Schwinns, Winters and Kellers

Well...where to start. Yesterday I did go to the Menard County courthouse, and looked for CB's death certificate, but no luck. This guy really doesn't want to have any solid, significant facts printed about him. On Sunday I will go to the Presbyterian Church in Middletown and see if I can find out any information from them. After that stop, I went on to Peoria to hunt out anyone else I could, and recheck the death records. Zero. Next stop - Woodford County, to research the Schwinns and Muellers.

I want to stop here for a moment and just say how beautiful most of these courthouses are. With the exception of Peoria's, which is an ugly cement square block building, all of them are the original old buildings, either brick or wood, with long graceful staircases and scrolled bannisters, doors that have etched glass insets in the top part, with the name of the department either painted on or etched in. The floors creak comfortably, and the air smells of old documents and excitement. Visiting these lovely old buildings of history has been one of the highlights of my trip.

So onto Woodford. I was greeted by a very nice woman in the county clerk's office, who was very helpful. While I was searching the huge register books, she was searching in their new computerized database. She actually came up with more than I did! I came up dead empty, and she found two death certificates of children from my Henry Schwinn's brother, Nick, and then a birth certificate of Henry Schwinn and Mary (Miller) Schwinn's eleventh child - a son. The only census I can find these guys in so far is the 1880 census, and this child was born in 1882, so I don't even have him listed. It lists their residence as Germantown, which is another thing I had been wondering about. Since they came from Germany, as had many in this area, why were they not living in Germantown? Not that they necessarily had to - I am not trying to pigeon-hole them - but it just made sense to me that they would be there. All of the other information I have says Worth Township. Well - Germantown is a Village in Worth Township, so they were actually living in both! Anyway, I get off topic easily. The birth certificate also lists him as a blacksmith, as does the 1880 census entry, so that seems pretty solid. As I was lamenting to this nice lady (I never did get her name, I'm sorry to say!) she suggested that I go to the Woodford Historical Society, which is across the street. But of course, they are only open on Wednesday and Friday afternoons, and this was Thursday, so that was that.

So this morning I went yet again to Peoria, but this time to the Library. They have a beautiful newly renovated library, with an entire floor devoted to genealogy and history. The two librarians there were very helpful, and I soon had a table full of books to look through. I searched through cemetery listings, marriages, births, deaths, tax rolls and probates for any hint of Muellers, Winters or Schwinns. (Kellers really didn't get there until the 1900's, and I have most of my direct line's info to that point, and what I don't have, I'd already searched for at the courthouse and come up blank). I even looked at the Coroners records for 1897-1904 to see if Gustav were there. He wasn't, but there were a lot of interesting deaths that occurred. A lot of Irish men in their mid-twenties, drunk and getting into brawls, or being run over by trains. Also a lot of children drowning in cisterns - ugh! Anyway, in all of those books, and my 2 1/2 hours of searching, I found an entry for Gustave Winters (Gustav and Elizabeth's son) in the St. Joseph's Cemetery, place of death Peoria State Hospital. So at least I found something.

Next it was back in the car and on to Eureka to go to the Woodford County Historical Society. The woman there - Barb - was terrific! She brought out book after book of marriages, births, deaths, cemetery indexes, and not just for Woodford County, but also Tazewell County, which is right "next door". She is the one who explained to me about Germantown being a village in Worth Township. She also had some very colorful language about a lot of things, and then would walk over to me and nudge my arm and say “ya know?” She was a hoot! So, we looked through all of these books, and did not find a single thing that I didn’t already have. Wait - not quite true. I now have the section, row and lot numbers for the people who I already knew were buried in the St. Mary of Lourdes Cemetery in Woodford County. So that will help.
So back to the car to call it quits for the day. But, then as I took out my cell and turned it back on and there was a voice mail from Peoria. It was the volunteer at the courthouse saying the records I had requested earlier in the week were ready for me to pick up. So back to Peoria I go.

