Two weeks ago, I took a Genealogical Tour

[no_hypocrisy]

I returned to middle Pennsylvania, where my father's side of the family started their American journey.

Both grandparents were Lithuanian Jews. They settled in Dubois and Altoona.

Dubois. I first spent hours in the public library, furiously reviewing the city's Directories, starting at 1918. I tracked the five residences that my grandfather lived in until 1933 and the store he ran. Then I got in my car with my GPS and went to each site in chronological order. Many buildings (homes and businesses) were constructed more than a century ago. I walked up and down sidewalks and took photos, imagining that my grandparents and their family looked at the same things. Even the sidewalks.

Altoona. After years of locating my great grandparents (3 out of 4) on http://www.findagrave, I went to their cemetery to pay respects to them. My literal ancestors. They were buried in the same area. (How convenient). The only things that prevented me from staying longer was the area was on a very very steep hill. (Think 45 degrees.) And it was 88 degrees. And of course, I had no idea of their location. Maybe 900 gravestones on a steep hill. One wrong move and I would have tumbled badly. And I had to go to the ends of each row as the gravestones were maybe one inch apart. But there they were. And I found their siblings and some of their children.

Again, hours in the public library, reviewing Altoona directories that went back to 1893. Car and GPS. I went to their homes and gazed and dreamed. One great uncle was a big deal downtown. He had a grand department store, across the street from the Post Office. It's now an art gallery.

Vintondale. Where my uncle was born. Only later did I realize that I was there the day before his 110th birthday. The town has maybe 300+ residents. And it looks abandoned. I read that FDR's uncle (Sarah Delano's brother) founded this woeful place. I didn't see a single business.

I'm home now. I had to go. I had to look. I had to know.

[thinkingagain]

1. That is neat

It is similar to what I would like to do.
I don’t know if I ever will because I’m not a very good traveler.

[70sEraVet]

2. Findagrave.com has a feature that is PERFECT for those family researchers who do not travel!

You can enter a request for a photo of a grave that is entered in their database, but for which there is no photo of the headstone. When someone visits the cemetery and takes the photo for you, you will receive an email notification.

[thinkingagain]

3. Oh yes find a grave is great

But I would like to “walk the footsteps” of my ancestors here in America.
Perhaps I will when I retire get one of my family members that are good at traveling.
Take my anxiety pills and get in a plane & the car 🫣 and go see.
Meanwhile pictures of these sites and old homesteads and graves online will have to do.

[Captain Zero]

6. I used Find A Grave after my mother passed

I think it was a closure thing for me now that I did it. She was the last of her siblings to pass. She was the baby of the family and the last to die. So I got her together with all her 5 brothers. And my grandparents and great grandparents on her side. Then I did the same for my father and his 10 siblings and on back. I found many gravestone photos had already been taken by others. Some folks walk cemeteries for exercise, take gravestone pictures and then put them on Findagrave. So if you do it you will discover others have already helped you. Two things I found out. One set of great grandparents came from a German town in what is now Poland. I guess it was part of Prussia when they left. And, I had a great grandfather in Illinois who died as a result of an auto accident at a farmland
crossroads in the 1920s after he was pinned under the car for a couple hours. He survived a few days. No one in the family including my grandmother had ever mentioned it! There was an obituary posted in the pictures of his Findagrave that detailed it.

[pink_gema]

4. nice

that's actually very interesting..

[No Vested Interest]

5. Great that you took the genealogical tour; very meaningful.

My husband and I did a similar tour about 25 years ago, to Defiance, Ohio and Saginaw Michigan, the latter my mother's birthplace and the former my maternal grandmother's birthplace.

Both were great for getting a feel for the areas and cultures into which they were born and raised, as well as visits to churches and having dinner with an in-law still in the Saginaw area.

[CBHagman]

7. What a great trip!

I'm glad you are retracing your family's steps.

And yes, those Pennsylvania hills can be a real lulu!