Genealogy field trips are an exciting time – from the planning, to making the arrangements and itinerary, pulling research materials together, and just setting off for some much needed “me” time. That April morning, I left at 8:00am, wanting to arrive at about 10:00 in Bath, NY to get right to work in the county historian’s office.

The drive was fabulous as always – not that the weather was that great, it was actually snowing as I began to drive through the rolling hills of the souther tier. But I love this part of my state. If it weren’t for the fact that it’s so far…..out there…away from civilization as I know it, I’d consider living there. But such as it is…it’s my place to get away and try to “get in touch” with family roots.

The day was productive. The county historian had records that I had not had access to before, so new information was found – things I had no idea about. So it was an exciting day, even if it (like always) led me to an entire new set of questions.

After an early dinner, I decided to check out the Bath National Cemetery. After all, I was done with my scheduled plan for the day, so why not? I knew that I had no ancestors buried there, but I’m always up for a drive through a cemetery. I followed the signs and the road curved to the left until I came upon a brick gateway. Crossing a small stream via an old iron bridge, before me loomed the entire VA complex – hospital, admin, nursing care facility, etc…all brick buildings, all of them very reminiscent of Civil War era architecture.

Following the signs for the cemetery, eventually I turned a corner and found the brick pillar announcing that I had found the entrance to the cemetery –

My “normal” tradition upon traveling through a cemetery is to just go where I’m led. Sometimes I’m drawn to the small graves of infants. Sometimes I’m drawn to the large, ornate headstones. Today, I just drove…

How could I narrow down to a few select stones to photograph and transcribe? Here were thousands of men and women that had done more, fought more, and braved more than I probably ever would in my own life. Every single one of them deserved to be remembered and preserved. So I continued to drive along in silence, a bit taken back by the rows and rows of stones surrounding me.

As I left, I knew I’d return there again – Day 1 of my field trip was a very good day.

Day 2 was my day to get dusty and dirty in courthouse records.

My first stop was the county clerk…the upstairs office where all of the old records were kept. It’s also the office where one could obtain gun permits for Steuben County, so if nothing else it made for an interesting parade of people in and out of the office.

In front of me were stacks of index books. Stacks and stacks of index books. Dating from 1796. I certainly had my work cut out for me that day. By the time I was finished with the index books I had 54 property deeds to look up that listed a Hulbert ancestor as the “grantee” or “grantor”. Immediately I decided there was just no way that I would have the time to look up all 54 of those. I opted instead to focus on my direct ancestors, or those who I had not known much about until then.

The last time I was in that office, I distinctly remember photocopying a land deed for an ancestor. However, I noticed bright pink signs posted everywhere that the deed books were NOT to be photocopied. What I could do instead was proceed to pull up a microfilm of each item and print a copy that way. I did not have time for that, my eyes would not agree with it, and the microfilm reader was not sitting at a desk or table…but on top of a filing cabinet. A 4-drawer filing cabinet that my 5’1″ body was not going to stand in front of and look up all 54 land deeds.

It was a bit disappointing to leave without exactly what I wanted…so instead I took notes, a few photographs of the actual deeds and made a mental note to look for someone who would be able to spend the time to pull these images for me.

The morning of day 3 was a late start, as the library I was planning on going to didn’t open until noon – and it was pouring rain when I woke up, so any cemetery excursions were going to be put on hold until I could tell if the weather would co-operate with my plans. Eventually, the weather finally broke and I checked out of my home-away-from-home…it was time to head out to South Dansville and check in on my ancestors.

This particular cemetery is south of town, and I may or may not have gotten lost once trying to get there. Oddly enough, my sense of direction in the area is keen enough and that day was no different, as I popped over the hillside, and as I was admiring the open view in front of me…I looked up on a hilltop a few miles over and yelled out loud, “I SEE YOU!” There was the white picket fence that surrounded “my” cemetery – the final resting place of two sets of my 5th great-grandparents, and also just my favorite place in the world to go and sit, and have a good-ol’-fashioned talking to with them. (No I do NOT make a habit of talking to dead people, just a few of my beloved ancestors)

(The white picket fence for my cemetery is visible just above the one green grassy area in this photo.)

However, time was ticking away, and I eventually made my way to the Dansville library, and I was able to spend a few hours looking at newspapers from the early 19th century, finding references to my family and the activities of their lifetime.

I love looking back on weekends like this one almost as much as I enjoy planning them!