A day or two after my last post I got a 14 day trial subscription to ancestry.com which proved to be a very good thing as well as a very bad thing.
The bad part is that I ignored all housework and office work (yes, now the tax deadline is only 9 days away and our accountant is expecting several reports from me still). But.....
In my 9 day family history binge I got to know several of my ancestors on my Grandma Rains' side. Both sets of her grandparents emigrated from England.
The bad part is that I ignored all housework and office work (yes, now the tax deadline is only 9 days away and our accountant is expecting several reports from me still). But.....
In my 9 day family history binge I got to know several of my ancestors on my Grandma Rains' side. Both sets of her grandparents emigrated from England.
Her paternal grandfather sailed from England in May of 1866, landed in New York, took a train to the edges of the US, and joined a wagon train (the wagons were for supplies - all the people WALKED) from Nebraska to Utah. I was ecstatic to learn that I actually had a real pioneer ancestor.
I say "real" because several other ancestors on many different family lines were pioneers in their own time (my mom and her parents came over from Holland in the '40s). The one story that made the world seem really small was that my Grandma Rains' maternal grandfather and his family came to Utah in 1908 (fortunately for them the trains brought them the whole way from their port in Maine). Their ship's logs mention that he had lost his left leg and wore an artificial limb. When they got to Utah they settled in Provo.
I say "real" because several other ancestors on many different family lines were pioneers in their own time (my mom and her parents came over from Holland in the '40s). The one story that made the world seem really small was that my Grandma Rains' maternal grandfather and his family came to Utah in 1908 (fortunately for them the trains brought them the whole way from their port in Maine). Their ship's logs mention that he had lost his left leg and wore an artificial limb. When they got to Utah they settled in Provo.
Within 2 years of arriving in a new country he owned his own home (upstairs) and grocery store (downstairs). That home still stands and the owners following him also ran the store, however they built a separate building next to their home to use as the store. This store is one block away from Trevor's grandpa's old home so Trevor shopped in this store when he was a young kid. Small world, huh?!
There are many more stories (like the ancestor who was a "nitroglycerin exploder") but time is short (remember my tax deadline).
For events that happened over the past few weeks, I'll refer you to my other post which I'll update shortly. I did take a photo a day but I haven't posted them in almost 2 weeks. I'll try and remedy that now.
There are many more stories (like the ancestor who was a "nitroglycerin exploder") but time is short (remember my tax deadline).
For events that happened over the past few weeks, I'll refer you to my other post which I'll update shortly. I did take a photo a day but I haven't posted them in almost 2 weeks. I'll try and remedy that now.
2 comments:
Yeah! You're back. I was going to start harassing you. That is fun to find out about your ancestors. Good luck with the taxes.
WOW...the stories are the part of family history that I am really interested in...I love that you got the stories....It seems we have no stories from our family....only birth and death dates.
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