Change is in the air….

Can you  believe it has been five years since I took this trip to Massachusetts.  A lot has happened since then.  I did this blog on Blogger and then moved it to WordPress and that was an interesting experience.

Within the last several months I have come to resting places on my other blogs and am now just writing for the one blog:  Solomon Goss in Fearing Twp., in Ohio  I have wrapped up the history of the Spracklin/len Family. Remember Solomon Goss’ youngest daughter Lydia married John Andrews Spracklin in 1819 in Washington Co., Ohio and they migrated to Knox Co. Ohio to live. This is my connection to the Goss family.

What this means is, I can now return to writing about Solomon Goss himself and taking it back to Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusets. This will be a big undertaking.

This blog, Massachusetts Meanderings, was a travel blog of a genealogical research trip but not really a study of a family and that is the next step. So a lot of the information in this blog will end up in the Solomon Goss Blog and hopefully that will add to the posts and make more sense and help to give a fuller picture of the history of this family.

I suggest that if you really like some of the information on this blog, I would encourage you to print out the posts or cut and past a post into Word.  The reason is that this blog will probably go away in about six months!!!

It was a great trip and I had a lot of fun and do like Massachusetts because it so easy to get around. The story of the Goss family is not done, technically I should go Boston and visit some archives there and then head west to Lancaster visiting some towns like Concord along the way.  The Brookfields were wonderful so I probably would have to return to visit them.  We will see!

Bonnie

Picassa Photo Albums to Google Photos????

As of August 12, 2016 my Picasa web albums are now called Google Photo Archive. The only blog I am concerned about is my BJM Cemeteries Discoveries blog which is on Blogger.  Blogger would put photos into Picasa when I published a post.  My other blogs are at WordPress so the photos are safe.

However, if there is a problem with photos on this blog let me know.

April 20, 2016  This is quick note to warn you that Picasa is going away slowly and photos will move to Google Photos and Google+.  I will try to keep an eye on things to make sure my photos are accessible even though this is a WordPress blog.  This blog used to be housed on Blogger and I moved it and I have kept the photos at Picasa but now I don’t know what will happen?  We will see.  If you see a problem just let me know.  Thanks Bonnie

Traveling is over for now!

Once again I am back home and really happy because I get to dig into my blogging and I have a lot of fun with it.  There is a lot planned on my other blogs.

So my trip to Canada is over and I logged 1964 miles 47 less than my first trip there in 2012.

My class in Scottish Research was excellent and I am pleased.  I think it fits well with the Pre-1850 English Research course I took last year at the British Institute, making a nice progression:  http://www.isbgfh.org/

The Stacks at the Family History Library on B2 – British Isles research

Lots is about to happen at my other blogs so go to the right panel and click on the links to them under My Family History Blogs.

If you want to see what I have been up to on my travels in Canada go to The Man Who Lived Airplanes and the Boardman and Brown blog for my posts on my wanderings.

On The Road: Traveling in Canada and now heading to Salt Lake City

In the month of September 2014, I was traveling through New York state, Ontario, Michigan and Quebec and I did 1964 miles on this 2nd trip.  It was EPIC!

I will be heading back to Salt Lake City for the British Institute class on Scottish records.  This course may not have much to do with Massachusetts but I am gearing up for a big trip to the British Isles.

2006 Temple Square SLC

Last year in October 2013, I took the Sources for Tracing Pre-mid-Nineteeth Cemetery Ancestors course offered by the British Institute in Salt Lake City, Utah, which is sponsored by the International Society for British Genealogy and Family History. http://www.isbgfh.org/

The course was excellent and one of my teachers appeared on an episode this last year of “Who Do You Think You Are?”  I was very excited when I saw Paul Blake on the show.  http://www.tlc.com/tv-shows/who-do-you-think-you-are.

Family History Library 2006

This year in 2014, I will be attending the Institute again in Salt Lake City and taking Scottish Research: The Fundamentals and Beyond, by Paul Milner.  It is time for me to get serious about Scottish research.  So I am currently in the process of preparing to attend this course and getting ready for the trip to Salt Lake City.  I also plan to take advantage of the opportunity to do more of the family research at the Family History Library.  It will be a very intense week of classes and researching.

