On Friday, I placed a call to the Central Records office in Madison County, Indiana, hoping they might have a copy of a marriage record of my 2nd-great grandfather. During a recent search at the Family Search pilot, I made a possible new discovery of a second wife. The record at Family Search, however, did not indicate which county the marriage occurred, and I was hoping that it was in Madison County. Central Records were able to locate the record, and I'm hoping to pick up a copy of it on Tuesday. This was the start of my good fortune this weekend. Will be blogging about this as soon as I obtain the copy.
Saturday, Eileen & I headed north to Plymouth for the Blueberry Festival. It had been 8 years since we had last been able to attend, as my work schedule will not normally allow it. This year was different, and I had Labor Day free from work.
After enjoying the sights, sounds, and food of the festival, we headed towards downtown Plymouth, as I wanted to visit the Marshall County Historical Society and see what information they might have on my CHEW family line. Unfortunately, they were closed so I will have to plan a return trip. The society has been very helpful in the past by providing a copy of a photograph of my CHEW ancestors.
We grabbed a quick bite to eat just south of Plymouth at the Log House Restaurant, an interesting place, and then continued back towards home. We had time to kill, so we decided we would take a road trip over to Lake Maxinkuckee.
A slight detour of our route of U.S. 31 lead us to Maxinkuckee, where Eileen's maternal PEEBLES line had lived. I was hoping that we would be able to find the cemetery where her ancestors were buried, and also to see the lake. It was a most productive drive, as the cemetery we needed to find ended up being right off the highway. The Washington-Lawson Cemetery is well maintained by the township trustees.
Her ancestors must have wanted to be discovered, as I stopped the car just inside the cemetery, took two steps and there was the gravestone of my wife's great-grandmother.
As I began walking around, I was able to locate the graves of Eileen's 2nd, 3rd & 4th-great grandmothers - all within a few feet of each other. Fortunately, I had taken my digital camera with me and was able to snap away. I will be uploading these pictures later to the FindAGrave website and will write future Tombstone Tuesday posts.
Right there in one spot all of the data in the family group sheets were coming to life, so to speak, and I was trying to do my best to explain the relationships of everyone to Eileen. I think she may have caught a little bit of my excitement as well. I tried to photograph as many of the tombstones that were in the same vicinity and any that appeared to be family.
Back home, I opened up my Rootsmagic database and began comparing the newly minted photographs with the data I already had. I was able to identify relationships and discovered that there were other related names at the cemetery that I didn't photograph. A return trip is in order.
I spent time at Ancestry until late Saturday evening locating more family history for Eileen, and discovered that one of her lines crossed with a collateral line of mine back in Brown County, Ohio in the early 1800s.
Sometimes new discoveries will get my 'genealogy juices' flowing...and this is one of those times.
