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Family
history touring- 1
More and
more we hear about families who include touring significant family/ancestor
places as part of their reunion. This is a particularly special
activity when many members are attending from out-of-town and
rarely have the opportunity to visit. These would include homes/homesteads,
farms, neighborhoods, schools, churches and cemeteries. Some families
even do re-enactments in conjunction with the tours. We are very
interested in learning about your history tour, e-mail us!
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Heritage Haunt
by Linda L.K. Armstrong
Want to create a memorable reunion event that captures family history and entertains everyone at the same time? The answer is a Heritage Haunt.
A Heritage Haunt consists of tours of family homes, farms, schools, neighborhoods and businesses. It includes favorite restaurants, parks, and bars, and other sites where interesting family events took place. Aside from visiting locations, family history is shared through stories, narration, re-enactments, pictures, antiques and artifacts.
Imagine sitting in the same tree where Grandpa Albert carved Grandma Edna's initials seventy-five years ago. Picture yourself climbing the steps to the hayloft where Aunt Ruth and Uncle Harold had their first kiss. Who couldn't laugh at seeing the school banister where Albert Jr.'s head was lodged throughout one entire 4th grade recess?
These "haunts" are your family's heritage. They are where stories and memories were born. When you visit, the past is alive, well, and firmly linked to the present.
This inexpensive tour is actually a backdrop for an afternoon of stories, music, food, games, and laughter. It's a way for the entire family to participate in a single activity as they connect with each other and their shared past.
Planning your "Heritage Haunt"
Select core family members
First, determine which family members or ancestors to focus on for your tour/haunt. Often, families have core members that who are the focal point for the rest of the family. Focus on these people for your tour. Once you select several members, narrow your list to particularly lively characters or families, living or deceased, who are well known by the people attending the reunion.
Research family history and possible sites
Start by creating a family history sketch to select sites and dig up interesting stories. Search your memory first. Jot down whatever you know about these core members. Where were they from originally (country, city, state)? Where did they live? What schools did they attend? Did they own businesses? Where did they work? Where did they spend time? Which neighborhoods, restaurants, bars, stores and clubs were their favorites? Where did they attend church? Where did the married couples meet? Where did children spend their time?
Create a history sketch filled with information about who these members were, what they did in life, interesting events associated with them, and locations or sites associated with the stories. Once you have some ideas, call other relatives and ask for information and stories.
Narrow and research the locations
From the history sketch, select places to visit. As you consider each site, ask yourself the following questions. Does the site still exist? Is the site interesting because of its history or stories? How long will it take to travel to this site? Is the site an option for a large group? Is it accessible to family members with special needs? Once you’ve selected a site, research it. Find out who owns it; is it public or private property? If possible, research the site's history before and after your family.
Locate resources and plan the particulars
Transportation
Traveling to sites is a large part of the tour as well as an opportunity for your family to connect. If at all possible, try to rent a motorcoach, bus or mini-van to keep the group together. If you choose not to do this, provide maps and a time frame for drivers. Then, caravan and car-pool to sites together.
History
In addition to viewing the site, you need to explain and narrate its history. This is where your research is put to use. Try a number of approaches to narrate stories.
- Narrate the stories on the way in the motorcoach/bus or select a young family member to narrate "Hauntbook of History" - prepare a history booklet as a memento and read together as you visit sites
- Create a re-enactment complete with period clothing and dialect
- Create a script of an event and surprise family members and assign roles AFTER you arrive at the site.
- Recruit your kids or grandchildren to create a re-enactment
Pictures
Dig up pictures of family members at this location. Reunion goers can connect the present and the past, and note changes in the site from past to present. You might also make copies of the pictures and create a booklet.
Food
If you decide to include food on the tour, select from options like these:
- Potluck lunch at a site
- Catered lunch en route or at a site
- Create a menu of family recipes
- Eat at a restaurant "haunt" en route
- Cook your own food pioneer style over an open fire
Entertainment
What can you do to add even more fun to the experience?
- Dress as your family would have 100 years ago.
- Play music related to sites or the time period as you travel.
- Hold a barn or street dance.
- Create a family trivia contest.
- Display family treasures or heirlooms. Find the quilt Grandma Nette made or the rug that covered Great Aunt Susie's kitchen floor.
