I haven't posted news on here since October...I guess things have happened since then. The last blog was about our trip to Beaumont for convention and on to New Orleans. When we left New Orleans we did not head home. Instead we headed toward Ellisville, Mississippi.
My life-long hobby has been family research, instilled by my maternal grandmother by many summer evenings spent sitting on the steps of her front porch while she sat in a chair on the porch and told of everyone in the family, past and present. Fortunately for me in the 80's she had me spend an afternoon with her and write it all down so all I had to do was find records to document the family. But for my paternal side of the house I drew a blank. Daddy knew nothing about his family it seemed, but I had known one of my great grandmothers, his paternal grandmother. With a little bit I knew plus a tidbit or two picked up from one of Daddy's sisters I had started researching the family bank in 1978. Through many rolls of microfilm census records I discovered roots in Jones County, Mississippi...in the Ellisville and Laurel, Mississippi area. It had been my dream to visit Jones County since 1978 and the discovery of my family's involvement in the civil war, loss of lives, etc. Through this family line I am a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution as well as the Daughters of the Confederacy. SO, we headed to Ellisville, MS.
From New Orleans we took I-59 North toward Hattisburg (my paternal grandmother was born in Hattisburg). We had lunch at the Cracker Barrel in Hattisburg but didn't spend time in the town. Instead we headed on to Ellisville. I wanted to get to Ellisville to plant my feet on the dirt of my ancestors.
After looking around a bit we headed on to Laurel where we had reservations for the night. We drove around Laurel - found ourselves in the old area that didn't look so great and not all that safe, but was interesting to see. Finally got our bearings and headed in the right direction toward the hotel. This was quite an experience in itself! We were at the Comfort Inn, which looks nice in pictures. But you never know what you're going to get. After checking in we were sent to the back of the hotel via the driveway where we entered through what looked like a service entry. The smell of cigarette smoke at the doorway was thick; and then we rounded the corner to our room. Oh my gosh, it was pretty bad. There was a 1" gap between the door frame and the door, worn out furniture in the room, and really sicky carpet. But we had nowhere else to stay that night so we hauled in our overnight things. It wasn't long before we needed to go find food. In going back out to the parking lot we discovered that we were in trucker/utility worker heaven. This hotel is where LOTS of them stay. So lots of smoke, beer, milling around the parking lot. We managed to sleep, and left the place after eating our free breakfast - which wasn't all that great.
We managed to find our way to downtown Laurel and to the courthouse where we took pictures of the courthouse and the town's confederate monument before heading to the Laurel/Jones County Library to visit the genealogy department. We found the library, but the department was closed - would not be open until 1:00 p.m. Oh, no! We wondered around a bit and then decided to drive the 7 mile old roadway to Ellisville to get a feel of what it might have been like in the older days to travel between the two places. (Ellisville and Laurel are both in Jones County, MS, but both of them are a county seat. Yes, two county seats in Jones County.) The drive didn't take long at all and we spent a little more time driving around Ellisville before heading back to Laurel and driving around there a bit. We had lunch at a place in "downtown" Laurel, and had decent food. Afterward we headed back to the libary where we met with genealogist Susan Blakeney.
Through my affiliation with a couple of Mississippi Facebook pages Susan had known I was traveling to Laurel. She had quite a bit of information for me as well as a number of hints for finding additional information. One of the great prizes/true treasures of the entire trip was the "gift" of discovering exactly where my family was located. Susan had a book that laid out the land locations of the area from that time period. I have family throughout this area, but my GG Grandfather and GGG Grandfather owned what is shown in sections 3 and 10, and my GG uncle was in section 4. Several of the families around those squares are related, as well as others on this page. Another page shows where the land is located in relation to the actual town and roadways. We were very close to the location as we headed out Highway 84 to head to the Mississippi Archives in Jackson, MS. I shall be grateful to Susan forever for helping me find this part of my roots.
After a good visit with Susan and the genealogy department in Laurel, Susan encouraged us to to ahead and head out to Jackson so that we would not be in so much of the heavy traffic that starts in the late afternoon. So we said goodbye to Laurel and I felt like crying when I left. I did not visit grave sites in Ellisville or Laurel, because quite honestly no one knows where my GG and GGG grandfather's are buried. I'm sure they were buried on family land, or at the cemetery at Indian Springs Baptist Church.
The drive to Jackson was uneventful, just seemed long. We talked about my returning to Ellisville and Laurel in the future...how it would be better for me to fly in somewhere rather than drive. It's a long trip from where we live.
