How does one start a genealogy blog? From the beginning? We started researching over 40 years ago—before
blogs and Internet genealogy. So,
no. We’re not starting there.
But, we are going to go forward blogging our experiences, and
we welcome anyone and everyone to contact us if they have any information,
photographs, leads, whatever, that will help reconstruct the family Lines of
Rowe. (See our lines on the right.)
Who are we?
Kim Simpson and Carol Collins . . . aka Rowe first cousins. Our dads were brothers, Ray Rowe and Robert
Hugo Rowe (two of the nine children of Fred Oliver Rowe and Cora Mae Kellogg).
Now what?
We have made many a genealogical mistake in the previous
years.
- We failed to start with our “living” relatives first in the excitement of finding our ancestors before them.
- We didn’t ask questions.
- We didn’t put together their lives.
And now we’re paying the price. Our generation, along with our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren are the only ones who are alive now. So here we are, left to reconstruct the lives
of our grandparents and those who raised us.
So this is how we’ll start blogging—from where we are at
today. We’ll blog our accomplishments and
our mistakes as we go forward. This will
become our diary of exploration, the ups and downs of what we find or do not
find. We’ll do it all at the risk of
embarrassment of exposure in this blog!
So here goes.
We’ll start with our latest research trip.
Our first trip was a disaster, well, not really, but we had
never done one and didn’t have a “plan.”
We just went and searched for anything and everything we could. And we were successful. We got headstone photos and some documents
from a county building. Future trips were more organized, as we became more experienced.
And now, it is our hope that we can look most professional as we head out on
research . . .
Enter a couple weeks ago.
Hmmmm. Our plan:
Friday: Land records
in Gladwin County, Michigan.
Okay. So let’s
combine it with a visit to Carol’s cabin, in Gladwin County. We take a couple days off work (we know
county courthouses are not available on weekends). The weather is supposed to be perfect, and the
colors are starting to turn. A perfect
fall getaway trip and the ability to progress on our Rowe genealogy. So, we’re all set. Plans are made. Kim and husband drive to the cottage on Thursday
afternoon and us cousins prepare for a full Friday of research.
Oops! We failed to
call the county building to verify the office we needed was open on a
Friday. It wasn’t.
No problem. Thanks to
electronic records and the web, we knew by the 1930 and 1940 census where they
lived. We just needed to find it.
Oops! When talking
with Carol’s brothers (who live in Gladwin as well), their father had taken
them each there and the property they saw was NOT where the census said the
Rowe’s lived. Which was correct? Both brothers, separately, described the same
place as the family farm. Neither of
them knew anything about the property the census showed they lived on. So, we decided to check out the property the
brothers saw and deep six the census location at the present time.
So off we went to photograph the property today—unfortunately
the old family farm was no longer there. It was interesting property, however, and we also got photos of the Clement Township Hall, as it used to be the
school where Robert went (before restoration).
That was it.
We then decided to check out the antique stores in West
Branch, Ogemaw County. Clement Township
abuts Ogemaw County so maybe, just maybe, there’d be some old photos or
something. Nothing. But—the historical museum was open—for 20
more minutes by the time we got there. There
wasn’t a lot to help us there, since the Rowes lived in Gladwin County. However, the curator of the museum went digging through mountains of stuff trying
to help us find something. And she
did. I walked away with a photograph of
the high school my father, Ray Rowe, attended, the way it looked the year he
attended it. So, there’s one “success.”
(For some reason he graduated from West Branch High School even though they
lived in Gladwin County.)
The curator also helped us verify that the Gladwin Historical Museum
was open on Saturday, so that became our next day’s destination.
Next stop, the West Branch library. The “genealogy” corner was sparse, and they
did not have a high school yearbook from 1942.
So, we were done in West Branch.
That was it. A nice,
pretty drive, though. Oh, and we stopped by the Edwards Township Cemetery in
Ogemaw County and photographed our Aunt Doris and Uncle Jesse’s graves on the
way home. Jesse Marcelous Rowe was
another brother to Ray and Robert.
Saturday: Off to the
Gladwin Historical Museum.
A beautiful museum, with a lot of displays and records, but it
had nothing that could help us with specific details. We talked to Bruce Guy from the Gladwin County Genealogical Society, who was managing the museum
for the day, and he was most cordial and helpful.
Bruce was in the process of putting together a World War II
book about veterans from Gladwin County.
He had both our father’s names, but no other information about
them. And he had not really seen any
information about the Rowe’s in any of his Gladwin County research. We know they were in the county about 30-40
years, and that they were poor farmers, so we weren’t surprised. He took our names, our father’s (and
grandparents) names, and said he’d keep his eye out for information. And we agreed to send him the service
information we had about our fathers.
Bruce was also the library director, and he informed us that
the genealogy room was not open on Saturdays.
Oops. We should have
checked the library hours.
We did go to the war memorial down the street, found our
father’s names, and photographed them.
Gladwin County War
Memorial
World War II names on
Memorial
That was it.
Lessons Learned:
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS do your pre-research trip homework and
planning. This time it was no big deal
as we were just “getting together” in the area anyway, and thought we could
cross something off our list.
BUT: Even when you
don’t do your homework, you can always find something. Dig deep into records, even ask to see those
that aren’t around in front of you, and look through all the photos and papers
and scrapbooks and displays. You might
find a piece to your puzzle, even if it is just a small one (like a photo of
the local high school back in 1942). Be
cordial and friendly to the museum curators and librarians and antique dealers
and county employees. Talk with them
about what you know and what you’re looking for, and show an interest in what
they’re doing and what projects they’re working on. You never know who might have information you
can use, or what you have that might help them!
A day after our trip to the Gladwin County Historical Museum,
we had an email from Bruce Guy, who, after we left him, so generously searched
the Gladwin County historical papers and sent us nine pages of articles from
them that mentioned the Rowe family. So
now we have something to start recreating their lives! But, another well-planned trip will be
made to discover the land records of the Rowes.
So was this trip a success?
Absolutely!
Thank you Bruce Guy, for all your help, research and
everything you have done (especially your work documenting the Gladwin County
veterans)!
And thank you, Dear Myrtle, for the webinars you’ve done through
Legacy Family Tree and their webinars so
we can finally join this century and blog!!!!!
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Dear Myrtle, find her blog at:
http://blog.dearmyrtle.com .
Looking forward to blogging our Lines of Rowe,
Carol (Rowe) Collins
and
and
Kimberly (Rowe) Simpson