- Locate antiques previously owned by your family; kitchen tools, farm implements, office machines, ledgers, crochet hooks.
- Demonstrate the use of old farm, household or business equipment.
- Video the day's lighter moments and play the tape later in the day.
Relax and enjoy the day!
You've done your planning and research. Now it's time to have fun. Remember to enlist the help of others for the big day. Don't do it all yourself. Assign jobs and delegate responsibilities to other family members. Remember, what's really important is the time you spend together. The stories and the laughter are what you'll remember; so don't let the details get you down. Happy Haunting!
The author’s Heritage Haunt
The latest Kuenzel reunion enjoyed a "Heritage Haunt." At exactly noon, everyone was called together with an enormous, gong-like school bell retired to our backyard from the Kuenzel brothers' elementary school, our first stop.
A tour booklet, containing family addresses, old photos, and a brief family history, was provided. We boarded a school bus and headed for the farm. One family member provided tongue-in-cheek descriptions of the sights en-route. "Coming up on the right you'll see Clay Hill, where Bob and Howie used to do snow/tow skiing behind the Buick. On your left you'll see Gutches Grove, the first place to check when the cows got out."
At the school, Harold told horror stories of trudging through waist-deep snow to school, starting the fire in the wood stove and ringing the enormous bell. The old-timers led us on a story-filled tour of the first homestead.
Then we visited the last Kuenzel farm. Old-timers remembered years of love and hard labor while the farm reminded the thirty-year olds of their childhood. We toured the house, where everything seemed much smaller than we remembered. We also toured the barn and outbuildings and took a peaceful walk toward the "back 40." City kids played with farm animals and explored the hay loft.
At a quick visit to the town's museum we dug through the town's history and found ways our family contributed.
At our central location a home-cooked dinner of family recipes awaited using the family's antique dishes. Our heritage haunt was completed with food, love, and most importantly, old and new memories.
About the Author
Linda Armstrong is a freelance writer and an alternative school English teacher in Minnesota. In addition to reunion-centered pieces, she also writes a bi-weekly travel column, "Caribbean Travel and Culture" at www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/1575.
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Take the bus
Transportation by bus or motor coach seems such a practical way to get to and around at reunions. Consider these ideas and suggestions for your next reunion.
Buses everywhere
I was at a Detroit hotel over a reunion season/summer weekend a couple years ago (working, ironically) and there were five reunions at the hotel (that's NOT why I was there). The parking lot was full of buses from all over. When we were all checking out at the same time Sunday morning, buses were lined up. VERY tired revelers were dragging themselves and their pillows onto the buses for the long sleep home. That seems so practical!
Looking for flexibility?
According to the American Bus Association, US motorcoaches carry more than 774 million passengers annually – about 200 million more than airlines and more than double those traveling on Amtrak and commuter rail. Motorcoaches serve more than six times more US destinations than airlines and more than seven times more than passenger rail. ABA offers a free list of US tour bus companies equipped for disabled travelers.
ABA suggests busing destinations
Judith Whitt of the American Bus Association in Washington DC says their Top 100 Events in North America can be requested by email (abainfo@buses.org), fax (202- 842-0850) or mail (1100 New York Avenue NW - Ste 1050, Washington DC 20005-3934). Or visit their website, www.buses.org, and click Top 100 Events. To see and print out Motorcoach Travel Tips, go to www.buses.org/tips.cfm.
These are tips for consumers interested in motorcoach travel in general, or in organizing their own group charter or tour. When booking a motorcoach, be prepared to provide details about your destination(s), required itinerary and the approximate number of people.
How to plan your bus needs
Estimate the number of people requiring transportation for each event. Establish pickup and dropoff sites. Will members be moved in one trip or many?
Request information about ground transportation operators from Convention and Visitors Bureaus or hotel staff.
Questions to ask
How long have they been in business?
What is their specialty?
Do vehicles have air conditioning, seat belts, public address system, restrooms?
What is their safety record? (Department of Transportation, Office of Motor Carrier Federal Highway Administration, 800-832-5660; www.safesys.org)
When they quote costs, do they include fuel, equipment, maintenance, union fees, state and local taxes, surcharges and tolls?
