52 Ancestors Challenge Week 39: "Road Trip" - My top 3 favorite family finds while road tripping

I live for road trips. I love them. Anyone who knows me knows that. However, I did wait quite awhile to get my license. Most of my peers rushed out to get their learner's permits as soon as they could, which here in New York is 16. I don't know if I was scared to drive really but I simply was not eager to drive; which now is not at all true. I waited until I was 20 to get my license but now I can't wait to drive. I live to road trip. I find real comfort in driving.

I am not underplaying my road trip experiences either. I have driven to 49 states. You can't drive to Hawaii. For any of you who may be familiar with the book "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" by Mo Willems, while in Hawaii, I was that pigeon. I was with a tour group but I begged and begged and begged that tour bus driver to just let me drive the bus if only so I could say that I have driven in all 50 states. Guess I'll have to go back. Oh well! 

I have also been to all of the Canadian provinces and 2 of the 3 Canadian territories. I am missing Nunavut but so are most Canadians I bet.

My most challenging travel experience has to have been driving around Ireland. Although I can drive a 5-speed transmission, I was fortunate to get an automatic because that driving on the other side of the road business while on the other side of the car was brutal.

My most frequent travel companions are, of course, my cousins! Most frequently Cousin Pete. Cousin Kelly takes a close second. But there have been many others: Jenny, Meghan, Andrew, Rachel, Ashlee, Zach, Adam, Vanessa, Elizabeth...  And they will attest to the fact that nearly every trip includes a little family history whether it be a stomp around a cemetery or a little bit of research time. I mean, you're headed out there, you might as well walk in your ancestors' foot steps if you have the chance.

My top 3 favorite family finds while road tripping have to be the following. All of which I have blogged about before but are worth revisiting and which you can read more about at the links below to old posts:

#3. Running from cicadas in Dayton National Cemetery: Third Great Grandpa, John Joyce, Dayton National Cemetery

The giant cicadas are only part of what makes this most memorable. Imagine bugs the size of half a Twinkie, flying at you. And not just one but dozens of them surrounding you at every step. Yeah, traumatizing.

This cemetery stop was part of my goal last year, 2021, to locate and visit the burial locations of all my direct ancestors back to and including all my 3rd great grandparents. I did pretty well. At the start of that project I had 30 graves to visit out of the potential 59. You have the maximum potential of 62 direct ancestors back to your 3rd greats. With living parents and a nonagenarian grandma, I had 59. I mean, I'm a genealogist, I visit cemeteries. But still there were many graves I had never been to. 30 is a lot. At present I have only 9 I have not visited; 1 great-great grandparent, and 8 3rd great grandparents, many of which are somewhere in Quebec. When I figure out where they are, I'll visit.

Another project that came out of my 2021 cemetery adventure that I am very proud of is the replacement of my great-great-great grandfather, Victor Henry's headstone which you can watch a presentation about on YouTube called, simply, Victor Henry's Headstone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw53oHpcfgA

#2. Stumbling upon the Morleys in a random cemetery abroad: Tombstones in Templenoe

I tell my students and researchers I work with that sometimes there are some relatives that just do not want to be found. And then there are others screaming to be remembered - that would be my cousins', Jenny & Kelly's maternal line.

The Morleys are not my relatives and I wasn't in Ireland doing genealogy research. I wasn't even with Kelly or Jen. I just happened to stop into a random cemetery with Cousin Pete while driving the Ring of Kerry and - BOOM - there they were; Cousin Jen & Kelly's great-great grandparents, Daniel Morley (abt. 1839 - March 17, 1914) and Abigail Meara-Morley (March 1844 - July 7, 1885) of Kenmare, County Kerry, Ireland.

Photo by John (Paul) Hallissey taken from https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2551046/templenoe-burial-ground-(old)

#1. Meeting a Desjardins cousin - my mom's side from Montreal - on Earle family property in Newfoundland: Cousins in Unlikely Places, Part 1 & Cousins in Unlikely Places, Part 2

Not all discoveries take place in cemeteries or even archives and libraries. Some discoveries happen right where you stand.

