After having greatly enjoyed our time together, my friend Diane and I had to say goodbye last Sunday morning. She was on her way to the local airport and I had to drive back from Springfield, IL to catch my flight to Montréal at the St. Louis airport. There I was with a few more hours to seize the day.
Author Archives: Diane
40 Days | Day 11 | Goodbye, Springfield, IL and 2016 FGS Conference!
Here I am at home returning from the 2016 FGS Conference which was held in Springfield, Illinois. I wish I could have published every day on this blog but that quickly proved to be an impossible task. The first session began at 8AM and the last one ended at 6PM, which was followed by evening events. Continue reading
40 Days | Day 7 | Goodbye, St. Louis and Hello, Springfield!
I could tell you that Day 6 was a leisurely one with visits to the Gateway Arch, the Old Courthouse and the Old Cathedral but a genealogist can’t stay away too long from a repository. So after all that walking, in the afternoon, I went to the St. Louis County Public Library where there is an entire floor dedicated to genealogy with enthusiastic and helpful staff. I was working on people living in Cahokia, Illinois and Ste. Genevieve, Missouri (what a coincidence!). Liz Loveland, who was there as well, made quite a fabulous find herself. Continue reading
40 Days | Day 5 | Fort de Chartres, Prairie du Rocher, Illinois and Ste. Genevieve, Missouri
What a gorgeous and sunny day it was! So hot and humid though!
Here are some pictures that will give you an idea of the day spent in company of Liz Loveland: Continue reading
40 Days | Day 4 | St. Louis, Missouri
Well, that was fun! I’m so sorry to leave the fantastic Missouri History Museum & Research Center, but with all my hard work, I feel I have done the best that I could. Let’s see what I will be bringing back home: Continue reading
40 Days | Day 3 | St. Louis, Missouri
Before stopping by its Research Center, I thought of going to the Missouri History Museum but at the last minute, I sat on the fence as I was a bit tired. Then I got a tweet from Liz Loveland and off I went to pick her up at her hotel for a quick visit to the museum. If you haven’t seen it and plan to come to St. Louis, keep that one on your list. Two majors reasons: it is free and it has plenty of exhibits for every taste—Route 66, The Little Black Dress (mourning dress for us genealogy and history buffs) and the 1904 World Fair. Continue reading
40 Days | Day 2 | St. Louis, Missouri
Overwhelmed, that’s the word. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying this negatively. Bien au contraire! I guess this is St. Louis’ way to make me feel as welcome as I always dreamed I would be. Continue reading
40 Days
No less than 40 days of genealogy, that’s what I’m talking about. It’s my reward, I have been dreaming about this forever. A real 100% pure genealogy vacation—with virtually no weather issues at hand! Well, we’re not there yet. Still have to wait… 40 days!
What’s the plan? Well, let’s see. I sure do not want to tell you everything right off the bat. But let me say this, my trip will get off to a great start. For those of you who read my posts regularly, any hint of where I always wanted to go? Continue reading
Missing Man Found After Decades: Louis Rail (abt 1798-1854)
After such a busy month (ChallengeAZ 2016) and vaguely dealing with the idea of rewarding myself with well-deserved time off, I—guess what?—ended up on the Web. I then realized that the Holy Family Parish records for Cahokia, St. Clair County, Illinois were available on Family Search. For those unfamiliar with the area, Cahokia and St. Louis, Missouri almost face each other across the Mississippi River. Continue reading
ChallengeAZ 2016: Z for Zelda
You may remember the article I wrote some time ago about Oneida Alexander. As I didn’t have anyone among the Hubou-Tourville for the letter Z, I thought of her daughter Zelda—whose real first name was Lillie. Sadly, she made the headlines at the end of the 19th century for a suicide attempt following an argument with her mother regarding her boyfriend. Have you ever found an illustration of one of your ancestors? I was amazed when I came across this one in an article of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (edition of Saturday, April 3, 1897). Once again, gotta love those newspapers!
Statistics
Letter Z: 0% for the Hubou-Tourvilles’ first names.
The 2016 ChallengeAZ is proposed by Sophie Boudarel of La Gazette des ancêtres