The Line at opening to the Family History Library

This will be my sixth trip to Salt Lake City and the Family History Library.  https://familysearch.org/locations/saltlakecity-library  This library and their online website for their records has contributed greatly to my research successes.  https://familysearch.org/search

2009 3rd Floor Family History Library

2013 British Institute getting ready…

2013 British Institute Class

Well it is time to get back to planning for this trip.  One of the requirements is to read a book on Scottish History, so I best go and get my two chapters in.

“The History of Scotland,” by Peter & Fiona Somerset Fry, reprinted several times 1997.

Welcome to Massachusetts Meanderings…

Hello:  Welcome to Massachusetts Meanderings a blog I wrote at Blogger.  I am moving it to WordPress for I am in the process of consolidating my blogs under one platform. Massachusetts Meanderings will be moved to this site soon.  Please be patient.

I took this trip to Massachusetts back in 2011 and traveled the state of Massachusetts in search of my Goss Family history and following in the footsteps of my cousin Paul H. Goss who wrote about and researched the family.

It may take a while to settle this down but I think it will be much better.  Bonnie

 

Happenings – My Family History Blogs…

Hello, I thought I would take a few minutes and update you on some things that are happening on my blogs.

Ezilon maps http://www.ezilon.com/maps/north-american-continent-maps.html

My “Pennsylvania Wanderings” Blog has made the move to Word Press. Picasa or now Plus Photos has the photos from this blog and I have opened them to public viewing. The links to the new location are being updated as I find them and sorry if I missed one. PA Wanderings was about my travels in Pennsylvania and visiting the Goss Family sites in the Wilkes-Barre area along the Susquehanna River.  It still has significance to the Goss history even though it is getting a bit old.

Go here to see view its new format: http://pawanderings.wordpress.com/

There is good news that someone is living near the Old Goss Cemetery below Harveyville that was getting grown over and he is taking tender care of that cemetery. So far no ghost sightings yet! See my BJM Cemetery Discoveries blog for more information about that cemetery.  http://bjmcemeterydiscoveries.blogspot.com/

My blog about my dad’s MacDonald roots “The Man Who Lived Airplanes” has just celebrated 3 years at Geneabloggers.  http://macdonellfamily.wordpress.com/  At this time I am sharing about my dad’s sister Eddie and her Collection of Junk from her high school days.  There has been some new research found and cousins met on that blog which I will be sharing soon.  The title of this blog will finally be explained when I share about my dad’s love of airplanes.  If it had an airplane engine in it he was there. If have to admit that when the hydroplanes start their engines at Sea Fair it is amazing…the rumble is something you remember.

On my “Barclay’s of Pine River” blog, I am posting about the murder of my great grandfather George Barclay.  The setting is Pine River in 1898, it is a little mix of the beginnings of CSI, fictional accounts of the murder based on court documents and true accounts of what actually happened.  Pine River was a bit rough back then.

On the “Solomon Goss” blog the Spracklen/lins are the topic.  John Andrews Spracklin married the youngest daughter of Solomon Goss in 1819 in Washington County, Ohio and they moved up to Knox County, Ohio to live on the land that he had purchased there.  John’s father Peter settled in Hardin County, Ohio and they were there till Betty passed in 1860.  Eventually I will return to Solomon Goss and how he and Olive Scott Goss made it too Ohio from Pennsylvania and then into the Goss history back to Roxbury in Boston, MA.  This blog was my travels in Massachusetts and Connecticut trying to follow the Goss family and generations and their wanderings.

It seems like a lot of blogs, and I have been teased about it (giggle), but there is method to the madness.  If I did it all on one blog it would be enormous and confusing, dividing it up in this manner by surname and location helps to tame the confusion. See the map above of the United States and Canada, well my family lines started on the East Coast and kept heading west across Canada dipping down on occasion and across the United States connecting in Ohio, Minnesota and Washington State, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific and yes some even ended up in sunny California.

Searching on a blog can be troublesome.  I do try to make the categories clear.  I also try to keep the links updated. I try to progress forward in the posts so check back a few posts and forward some if you find a topic you are interested in. I do go back and make changes and add new information as it comes available check under Updates. You can also make a comment and I will find you.

The Man Who Lived Airplanes is my dad’s McDonald/MacDonald side. The Barclay blog is his maternal family through Grace Amarilla Barclay McDonald daughter of Amarilla Spracklin Barclay who goes back to the Spracklins, Kellers, Delano and Goss who came to Ohio and back to New England.