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Reuniting to celebrate 100th anniversary
From an extensive report by Fred Radewagen
(Originally published in Reunions magazine, Vol. 13 n. 3, 2003)
When my mother was confined with Alzheimer's disease in 1997, I was moved to contact her generation’s relatives because she could no longer keep in touch. The result was a reunion celebrating the 100th anniversary of her father’s emigration to America in 1902 with his parents and four brothers. My grandfather’s paternal grandmother, Torine Larsdatter, was one of Lars Halvorsen’s six children. Our roots are in the small Hvaler (Whale) Islands at the mouth of Oslo Fjord.
The deal was sealed by the response to an online message I posted to a Norwegian genealogy group. A Norwegian woman completed a genealogy of my mother's paternal grandfather's mother's family. So it was a matter of finding living Norwegian relatives, all by e-mail.
Our main contact in Norway was Knut Westgaard (my fourth cousin, a descendant of Torine's sister Oline), who put us in touch with Oline’s American descendants. We also found American descendants of Torine’s and Oline’s sister Andrine.
Meanwhile, in searching for my great grandfather Karl Karlsen’s siblings descendants, we found two cousins living within blocks of each other in Chicago exurbs; they never would have known they were related if not for this reunion.
Eventually a group of us decided to travel with our cousins to Norway. Knut Westgaard formed the host committee in Norway. Americans totaled 33: four from Phoenix, two from Montana, three from Minnesota, six from California, two from Michigan, eleven from Chicago and my family of five from Washington, DC. We all descended from either Karl’s sons, his first cousin Kris Jensen, or another first cousin’s son, Johan Grønli. I had met eight of the others just once before and met another fifteen for the first time in Oslo. Our gathering reunited descendants of the five children (all born in the 1830s) of Lars Halvorsen and Inger Malene Knudsdatter Bislet.
Hvaler Homecoming
Day One
It was especially moving for us to visit Oslo buildings that were my grandfather's home, school and church 100 years ago. The Gamle Aker Church, dating circa 1100, is one of Norway's oldest, and its interior was impressive in its medieval appointments and ambiance. Records from my grandfather's era had already been removed to the state archives and were not available at the church. We signed the guest book, marking our centennial pilgrimage.
By happy coincidence, the Møllergata School, where we visited with classes in session, had set up a model classroom as it would have looked 100 years ago, giving us an unanticipated look into our ancestors’ past.
Day Two
My family visited American ambassador John Doyle Ong’s residence. He invited us to represent the traveling family for an American flag presentation to Knut and Gunn Westgaard, our Norwegian family representatives, for reunion use. The flag had been flown over the US Capitol.
Day Three
We left Oslo by chartered bus for Vesterøy at nearby Hvaler for the homecoming celebration. We were stunned when greeted by over 550 descendants of Torine's sisters, Andrine and Oline Larsdatter, and her brothers, Hans and Thomas at the Hvaler Community Center Hall. In the center of the room were empty tables reserved for Torine's descendants: us! We were the entirety of Torine's section. No one from Torine's line had lived on Hvaler since she left in 1889.
It was especially rewarding to meet many cousins with whom I had corresponded by e?]mail over four years of planning and trying to build enthusiasm. In my wildest dreams, this much enthusiasm wasn’t expected. I posted a 10-foot wide family tree so everyone could see the relationships. Throughout the event, cousins corrected the tree, adding boxes for missed people, especially young children.
Singers dressed in traditional Norwegian costume treated us to Norwegian folk songs. There was a Hvaler slide presentation and welcoming remarks from many people, including a lengthy welcome by someone I rightly guessed to be a politician. I was accorded the honor of saying a few words on behalf the Americans. I began with the pronouncement: Min kjære familie, vi har kommet hjem (My dear family, we have come home). In English, I said, “The blood of Hvaler flows through the veins of our children and our children's children.”
Before leaving the US, we struggled to find a token of appreciation to present our family at Hvaler and finally agreed upon the lapel pins, displaying both Norwegian and American flags.
The Fredrikstad Blad, the local newspaper, devoted page three of its Sunday edition to the reunion and said in addition to our hardy band of 33 Americans, participants came from all parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and one man from Australia.
Day Four
I passed my whole time in Norway without experiencing darkness. Thanks to persisting jet lag and grueling daily schedules, I was usually in bed before the sun went down after 10:30 PM and certainly wasn’t up until well after the three-something daily sunrise.
