Travels in 2008, and 2007

Updates

22 Nov 2007
Yuma, yet again

     Wow, I just received an email from an old San Carlos friend, with a brief description of their recent travels - nothing exciting, unless you call a cruise from Rio to Barcelona such. Or, the one after that, the 14-day cruise of the eastern Mediterranean, including Istanbul, Rhodes, Delos, Mykonos, Santorini, Sicily, Montenegro, Croatia and Venice. Okay, so I was overwhelmed. What's really the killer is that all of that was leading up to the mention of a forth-coming voyage from Hong Kong to Athens. Oh, my.

     Okay, so our upcoming week in San Felipe, Mexico on the Sea of Cortez isn't quite the same. But I can drive there from here, in my own little car and not have to mess with one airport nor security device. There are benefits. I've begged for copies of her edited videos. Sig is a world-class videographer and editor. She taught me all I used to know on the subject. We spent some really terrific hours together laboring over old non-user-friendly equipment, making them create beautiful objects.

     Last week's blog from Mike 'n Dawn was about their fantastic journey to Lesotho and Bloemfontain, with a short stop-over again at the animal park for visits with lions and tigers and bears, oh, my. Or was that giraffe and water buffalo and elephants, oh, dear? His photos are coffee-table book quality, and he takes lots of them. It's so fun traveling vicariously with all these classy people. (Does going to the new James Bond flick this week and watching him have adventures in all those foreign countries count also?)

I borrowed one of Mike's photos.

     Nancy and I went to Mesa for a few days and had a wonderful time learning about high-tech in genealogy research. A number of the Big Names in the industry were there and the educational sessions were terrific. I came home enthused and eager to do it right, this time. Maybe.

From 11 Nov Yuma

     We also stopped by to check on the Elder Grandson Trevor - he was living just a few blocks from our hotel. He looked (and hugged) very well. He only has 6 months to go on his Mormon mission, and is trying to get all his little ducks in a row to get back into school. He's re-applying to the military academies - he was accepted at West Point last time, but they washed him out on medical because of asthma. Now perhaps they will have changed their minds? We'll see. All the paperwork is apparently in. It's just the waiting.

From 11 Nov Yuma

     Elder Knowles broke his nose playing indoor soccer a couple of months ago. I was interested to see if the plastic surgeon had put him back together in the same format - apparently so. I recognized him.

     I'm trying to begin a habit of stopping in a couple of days a week at the Senior Community Center to play with the old folks doing their arts and crafts. They put the gourd people back in one corner, but that's okay. All sorts of people are doing all sorts of things at least 3 days a week. Mostly they play well with others, even. No one seems to mind when you drop shavings on the floor. I've not yet signed up for the Senior Belly Dancing class.

     And Chris let me order my Christmas present early - a Turbo Carver is on its way. This is the really high speed carver that cuts as easy as carving butter and does all kinds of fancy detail work. The warning with the okay to order was something about my now being required to carve gourds 18 hours a day... Hmmmm.

     Bad news this week was about another friend, who was just diagnosed with a malignancy - a lump in the breast. But I have an optimistic attitude - they caught it early, it's not a nasty kind (who ever thought we would distinguish between bad and really bad?) and the doctors have every confidence she will have a Cancer Survivor story soon. I knew there must be some kind of problem when her blog entries suddenly quit. I'm so glad it isn't any worse. Joan is finally over the shock and ready to start the battles. All prayers and good wishes for her will be appreciated.

Quote for the day:
The definition of Hope: the belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life.
I have hope for Joan.

Lot Wright - my brick wall

10 Nov 2008
Yuma, AZ

     I spend many hours per week "playing" with family history and genealogy - which are somewhat different animals. There's MY family history and then there is Genealogy in general - finding and identifying old dead people, and then linking them to someone still alive. It's fun! Not everyone's cup of tea, of course. But amusing in the same way a jigsaw puzzle is.

