Day 1 – 2015 Transcontinental Trip

National Parks, Travel

By the numbers:

  • 271 miles from Seattle to Walla Walla.
  • highest temp:  95.
  • highest elevation: 3022 feet at Snoqualmie Pass crossing the Cascades out of Seattle.
  • 2 states : Washington & Oregon.
  • licence plates spotted:  15 different states and provinces.
  • 2 National Park sites:  Whitman Mission & Oregon Trail.
  • 2 major rivers crossed:  The Mighty Columbia – 3 times – The Snake.

Today was an easy day for the start of our travels.  We were surprised to find the Whitman Mission open today as the website says they are only open Wednesday to Sunday.  Glad we stopped as it will save some back tracking tomorrow.  The area around Walla Walla is very pretty.  It is on the edge of the Washington Palouse region which is geographically very similar to Western Iowa, where I grew up.  There are high rolling hills and very erodible soil, though the climate is dryer so there is more irrigation than in Iowa.

The historical story of the Whitman Mission is a very sobering story.  It is part of the general story of the poor treatment of Native Americans throughout history, but is specifically the story of the consequences of arrogant and misguided good intentions.

We have seen many parts of the Oregon trail on prior trips, but never this section of it.  Many people stopped here for respite before completing the last part of their journey to the Willamette Valley.

Tomorrow we stop at the Nez Perce National Historic Park.  We will learn of the story of the Nez Perce (Nimiipuu) people in this part of the country.  The Historic area is huge, covering land in 4 states and includes 38 specific historic sites.  We will just be stopping at the main park location and will have to see more of the park on some future trip.  Then onto the Boise area.  A bit longer day tomorrow but we should see some beautiful country driving south through Idaho.  The most exciting part of this trip is that we will be seeing so much of the country we have never seen before.  Except for the first hour today and a few hours on Thursday, the entire trip of about 10,000 miles up til we get to Kansas City next month will be on roads and through areas we have never seen before.

Day 0 – 2015 Transcontinental Trip

Family Pictures, National Parks, Travel

Final preps for the trip today.  Amazing how many devices we travel with these days:  computers, phones, pods, nook, hearing aides, etc.  Hope we have all the chargers and connectors we need.  Had a final gathering with all 4 boys for a birthday celebration at our favorite Italian restaurants, Soprano’s.  Tomorrow we start our trip with a short drive of less than 300 miles to Walla Walla and our first National Park Site, Whitman Mission.

 

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Count Down to 2015 Trip -14 days

National Parks

14 days till we leave for a cross country trip.

2015 trip overview

 

Leaving in 2 weeks for a family reunion for all the descendants of Nick & Mary Goeser, to be held at the century farm owned by my cousin in Panama, Iowa.  The reunion is scheduled for August 9th so we decided to use this as an excuse to see parts of the country we haven’t been to before.  My wife and I have visited about 200 national park locations in the past 5 years.  We have a trip planned which will take us to, or at least near, many parks we have never been to.  The summary plan at this point has us traveling about 12,000 miles in about 60 days, through at least 23 states, to 50 or more national parks sites, many other museums, NASA, and Civil Rights related historical sites, with visits with friends and family along the way.

With 2 weeks left til launch we are busy trying to decide on how to pack our little Prius with the essentials for such a trip.  We will be traveling through parts of the country and hot weather that we are not used to so it is hard to know what is essential.

I plan to try to blog daily during the trip. Follow along if you want to hear about some of the amazing sites to see across this great country of ours.  For family members, I look forward to seeing you at the reunion in August.

 

 

Look Family

Dead Ends, Genealogy

My wife has a great grandmother named Frances Look.  She was born in about 1849 in Wisconsin or possibly in England.  I believe her parents were Robert Look and Mary (possibly Martyn).  Frances (age 2) and her parents (Robert-age 36 and M A-age 25) and a silbing, E. A. (age 4) are in the 1850 census for Eagle, Waukesha, Wisconsin.  They are all listed with a birthplace of England.  I have been able to find only one tidbit on what happened to the rest of her family.   There is a Jacob Look listed in the Mortality Schedules for 1850 as having died in Waukesha county Wisconsin in May 1850 at 1 month of age.  I have an assumption that he may have been Frances’ younger brother.

Frances then shows up with the Martin (Martyn) family in 1860 in Lindon, Sheboygan, Wisconsin.  The Martin family consists of Emanuel (age 59), Elisabeth (age 40) and James (age 18).  There is no indication of how they are related to Frances.  They are all listed as having been born in England, but now Frances is listed as having been born in Wisconsin.  The Martyns may be related to the Looks, they may be friends who immigrated from England with the Looks, or they may be unrelated people who took in Frances when something happened to the rest of her family.

By 1870 Frances had married David Underhill, a civil war veteran, and they were living in Lyndon, Sheboygan, Wisconsin with one son, Edward.  I know of no further connection with the Martyn’s except that her son Harry listed Frances’ maiden name as Martin when he got married.  (The other son, Edward,  listed her maiden name as Look).  The Martyn family later moved to Pittsfield, Brown, Wisconsin, where Immanuel (1800-1880), Elizabeth (1810-1885), and James Lodge Martyn (1842-1924) are all buried.

I am looking for information on two things:

First, what happened to Frances’ family?  1850 in Southeast Wisconsin was wilderness.  There could have been deaths from illness, from accidents, from conflicts with Native Americans.  I have no clue at this time.

Second, who where the Looks? Look is a very difficult name to do research on.  It is both a common English name and a common English word.  I can find some Robert Looks in England but not with enough information to connect them with our family.

If any of this connects with anyone else’s research or historical or family information I would be grateful if you would contact me.

Dead Ends

Dead Ends, Genealogy

I have been successful in tracing most of our family lines at least back to the generation that “jumped the pond.”  For a few lines I have pretty solid information back to the early 1700’s, the 1600’s, and even beyond.  However, as is the case with anyone doing ancestry work there are always brickwalls to work on.  Here is a list of the closest deadends in my ancestry research.  These are the brick walls for which I would most appreciate any help from others.

Great Great Grandmother –  Rose Ann or Rosanne McCarty, born 14 Sep 1814 in Loudoun county Virginia, died 23 Mar 1863 in McConnelsville, Morgan, Ohio. She married Fenton Ethell (1816-1891) on 18 Aug 1836 in Fauquier county Virginia.  I have been unable to find any leads on her parents.

Great Great Grandparents – Johnathon G Miller (1834-1922) and Barbara (Wappes?) (1841-1913).  I tentatively have his parents as Eli Miller (1804-1886) and Catherine Eva Whistler (1814-1897), and her parents as Casper Wappes (1793-1865) and Margaret (1786-1873), but my documentation is very weak.

my wife’s Great Great Grandparents – Nicholus Mueller and Barbara Bastian, parents of Magdalena Mueller (1859-1923).

3rd Great Grandparents – the parents of Anna Margaretha Philippi (1805-1870):  Peter Phillipi and Maria Caspers.  I have their names but no other helpful information.

3rd Great Grandmother – Amelia Schoenen (1825-1886) who married Nicholas Peter Kuhl (1827-1919).  I beleive her father may have been Peter Schoenen (1799-1860) but I have no other information on him or his wife.

my wife’s 3rd Great Grandfather – Andre Schuver (1778-1850), Wiesviller, Moselle, Lorraine, France.  There were Schuvers in Wiesviller from the 1600’s onward but I have not been able to make the connection with Andre.