Sunday morning we attended Hvaler Church, reputed to be Norway’s oldest since they adopted Christianity over 1,000 years ago. Reverend Tore Torkildsen, recalling September 11th events, invited us to the altar and led us in singing America the Beautiful. We were told modern Norwegians are not regular church?]goers but either Hvaler Church or this Sunday was an exception, because there wasn't an empty pew.
To commemorate our homecoming, we planted a sapling from Westgaard Farm. I called upon our Norwegian cousins to tend to our tree, help it grow and make it strong.
Knut guided us through the churchyard, pointing out family graves. In Norway, graves are leased for 80 years, then reused, unless the lease is renewed. (What happens to old grave markers remains a mystery to me.) Oline died in 1911; Knut renewed the lease in 1991 and tends the grave. The Bygdebok (church record book) says Torine moved in 1889; we do not know where she died or was buried. Her first husband, Carl, was reportedly lost at sea. So, the sapling is really the only marker for Torine’s family branch.
We took a short boat ride to Rom, a woody, hilly speck of an island where Torine and her Lommeland?]born husband, Carl Hansen, lived and raised their children until he died. The children grew up and all left by 1889.
We were relieved to learn Torine's farm remains in our extended family. The spot where Torine's home once stood is a hole in the ground with scattered foundation remnants.
Day Five
Our family line is divided into Karlsens and Carlsens, with cousins from each spelling on the trip. As my grandfather told it, he and his brother Olaf went through an immigration line different from the other brothers in 1902 and wound up being Carlsens rather than Karlsens. The spelling divergence persists in the family even now, 100 years later.
Epilogue
Although I am in a funk that our journey is all over. I look forward to returning in June 2005, when Norway celebrates the centennial of its independence from Sweden. I can hardly wait. Maybe I should work on great grandmother Olava Emilie Johansen’s family.
About the author
Fred Radewagen is a government affairs consultant who lives with his wife Amata in Alexandria, Virginia, where they raised three children. He grew up in the Chicago area and was close to his Norway-born maternal grandfather, William Carlsen. A graduate of Northwestern University, Fred earned a masters' degree from Georgetown University.
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“Nostalgia trips,” a new way of preserving history through travel
Nostalgia trips are vacations of grandparents taking their grandchildren to meaningful places to share family stories and create new memories.
Dr. Arthur Kornhaber took his 16-year-old grandson Justin to the sandlot where Kornhaber hit the winning home run for the county school championship. Justin, keeper of his grandfather’s medal, vowed to take his own grandchildren to the same spot.
Nostalgia trips offer chances for learning and strengthening family bonds. Plan ahead, sort out memories, people and places you’d like to share: hometown, school or favorite childhood destination. Consider children’s ages when planning. Discuss trip details before to build excitement.
Show old pictures--including some of yourself when you were your grandchild’s age. Give your grandkids perspective — take a new photo with your grandchild in the same place.
Storytelling, family stories, recipes and “secrets,” grandchildren “see” their own parents as kids from stories of them growing up. Create new memories, take pictures, shoot video, keep a journal, create a scrapbook, keep a daily record of your trip and email updates to other family members.
Hampton ® Hotels Hampton Nostalgia Trips, PO Box 288, Beverly Hills CA 90213; 800-453-0789; www.hamptoninn.com.
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Civil War comes alive in new movie
The Prince William County/Manassas (Virginia) CVB invites you to tour historic sites that come to life in Manassas: End of Innocence, a permanent feature film showing at the Manassas National Battlefield Park. The movie details two traumatic Civil War battles at Manassas Junction, a peaceful railroad community 35 miles south of Washington, DC.
The film portrays both Manassas battles through the eyes of several participants. Among them are Judith Henry, an 85-year-old bedridden widow caught in the crossfire and Charles Norris, a 17-year-old Virginia Military Institute cadet who led his troops into battle and died at Manassas.
Much of the sacred land is now the Manassas National Battlefield Park, managed by the National Park Service. Daily tours include fascinating battle accounts. The scenic grounds contain historic buildings, including the former county courthouse, jail, church, and one-room schoolhouse. The village is currently being restored.
Contact 703-395-7130 ext 14; www.visitpwc.com.
