Top 10 Tips from the Field
Hello!
My camper Nellie Bly, my dog Sadie and I are just back from almost ten days of traveling and camping throughout western Pennsylvania and into western New York. It was my first camping trip of the 2023 season (as you know if you read the Field Trip article (link here) about my mishaps while preparing for this week away), and the primary purpose was to do some family research on my Larson relatives who emigrated there from Sweden in the 1880’s. (You can read my Coming to Amerika article for the background on the why, who and when of that decision to emigrate.) After a week of crisscrossing the counties of Elk, McKean, Potter, Warren, Venango, (all in PA) and Cattaraugus (NY), I learned several valuable lessons and tips for doing this kind of traveling that I thought I’d share here. I also discovered a number of wonderful and surprising family breadcrumbs that will help fill in missing pieces of my family history, and I will be writing about them in upcoming articles. For now, those of you who like to travel and camp and explore new places and their history will hopefully appreciate my tips as you prepare for your own adventures this spring and summer or beyond.
Tip # 1 - Traveling with a Buddy
First and foremost, if you are going to be searching for family stories and hitting libraries, historical museums, cemeteries or just driving around taking pictures in relatively remote places, I highly recommend doing so with a favorite person, such as the best sister ever (like I did), or an equivalent special person.
Hanging out together in the evening, laughing over our mishaps, planning the day’s itinerary, venturing into unfamiliar places, and sharing the joys of new discoveries, adventures and experiences made this trip very special.
Thank you Carol for spending your week with me! And you get bonus points for teaching me your foolproof method of fire-building as well as your innovative ideas and suggestions for supplies that make my camper life more functional and efficient!
Tip # 2 - Keeping a Flexible Itinerary
When traveling to different small towns in remote areas, be aware that their libraries, town offices or museums are likely only open on certain days of the week at certain hours. Check ahead if you can so that you can maximize your research productivity and not waste time retracing your steps when you made certain assumptions that didn’t pan out.
Tip # 3 - Checking Before Bed
At the end of a long, tiring day when you are ready to simply collapse on your bed at your campsite, don’t cut corners and forget to check for ticks. Otherwise, just as you are drifting off to sleep you may feel a slight tickle at the base of your neck and when you mindlessly scratch at it you may feel a tiny something drop off somewhere in your bedding. At this point you will have no choice but to leap up and turn on all lights and thoroughly check everywhere for the presumed tick. You won’t find it until you are totally awake and ready to give up looking but happen to glance down at the sheet just before lying back down. Then, before going back to sleep you will have to check yourself thoroughly once more, as well as your dog who was peacefully dozing the entire time you were furiously throwing the covers around on your bed. Only then will you be able to relax and try to go back to sleep (good luck at that point…).
Tip # 4 - Asking for Help
Never underestimate the kindness of strangers. Special thanks to Barb, Melinda, Bob, Darla and Brian, and all the others whose names we didn’t get. We had not contacted any of these people or places ahead of time and just appeared in their doorways. They could not have been more gracious or generous, and did not bat an eye when we wandered into their libraries, government offices or historical museums to interrupt their day and ask our questions. They were happy to help, and went beyond the call of duty in providing information, searching records, and spending time assisting us in every way they could, even staying past their own closing hours. Barb found the gravesite we were looking for and also called ahead from the Wilcox library so that Melinda (library queen extraordinaire, complete with her own tiara) was waiting with the canister of microfilm we needed when we got to the Johnsonburg library. Brian was feeling harried when we showed up unexpectedly. As the museum’s curator he was busy preparing a big exhibit for the coming week in the Cattaraugus County Historical Museum. Despite this, he made the time to pull a box of historical documents for us to look through and also wrote down the contact information for a couple of historians we could contact for additional research.
Bob and Darla welcomed us at the Ridgeway Historical Society in the late afternoon and helped us find a crucial missing breadcrumb we had been searching for all day. They stayed well past their normal closing time to make sure we had everything we needed before we left.