Again, on this trip I was not actively conducting genealogy research at this location. However, I think I have come to realize I'm always kind of conducting genealogy research. Anyway, I had just traveled back to where my great grandfather was born with my paternal uncle, Thomas. I most certainly did not plan or even consider finding living connections to my mother's side of my family while there. Both lines have Canadian ancestry but Newfoundland is really quite far from Montreal, 2,258 kilometers or 1,403 miles for my imperial system friends.

All parts of these favorite family discoveries made while on road trips had an obvious element of surprise but when you are planning to take a road trip, whether to do genealogy research or not, you have to do a lot of planning, almost to avoid surprises. You want your car at top condition, your hotels all booked, your route surveyed for stops at attractions, gas, and grub. You'll have lists of things to pack; clothes, food, emergency equipment, etc. Add to that a desire to research while on the road and you will want to make sure you have research location addresses, hours of operation noted, and a detailed list of what you are looking for - not only your questions but also a review of the resources the research facility has that you want to see. For cemetery stops, I recommend you call ahead to whomever manages the property to ask for a location. Even with a section, range, row, plot, and grave number, it can take quite a bit of roaming around to find the spot you are looking for. 

Most of all, though, leave lots of time to just marvel at the happenings. 

Tombstones in Templenoe, Ireland

Cousin Kelly is the most Irish of all my family members; well, at least amongst all the family AncestryDNA results I manage. She comes in at a whopping 75% Irish. So I was a little disappointed that she was not able to accompany Cousin Pete and I on our recent trip to Ireland. 

However, I researched her maternal line, as well as our shared line, as much as I could before making the trip. It wasn't really a research trip. Cousin Peter and I did not plan on spending hours in cemeteries or archives, we didn't contact any research facilities in advance of our travels, etc. We simply planned to drive through the areas we knew our Irish ancestors were from. If we saw a church or cemetery, maybe we'd poke around to see if there were any surnames we identify with among the stones. So I jotted down that Cousin Kelly's great-great grandfather was baptized in Templenoe; a town on the Ring of Kerry. 

The Ring of Kerry is a highly traveled route by tourists; which means there are an awful lot of tour buses along it. Driving in Ireland was very stressful for this American driver who has been back and forth across the U.S. several times. In Ireland, like the rest of the United Kingdom, drivers sit in the right front seat and they drive on the left side of the road. Every time I got in the car - I mean EVERY time without fail - I reached over my left shoulder to grab a seat belt that wasn't there. I just could not get used to being on the other side of the car and the other side of the road but I digress. 

While on the Ring of Kerry, we did note when we reached the town of Templenoe. In fact, as soon as we entered town I saw a sign pointing to the "Old Templenoe Cemetery." Cousin Peter and I figured, "ah, what the heck? Let's go look around."

It is a relatively small cemetery right on the water. Beautiful. With big old Celtic cross markers, all carved up with intricate Celtic knot patterns. Beautiful. And right smack dab in the middle there is a ruins of a church built around 1450 - you know, just like 40 years or so before Columbus reached the Western Hemisphere. 

Photo by John (Paul) Hallissey taken from https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2551046/templenoe-burial-ground-(old)

Cousin Peter and I got out and trampled about the cemetery, apologizing to the graves below. "Sorry. Pardone me. Excuse me. So sorry." Until we got all the way around and saw the gravesite of the Morley Family.

The Morley Family Plot

 Daniel Morley is Cousin Kelly's great-great grandfather. It seems to me as though the first burial in the plot was for Cousin Kelly's great-great grandmother; Abbey Meara-Morley who died in July 1885 at the age of 40. I suspect she dies in childbirth or shortly there after but have not been able to confirm that. I just see that she had a child the same year that she died. I also suspect that her maiden name was actually O'Meara and that she is the daughter of Timothy O'Meara and Julia Fogarty-O'Meara. I am still working on sorting out this family but it seems to me they want to be found.

You see, it never happens like this. I never by chance happen upon a cemetery and just wander up onto the right grave marker. I mean, more often then not I seek out a cemetery. I obtain all the possible information that I can in advance of my visit. I traipse up and down rows and rows of headstones to find no headstone at all. But here they are. And with a stone that reveals details I did not have before and a plot that groups together family members I would have otherwise have been unsure were connected.

I am convinced some ancestors just want to be found.