Heading off to Madison again!

[fudge stripe cookays]

Woo hoo!

Hey genealogy gang! I'm so psyched! American was having cheap fares from DFW to Madison, so I HAD to do it. I'm going up AGAIN in November! Call me addicted, but I couldn't help myself!

And thanks to Parents' Weekend at UW, my favorite B & B in Madison is booked the last 2 days I'd planned on staying. Not wanting to cut my trip short, I decided to head up to Wausau for 2 days (where I also need to unravel some tangled threads).

One of my great grand aunt's sons probably died and is buried there, but I have no idea when he died. So I'm hoping he's at the cemetery where most of his sons ended up. I'm praying there's a sexton there.

I"ve even scared up a bunch of local cousins around Beloit to meet for a little mini reunion for lunch one day. AND called the local small town paper in Clinton to see if they'd be interested in my search as a local interest story. The lady i talked to sounded very excited. But because of their small staff, I get to write it myself and send it in to them. So I'm taking up a digital recorder to tape the conversations at our lunch, my digital camera (for gravestone photos), and my scanner to get any other photos people want to bring with them, in case they don't want to part with them.

The thought of having some cold weather and some Afghani soup at Kabul on State Street sounds HEAVENLY right now!

I'm psyched!
FSC

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Travel safe, and I hope you're able to unearth some useful data!

:thumbsup:

[fudge stripe cookays]

2. I'm sure I will!

Thanks!

FSC :hi:

[fudge stripe cookays]

3. So I'm about to explode I'm so excited!

I managed to scare up this "Cousins' Lunch" in November at a little Italian place in Beloit, and their group room holds 100 people.

I began calling all the Smith cousins I could think of on my side, and other cousins have been checking in from Chicago and environs. One of our cousins from Denver may even come he's so excited. He was one of the first cousins who contacted me with the information that he had, and was a big help to me.

We're up to 25 now, and will probably be increasing in numbers if things keep up like this! It's a little mini reunion! I've asked folks to bring photos, letters, anything that can help us add a little meat to the history. I'm going to bring my manuscript so everyone can see what I'm working on, and also my scrapbooks (encased in plastic page protectors of course) so everyone can see all the photos and stories from the other branches and we can pass them around. AND I'm going to see if there will be anywhere to hang our big long tree on the wall.

One lady is the niece of one of the descendants who died without issue. She had a huge box of this lady's stuff, and had no idea what to do with it. I called her just in time, since she was thinking about tossing it. She's going to give me the entire box of photos, letters, and drawings by the woman's father, who died in 1930. I'm about to explode I want to see this stuff so bad!

If anyone tells you genealogy is boring or isn't rewarding, I'm proof it isn't! I'll report in when I get back! :D

FSC

[sybylla]

4. I'm excited for you, FSC.

What a wonderful treasure! I can't wait to hear what you find.

[fudge stripe cookays]

5. Chances are, you'll get the news before everyone else!

Since you're so close! :D

FSC

[fudge stripe cookays]

6. So the mini reunion...

has turned into a full-fledged 30 person lunch!

I've contacted 3 different papers for covering the event! So I'm really excited. We got pictures, we got letters, we got trees and scrapbooks, and I'm bringing a big copy of the family tree.

Some of these branches, even of second cousins, had no idea the others existed. The report will definitely be fun.

FSC

[fudge stripe cookays]

7. Well gang, I had a blast!

Our lunch was wonderful. We had it at a place called Domenico's in Beloit, and everyone told me how much fun they had.

at first, it was a little strange, with everyone not quite sure how they were related, but I put little descendancies on each person's nametag, so they'd know from which of the 10 original folks they'd come from, and that helped. (for instance, Frank Smith > John Smith > Kathy Smith Cooper)

My scrapbooks were a raging success, and everone marked up my huge family tree with edits and additions. I got lots of new pictures scanned too.

It took some serious hunting, but I finally figured out what happened to this one guy (which was one of my serious goals this trip). When I went up, I knew he died between 1932 and 1937, so I went down in the stacks where they keep all the old city directories, and narrowed his death date down to late 1935-1936. Then I found his sister's obituary which said he definitely died in 1936. So I sat and went through months and months and months of Milwaukee death notices. What a coup!

I knew that he died pretty young. And the final story was exactly what I expected. He worked for the railroad out of Milwaukee, and on a trip to LaCrosse, he'd gone to fish off a trestle and fallen 15 feet into a slough and fractured his skull. So I had the Milwaukee obit, his hometown (Janesville) obit, and 2 writeups in the LaCrosse paper where he'd fallen. And each one had a new bit of data!

When I was in Wausau, I bought a Wisconsin interest book about researching the Civil War there, and what should I stumble across but an 1886 reunion photo of my great granduncles' old unit! And Cal was in the back row!

I'm trying to get hold of the author so I can contact the original owners of the photo and ask if I can use it in my book.

A very profitable trip indeed.
fsc :D

[sybylla]

8. Glad to hear it was such a blazing success!

It's been a long time since I've done much with my family history. It's not really that I'm bored with it. I'm not sure that's possible for a genealogist. But I started trying to reorganize my documentation and hardcopy family files and I left it in the middle. Haven't gone back since.

Your stories, FSC, are motivating me to get back to it and move on. A couple more weeks of regular visits to the ancestry forum here should top off my motivation just in time for the after the holidays doldrums.

[fudge stripe cookays]

9. Yay!

We aims to please!

I took my scrapbooks up with me this time and showed them to my cousin who lives down in Libertyville. She had said she was in a lull.

After looking at my scrapbooks, she said she was all excited again, so I guess it's something I'm good at. Lots of people tell me that after talking to me they really get excited about what they're doing. (I guess seeing all the success I've had at finding Smiths is encouraging!). I'm just very determined. If one method fails, I just try another. Again and again.

fsc