Bob even followed up that evening to send me a pdf that he couldn’t send from the museum’s computer, and also offered to be our personal tour guide through the history of Elk County on our next trip.
Tip # 5 - Solving Phone Issues
a) If you are having connection issues (full bars but no service, for example) and decide to remove your SIM card to try to reboot and reregister your phone, don’t try to do it sitting at a picnic table in the woods at dusk when you are surrounded by nothing but leaves, tufts of grass, dirt and gravel. When the SIM card holder you are poking at with your paper clip suddenly flies out of your phone and into the air it will no doubt land in a way that will make it difficult to find. And finding the SIM holder doesn’t do any good if you can’t find the actual SIM that goes in it.
b) Before you try to remove the SIM card, first make sure that you actually have a physical SIM card in the phone and not a digital one that doesn’t need to be removed (and therefore isn’t lying somewhere on the ground where you looked all evening and after dark with your flashlight and also the next morning, delaying your departure from the campsite). Your son who helped you set up your phone service may be a good resource to check in with before you start your futile search.
c) If you are going to check with your son about the SIM you should do so before you are halfway to the nearest Best Buy to buy a new one (a two hour drive out of the area where you are spending the week). However, once you are already committed to a wayward path, be sure to salvage the day by pivoting to something fun and visiting other important sites that weren’t on the original itinerary (such as Lake Erie State Park to visit the bench you and your siblings installed there in memory of your parents).
Your day-long detour may turn out to be one of the best days of the week, and you never know what other gems you might discover. For example, if you are ever in Brockton, NY, be sure to have lunch at St. Stephen’s Café, which is part of Breathe Life of WNY, Inc., a Christian-based, non-sectarian organization which coordinates with other service providers to serve county residents suffering from homelessness, addiction, and sexual and domestic violence.
Tip # 6 - Working with Google Maps
a) Trust Google when it tells you to go on a small road that looks like it will definitely take you the long way or the wrong way to your destination.
Those little unscheduled byways and small roads that don’t appear on the atlas sitting on your lap may just reveal some of the most beautiful sites you will see on the trip.
b) Don’t trust Google when it tells you an ice cream shop is open. It may lie to you and send you to several shops over a period of three days before you find one that is actually open for business when you get there (and still has ice cream to serve). Most importantly, be sure to savor and enjoy and make the most of the experience once you find it!
Tip # 7 - Meeting Basic Needs
This one is for the ladies. If you find it necessary to squat in the woods, be sure to take your cell phone out of your back pocket first.
Tip # 8 - Searching Cemeteries
If you are looking for a specific grave in a cemetery in a small, out-of-the-way town, don’t just assume that you will find the plot immediately. In your excitement of finding the cemetery you might drive right by the local library. Once you have spent an hour in the cemetery and finally realize you need help, it’s a good idea to go to back to the library and humbly request assistance.
The librarian will happily go straight to the book that records all the gravesites going back to the 1800’s, show you the map of the different sections, and find your relative’s name and location, all within about 10 minutes. When you drive back up the hill to the cemetery for the second time, you will have no trouble locating the stone, right where she said it would be.
As you wander around the hallowed ground that has stood there since the early 1800’s, enjoy with reverence the history represented by those old stones and all the families buried in and around the one you have been looking for. And if the stone of your relative has toppled over onto its side (making it that much harder to find, by the way…), be grateful when the cemetery workers who happen to be nearby stop what they are doing to put the stone upright, back in the spot where it belongs.
Tip # 9 - Engaging Strangers in a (not so) Strange Land
a) If you are in the small, rural town of your ancestor, far off the beaten path and you are taking pictures and wandering around the old, abandoned house where your grandfather grew up, don’t take it personally if someone you can’t see calls a state trooper, who then follows your out-of-state car out of the town and across the road where the old cemetery is and parks behind you.
b) When the trooper does not get out of his car and just sits in the cemetery facing the rear of your car, act cool and just get out as planned to go find your relatives’ gravestones, which are scattered all about the old cemetery.