    I'm involved in a couple of indexing projects, where I am provided digital images of old records and asked to enter the information into a pre-formatted form. Eventually, all million plus marriages listed in the county courthouse records in Indiana will be easily searchable on-line by anyone, anywhere. I do this because I want someone else to do it for me. The LDS Church through its familysearch.org has had a volunteer program going for some time. It includes census, birth, probate, marriages, death records, etc. - from all over the world, all heading for your computer. This is wonderful, trust me! Now ancestry.com is starting a similar project. Both projects are also teaming up with state, local and national data centers, including the National Archives. The capabilities of technology are awesome for someone who started this addiction back when people used typewriters to send off letters.

So, I've decided to occasionally put in a family history story to amuse my loyal viewers. [And to experiment with putting google maps into the narrative. Something I learned from my geeks on tour buddies.]

Once Upon a Time, Long Long Ago...

Today's story is Lot Wright. Lot is elusive. Lot is not attractive (see the only known photo of him - probably taken about 1880 in California.)  The search for Lot's roots has led me into many obscure courthouses and down many dusty shelves in libraries. My cousin Phyllis and I agreed that if and when we get to the same place on the other side, we are going to give him a piece of our mind for not leaving more information on his parents and family!

     Lot was born in Pennsylvania about 1811. He died in 1889 in California. That's it. That's all we know. His parents were probably born in Virginia - at least that's what he told a census taken in 1880 in Calaveras county, California. [Which is now home of the world famous Frog Jumping Contest. And yes, I once entered said contest... my frog lost. But only because he was so distracted by my loving looks beforehand.]

  

Sorry, back to the story...

     Lot moved to Hancock county, Indiana about 1830 and purchased property - I have a photocopy of the deed to his lot in downtown Greenfield, Indiana. In 1833, he married Mary Martin, the daughter of Micajah and Mary Martin, late of Maysville, Kentucky. Lot and Mary had a total of seven children over the next 15 years. They purchased land just north of Greenfield where Lot farmed for a while. He obviously had the Wright genes, however, y'know, the ones that require we move often? After living in Hancock county about five years, they pop up in Preble county, Ohio, where they had a couple of children, then they were back in Hancock county, Indiana by 1848. In 1859, at the age of 50, Mary Martin Wright died. Their youngest son, Addison, was only 11.

     If you click on the "view larger map" link, you will be able to see the various locations mentioned in this fascinating tale.

View Larger Map

     Mary's parents, Micajah (mi kay' jaw) and Mary Martin, also lived in Hancock county. The Martin family and their connections to Maysville, Kentucky and Somerset county, New Jersey, will be outlined in another posting, someday. Perhaps. Mary's mother died there in Hancock county about 1837; her father died in 1844. Other brothers and sisters lived close by - sister Angeline Martin lived next door and was married to Edmund Brizendine. (She had previously been married to Gilbert Wright, quite likely Lot Wright's brother, but that connection hasn't been proven.) William B. Martin, her only identified brother, lived there. Sisters Amelia, Nancy and Helen all were married in Hancock county during the time from 1834 to 1844 (to Haden Brock, Jehu Lewis and Harrison S. Morgan, respectively).

     In 1860, just a year after his wife's death, Lot sold all his property in Hancock county and headed West.

His sons likewise left the area:

*Micajah Wright moved to Woodson county in southeast Kansas.

*Ethan William "Will" Wright didn't leave - he died as a teenager.

*Daniel Gard "Dan" Wright was apprenticed to be a blacksmith, but moved west with his dad about 1860 - they both voted in territorial elections in the high mountain mining country of Colorado in 1861. Dan says he spent some time in Virginia City, Montana also. (More about him later also - this is great-grandpa Dan.)

*John Simeon "Sim" Wright went to Illinois and then Texas before he ended up in California before 1886.

*The only girl, Mary J. Wright, married and remained in the Greenfield area. She is believed to be the one who died and was buried next to her mother in 1869 in the Mt. Carmel Cemetery.

