This theme had me a bit stumped and so I reached out to my friends and family via FaceBook to see if they had any ideas about traditions in our family. My Cousin Joan reminded me that I personally have a tradition of taking most of my younger cousins, and a few friends' kids, on road trips when they turned 15 or 16. It's not that I had forgotten about that, its just didn't strike me as a family tradition related to genealogy but it absolutely is!
Perhaps it didn't dawn on me to write about it because it is not about my ancestors, it's present day, well, maybe not exactly present day. I took my first trip with Cousin Meghan in July of 2003, nearly 20 years ago. These are events, though, that I created and that happened in my own life, not that of my ancestors.
I just recently gave a presentation at the Montauk Library on collecting oral histories from family members. That is a truly critical part of genealogy research because someday each of us will pass away and with us will go all the memories we hold. Whether those histories are recorded in a written or aural manner doesn't matter too much, as long as they are recorded. In a hundred years, or maybe not even all that far off, some descendant or relative will be struggling to label that photo, or be pouring hours into unpuzzling some family mystery that is no mystery to you, or simply be craving the story only you could tell. So recording your own personal history now, in whatever format, will be an important genealogical resource in the future, if it is preserved. So... Here goes...
Cousin Meghan to Newport, Rhode Island, July 5-7, 2003
Cousin Megan was the first of my cousins to join me for a special 16th birthday road trip. We went to Newport, Rhode Island and toured the great gold coast mansions and their gardens including the Green Animals location pictured above. Meghan and I are second cousins; we have the same great-grandparents in common.
Cousin Andrew to Hopewell, Virginia and Washington, D.C., July 22-25, 2005
Cousin Andrew is my first cousin on my father's side of the family. There is a 15 year age gap between me and Andrew. The same distance as there is between me and his father.
First we stopped in Hopewell, Virginia to visit the newly issued headstone of our great-great-great uncle, Benjamin Franklin Losee, Civil War soldier. Ben died in Point of Rocks, Virginia of dysentery in one of the hospital tents during his service in the Union Army. For over a century his remains laid under a misspelled headstone. I petitioned the government to get that stone replace, and there it stood.
After Hopewell, it was off to D.C., a great location to take kids. I'm not the only one to think that as you can tell by so many of our photos from that trip, the Boy Scout agreed with me. We happened to be there the same week as the National Boy Scouts Jamboree. Boy Scouts were everywhere. We toured all the city monuments at night; boy scouts were there. We went to many of the Smithsonian museums; boy scouts were there. We went to the ESPN Zone - boy scouts, the Navy Museum - boy scouts, the International Spy Museum - boy scouts, Arlington National Cemetery to see the changing of the guard - boy scouts. We capped the trip off with a final stop at Mount Vernon, and as I recall, there were boy scouts there too.
Cousin Rachel, Massachusetts, June 30 - July 3, 2006
Cousin Rachel and I are also second cousins; our dads' mothers were sisters. When I say my Cousin Rachel and I went to Massachusetts, I mean we went all over Massachusetts. We started at the Dr. Seuss Memorial in Springfield, MA, followed by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA, then the Emily Dickinson House in Amherst, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and the Alcott home in Concord, the House of Seven Gables in Salem, and finally the Fisherman's Memorial in Gloucester.
Cousin Zachary, Baltimore, Maryland & D.C., June 22-25, 2007
Rachel & Meghan's brother Zachary was the next to venture out with me on a road trip. I asked each of them where it was that they wanted to go and like the others, Zach left it up to me. I had enjoyed my trip with Andrew to D.C. so much I thought it would be a good spot for Zach and I too. However, I wanted to something a little different so first Cousin Zach and I hit Baltimore's Inner Harbor.
In Baltimore we saw babe Ruth's Birthplace, looked for Edgar Allen Poe's home, went to Geppi's Entertainment Museum (which no longer exists. It closed in 2018), and the Hard Rock Cafe.
The remainder of our trip was spent in D.C. doing hop-on, hop-off bus tours and sprinting through Smithsonian Museums.
Cousin Ashlee, Pittsburgh, PA and Cleveland, OH, August 15-18, 2008
Of all the cousins I ever traveled with on one of these jaunts, Cousin Ashlee was the only one who when asked for a destination knew right where she wanted to go; the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was a lot further than I had taken any of the other cousins but hell, she had a destination and so we went.
Our first stop was at the Church Brew Works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvannia. Yup that's right, I took a kid to a brewery in a former church. That has sort of set the tone for every trip I have ever taken with Cousin Ashlee who is now traveled with me as an adult on at least four other trips. Four? Montreal, Salem, down to New Orleans, and across Canada, well at least from Toronto to Vancouver. Yeah, that's four.
Once we made it to Cleveland we spent a lot of time in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On the way back home to New York we stopped in Pittsburgh again to see the Andy Warhol Museum and caught a tour at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Fallingwater in Mill Run, PA.
Cousin Adam, Pennsylvania, July 3-6, 2009
The following year when it was Cousin Adam's turn to travel with me I suggested returning to PA and seeing some of the sights Ashlee and I did not see. After all I didn't want to do the same trip with each kid and I wanted him to see something different than his brother Andrew had seen with me.
Our trip began in Philadelphia. We made stops at Independence Hall, the steps of the Museum of Art made famous by that scene in Rocky, and then Eastern State Penitentiary.