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Family Heritage Tours
Family Heritage Tours describes their tours as gatherings of relatives, friends and associates to experience sites where ancestors lived. Much research (four to eight months) is done before a tour is assembled. Most tours are 10 days covering short or wide country ranges depending upon family desires and information gathered. Custom designed tour programs are personally tailored to fit the family’s wants, desires and expectations. They work with a family coordinator, any individual with knowledge of specific data pertaining to their family origins according to Larry R. Rieke, President of Family Heritage Tours. They work with a professional team with impeccable genealogical credentials who assist in the tour formation in England.
Ronny O. Bodine participated in a of Owsley family genealogy and history tour in England. These are some of his notes reported in a handsome 23-page Owsley Family Historical Society Newsletter. From arrival in London, Bodine described the tour in great detail (our quotes are from just the Owsley line). Just after arrival they drove by “the former Bells of Ouzeley Inn, now renamed Harvester, a part of everyone’s photographic history of this trip.” Another photo opportunity was “Woodstock Manor, once the possession of an Owlsey ancestor, Edmund of Woodstock (1301-1330), Earl of Kent.”
Religious family history is evident during a “walking tour of Oxford University, including Exeter College and all Soul’s Church. Rev. William Owsley (1662-1733), nephew and son-in-law of Rev. John Owsley (1630-1687), and his successor as rector of Glooston Church, graduated from Oxford University’s All Soul’s College in 1685. His son, Rev. John Owsley (1692-1743), also attended All Soul’s College…”
Another ancestor made a mark at a church more than 400 years ago. “At Courteenhall we made a tour of the manor property and its church, the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. One of the monuments in the church is for Richard Ousley, who married a Wake, and died in 1598.”
Bodine sat with Sir Hereward over coffee and talked of early Owsley family history and the possible relationship between Somersetshire Owsleys and Courteenhall Ousleys.
Here is an example of a contemporary event inserted into a historical backdrop. “We stopped in the town of Whittlebury, Northamptonshire. Visited Whittlebury Church where our Rev. John Owsley’s daughter Sarah was baptized in 1651. We saw the actual baptismal font where this event took place. John Owsley served as Whittlebury clerk from 1651 to 1652. We were received by Colin Hudgens, dressed in church vestments. Once everyone was settled, Hudgens read a prayer for the victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks which included several hundred Britons.”
Rev. John Owsley’s resting place was behind the altar. “John served as rector of Glooston Church from 1660 to 1687, was succeeded by his son-in-law and nephew, Rev. William Owsley (1662-1733) who served as rector from 1688 to 1733, and was succeeded by his son, Rev. John Owsley (1693-1743), rector from 1742 to 1743.”
At Benefield Parish Church in Benefield, Northamptonshire, they viewed the 1631 baptismal site of Dorothea Poyntz, wife of Rev. John Owsley.
“Parish Church of St. Andrew in Stogursey, Somersetshire, is where John Owsley served his first church post as rector from 1652 to 1660. Just across the street stood the very vicarage in which Rev. John Owsley lived and where our ancestor, Thomas Owsley, was born on June 11, 1658. Rev. Owsley baptized his son at Stogursey.”
At Glastonbury they were joined by special guest, Eileen Owsley, an English Owsley society member, and widow of Jack Owsley. Jack and Eileen were instrumental in researching the early family history. Alarge sheet cake decorated with “Happy Anniversary Owsley Family” celebrated several of the tour group who recently had birthdays and anniversaries.
Next stop, All Saints’ Church in Trull. One of the church staff uncovered heretofore unknown details concerning John Owsley, the father, which revealed him to have been of Trull’s tithing assessor in 1648 and 1650. Axminster, town was the home of Rev. John Owsley’s grandfather, William Owsley the younger, who died there in 1593.
Crewkerne, Rev. William Owsley (1550-1630), son of John and Eme Owslie, of Misterton, was installed as vicar of Shepton Beauchamp and Crewkerne Church in 1576 and was ordained a priest in 1578. John and Eme Owslie were likely buried in Crewkerne’s churchyard in 1592. Despite an intensive graveyard search, no Owsley stones were found.
Contact Family Heritage Tours, PO Box 25673, Shawnee Mission KS 66225; 913-219-7876; fht@kc.rr.com.
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