*Son Jehu L. Wright is missing - he may have died young, but there was one note in Great-grandpa's writing saying he was in the Civil War. Maybe. Great-grandpa was known for telling tall tales, as were his sons.

*The last and youngest, Addison Wright, lived for a time with his brother in Kansas and then went back to Greenfield to marry a local girl (Mary R. Gant). But they eventually also settled in Kansas.

      In later years the surviving brothers stayed in touch - there are photos and stories of them and their families. I found all these from kissin' cousins in Stockton, California a few years ago.

     Back to Great-Great-Grandpa Lot's story. He arrived at Ione, Amador county, California in time for the 1870 census. He, son Dan (Great-Grandpa Dan) and Dan's wife and 2 children are all there in that census listing; both Lot and Dan give their employment as blacksmith. In 1882, Lot purchased 80 acres under the Homestead Act in Calaveras county, a few miles south of Ione. The closest towns are Burson and Jenny Lind, if you look at the map; it's just 20 miles or so to Angels Camp (back to the frog story). This is also California Gold Country - and they arrived just 15 or 20 years after the big rush. The family began to gather again—about this same time, son "Sim" and family also settled in the county.

[Photo right: Great Grandpa Daniel Gard Wright (1838-1913)

 

     So our family has California roots - Great-Great-Grandpa died and is buried there; Great-Grandpa is buried there; Grandpa Robert Lee Wright was born there. Somewhere in all my mess I have photos of their gravestones. And way down the line, brother Mike was born in Fresno county in the 1940s, a purely unrelated occurrence - our folks just happened to be living temporarily in the Central Valley.

     Most significantly, both my sons were born in the Bay Area. I lived in the state off and on for 8 years in the 60s and 70s and then 15+ years in the 80s and 90s. I loved it; I'm so glad I don't live there anymore...

Stay tuned for more old dead people stories...

 

I don't have to look up my family tree, because I know that I'm the sap.  ~Fred Allen

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance. ~George Bernard Shaw

"Why waste your money looking up your family tree? Just go into politics and your opponents will do it for you." -- Mark Twain

One of my favorite Gary Larson cartoons:

Genealogy Reigns

2 Nov 2008
Happy Birthday to Taft on the 31st!

     This winter I'm planning to concentrate on several genealogy projects - we'll see how much I accomplish.
-finish the Miner photo books
-get info from Huron county, Ohio on the Miners and Munsons and Durfees
-help Nancy and Judy extend their trees
-clean up my office - scan all possible and discard as much as I can stand to

     I started out well. Saturday morning Nancy and I arose at 4 AM!!!! and drove 4 hours to Prescott, AZ to attend an all-day seminar on the Legacy program and research in general (and then drive home again...) It was terrific, but almost killed us. I couldn't believe Nancy wanted to go - they arrived the night before from a 4-day forced march from Minnesota. Obviously she's younger than I. I'd never been to Prescott (pronounced pres' kit). It's a cute little town up in the hills northwest of Phoenix - 6000' elevation.

     My other family history accomplishment is finding new relatives. As a rule, it's dead ones I locate. This year seems to be live ones. A new kissin' cousin popped into the in-mail box the other day and after doing some notes and photos back & forth, introduced me to his half-sister. Both are children (even at mature ages, we are still children of our parents, aren't we?) of my cousin, who died years ago in a motorcycle accident. So, in the past couple of years, I've located, or been located by, groups in Cardston, Alberta, San Antonio, St. Anthony, Idaho, Sioux Falls, and Tucson. Cool.

     Next week Nancy and Judy and I will go to Mesa for a 2-day seminar. More on how-to, more books and gadgets to buy, more enthusiasm - we hope.

We found the Elks Lodge in Prescott.
 

With a big elk waaaaay up on top.

The night before was Halloween, so I utilized my Dremel to carve a pumpkin. This was fun.

Happy Halloween!