I had requested copies of Elizabeth Schwinn and Gustav Winters marriage certificate (I hoped), Anna Mueller and Henry Schwinn’s marriage certificate (I hoped) and Louis Winter’s birth certificate. What I got was Anna Mueller to someone else – not my Anna Mueller – and a birth certificate for un-named baby boy Winter (turns out it is Louis) and a marriage certificate for Elizabeth Schwinn (the right one, with parents Henry and Mary Schwinn) marrying Adolphus Danner. Oops! Wrong groom. So now, it appears that Elizabeth was married once before Gustav. This marriage was dated 5 Jul 1887, and I have Elizabeth and Gustav as marrying around 1886 – so I guess my estimate was off!. Their first child that I know for certain was my grandmother in June of 1890, so there is still time in the timeline for Lizzie to get divorced, or widowed, and then marry Gustav.  The other interesting find was that on the birth certificate for Louis Winter, son and second child of Lizzie and Gustav, it lists the father’s name as August Winter. I have two entries from city directories that list him as Gustav A Winter, so I guess he used his middle name, August. Now I will search all over again using August Winter rather than Gustav.

All in all a successful day, I think. I met some great people, and at least made a little progress. If I have learned nothing else this week, I have learned to be at peace with this slow progression, and know that eventually I will find out a little more about these people, but probably not today!

Some thoughts on the Howard/Keller union

I came across a couple of interesting facts yesterday, which is helping piece together how and when Ella Nora Howard and Charles Byron Keller came to get married. First of all, when I got the marriage certificate for Juliet Keller, the oldest of their children, it states that her birthplace is Lincoln, Nebraska. She was born in July of 1879; Ella and CB were married in October of 1878. Those dates are close enough together that I began to think maybe they got married in Nebraska. Then, when I was checking the family tree last night, a new fact "leaf" (one of Family Tree Maker's ways of telling you there is information online for this person) popped up on Ella, and guess what it was? The Nebraska state census in 1878, showing the entire Howard family living in Midland, Lancaster County, Nebraska!  So there - I think - is the final piece pointing to the fact that Ella and CB were married in Nebraska, and that's why nothing shows up here in Morgan County records! So, I'll start working on that later tonight when I'm back from Peoria.

The other piece of information about these two has puzzled me for a while. The fact that at his death CB was living in Middletown suggests that he and Ella were at least separated, and I found it rather interesting that she didn't attend his funeral. Now I know that she remarried, for the 1910 census shows her married to Roland Butcher and living in Oklahoma City with Homer and Ray still at home, and Juliet and her husband and kids living with them. What I didn't look carefully at before was the column that asks for the number of years of present marriage. They had been married for 5 years in 1910, which means that she and CB were divorced, which led him to move to Middletown. Aha! I love solving puzzles!

Those were two of the items that kept bothering me yesterday, and now that I've had a chance to really look at them they are making sense. So I need to add divorce records to my list when I go back to Jacksonville. But, today it is on to Peoria (after a quick stop in Petersburg to check for CB's death certificate!) and continue the search for the elusive Gustav Winter, my dad's mother's father.

On the hunt for CB Keller - Wednesday 9/28/11

Well, after yesterday's find of the obituary for CB, I felt sure that I would find his death certificate today, and that would lead to other finds. Well, in the world of genealogy, of course it is never that easy. I went to the Logan County Courthouse this morning (it was open!) and searched for his death certificate. Nothing anywhere in any index for Charles B. Keller. OK. The very nice woman in the clerk's office said that the genealogy specialist, Tanya, would be in at about 3:30, and did I want to leave her a message and have her call me. Of course I said yes, and wrote out a short note with all the information.

After that I hightailed it to Jacksonville, to do some searching in that courthouse. I was greeted with great enthusiasm when I said I had a number of birth, death and marriage dates to look up, and was let in to the room with all of the old registers, and told to search for the marriage information I wanted. When I was done, I was to go down to the next counter and ask about the birth and death records. I started with Charles and Ella, since he was on my mind, and guess what? Neither of their names are in the date-appropriate register. Go Figure! So I guess they weren't married in Morgan County after all. Am I ever going to find this man?! So I went on through my list, and found 2 couples' information, two of the Keller daughters - the two that actually had shown up for CB's funeral, according to the obituary. So I requested those. Then on to the birth/death desk, and more searching. The records start at 1878, so not many of the births I was looking for were even going to have a record, so I started with death records. I found 3 death records including - again - 2 of the Keller children, who died in infancy. So I was able to piece together some missing information there.