I had never been to the prison museum before but it is one of my very favorites. I recommend it to everyone who heads to Philly. I have been there several times since. Go if you can.
From Philly we headed west. We went to Gettysburg, Hershey Park, the Antique Auto Museum at Hersey, and the Harley-Davidson Factory in York, PA.
Cousin Vanessa, Cape May, New Jersey & Washington, D.C., August 13-16, 2010
Unlike her sister Ashlee, Cousin Vanessa wasn't sure where she wanted to visit either so, like with many of the other cousins I traveled with I decided to take her to D.C. It has a lot of free sites and museums to explore. If it's free, it's for me. But to mix it up just a little bit for both Vanessa and I, I wanted to add in a location neither of us had ever been to so we could share something the others and I had not. So our first stop was Cape May, New Jersey.
There we did a dolphin cruise which if you ask any of my other traveling cousins will attest to the fact that I am not built for water. That will probably be the only dolphin cruise I ever do.
We did other firsts too, now that I think about it. Cousin Vanessa and I went to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing when we were in D.C. Again, a free experience but we had to be up super early to get online to get tickets for the much coveted tour. No wonder I had never been to it before. Hmm, maybe I was there when I was a girl scout. I can't recall. I know I was there with Vanessa though.
We also visited the Postal Museum, which I had never visited before. We chose that in honor of her Grandpa Stanley who had worked in the U.S. Post Office for a long, long time.
Cousin Elizabeth, Cape Cod, MA and Newport, RI, July 4-7, 2012
Cousin Elizabeth is the youngest of my paternal cousins and so it was kind of meaningful to bring this traveling cousin tradition full circle and take her to Newport, Rhode Island where I had my first cousin birthday trip with Cousin Meghan.
In addition to gold coast mansion tours, we also went out to the very end of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to Provincetown.
We stopped to eat a sandwich in Sandwich, MA where I snapped this photo that still stares at me in my office.
We also hunted down the headquarters for the famous TAPS team of Ghost Hunters fame in Warwick, RI.
One thing that stands out in my mind from this trip is R. Kelly's song, Feelin' on Yo Booty, stuck on replay. Don't ask. Cousin trips get crazy. The other thing that still makes me giggle is Elizabeth asking me why this statue of a water nymph was holding a corn dog. "A corn dog?!?! That's a cattail plant!" Hmm. Cattails do kind of look like corn dogs.
Like Elizabeth Shown Mills's FAN method, which stands for Friends, Associates, and Neighbors, I've included "like family" kids into my road trip adventures. When researching your family history it isn't just relatives by blood that have details about your ancestors' lives. Those people had contemporaries too who they spent time with and who might have actually known them better than their own family members.
Miss Nicole, Philadelphia, PA, August 22-25, 2015
Miss Nicole is the daughter of my very best friend from my undergraduate days at community college. Her mother and I met in art history class and have been friends every since, nearing 30 years now. Hard to believe.
Nicole had heard of all my road trip adventures with my young cousins so I promised her when she was old enough I would take her on a road trip adventure sans parents. We could do whatever she wanted to do; stay up late, eat crap, flirt with boys, whatever.
She and I headed down to Philadelphia for an excursion much like the one I had with Cousin Adam but much more concentrated on Philly.
We did make a visit to Eastern State Penitentiary. I couldn't help it. I love that place.
We visited Independence Hall as well and made sure to ring that Liberty Bell. (Ya can't really touch it but you can act like to you're going to.)
After gorging ourselves on cheesesteaks, we went to see one of the locations used for the film The Sixth Sense. Set in Philadelphia, the main character, Cole, seeks sanctuary inside this church, St. Augustine's, where he chats with Bruce Willis's character, Dr. Malcom Crowe. Great movie. You have to see it if you haven't. Cole sees dead people!
The furthest we got west of Philly was to Hershey Park. It's not a road trip with a kid if there isn't some excessive regional candy present. This was the first time I got to make my own candy bar at Hersey's.
Master Laszlo, Buffalo, NY & Toronto, Ontario, Canada, June 27-30 2019
Speaking of excessive regional candy...
Nicole's younger brother has traveled with me too. He had a destination in mind, though, which I love and of course had to honor. With his parents permission he was the first and only kid I have taken to a foreign country. Laszlo wanted to go to Toronto! YES! Canada!
I was game. I had never really been there before unless you count sitting in the Toronto airport waiting 45 minutes for a terrible hamburger. Ugh.
After a quick stop in Buffalo to have some wings with my Cousin Lisa and her family, Laszlo and I made it to Niagara Falls, Ontario where we experienced every Canadian candy the gift shop had to offer while looking at the falls from our hotel room. Nice view, right?
From there we headed up to Toronto for a full day in the city. At his request I stomached my crippling fear of heights and ventured up to the top of the CN Tower. I've actually have done that twice now. Once was enough really.
For the long drive back to NY, we made a stop in Corning, NY - gotta have something to do on the way back - and went to the Corning Glass Museum. I love it there too. Laszlo got to make his own art glass piece which was very cool.
And that is the history of my road trip adventures with teenagers. Maybe I will someday add to this when my nieces turn teens.
Family history is perishable. It disappears as minds soften, memories fade, and loved ones pass away. Preserving a record of the present or somewhat recent past is a truly an important part of family history. Preserve your personal story now for future generations of your family to help know and understand you and the life you led.
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