You may not be able to see the trooper behind his blackened windows, but if you continue to wander the cemetery he will stay just long enough to check your plates and determine that you are not fleeing felons in a stolen car. At that point he will drive off. You will then be able to search the graves in peace, wishing he had had the courtesy to get out of his car and at least have a conversation about what you were doing there.
c) When exploring in small, remote towns in very rural areas (where Dollar General serves as the local grocery, clothing, hardware, and home goods store for miles around, and fast food restaurants are nonexistent), don’t take it personally if someone comes out of their house to watch you as you walk around taking pictures of streets, buildings, or landscape. And if they are eyeing you and your out-of-state car with apparent suspicion you might try making eye contact, smiling, saying hello and commenting on the weather. The surprise of being spoken to may just soften their face a bit as they acknowledge your presence and respond in kind. Such an exchange could open an opportunity for further conversation and possible connection. Not doing so may cause regret for the missed opportunity.
d) While driving around in different parts of the country, it is important to be mindful of potential cultural divides and how those divides can impact individuals differently depending on who you are and how you look. Picture two older white ladies from outside the state walking around a small cemetery in the presence of a state trooper who is clearly watching you and checking your plates even though you can’t see him (yes, I’m assuming it was a him, although I can’t say for sure). That particular cemetery is located outside of town across the main road, hidden behind a grove of trees and set back behind a field. There is only a small sign on the main road with an arrow pointing towards the narrow dirt entrance that looks more like someone’s driveway. There is only one way in and out. Can we be sure that those who don’t fit the gender, age, or racial description of my sister and I will have the same experience we did? I can’t say, but I would not assume so. We were able to wander pretty much at will throughout western Pennsylvania and New York and still feel relatively safe even in the face of what appeared to be suspicion. That may not be true for everyone, and it wouldn’t necessarily be true for us in a different place or context.
The ice cream here was delicious, and the staff appreciated our interest in their cute little shop.
The strategy of smiling, greeting, and having brief conversations works in many situations, and can diffuse preexisting tension or suspicion. There are many short but genuine and authentic exchanges that can create small but meaningful encounters and good feelings, whether it be with the cashier at a store, the person scooping your ice cream, someone walking their dog, or even someone in their car at an intersection.
Unexpected kindness in the form of friendly cheerfulness is easy to deliver. There is no need for reciprocation; the gesture itself stands on its own. Even when there is no overt response (and there often is), there can still be ripple effects. Such is the nature of human connection and the benefits of reaching out to others in small, benign ways.
Tip # 10 - Onsite vs. Online
The natural beauty available in three dimensions when you actually look at it with your own eyes up close and personal cannot be matched by anything online.
Information available online cannot mimic the flavor, textures, sounds, odors and overall sense of a place. Maps, even in satellite view, don’t do justice to the experience of driving around the small roads. The opportunity to appreciate the pride (which is palpable in so many ways even in the face of obvious hardship and struggle) and uniqueness of each town while traveling up the mountains and down into valleys is not to be missed.
Only by engaging all five senses can one truly experience a place and try to imagine what it must have been like to live there almost 150 years ago. I feel very fortunate that I was able to make this pilgrimage and visit the places that my ancestors settled and worked and raised families and died. I am grateful that I could make this trip and hope to return again.
The Allegheny National Forest is a special place in its own right even without all the family history, and I hope that some of you will venture there yourselves someday.
Next Steps in The 1938 Project
From here I will continue to plan my adventure out west in October and November 2023, where I will be retracing the journey my ancestors made in 1938 to California. As I make those preparations I will report here on how that’s going, and I will also be writing about the Larsons who made that earlier trip. Continuing the history of the three young men who came from Sweden, I want to fill in information about their families and the important events in their lives that led up to this particular pilgrimage. There were five people who went to California. There are also the people and places they visited. These are some of the breadcrumbs I hope to uncover and share in future articles as I piece together their stories.
To be continued… (Please consider subscribing to the blog if you would like to receive direct notification of upcoming articles!)