About this time, a woman comes up to me and asks if I am doing genealogy research. I say, yes I am, and she starts talking a mile a minute about deed records and probate records, and did she hear the name Keller, and she was a Keller, too...!! Well, somewhere in her line are Kellers, and she thinks they may be related, since they were in Pennsylvania at one pint, and that's where (according to census records) CB's father was born. So she grabs me and hauls me back into the room with all the old registers and gives me an hour long lesson on the benefits of land deed research, and we find Ella's father, Charles Henry Howard, making a ton of land transactions in a span of 10-15 years. I have to go back to the courthouse end of the week or Monday to get those copies. Then she drags me upstairs to the probate department, and we search for probate records. OMG I am so tired and my feet hurt from standing for hours, but I hang in there. I ended up finding Belle Howard's probate information (Ella Nora Howard's sister), administered by her nephew Homer M. Keller (my grandfather's brother), and there was some interesting stuff there, so I got some copies. I thank her effusively, and we exchange email and snail-mail addresses, and I race back to my car that I parked at 10:45 in a 2 hour parking zone, praying there is no ticket, as it is now 2:45. Yay! No ticket.

Next I go to the Jacksonville Genealogy Society to ask them some questions and hopefully get some more direction. Well, the lovely 90 year old woman with her Life Alert pendant dangling from her neck, can't hear me well enough to understand what I'm asking, so I finally just ask about the Jacksonville East Cemetery. She pulls out a book with the map that I have - only this one has different names for the "roads" within the cemetery, and they are ringing bells. So I write down the correct directions, and head on my way. I get to the Cemetery, and find the place where everyone is supposed to be, and lo and behold there is a large, broken stone marking the Howard family area. Excitement builds and I rush back to the car to get the camera. As I walk around and look, I see that the broken family monument, and a couple of other broken or sunken stones, then two that are legible (one for Essie Belle Howard - Ella Nora's sister - and one for M E Howard - Ella Nora's mother) is all that is there. That's it. Ella Nora, her sons William and Lawrence, and a few others are recorded as being buried there, but nothing to show for them. There is an obvious family area, with what was once probably corner posts with a chain surrounding the graves, but now has become broken and sunken, and the land in-between has become hilly and broken itself. I will have to go back one more time and find someone at the cemetery to help me - if that is possible! (I have loaded pictures on the cemetery page.)


So at that point - 5:30 - I head back to Lincoln. As I get into the car, I realize I never turned my cell back on after leaving the courthouse. I do so now, and there is a message from Tanya at the Logan County courthouse. She nicely explains that she has done some additional searching, and cannot find any reference to Charles B. Keller anywhere, but did I know that half of Middletown is in Menard County? So I should contact them for a death certificate, because by 1909 there really should be one. Hooray I say, there is yet another lead! No, I didn't know that Middletown, with it's grand population of 324, was split into two different counties. So, tomorrow, I will start with the Menard County courthouse and see what they say. Everyone cross your fingers!

There are more clues to other parts of the Howard and Keller lives that I have gleaned from today's finds, but I am too tired, and this post is already waaaaay to long, to add them in tonight. I will think more about them and let you all know tomorrow.

Tuesday - Logan County

Originally I did not have this county on my list of areas to research, but after more thinking, I decided that since my great-grandfather, C.B. Keller, was buried here, it might be a good idea to see what information there was here. Since I wasn't sure what I was looking for, and figured the courthouse wouldn't help as he died in Morgan county, I went to the library. The librarian set me up with some of the cemetery registers, then interrupted me to ask if I had his death date. When I said that I did, she set me up with the microfilm machine and the roll of film from the Lincoln Courier in the date range that included his death. I started looking at the day he died, Oct 18, 1909, and went forward. I figured it would be in the paper a day or two after the fact, as he was only buried here, had not died here. I was on the page for Friday of that week (he had died on Monday), about to give up when I saw "Death Record - Charles B. Keller who worked for about three years in the Ledger office, died last Monday in Middletown, at 4:30 pm after an illness of several months." I just about stood up and cheered, but remembered in time that I was in a library! The rest of the article said that the funeral was held at the Presbyterian Church of Middletown, under the charge of the Middletown lodge of the Knights of Pythias (shades of my father's memorial service past in front of my eyes - sorry, inside joke, unless you were there), and Rev. Rainey had "charge of the service".  The only family that attended were his son Homer Keller, and daughters Juliette and Edna, and their families.

That takes me down a new road. Obviously he and Ella Nora, his wife, are separated at this point (divorced?), and he has been living in Middleton, working at the newspaper office. I do have reference from one of the city directories that lists him as a printer, so I guess that is what he did at the Ledger. So then, my brain says, now go to the courthouse and get a death certificate. He did die in Logan county, after all. The courthouse was closed. So then, my brain says, go find the Presbyterian church in Middleton and see if they still have any records. I do, and the church is there, but closed.

