Take at least 1 genealogy research trip this year

I went to Portland and researched stuff there. Went to the cemetary but wasn’t sure it was the right cemetary so that was disappointing. Found out a lot about what to do on my next trip. But also, was able to borrow a whole lot of photos and then scan them in from one of my cousins and then also stopped by my cousin in Medford on the way back and was able to look at and photograph some old photos. Definitely fun. And I can see it getting better and better as I get the hang of it. So I’m up for doing another trip this year.

No dates or anything yet. That’s the major missing ingredient. But, I would like to go:

-North from SF to Medford where I have a 65-year-old cousin whose Mom (my Dad’s sister) died and must have a bunch of old photos and keepsakes to look through.

-Then in Portland, my great-grandfather was buried in nearby Aloha, so I want to find his gravestone and photograph it and see if there’s some other info at the cemetary.

-Then my Mom was born in Elgin, Oregon, so I would like to go to the county courthouse there and see what I can find.

-And my grandfather, Leonard Frakes died in Seattle and I could research that. This kind of travel really is fun. The exploration and detective work is hard to beat! Hopefully, I can recruit trip-mates to go with me to these places.

Besides putting this trip in my calendar, I should probably be doing some preliminary long-distance research to get the ball rolling. According to Long-Distance Genealogy, you can save an incredible amount of time and get a lot better results if you’ve made some contacts and even set up appointments in advance.

It’s hard for me to be that planful, but perhaps saying it here will get me to try sending some letters of inquiry. The book gives you a bunch of actual sample letters to use. It’s really good.