Happy Trails

Tomorrow I'll go to LeRoy, Kansas and Burlington, Kansas to learn more about Abel, Hannah and their family.

After yesterdays DNA results, I'm glad to be back on familiar ground. I plan to visit their graves. See what other family I can find there, too.

These are things I can wrap my brain around. They lived. They died. They had lives. My job is to find out as much about their lives as I can. To record that information for future generations.

I don't know what else I'll find in LeRoy. Will the school that my grandmother attended still be standing? I hope so. I wish I knew what the address was of the house where they lived. Even if the house is no longer there, I'd love to go by the place my grandmother called home.

My grandmother, Thelma, granddaughter to Abel and Hannah has always been a mystery to me. She died so young. For one reason or another, the memories her husband had of her, and her children had of her were never shared.

Those who knew her are gone or were too young for any memories to survive over the years.

But the roads she walked as a child are still there. The town she grew up in is still there. Her grandparents remains are still there.

Will I learn anything new about my grandmother? Probably not. But I think she likes the idea that I want to go to the area where she spent most of her life.

I will find information about her grandparents though. Maybe some new information about her aunts and uncles.

I don't know if any descendants of the family are still there. I will look in the phone book and see if I can find any. If they are, I'm sure they have a different last name, since I believe it was only the daughters who remained in LeRoy who married.

For me, happy trails are finding the trails my ancestors traveled and exploring them, trying to invision my ancestors when they were in the same physical space. Very happy trails when the wind whispers a soft "thank you for coming to find us."