he explained how he had traveled to Illinois and mistakenly thought he didn’t have any family roots there, so he didn’t pursue any research while he was there. OOPS! It wasn’t until after he returned home that he found he DID have family ties to that location. The rest of his post gives some good tip on how to have a successful GenTraveling research trip – including preparing charts so he doesn’t make that mistake again.

Another post on that same site impressed me: The day after the Family Sleuther’s grandmother’s funeral, he traveled across five states, nearly 2,200 miles in total, and paid his respects at the graves of 36 direct ancestors! How cool!

Have a great weekend! Best wishes for finding those ancestors. Are you planning your GenTraveling yet? Where do you plan to go? Be sure to share your GenTraveling Bucket list on our Bucket List Page. GenTraveling: It’s the Real Deal Thrill!

GenTraveling (while getting your exercise!!!)

Posted on June 28, 2018 by gentraveling

roadcoll

Hello GenTravelers!

We all know that family history work isn’t typically known for burning tons of calories, right? If it did, most of us would be as thin as bean poles since we spend so much time doing it. However, how many of you read the recent story in FamilyTree magazine about David Venner walking about 50 miles “in the footsteps of his forebears”? (see the May 2018 issue). I thought it was a fabulous idea, because I’ve had similar ideas of my own. Someday I’d like to bike the 365-mile Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor since a lot of my ancestors worked on the canal.

David Venner says this about his experience:

“Walking through our ancestors’ ‘home country’, rather than driving to each farm, village or town where they lived, is an ideal way of seeing the country as they would have seen it, of actually experiencing the half-hour walk to school or the five-mile walk to the nearest market town.”

I’ve also heard of people making the same pioneer trek that their ancestors previously took – mapping out, as closely as possible, the actual route. I think taking the same ocean voyage that my first immigrant ancestor might have taken would be an awesome GenTraveling experience. What else? Let me know if you have any fabulous ideas for “walking in your ancestral footsteps”!

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So, are you planning your GenTraveling yet? Where do you plan to go? Be sure to share your GenTraveling Bucket list on our Bucket List Page. GenTraveling: It’s the Real Deal Thrill!

GenTraveling to Oklahoma’s Ghost Towns

Posted on June 26, 2018 by gentraveling

ghosttown

Happy Tuesday GenTravelers!

Most of my GenTraveling has been to places that still have people inhabiting the area! But what about all the ghost towns? Someones ancestors used to live there! Maybe yours!?! Have you GenTraveled to any of those towns?

Oklahoma’s Tourism and Recreation department has a nice article on their website {link HERE} about their state’s ghost towns. The article reads:

“With a history full of Land Runs, Native American territories, Civil War battles and railroads, Oklahoma’s past is full of towns that sprung up overnight and faded away just as quickly. Whether you’re researching your family’s genealogy or are just looking to satisfy your curiosity, turn off the main road and discover the fascinating history of Oklahoma’s ghost towns.”

My grandfather and grandmother met in what is now a ghost town. Check out this YouTube video of this SPOOKY place:

Don’t be scared to go GenTraveling! Even if your ancestral stomping grounds are now inhabited only by gophers and rattlesnakes!

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So, are you planning your GenTraveling yet? Where do you plan to go? Be sure to share your GenTraveling Bucket list on our Bucket List Page. GenTraveling: It’s the Real Deal Thrill!

Reverse GenTraveling Research (by using the B.U.G. Club!)

Posted on June 25, 2018 by gentraveling

bridesmaids

Hello GenTravelers!

As genealogy researchers, we all know we should consistently research the F.A.N. Club, right? But who knows about the B.U.G. Club? (Sorry!…probably no one, because I just barely organized that club myself, haha!) It stands for Bridesmaids, Ushers, and Guests. If you’re lucky enough to have ancestors that had their wedding celebrations detailed in the newspapers of the day, you’ll most likely have access to the names of at least some bridesmaids and best men – and sometimes ushers, guests etc. AND what is reverse GenTraveling? Well, quite often the articles would mention the names of people who traveled to the wedding celebration from out of town. So, you can do some reverse GenTraveling research by tracing the B.U.G. Club!

