Anticipation and excitement abounds in our house whenever we prepare for a genealogy field trip. Just wondering who and what we will find – and which new adventures await – is enough to pry us away from internet searches and hit the road. Gary’s maternal ancestors are our only American research line, and we relish every opportunity to search cemeteries, poke around libraries, and visit hometowns.
Our trip last week reinforces what we hear over and over again in the comparison of online and onsite research: online is the tip of the iceberg, and onsite is the submerged chunk that may never see the light of a computer screen. There’s just too much to digitize in America’s small-town libraries and local repositories, and state governments often cannot afford the manpower and technical costs. To access these hidden gems, you’ve just got to go to where the records are!
The migration route of Pennsylvania-Ohio-Illinois-Iowa is the one that Gary’s family followed, and thus, so did we. Belmont County, Ohio, was the home of his Mercer, McKisson, Broomhall, Fields, and Wright families. It doesn’t matter how many times we visit, we always find new information.
The Belmont cemetery tombstones are old and worn, almost impossible to read except when the sunlight hits at a certain angle. Last week, armed with bottles of water and soft brushes and arriving at precisely the right moment of sunlight, we were thrilled to see previously unreadable names and dates.
Prior to this trip, we were able to read only the middle tombstones (Joannah McKisson [Gary’s great-grandmother] & Mary L. McKisson). This time, we were able to read the inscriptions for those on both sides: James Broomhall and Sarah J. McKisson.
Although thousands of tombstone photos are being uploaded to FindAGrave and BillionGraves, unless the photographer can read and transcribe the old headstones, the information is not viewable. It takes persistence to safely clean dirt from a headstone, and patience to wait for the exact interplay of sunlight and shadow to read the inscriptions.
Carol sprays an old tombstone with water, Belmont Cemetery. Note that the dampness settles into the grooves of the letters and the shadow brings out the inscription.
While most researchers know that courthouse records are valuable resources, some forget that small town and rural libraries are treasure-filled repositories. We visited the library in the farm town of Mt. Ayr, Iowa, and were stunned to find not a shelf, but an entire room set aside for local genealogy records! Among the holdings were obituary records spanning from the town’s founding in 1875 to the present day. These were organized by year, and then alphabetically by surname. I was thrilled to find the obituary of Gary’s great-grandfather, Samuel O. Mercer.
Gary photographs the obituary of his great-grandfather, Samuel O. Mercer, found in the Mt. Ayr library’s amazing obituary collection.
In comparison, the genealogy section of the library of Lenox, Iowa, is housed in a small bookcase. Although the collection is very small, we hit pay dirt. As I picked up a nondescript green folder that was wedged between several others, I was stunned to read the title, “Adam Bell & Rachel Prichard, 1799-1972.” Inside was a 34-page descendant’s chart of Gary’s great-great grandfather, Adam Bell, with birth, death, and marriage dates and spouses of Adam’s 16 children and their descendants!
This priceless treasure was created by Beatrice Butler Walker, most likely in commemoration of the 125th anniversary of the founding of Lenox. The entire document is hand-annotated, indicating that the author corrected and added information after its initial creation.
And then, there are always the adventures that make every trip especially memorable. As we turned into a secondary rural road, we saw this:
We looked at each other quizzically. Not understanding its meaning, we forged ahead. Only too quickly did we discover that “rock ends” literally means “the gravel on the road ends.” The previous night’s torrential rainstorm left the dirt road a quagmire of mud. We were stuck! No farmhouse in site; no cell phone connection. Gary had to push our van up the steep hills – not an easy task considering that he sank into the mud and the back tires were spinning uselessly. Miraculously, we made it out. And yes, those are the tracks of our van going up the hill…
After taking hundreds of cemetery photos, visiting extended family and driving over 2,000 miles, we headed home with our treasures. While it may not be convenient or easy to walk the paths of our ancestors, if it is possible, it is always worth the effort.
Carol Kostakos Petranek is a Co-Director of the Washington DC Family History Center, a FamilySearch Volunteer Coordinator, and a Citizen Archivist at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.