So, since it was then 3:30, and too late to get to either Jacksonville or Peoria, I went back to the hotel, and began chronicling my day. Tomorrow I will go to the Logan County Courthouse (open M, W, F), then on into Jacksonville to work on the Morgan county folks, and find someone who can get me more information about the Jacksonville East Cemetery. Hopefully I will have more information tomorrow.

Monday - Peoria

Obviously I didn't post on Monday, so I will post now for Monday, then later for today. I started out yesterday heading to Peoria to the courthouse. I spent 2 hours looking through old, dusty birth, death and marriage registers. I was looking for information on the Schwinn line, the Mueller line and the Winter line. My most "slippery" people are Henry Schwinn (father to Elizabeth Schwinn, who is my father's maternal grandmother), Gustav Winter (my father's maternal grandfather) who are both German-born, and on my dad's father's side Charles B. Keller (his grandfather) and Charles Henry Howard (his father's maternal grandfather). Hmm...all men...go figure!

The Schwinn's and Winter's were no where to be found in any of the registers, until the last book. I found our (I think) Louis Schwinn in the birth register, and ordered his birth certificate. I then found Anna Mueller (mother to Elizabeth Schwinn) in the last death register, and ordered her copy. Then I found Elizabeth Schwinn in the last marriage register, in the bride's section of course, when I had not found Gustav Winter (her husband) in the same register in the groom's section. So of course I ordered a copy of that record as well. I guess it really wasn't too bad a result for 2 hours. Plus, I didn't get a ticket  from my expired parking meter!

Then off I went to the Springdale Cemetery to find the family plot containing my grandmother (Louise Keller), my great-grandmother (Elizabeth Schwinn Winter) and her 3 brothers and cousin. I stopped at the office and spoke with the woman I had communicated with via email, and got a map as to their locations. I drove down the hill, parked, retrieved my "cemetery bag" from the back seat and went off to photograph, record and do rubbings. Only to find that Louis, John and William Schwinn are there, along with Marie Kraker (the cousin), but no Louise Keller nor Elizabeth Schwinn. Long story short (after multiple backs and forths with me and cemetery staff) - both are buried there, and neither has a headstone. So I am really batting zero with cemeteries this trip! Then of course there is the question of do I now foot the bill to get them both headstones? I'll have to ponder that one.

After that, I decided to try one more time. Since I was already in the Peoria area, why shouldn't I check out the Sand Ridge Cemetery, where (supposedly) Henry Schwinn is buried? So I figured out how to get there, and off I went. As I was driving down Spring Bay Rd, I had the same eerie feeling of driving through the cornfields on Sunday. But, as I turned a corner I could see the cemetery on top of the rise of the road. Only problem - no driveway or road to turn into. I pulled over and re-checked the map - no other roads going into it, no other road parallel to the one I am on that has an entrance to the ***** cemetery! I went back and forth on that section of road probably 5 or 6 times, but to no avail. There really is no way into the cemetery. So...I gave up for the day. I went back to the hotel and did laundry.

I did add Springdale Cemetery to the cemetery page, and posted pictures of the Schwinn bothers' headstones.

Cemetery Day

My goal today was to find the Evans Cemetery in Middletown, and hopefully find the resting place of Charles B. Keller, my great grandfather. Well, I had a lovely drive along some beautiful county roads, through miles upon miles of corn fields, but no cemetery. I double checked directions from Google, my iPhone and Phoebe - my navigation system on the car - and tried from 2 different directions, but still came up at the same corn field. This cemetery supposedly sits at 470 County Rd. 1100 N, but I sure can't find it. I'll need further help tomorrow - the county courthouse for this county is just down the road from me.

My next goal was to get groceries, which I didn't do yesterday (I drove around town instead, ogling houses and admiring kids riding bikes all over everywhere). That was relatively easy, and I even managed a bag of non-perishables for the food drive that the high school was doing.
Next was to take a test drive to Jacksonville, which I was figuring would be about 90 minutes. Well, it took an hour, so I was really happy! Then I though I might as well take a look at Jacksonville East Cemetery, since it was Sunday and everything else I needed was closed. So - I found it! Not bad being 1 for 2 on the cemetery search. So I went in and took out my Jacksonville East folder, clipboard and camera and went in search of all the Hendersons, Howards and Kellers that are buried there. Couldn't find a one! I have a very old copy of the cemetery plan, and it really doesn't match up to the roads that are there, so I couldn't tell what was what. After an hour of wandering and reading headstones I decided that I need to come back after I have had some help finding section N303 on the map. So I will find someone somewhere that can point me in the right direction. Unfortunately, there is no office building on site, so I'll start at the courthouse.

