On My Way

I left this morning, shortly after 10 a.m., about an hour after I had intended to. Arrived in La Grande a little before 3, and checked into my motel, unpacked, unwound just a tiny little bit before heading off to Eastern Oregon University's Pierce Library, to look up some obituaries on microfilm for some of my Union County Oregon relatives. The one I really wanted was for my gg grandmother, Nancy Elizabeth (Davey) Belden, who died in 1889 (not looking up exact date buy I have it) according to the LDS Ancestral File. I know it was a lot to hope for, because these very early obituaries usually contain very little family information, but you never know when you'll get lucky. Looks like I won't get lucky here, because it appears there are no newspapers available which includes the date she supposedly died. I was hoping for (and I know it was a longshot anyway) mention of her parents or at least where she was born. She was married to my gg grandfather in Cayuga Co. NY in the late 1840's, and appears there with husband and a couple kids in the 1850 census. Unfortunately, there are no other Davey's in the census index. Was she dropped off from another planet? I suppose I could get ambitious and read through each township line by line on the 1850, because indexes can be wrong. I just haven't gotten that ambitious yet, but I can see it might come to that some day. Of course there is no guarantee her family was still in the area anyway.

I might add that it took me a long time to get to this library. The camus maps left a little to be desired, and it seems I drove around and around forever with no luck. I ended up at the house I grew up in (we left La Grande when I was 7), but we had already been there a few times over the past few years so it wasn't any big discovery to me. I did ask for directions from a couple of neighbors, but by the time I got back on the road, I had forgotten half of what they told me. I did eventually stumble upon it.

I spent a couple of hours looking at newspapers. Those early newspapers don't usually have obituaries in a neat little section like they do nowadays. So it's read through every page. The first one I found was for Ora Lindsay, who was the adopted daughter of my great grandmother's sister. She died in 1913 at the age of 23. The obit mentioned her husband, but not by name. I assume there were no children, but who knows. I have on my list an obituary for a Laura Lindsay, who died in 1912. Could she have been a daughter of Ora & John Lindsay? Hope to find out on my return trip.

Next I checked for one David Greiner, who was the grandfather-in-law of the lady in Oklahoma who sent me a CD full of pictures of my family in the La Grande area. Her mother-in-law had them, she had no idea why, or if there is any connection between our families. But it was a case in point for posting your families everywhere you can, on message boards, mailing lists, etc. She found me, spend who-knows how many days scanning these pictures, burning them on a CD and sending them to me. One family mystery was semi-cleared up, but a couple more have been introduced.

The last one I found was for my great grandmother's sister, Permelia Elvira Belden Smith, adoptive mother to Ora Smith Lindsay. The obit didn't get mention her name and didn't even get her husband's initial's right. It read "F.M. Smith." Should have been "S.N. Smith." At least it mentioned her surviving sisters and brothers and son, so I know I had the right person in spite of the butchered name/initials. I looked for one for Ora Smith Lindsay's birth mother, who I knew as Rose Anna Hammack McDonald. Thanks to the CD full of pictures and letters, we know who the birth parents were. Ora (her brother is Frank) father died in 1902 in a train accident in North Powder. Was this why these children were given to the Smith's to raise?

But it's late, I am heading to bed in a few minutes. The rest of the trip to Salt Lake will be completed tomorrow. Another report hopefully on Monday.

Salt Lake or Bust!

Every year about this time, my local genealogical society (Clark County Genealogical Society) plans and sets up a research trip to Salt Lake to the LDS Family History Library. This year's trip begins on September 30th, and ends on the 7th of October. A FULL week of genealogical research in the world's largest genealogical repository.

My trip is going to start a day early. I will be leaving on Saturday the 29th, with a stop in La Grande, which is where I was born. I plan on spending some time reading early newspapers on microfilm at Eastern Oregon College, in hopes of finding obituaries for my gg grandmother and one of her sons who died there in the late 1800's. I have a death date for my gg grandmother from the LDS Ancestral File, so that's the place to start looking. I know her son was married in 1890 and does not show up on the 1900 census (nor does his bride, at least not under the Belden surname). Family rumor has it that Alexander Belden was shot or stabbed in a fight over cards in La Grande. Since I don't have a death date, it's read through all the newspapers and hope he died early on. If he really did die in a fight over cards, there should be some newspaper articles. We have visited their gravesites in the Summerville cemetery and there are no tombstones; their cemetery or funeral cards (available on microfilm through the LDS FHL) also contain no death dates. I'm in for a fun time! Now, if those early newspapers are just readable!

Then Sunday morning it's back in the car and drive the rest of the way to Salt Lake. On the way home I'll be stopping in La Grande again, with a full day of newspaper research if I need it.

Originally I was stopping in La Grade on the way home for two extra days, but to make my family feel better about the fact that I'm driving alone, I decided to go part way each day and break up the La Grande trip both coming and going. This makes my dh feel better about my driving, because he was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to handle a 12-13 hour drive alone.

Some of my other daughters worry because they think I'm doing this alone. Once I'm in Salt Lake I'll have a whole bunch of people to hang out with. We usually go as a group each morning to the FHL, eat lunch as a group, eat dinner as a group, and come home as a group. We usually walk there, but the hotel we're booked at always brings us back at specific times (like 5 p.m., 8 p.m, or 9 p.m.). So I'm not walking the streets alone, nor eating alone or anything else alone, except the drive there and back and my time in La Grande.

Today I went to Joann Fabrics. As I was getting into the car, the thought struck me that someone could abduct me just as easily in my own home town in any store parking lot, just as easily as they could from a restaurant, store, gas station, motel, college campus library. So for my daughters who are worrying about me, I'll be fine. I'll have my cell phone, I'll be phoning home my every move (so if I am abducted you'll know where to start looking for me), I'm driving a rental car which stands a MUCH better chance of making the trip than anything we own. I will be safely in my motel room in La Grande after dark, with all the locks locked. Once I get to Salt Lake I will be hanging around with the rest of the Society members so no worries there, either.

I can't wait!