The Goss family being a huge undertaking with them it is much easier to separate them out using Ohio as the convergence zone for these families. If you have noticed it is all my dad, Keith’s, side of the family in these three blogs. Yes he is a mix of deep New England roots and old Canadian roots. My family moves from the east coast going west on the Canadian side and the United States side.

Did I mention my mother’s blog? “The Boardman’s and Browns of Winnipeg.” They came from England to New Brunswick and Ontario to Manitoba and further West.

So breaking it up makes it easier for you to focus on the side of the family that you are most interested in, rather than get bogged down in some other line.

Don’t forget my BJM Cemetery Discoveries blog where I highlight cemeteries I have visited and that includes my family history cemeteries where my ancestors are peacefully resting.

I have a lot more to share so get ready 2014 is going to be amazing…..!!!!

Have fun exploring…Bonnie

Update: Ontario/Quebec Genealogical Trip Completed

Well, I have been too busy dithering and didn’t let you know that I did finished my trip to Ontario and Quebec and it was WONDERFUL.  It was fun to hear French spoken in a cafe as a customer ordered their meal.

I really enjoyed it, met some very nice people, wore myself out but had a grand time and some very interesting experiences.  At the Ontario Genealogical Society Conference in Kingston I toasted the Queen and sat with some rather elite US and Canadian genealogists who lecture, publish and have their own websites and blogs.  You will have to go to and read about it.  Giggle!

Driving along the Ottawa River and the St. Lawrence were some of my favorite moments.

I did 2117 miles!!!!! It was the biggest trip ever and the most expensive!  It was worth every mile and penny.

Hopefully I will be able to go to western Ontario this coming Spring of 2013.  I am so tempted to return to some of these places I visited along the St. Lawrence River up to Kingston and maybe beyond.  We will see, I have been faced with a health challenge and so far so good!

This picture is of the St. Lawrence with a big ship heading downstream.  Remember the St. Lawrence flows northwest to the Atlantic?

I wrote about my trip in my blogs –  The Man Who Lived Airplanes and The Boardmans and Browns of Winnipeg  I did most of the writing after I returned home. I find that it is very difficult to do a blog while traveling — something like technical difficulties, Wi-Fi problems and other interesting events.

This blog is starting to age, but hopefully it will still help others with links, ideas and more.  I have not done anything with the links in the posts or on the sidebar so if you have a problem let me know. Something happened to some photos and so I took them out.  Don’t forget that I do have Picasa Web Albums and YouTube Videos on a lot of these cemeteries.

Did I find Archibald McDonell’s origins?  Nope…it will be very difficult.  For some reason the researchers in Ontario laughed at me when I told them I was researching McDonells? HA!  On the other hand I did establish that William Brown did come to Ontario at the age of 69 years old and is buried in the St. Thomas Cemetery in Belleville, Hastings Co., Ontario.  My cousins were thrilled.

As for the rest of the saga of the Philip Goss lineage, I am hoping to head to Boston in about a year.

Have a great Holiday Season! Bonnie

The Other Side of the Family: Canada Bound!

Are you as fascinated as I am with the way families connect?  The other side of my family had to migrate from Canada down to Minnesota and into Washington State in order to connect with this Goss family I have featured in this genealogical travel blog!

The old Goss family that I emphasized in this blog is connected to me through my father’s mother’s side of the family and through his grandmother Amarilla Barclay Dawes Urton.

Yes, Amarilla was married three times.  Her first husband George Angus Barclay was murdered in 1898.  So she remarried to a J.G. Dawes and that ended in divorce.  About 10 year later she married again to a George Urton and they were together for the remainder of their lives.  Amarilla and her life are featured in in the following blog The Barclay’s of Pine River. It is starting to get very interesting as I enter the 1890’s for Pine River, Minnesota!!  You learn about Amarilla and George and more in this blog:

The Barclay’s of Pine River: http://barclayspineriver.wordpress.com/

Amarilla’s maiden name was Spracklin.  Her parents were Daniel D. Spracklin and Elizabeth Keller.  Daniel’s father was John Andrews Spracklin and he married Lydia Goss the daughter of Solomon Goss and Olive (Scott) Goss in Washington County, Ohio in 1819 and they settled in Knox County, Ohio on land her father had purchased in 1802.   I am writing about the siblings of Lydia in the blog: Solomon Goss of Fearing Twp. in Ohio http://sgossfamily.wordpress.com/ 

Amarilla and George had Grace and she married Ronald S. McDonald in secret in September 1898 in Hudson, Wisconsin about a month before her father George was murdered!!  Grace and Ronald lived in Minnesota where my Dad was born.   These two people are my grandparents.