Go ahead and invite your genealogy friends to join June’s B.U.G. Club. (Those social media icons at the bottom are there for your convenience!) Maybe the B.U.G. Club will be a trending methodology before June 2018 comes to a close – or, of course, it could hit the FAN! Haha!

How many of your ancestors got hitched in this traditional ‘wedding month’? Thanks to Generations of Nomads for inspiring this post when she mentioned how she went down the rabbit hole of researching wedding guests, ushers and bridesmaids!

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So, are you planning your GenTraveling yet? Where do you plan to go? Be sure to share your GenTraveling Bucket list on our Bucket List Page. GenTraveling: It’s the Real Deal Thrill!

GenTraveling – Friday Finds

Posted on June 22, 2018 by gentraveling

fridayfinds

Hello! I have some Fabulous Friday Finds to share with you!

Here is this week’s:

This family historian began researching his mother’s family tree, and found that her (and his!) lineage goes directly to the foundation of Hungary in 896 AD! So, of course, he had to go GenTraveling there! Go read all about it at Barry’s Adventures Following Retirement

AND, feel free to send me links of GenTraveling articles I should go check out!

Preparing to go GenTraveling with ‘A Vision of Britain Through Time’

Posted on June 21, 2018 by gentraveling

chelsfield

Hello GenTravelers!

How many of you dear readers are researching British ancestors? I recently learned about a website that I will be utilizing a lot before my next GenTraveling trip to the UK. We went to England last year, so it might be a while…

But, the website is ‘A Vision of Britain Through Time‘. You type in their search box a town or a village, a big city, or county – try just about anything you like! Up pops a map and an abundance of resources, statistics, and interesting data to help you plan a GenTraveling trip there.

Additionally, who likes to read historical accounts of travelers for locations you’d like to travel? The Vision of Britain website also has excerpts of 17th and 18th century British travel writing. I clicked on the ‘Travel Writing’ tab and searched the surname of my British family and found mention of that surname in the 1823 travel journal of a William Cobette, and in two other traveler journals (the surname I’m researching is also a name of a forest). I’m now going to go through my tree and search for any and all birthplaces, death places and surnames of all my British people at this site. I’m going to be there all day! Let me know if you check this site out and what fabulous things you find there!

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So, are you planning your GenTraveling yet? Where do you plan to go? Be sure to share your GenTraveling Bucket list on our Bucket List Page. GenTraveling: It’s the Real Deal Thrill!

GenTraveling – From Shoeburyness to Sydney, Australia

Posted on June 19, 2018 by gentraveling

ship

Hello GenTravelers!

You all have your GenTraveling bucket lists, right? But do you have a GenTraveling minor-curiosity-small-pail list? Today, I decided I’d start one of my own! It’s not going to be a big bucket list. It’s a list of small research curiosities that I want to follow up on – just in case I find myself in a certain location where I could easily and conveniently do so.

I recently read “From Shoeburyness to Syndey, Australia” in the Essex Family Historian, No. 161, Issue 1 of 2017. The editor wrote of how, while searching for her husband’s relatives in a cemetery in Shoeburyness, she came across a gravestone that read:

“Also of JOHN WILLIAM OUTTEN, PN, Who was drowned in Sydney Harbour, 5th January 1909 aged 22 years. Not lost but gone before.”

The author wrote about how she became intrigued as to why John came to drown in Sydney Harbour and went about researching the incident. (You can learn more about the tragic event HERE). It didn’t sound like the author planned a huge GenTraveling trip to Sydney, just to learn more about this intriguing event, but she and her husband did happen to travel to Sydney in their retirement years to visit friends and relatives. Since they were there, they decided to visit Rookwood Cemetery, where the drowning victims were buried. I’m sure it was a nice finale to the research she did which stemmed only from a minor curious inscription on a gravestone. So, what do you say? Do you want to start your own ‘minor-curiosity-small-pail’ research list now? Let me know what will be on it!

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So, are you planning your GenTraveling yet? Where do you plan to go? Be sure to share your GenTraveling Bucket list on our Bucket List Page. GenTraveling: It’s the Real Deal Thrill!