Next we spent a few days with Mom in her home town of Rock Rapids, Iowa, then visited Lovriens at Lake Okoboji.  Then on Father’s Day we drove through several notable towns (to me at least), with my wonderful daughter Stephanie buying meals.  First, the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend… magnificent.  Then to Union Cemetery in Humboldt, where more Lovriens are buried than anywhere else.  Visited my grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather’s graves for the 1st time.

We then headed into Cherokee, where I realized I should visit my aunt there but I had not called ahead.  She and her family were wonderfully accommodating and we had a nice visit.  Then to Quimby, my dad’s hometown, to visit my grandmother’s grave.  Then back to Omaha to spend the rest of the evening and the next day with my dad.

Be sure to click the photo above to view the full slideshow.икони

We were worried because she had taken a fall a couple of weeks before and was still in rehab after back surgery.  But we got there and she was as chipper as ever, excited to look through old photos with us and tell family stories.  We did that for 5 solid hours on Saturday, and then after a short rest she asked us to “break her out of jail” and take her to the main dining hall at the retirement home.  It was a bit of a production with the wheelchair, oxygen tank and all, but she really seemed to enjoy it and all her friends were glad to see “Glad” out and about.  And when I say friends I mean just about everybody in the entire complex, because they all know her and she knows every one of them by name!

I took quite a few pictures (click the photo above for a slideshow), I also recorded a short video of Aunt Glad inviting my Dad down to visit her:

In addition to the great visits with Aunt Glad and also my Lovrien cousins Joe & Sonna Trotzig (who live in the same development), we also got some time to take an air-boat ride in the Everglades and lay in the sun on Key Biscayne.  Excellent weekend!

I have set up a basic website and am currently working on some cool online genealogy software that will help us all track our Lovrien lineage.  I am also offering free email forwarding addresses (like david@lovrien.com) for any Lovriens who would like one.

“Gravehunting on Friday the 13th” 

 
George Washington Lovrien (1821-1854) – East Topsham, VT

Next we drove into Barre (turns out it is pronounced “Barry”) and to Elmwood Cemetery where I found the Keith family.  Another 3rd-great-grandfather, Francis Keith is buried here along with his parents and two of his three wives.  The wife from my direct line was Clarissa Batchelder, who was born in nearby Plainfield, so that was our next stop.

Francis Keith (1796-1868) – Barre, VT

Plainfield (as many towns around here) is very quaint and rustic, and it seems there are more people buried in the cemeteries than live in the town.  We found the main old cemetery in the center of town and found lots of Batchelders, but no solid connections.  We had lunch in a small cafe and asked about other graveyards.  They pointed us to a tiny graveyard where we found only a couple dozen graves but the drive was beautiful.

Village cemetery, Plainfield, VT

Then we drove into the state capitol, Montpelier, to do some research.  I spent about an hour in the library and found some great town histories that put stories to many of the graves we had found.  I also found a map of all the cemeteries in the state and saw we had missed at least one other big one in Plainfield.  But by that time I began wondering if Clarissa had not already been married prior to becoming Francis’ 2nd wife, which would change my strategy significantly.  We decided to move on.Next stop was Chelsea and the drive was a bit of an adventure.  The map showed a state road that would connect us but we drove up and down the highway and never saw the turn-off.  We decided to gamble and take the street marked only “Chelsea Rd”.  We figured, why would they call it that if it didn’t go to Chelsea?  Seemed like sound logic, but the signs quickly got ominous (today’s date kept popping into my head).  After several miles we came to a sign that said “PAVEMENT ENDS”.  Great.  We forged ahead.  It became a dirt road, but it was in good shape.  Then we came to another sign saying “ROAD NARROWS”.  Wonderful.  The road got smaller and our doubts got bigger.  We wondered what the next sign might say – Dead End? Cow Path?  But sure enough it let us out onto the next leg and we were fine.  Still, it’s weird that a dirt road would end up on an interstate map.

Chelsea is a “shire town” – Vermont’s word for a county seat, and we ended up visiting 3 large cemetaries.  Two were in town off the main road and the other was quite a ways outside town (off another long dirt road).  Found several interesting gravestones and took pictures but never found the two we were looking for (Amos Hood & Sally Ramsdell).  We found at least one Amos Hood but the dates were newer than the old-timers we sought.  We followed a lead another genealogist had sent me and stopped by the local country store, where they sell a paperback on local history that mentions my family quite a bit.

By the time we finished in Chelsea (and our SEVENTH cemetery of the day!)  It was dark and we decided to head back to the hotel.  Tomorrow we’re going to meet up with my genealogy friend up here and then head across the state to Bennington.