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

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.

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.

Tip # 6 - Working with Google Maps

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

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.

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.

Tip # 10 - Onsite vs. Online

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!)