Here it is, not only June 1 already, but Saturday night has rolled around once again. Thank you to Randy Seaver for posting SNGF this week, even though he is busy at SCGS Genealogy Jamboree in Burbank.

This week’s theme is all about research vacations:

1)  Have you taken a genealogy research trip and/or vacation to see relatives, research in repositories, walk the ancestral property, etc.?

I have been fortunate enough to take several genealogy research trips. The first was way back when I first began working on the family tree. In the summer of 1980, we took a trip to New England. I had a chance to visit Calais, Maine, home to much of my mother’s side of the family back into the mid 1800s. I met my grandmother’s half sister, Lydia, and Bertha Eldridge, a cousin on my grandfather’s side of the family.

While in Maine and then Massachusetts, we traipsed through quite a few cemeteries. To access one, the old Gloucester Burying Ground, we had to drive through someone’s backyard! However, I visited the grave sites of two ancestors, James Sayward and his wife, Deborah Stover Sayward, who died in 1737 and 1734. Both gravestones were still standing and legible. I was even more surprised when we visited Groton, Massachusetts and found the oldest original gravestone for any of my ancestors, that of James Robertson, an original proprietor of the town, who died in 1729!

Gravestone of James Robertson

Two other research trips stand out in my mind. The first was in the 1990s when my husband and I met up with his aunt and uncle in Barry County, Missouri. We spent several days visiting cousins and copying pages found in the county courthouse records, including the divorce papers of his 2X great grandfather, Isaac Sturgell, from Susannah Douthit Alberty, his 2X great grandmother but through a different ancestor. Their children, Abijah Houston Sturgell and Martha Susannah Alberty married after each of their parents married a second time.

Susannah’s divorce settlement – an old gray mare!

The third trip, the most recent, is the one that my hubby was most excited about – not for the genealogical aspect, but because he got to see Copenhagen and southern Sweden, places he had never been. After I broke through my long-standing Scandinavian brick wall, I was determined to visit Copenhagen and southern Sweden, homes to my 3X great grandparents, Johannes Jensen and Johanna Elisabetha Molin.

Rosenborg Castle

Johannes was a career soldier in the Danish army and spent his time stationed at Rosenborg Castle, home to the Danish crown jewels. He was one of the company musicians and I believe he likely accompanied the changing of the guard.

Still on my research field trip bucket list are visits to Langenlonshim and Barbelroth, Germany, home to the Stufflebeans and others in my husband’s tree and to Udol, Hajtovka, Vysna Sebastova and Ruska Nova Ves, home to my Slovak great grandparents. Maybe next year!

Thanks Randy for this week’s challenge.