I would have posted an update last night, but frankly, I was whipped. But the last two days have been very fruitful.
Yesterday had a few moments of frustration, particularly when I went to the Belmont & Bellaire Public Libraries to research the local news coverage of the 1930 Army football recruiting scandal that ended my Grandfathers days as a football players. Unfortunately, I had to fly 500+ miles to discover, in person! that one of the few microfilm rolls missing from the local papers was from November 1930 — the very month I needed. And it’s missing from both libraries. Some might say conspiracy (and wouldn’t that be neat?) but more likely is that particular month was just lost to the sands of time before they could be converted to microfilm. Alas…
But there were also some big wins on Weds as well. I got to spend half the day with my 2nd cousin Barb Kulpa — who shared many new anectdotal stories about my grandfather, and showed me a family bible in which my grandfathers birthdate had been entered with the incorrect date in an obvious attempt to deal with the recruitment issues from 1930. She also provided my with many old family pictures of my college-age Grandfather tinkering with his car, which he used to travel back and forth from Pittsburgh. I’m not sure which surprised me more, that my relatively poor Grandfather was able to afford a car and weekend trips home, or that his car was white with colored polka dots. Seriously, it looked like a clown car.
I don’t doubt the car was made possible in part by the assistance of certain supporters of his football exploits. But we really have come a long way in the last 90 years. Nowadays, if you are getting a player a car, they want a pimped out ride (or maybe, in 1920, polka dots were pimped out?
I also had a great visit with my Great Aunt Betty, Grandpa’s only living sibling. More stories, and some sweet old family pictures!
Probably the highlight of Weds was finding the gravesite of my Great Grandparents from the Williams side of the family. Not only was it an exciting find, but it was also the gravesite of their firstborn, who died at the age of 9, shortly after the family emigrated to America. Until yesterday, there was conflicting evidence that he actually existed. Now we know.
Today was a blast. Lots of deep research, with much better luck in the Wheeling library and lots of good additional news stories. And then a trip to Woodsfield to the cemetery at St. Sylvester’s Catholic Church.
It’s a beautiful cemetery. It’s sits atop the tallest hill in a community that itself sits atop a mountain. It’s no exaggeration that the graveyard is nearly half full of my ancestors. In fact, there are undoubtedly distant cousins still living in town today.
I wrapped the day with a couple hours at the courthouse in Woodsfield, and it really was the coup de gras. In the space of a few hours, I laid my hands on the records of my Grandfather and Great Grandfathers birth, their marriage records, and even cooler, the probate records of my great-great-great grandfathers last will and testament, including an itemized list of what he left behind, and his wishes for which of his kids got what and how much. It was incredibly awesome.
I also found my family’s ancestral home from the mid 1800’s. Or to be more specific, I found where it was. It’s a pharmacy now, which is a bit of a bummer, especially when you look at that old will and see how big of a deal it was that they managed to build it and finally pay with it with the remains of his estate.
Tomorrow, I visit a few more cousins a few hours south of here, and then on a plane back west on Saturday. Fun times!
Dreaming of Heroes 