So. Ever since I first started reading the Historical Atlas of the East Reserve, I’ve been wanting to head out on the road and find these old villages sites. And so, Andrew and I have been very busy these last few weeks, trying to do just that. I will share the results of these jaunts over the winter.
We have not been wildly successful. There are many reasons for this. Here are the two main ones:
First of all, most of these villages only were disbanded before 1900. Very, very little, if anything at all, remains.
Second of all, most of these village sites are on private land, so permission will first have to be obtained…and that requires a lot of planning. More steps yet to be taken.
So what has kept us so busy then? Well, even though most traces are gone and most sites are private, there are enough public sites listed in the Historical Atlas to keep us quite busy.
We’ve seen and discovered places that are very near to where we live, but which we never knew about. I’m excited to share a few of these discoveries with you over the cold winter months.
We’ve also managed to visit the West Reserve a bit…though I still need to obtain a WR Historical Atlas. Mostly when we go to the WR, I’m using an old family history book to guide me…which is an adventure in and of itself!
Andrew took the feature photo of me when I was preparing my “wish list” of all the places I was determined to visit within one short day. Many sticky notes were used. I also cross-referenced the Atlas with my Back Roads Map. And I have a genealogy printout from Grandma Online too, just for good measure. He said he was taking a picture of me, recording my “process”. But, to be honest, it’s kind of slap-dash. I mean, I’m kind of messy and I’m certainly not a scholar.
A little glimpse into the future…there WILL be a lot of posts about cemeteries.
A little something to look forward to. You’ve been warned!