 
So that was my day. It was productive to a point, but not that satisfying. Now I am going through all my lists and making a game-plan for the week. Hopefully I will have better news as the days go by.

Day 6 of Illinois Journey

I reached Lincoln IL today about 1:30 pm. Thank goodness - I am in a place to stay for a while! I have unloaded the car, unpacked my things and settled into my suite quite happily. I am now on a mission to find a grocery store to stock up on lunch and dinner items (hot breakfast served each day by the hotel) then hoof it across the parking lot to Cracker Barrel for dinner tonight. I really quite like my room - it will do nicely as a home away from home!
Sitting room area...

Kitchen area...

and Bedroom space...

So I think I'll do OK!

Now that I'm here and settled, it is on to the meat of the trip. I will review all of my files - which are many - and figure out my plan of attack for the week. I will probably go visit some cemeteries tomorrow, as it may rain Monday and Tuesday. If I do that, and get some information as to death dates, etc., then I can move on to county records' offices and start finding some documents for these people. I am planning at least one day in Springfield at the state archives for some information, but much of the stuff I need pre-dates the state recording years, so will have to be found at the county level. Plus I need to find where C.B. Keller (my dad's father's father) and Gustav Winter (my dad's mother's father) are buried so that I can begin their searches. I need a place to start and work backward! I'll post as I gather information. So...here I go!

Day 5 Illinois Journey

Day 5 finds me in St. Clair, MO, just outside St. Louis. It is a nice little town, has a very small town feel in the area where I am staying. Kids walking along the railroad tracks on the way home from school, wide front porches on most homes, a Main Street with local businesses open, and people standing on the boardwalks outside chatting - mostly about the satellite that is falling! "Do we treat it like a tornado? Should we go to the cellar? I'm not doing anything unless it hits me on the head!" are some of the comments I heard. I went to the little cafe in town called Lewis Cafe. Built in 1937, it has been owned and run by three generations of the same family the whole time. They raise their own Angus cattle for their beef, and butcher it themselves as needed, so the meat is always fresh. Very old-style, with stools at the counter and booths against the wall. I got a salad, hamburger and piece of pie for $9! It was excellent! Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me when I went, or I would have snapped some pictures. I want to go back down Main Street in the morning, so I'll get a shot of Lewis Cafe.

Yesterday I said that this morning I would drive over the rainbow bridge outside of Baxter Springs, and I did. It was really cool to think of the traffic going over it one direction at a time, and the other direction having to sit there and wait their turn.

Pretty cool, eh?

I drove quite a bit of Route 66 today, wanting to stop at two places especially, but couldn't find them! Trying to drive this road by yourself is very difficult as it turns out. You definitely need a navigator! For example, at one point this morning I was trying to drive while reading this: "Stay with Rangeline (which becomes Madison), through the light at McArthur, turn right immediately onto 4th, go left at Jefferson, then right on Broadway (at school). At Webb, jog left, then right to stay with Broadway, which curves and merges with Main. Continue into Carterville, turn left on Pine, bear right at the cemetery, then after 2 1/2 miles (now on Leggett Rd.) turn right to cross over..." You get the point. ARGH! I need someone to be reading this to me as I drive. So, on the way back, I will find 4 Women on the Route and the Eisler Bros store in Riverton, Kansas. I finally made it to Joplin - though I'm really not quite sure what road I was on - and then found I-44, and went the rest of the way on that. As I came into Joplin, I was braced to see the devastation left from the tornado, but I guess I was on the wrong side. There was, however, a large relief center set up in a vacant parking lot. It was put together using circus-style tents, and some of the flaps were open so that you could see thousands of crates stacked up in one tent (I'm assuming with food and other supplies) and, in another, rows and rows of cots with blankets and pillows on them. There were large signs on the sides of the tents saying "Disaster Relief". How horrible to be in the position to need that type of help, but on the flip side thank goodness they are there.

Very nice day, all in all. This has been a fun trek, but I will be glad to arrive in Lincoln, IL tomorrow and stay in one place for a while. "Til then, Happy Fall, Y'All!!

