No Place Like Home

Yes, we are back at home here in Michigan. Somehow sleeping in one's own bed after a week away is heavenly! I truly love being at home.

Our research trip was a great success, or at least I think so! We covered four states, logged 1698.3 miles, 22 cemeteries, four libraries, one archive. We took over 400 pictures, mostly of headstones but some at the Grand Ole Opry and on the road. We printed a total of 347 obits & death certificates.

Alot of the cemetery stones were on the female lines, alot were people that I had gotten obits on but did not have burial locations on. Some of the headstones were surprises some were not. We even found two obits on one man, different newspapers, different death dates, same man, no death certificate to be found... headstone has only a year of death. We found infant certificates with no parents names, a few do not agree with what we have, most appear to match what we have already.

We saw family, we shared a meal with good friends. We made new friends, talked with lots of people we didn't know. There were three "encounters" with local law enforcement -none resulting in tickets thankfully. One encounter with an employee of a large cemetery in Ohio was not pleasant, encountered one drunk peabrain at the Opry, chatted with many librarians, most of whom seem rather helpful and friendly.

We paid for one hotel night, spent less than $200 in gas, and not much more in meals. We did buy the three grandsons shirts at the Grand Ole Opry, other than that not alot of spending unless genealogy related!


Tomorrow the fun begins - putting it all in my database. Today, it's about laundry, unpacking and just enjoying getting back into the routine, because for us, there really is ... no place like home...

[Photo's from top left, Oldest grandson Nick, poses with some of our beautiful hostas outside the picture window. Some of the lovely purple & red Columbine in the wall garden and lower, view from the lower patio looking up into the picture window garden.]