ON THE ROAD
September 15th, 2006. Ok it's been another while since I've been to McConnelsville. We went today, Bruce, Omar, Jaren and myself. It's only been five months and that's good. It seems a lot longer though. Today we went to the Morgan County Historical Society. Wow! That was really neat in there and if you get the chance, you should go in. All kinds of old stuff in there. Plus it has obits to look up~! I found three or four that I needed. After that we went over to a long lost cousins house. Her name is Sue Woods-Jewell. She is Bruce's second cousin, my third. She is the daughter of Verna Rudolph-Woods. Verna is the daughter of Etta Mae Anderson-Rudolph. Etta Mae was the sister to Ethel Carrie Savage-Anderson, Bruce's mother. We got to meet Sue and her husband Kash. They are very nice people. After visiting with Sue and Kash, Omar dropped Bruce and me off at the library there in McConnelsville. We went into the nice genealogy room there. I couldn't spend a lot of time which was unfortunate for me. But I did manage to get a hold of a birth record book. It was from the late 1800's. I also found two old year books; one from 1941and one from 1942. Both of which my grandfather Bruce is in. It was so neat to see photos of him in high school on the football team and basketball team. He was also in track. Like I said there was so much there to see and read but so little time. Not to mention the fact that I left my cell phone in the car and I told Omar I would call him when we were ready. So we waited for awhile but he finally showed up. After that we rode over to the McConnelsville Cemetery again. Bruce wanted to put a flag and a metal ...oh I can't think of what it's called,...a metal honor thing from the war on his dads grave. I also got a few more photos of some grave stones that I needed. After that we were going to head on out to "the bucket" but we did not have enough time. So I plan on going back to Mc'sville again here in the next few weeks, this time without Omar and Jaren. I always feel as though I have to hurry when I have others with me. Even when I have Bruce with me.
March 17th, 2006. WOW!! I cannot believe it has been almost TWO YEARS since our last road trip. But a lot has happened in my life including a new baby, so....Well anyway. Today we went to McConnelsville to meet two of our cousins! Mrs. Norma Jean Thompson and Mrs. Eloise Sutton. Both are the daughters of Mina Hill Roberts. I was at the very least, incredibly excited to finally meet! I've been tracing these roots for awhile now and it's wonderful to make a breakthrough. I took Bruce and Jaren (my new baby) and we met them at the Library, but decided to go over to "The Four Seasons" restaurant there in McConnelsville. It was a nice little place. The kind of place you go to in a small town where everyone knows everyone. Well, we talked and talked and showed information to one another. It was really nice. Oh, while we were there, we ran into the man who gave me my first big lead on finding all these relations in Mc'sville. Mr. Walter Van Horn. He heard us talking and heard his name and came up and introduced himself! Talk about a coincidence!! I got some questions answered and they had some for me. Afterwards we went to McConnelsville Cemetery to take a few photos of some gravestones. Well I got photos of Judy & Sara Dailey, Ardith & Charles Dailey, Mina & Lionel Roberts, and Ethel Roberts. I also got some photos of Eloise and Norma Jean.
July 17th, 2004. Bruce and I left for McConnelsville today and went to the Mt. Zion Cemetery. Talk about a hard to find place. We also found the wonderful man, Ray Dingey, who I have been corresponding with trying to find grave locations. He took us to the cemetery where I found all the graves and have photos now for them. It was great to find my great's finally! Now if we can just find the rest of them!
October 16th, 2004. Bruce, Omar and I left for McConnelsville around 2:00pm this afternoon. It was a chilly and drizzly day. It did clear up once we started our Cemetery hunt and the sun came out for awhile. We went to the Malta Cemetery first and it's up on this huge hill that would be what seems to me impossible to get up in the winter time. We found a few McElfreshs there and a few McIntyres, but the best find was Bruce's Aunt Etta and Uncle J.B. We also found J.B.'s brother Charles. Charles lived with Etta and J.B.'s daughter Mina till his death. Their headstones can be found on MINA's homepage.
The next stop was the McConelsville Cemetery, where Bruce and I have already searched twice before, but what the hey...third times a charm right? Well it was!! This time Omar found Arthur, Ethel AND Sara's headstone altogether! I had just turned the wrong way when he yelled out to me, "Hey isn't it Arthur C?" Being very excited I said "Yes!" Even though I knew it wasn't Arthur C, I had a feeling he had found it. Then he said, "And Ethel C.?" I said "YES! But it's Arthur F!" He said, "That's what I meant...and here's Sara!!" I was so excited and Bruce was so happy! You can see their photos from Arthur's page.
We stopped at the VFW so Bruce could get a flag and honor badge for his father's grave that we will be taking up next time. Of course, next time I want to find Mina's grave, and the grave of all her children. I would like to FIND any relations to them as well.