Actually, I started with the MacDonald/McDonald/McDonell/Macdonell side of my family when I began researching because that is what I knew the best. Back in 1999, Canada online was very young and not like it is today.  They have come a long way and are amazing!

Some of Ronald and Grace’s children – My Dad is on the right!

This Spring of 2012, I am off to Ontario and Quebec to learn more about the origins of my great grandfather Archibald McDonell and my great grandmother Mary McDonell’s family. Yes, they were both McDonell’s.

I will also be learning more about the Boardmans and the Brown side of my family, my mother’s side!  As you can see I have deep roots in Canada.

If you have family connections to Ontario or Quebec join me as I travel along!  I will be following along two great rivers there the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence.  What stories rivers could tell sigh!

I will be attending the Ontario Genealogical Society Conference in Kingston June 1-3, 2012.  You will find more information at these links.  I will be posting on each of the two blogs below according to the research.  Don’t worry I will let you know where to look!

My Dad’s McDonell roots are featured in this blog The Man Who Lived Airplanes: http://macdonellfamily.wordpress.com/

My mother’s Canadian side is featured in this blog The Boardmans and Browns of Winnipeg: http://boardmanbrown.wordpress.com/

Come along and see what I learn about Canadian genealogical research!

Massachusetts Meanderings Videos at YouTube!

Well, it has taken awhile to get caught up on things since completing all my trips this past year.  I finally have been able to prepare and upload the videos of some of the cemeteries I visited when I was in Massachusetts.

Here are the videos I took on eight (8) of those cemeteries.  I was able to get them up and going on YouTube.  They are really overviews and if you want detail go to the photographs and the posts where I wrote about these cemeteries I visited on this blog: 

1. Palisado Cemetery, Windsor CT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPjRBUP9lXg

  

2.  Evergreen in Winchester, New Hampshire

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtvxZsvIXys&feature=g-upl

3. Burnham Cemetery, Montague, Franklin Co., MA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEJZl9naS_A

4. Springfield Cemetery, Springfield, Hampden Co., Massachusetts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF8Mkjndcv8

5. Middle Cemetery, Lancaster, Worcester Co., MA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAg_wwBI8KY

6. Old Settlers Cemetery, Lancaster, Worcester Co., MA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCz5hrl5CLE

7. Old Common Burial Field, Lancaster, Worcester Co., MA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ogsq1HzKf0

8. Old Indian Cemetery, West Brookfield, Worcester Co., MA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smTSF6RfWYQ

Eventually I will put the video’s in a post in the Solomon Goss of Fearing Township in Ohio blog when I write about that part of the Goss history.  It will be awesome!

Enjoy!

More photographs of the cemeteries are available on Picasa Web Albums by me.  If you use one of the cemetery names above and my first name you should be able to find them.  I will eventually add them to the Solomon Goss blog as I write posts that reference that cemetery. 

This post was updated 7/10/2012. 

Another Trip Completed: Ohio August 16 to September 7, 2011

My trip to Ohio is completed.  It was a big job and I put 1547 miles on the car rental.  Got lost a couple of times or went in the wrong direction but nothing major.  I found Ohio to be lovely, green and lush.  The weather was just fine except for two days of really hot and muggy, then rain from tropical storm Lee.  I felt like I was home except we have more fir and pine trees.  It was a very good trip and I am pleased.

I am in the process of organizing my trip research and files into my giant binder like I did for Massachusetts Meanderings.  I will continue to post on the trip in Ohio at the Solomon Goss of Fearing Township in Ohio Blog http://sgossfamily.wordpress.com/

Once I finish describing my adventures in Ohio and giving the links to archives I will start digging into the genealogy of my Goss, Keller, Spracklin, Delano and associated surnames in more detail on that blog.  I am probably going to be quiet for awhile now and not go on any trips till Spring of 2012.  I frankly need the rest. That trip will be to Michigan and Ontario if I can work it right.  It will cover the MacDonald side of my family.

There are few things I need to do for Massachusetts Meanderings like post my videos of various cemeteries.  That will be an interesting challenge.

Time to catch up my other blog posts….!