Day 4 Illinois Journey

Hello from Baxter Springs, Kansas! This morning I was in Oklahoma City in pouring rain, and tonight I am in Baxter Springs with a lovely cool, clear evening sky. How marvelous! The drive here was relatively easy, especially once it stopped raining. The countryside was full of trees, farms and fields of cows and horses. The sky was beautiful as well, with changing clouds, and the sun peeking out every now and then. Lots of fun silters - that's sun rays filtering through the clouds, for those of you who don't know Caz-speak!

I drove more of Route 66 today, and found some lovely two lane country roads winding through fields, and found the rainbow bridge outside of Baxter Springs:

Isn't it lovely? I missed the turn to go the direction that lets you drive over it, so Just had to drive past and get photos. Tomorrow I will turn at the right point and drive over it!

I am staying at a little bed and breakfast in Baxter Springs - The Little Brick Inn - which is situated above the restaurant Cafe on the Route. The building that they are in used to be the bank, and it was once robbed by Jesse James. Imagine that! The Cafe has been on Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, and is really good! I had dinner there this evening, and I get breakfast in the morning. Can hardly wait!

 Nothing else earth shattering. Very nice, quiet day. I drove around this charming little community, stopped in at the museum where they have a wonderful collection of Civil War stuff - uniforms, weapons, documents - it was amazing. There also is a log cabin out in the back, and a tank from WW II.  An interesting mix, sort of like the community! I also went to the Route 66 information center, across the street from the Inn, and signed my name on their wall. They have thousands of names on their wall, some from Europe but most from the US - all people who wanted to "travel the Route".  Now my name is added for posterity!

Well - that's it for tonight. Tomorrow it is on to St. Clair, MO, the last stop before Illinois. Getting closer!

Day 3 of Illinois Journey

Today I drove along some of the old Route 66 from Amarillo eastward!

Sad to say, it was nothing special! after about an hour of ruts in the road, dead gas stations and stores, I gave up and went back to I-40! I know there are more interesting parts yet to come, and will hop on and off tomorrow on the way to Kansas. I have three or four places earmarked to check out.

The change from Texas to Oklahoma was almost as dramatic as from New Mexico to Texas. This amazes me - the geology of the land does not know where one state stops and the next begins! However, there really is a difference. Oklahoma has rich, red earth, which contrasts with the green of fields and trees. There are a lot of farms, houses and small ranches on the road, which is new. The area has small hills to break up the landscape - gone is the flat go-on-for-ever land!

I stopped at a rest stop for a stretch break after about 2 hours, then headed on the way - total trip took about 4 1/2 hours. Much better today! Today's motel is nothing special - a nice, clean room, but without any personality, so no pictures of it. There are, however, some incredible homes in the area:

Of course I had to drive around and drool!!

The Webinar on Illinois that I spoke about yesterday was actually really good. Packed with information - so much that I couldn't take notes, or I missed what the guy was saying. They are emailing out a PDF and copy of the video to everyone tomorrow, so I'll have all of the resources that were mentioned. Most of it was a review for me, as far as internet sources and county/state repositories and information. However the section on Illinois history was great, as was the review of the different regions, and where most of the population came from for each region. There also were a few new internet sources I didn't know about, so I am eager to get the PDF and explore!

So that's it for tonight. I am off to watch some TV, then sleep! Tomorrow - Baxter Springs, Kansas!

Day 2 of Illinois Journey

Hello from Amarillo, Texas! Today's drive was long - partly due to sheer mileage (~430 miles), but irritatingly added to by ROAD WORK! My daughter and I have a running joke that wherever we decide to go, someone has decided road work is needed. Well...there were no less than 10 spots where the speed limit was down to 45, and traffic was down to one lane. There are many, many trucks traveling on I-40, so this made it even more terrible! Oh well - 8 hours after leaving Gallup, I arrived in Amarillo in one piece, so I guess I can't complain! Driving through New Mexico was a straight trip through miles of empty land. At one point I looked in the rear view mirror, and thought I could see the road go straight back to Gallup - and this was probably 3 hours into the trip. There weren't even ranges of cattle or horses. The minute I crossed into Texas, however, the landscape changed. Gone was the desert-like scrub, cactus and trees, and in came the plowed fields, ranges of cattle and horses, and huge ranch-lands with big iron gates at the entrance showing the name of the ranch. Those were pretty cool!