Got to Jackson, MS...reservations at a Holiday Inn close to downtown Jackson because we were going to head to the Mississippi Archives bright and early the next morning. Whoa! When we made reservations no one told us 1) that the hotel was located at the entrance to the fairgrounds, and that 2) the weekend we were going to be there was the opening of the State Fair! Oh my gosh. traffic everywhere! We got there late afternoon, and after checking in, hauling in our gear, resting a bit, we decided we needed to go out to get food. The entire parking lot was roped off, to disallow cars in or out, the side street where we had to exit the parking lot was blocked off by police who were directing fair traffic, and when we attempted to ask a question of the officer she cursed out Ken! Told us to back our car up and turn around, we were NOT going to exit. A discussion with hotel management ended with them telling us we could either walk down to the fair grounds or across the street and walk to find something to eat. Of course I don't walk distance and duration so that wasn't going to happen. The hotel was allowing fair goers to use the hotel parking lot (for a fee) while inconveniencing hotel customers. We finally found our way out (in the car) one exit that was approved by the city and the hotel, managed to get out on the big 4 (6?) lane main road, and finally found a Taco Bell. We were afraid we would have no place to park when we returned, or be unable to get into the parking lot. But hotel employees were at the entrance to the parking lot (taking money from those wanting to park there), and fortunately they recognized us and the car. We learned a lesson - next time we will make reservations directly with a hotel and ASK if anything major will be going on during our expected stay.
The following morning we made our way to downtown Jackson to the Archives. What a wealth of information this place holds. We spent a wonderful day looking up lots of information and getting assistance from the employees. I didn't have cash so couldn't pay for copies of information (stupid me - I know better than that). So, I took pictures of information found in books (along with pictures of the book information) with my cell phone so I have it! One of the greatest treasures found was the record of the murder trial of my GG grandfather. It's not a transcript, but is just an entry in the court minutes book. I have been looking for this tidbit documentation since reading and presenting a review of the book, Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War, in 2013. My GG grandfather was a deputy sheriff/sheriff in Jones County, MS, and the trial came about because a man was killed resisting arrest (yep, even back then). My GG Grandfather was acquitted.
We left the Archives about 2:00 and headed to Vicksburg. In all my years I have never been to the memorial park at Vicksburg...and I will never go again. It was not my main reason for visiting Vicksburg. Instead my aim was to visit the Cedar Hill Cemetery, the final resting place for an estimated 5000 confederate soldiers. This place is hallowed ground as far as I'm concerned. These are my kinsmen, either by blood or by the fact they were invaded by the north and fought to protect themselves, their property, their families. We got to Vicksburg early enough to visit on the day of arrival. The roads/lanes through the cemetery are old and narrow, and we were sad to learn that vehicles are using this cemetery as a throughway/short cut to get to another location. While we were stopped to visit graves we were honked at to move. We finally decided they could just wait, as we had driven quite some distance to see the place and I wasn't leaving until we did. Needless to say we have many pictures taken in this cemetery. A few are shown here. Read more about the cemetery at http://www.vicksburg.org/departments/cemetery.
After a nice overnight stay and breakfast at the Mariott, we packed up and headed to Vicksburg National Military Park. A huge place, but as a southener I was greatly offended by it and all the glorification of the north. To me these are attackers, not men of honor. They are destroyers, molesters, thieves. Yes, it was an educational event, something I should have done a long time ago, but it weighs heavy on me. My GG Grandfathers died at the hands of these invaders, as did my GG uncles. Allen B. Weeks, Robert Washington Palmore, Matthew T. G. Kilgore, Samuel Kilgore, Peter Kilgore, Hosea Weeks, and others. I cannot drive through this place and honor these people. I am sad that this is on southern soil. We spent several hours at this place, and when we went to the visitor's center I could not bring myself to purchase a single souvenir. I have all the souvenirs I want from that horrible place...ancestors who died in it and ancestors who suffered living through it. What is even more sad is that history has been rewritten claiming that southeners fought because they wanted slavery. So false. My family didn't own slaves. Most southeners didn't. It was over states' rights. It didn't become attached to abolishment of slavery until 2 years into the war, in 1863. But historians (northerners) choose to rewrite history, to tell a different story, and teach that falsehood to school children.
Then on to Shreveport! We had reservations at a place that was a bit west of Shreveport (Hampton Inn). Oh my gosh! It was horrible!!! I was terrified to lay my head down in that bed. I was finally so tired I had to...I put a towel over the pillow I was so afraid of bedbugs. We couldn't wait to get out of there!!! It was so bad we worried all night about our car in the parking lot, expecting to get up and find it either gone or vandalized. Thankfully it was still there and ok.
We made the obligatory stop in Monroe, Louisiana at Duck Dynasty and had someone take our picture under the sign. And visited the gift shop where we bought some t-shirts. And then it was time for Ken to take over the driving (I had done most of it on this trip) and bring us home.
We learned several things on this trip. 1) Making reservations online without recommendations is a gamble. You don't know what you'll get. 2) Don't combine vacation with convention...it requires taking too much luggage. Thankfully we were smart enough to pack separate bags for the two legs of this trip. 3) We're glad we had a comfortable car because we spent a lot of time in it, and it was nice to have a larger vehicle. It gave us room for the scooters as well as the luggage. And 4) we wish all of our friends could have gone with us.
Until next time...that's it for now. Another update will, hopefully come soon, as there are other adventures that occurred between vacation and the end of 2014. For now, have a wonderful new year. May God bless everyone with a better, happy, loving 2015.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are invited, but they are reviewed for inappropriate language and content.