I am staying at The Big Texan Motel, across the parking lot from The Big Texan Steak Ranch. Yes, they are combined. The motel rooms are very rustic and have those swinging saloon-type doors going into the dressing/bath area. Very solid, rough wood furniture, which is surprisingly comfortable! I did not go across to the steak house to eat - too tired and not hungry enough to do a steak justice! I ordered a hamburger to go and went back to the room.

The Motel:

My room:

Very nice space!
(Photos added Wed. 9/21)

Tomorrow's jaunt is through Texas and into Oklahoma, stopping in Oklahoma City. It's about 250 miles, so shouldn't bee too hard of a drive. I plan to leave early anyway, as I haven't been able to see much Route 66 yet, and there is a lot to travel on from here on out. I also need to be settled in Oklahoma City by 4:30, as I have a Webinar at 5pm - "Illinois Genealogy Crash Course" through the Family Tree Magazine website. I hope it offers some tips that I have not thought of!

So that's the update for today. For those who are reading this in the SF Bay Area, my thoughts and prayers go out to the two families facing crises this week. Please know that you are in my thoughts every day.

Tomorrow's post will be from Oklahoma City, OK (O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A OKLAHOMA!)

Day 1 of Illinois Journey

Nothing much to report tonight. Very uneventful, beautiful drive from Goodyear AZ to Gallup NM. There is not much drivable Route 66 for this section. I took some pictures of the Wigwam Hotel, but they are pretty bad. I'll get another shot on my way back and post them! I listened to some Frank, Sammy and Dean to start the trip off in honor of my dad (his favorites!), then switched to Nat King Cole for the Route 66 song once I hit I-40! That got me jazzed! Then I went to my current audio book, and listened to that the rest of the way. Like I said - fairly uneventful!

Tomorrow - on to Amarillo, Texas. I am staying at The Big Texan Motel. They also have a steak house connected to them, and both are recommended by the Historical Route 66 Federation, so I figured they were safe! Hopefully I'll have pictures to post tomorrow.

Drew - I couldn't find a postcard tonight, but I promise I'll find one tomorrow and send it off. Goodnight!

Addendum Wed. 9/21
The first picture of the Wigwam Motel wasn't too horrible, so here it is:

I still want some better photos on the trip back!


This is where I stayed Monday night

Off to Illinois

I have not been very diligent about updating the blog, but I promise to be better from here on out. Tomorrow I leave on my long-awaited and long-anticipated trip to Illinois! I am all packed, with everything lined up by the garage to be loaded in the morning. You would think I was going for a year, rather than a little over three weeks! Two suitcases, two crates filled with binders, books and files, a camera bag, my techie backpack (you know, the laptop, i Pad, Nook and all of their cords and such!) and, of course, a bag of munchies for the 6 day drive to get there. Oh yes, and my two cases of CD's in case I get tired of books on tape and XM radio. I have maps and books on Route 66, with places picked out to stop and investigate. I'll try to add a little blurb every day to let everyone know where I am and what I saw.

As for genealogy news, I have visited two cemeteries and taken tombstone rubbings from my parents' marker and my grandfather's head stone. (I posted pictures on the cemeteries page, if you're interested) I have found quite a few of the Illinois ancestors listed in cemetery listings online, so I actually know where to go to find them. Every time I came across a name it was very exciting for me. You have to remember that I never knew any of these people, and never even knew about them until very recently. Every time I see a name, or a picture of a headstone, I think "They really are real! These people really did exist and they are my family!". So, pardon my enthusiasm, but I am eager to go "meet" my grandparents, and great grandparents, and begin to put together an idea of the life they lead.

One of the other exciting finds that I made was that on both my mother's side - Mom's mother's mother's line - and my dad's side - Dad's father's mother's mother's line - there is a link to the Revolutionary War. We have "certified patriots" on both sides of the family who fought in the war. To find that I come from not one, but two families who sacrificed their lives and families to create this country awes me. I don't know what words to use to describe my feelings, other than awed. It doesn't really change who I am, but gives me more depth, maybe. I am proud to be able to say I am connected to people who were present at the birth of our nation.

Well, that is it for tonight. There have been other findings in the past month, but I will catch up on those at a later date. I am off to finish the last few things, then sleep, then up early to hit the road. Next post will be from Gallup, New Mexico!

New Page added

Check out the new page on cemeteries! It will be updated as I visit new places, and will undoubtedly go through many overhauls before I am "happy" with it.