Welcome All
We are home. Read the Final analysis.
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Here is our progress so far. Dotted line is our path red is current progress.
Our Travel Diary
Day One, Friday, June 8th
Hutchinson to Blue Springs. We arrived at our beautiful Super 8 hotel at 9:30. I am already taking Nyquil so I won't keep myself and Tammy awake with coughing. We miss the cats already.
Day 2, Saturday, June 9
I awoke in a Nyquil induce stupor to hear Tammy saying that the bathroom light has gone out and she is taking a shower in the dark now. The light went off and on without reason the rest of the morning. We loaded our 700 lbs of gear back in the car.
We went directly to the Blue Springs library only to find they have no genealogy section. We got back in the car and went back to Independence to the main genealogy library in the area. We found out where Nelle Cole is memorialized and with directions to the cemetery we were off. We found Nelle and her husbands' marker plus her Brother's, sister's father, mother and grandfather's markers.
Click here to see pictures from the cemetery
We went back to the hotel to get my hat I had left in the room and we were off. We got headed up 35 North and thought it would be nice to eat at a restaurant called Nelle's. When we got there we were ignored so we ate at McDonald's. So much for that.
We stopped at Leon, Iowa on the way to Waterloo and we looked around the cemetery for her relatives but didn't find them. The local library was already closed so we went on.
Now we are in Waterloo and we find that the library is not only closed but doesn't open again until Monday. We know that Charles Stewart Colladay's mother is buried here we just don't know where. So it looks like we will be looking through several cemeteries here on Sunday.
Day 3, Sunday, June 10
I might as well tell you, I'm sure Tammy will. I was a jerk driver first thing this morning. I came into town last night from the south but I didn't realize I looped around to the north. So....when I started out I had my bearings all wrong and wouldn't ask for directions. But in my defense the road was unmarked and horribly directed by Yahoo maps!
We walked one very large cemetery looking for Sarah Colladay, my great-great-great-grandmother and didn't find her. We went on to the second one and it was even larger, luckily there was a caretaker there mowing. He said he could look it up for us. He didn't find any Colladays but he did find a Lutes, her maiden name. The name he gave me didn't ring any bells so we decided to leave. As we were about to go through the gate Tammy said "Delana" the name they had shown me was Delano so I figured it was a guy. We decided to take a look anyway. It turned out to be Delana, Sarah's mother. And lo and behold right next to her was Sarah Colladay's marker. It was hard to read so we left and went to walmart and got some chalk that I forgot to pack.
After applying the chalk we took some pictures and headed off to Wisconsin. We might never have gotten the pictures if Tammy hadn't remembered the name, maybe Sarah's ghost was prodding her memory...
We got to Stoughton, Wisconsin about 5:00. So we went looking for Colladay Point. We found it.
DAY 4, Monday, June 11
Yesterday
while stumbling around Colladay Point Drive we met Gloria Jenkins who lives on
Colladay Point. She opened her doors to us and offered us a boat trip
around the lake. So today we took her up on it. She also let us
photo copy her title search info on the land. It has a funny stipulation
that allowed Harriet Colladay's family access to the beach area behind her
house. Gloria let walk around and took us out on her boat and showed us
all of the points and bays on the lake. We also got to see a house on the
lake that is built like a castle fortress that belongs to the estate of
Dillinger or Capone, they used to visit the lake during their hey day.
Gloria was very friendly and helpful to us.
We also went to the local library and found documents and got directed to the cemetery where all of the local Colladays are buried. We found William McLaine Colladay who is the brother of Charles Stephen Colladay, my GGGG-Grandfather.
We left Stoughton aroung 4 pm which was good. The bad thing was that put us in Chicago at 6 PM toward the end of rush hour. I missed the bypass route and ended up on the Chicago loop. We finally got to Fremont, OH at 12:30 AM EST. Tomorrow will be another long day of driving. We will be driving to Mt. Laurel, NJ, a suburb of Philly. Well, I am going to bed, it's 2:05 am here. We drove around 430 miles today!
Day 5, June 12
Today we drove a lot of mile about 570 miles. We did ok till we got to the hotel and wanted to laundry. It was late and we couldn't find anything. Once we found one it was closing. We ate at the Circle K. Tomorrow we will go to the main library and hopefully we will go to a cemetery or 2. We are staying in New Jersey but we are switching to King of Prussia, PA tomorrow because we are far away from where we want to be in Philly.
I have heard from sister-in-law Hannah that I have lost a Koi in the Koi pond but it was no fault of Hannah's who is caring for the pets. It was probably a dirty filter. The cats are doing fine.
By the way I now know Rice County drivers feel in Hutchinson when I drive by them. East coast drivers suck. Hope you are all well. More info tomorrow.
Day 6, June 13
After hating New Jersey we packed up checked out and spent about another hour in New Jersey at the laundry cleaning clothes and watching the price is right.
We drove in to city center Philadelphia and decided right away that we would be traveling by taxi from now on. If the driving wasn't hard enough the parking was non-existent. So we headed for "King of Prussia" PA and soon realized that it was farther away than we thought. We ended up turning around and staying closer to downtown Philly and Germantown. We are now at the Holiday Inn - City Line till Saturday Morning. I have a nice desk to work on the computer from and a nice king bed and stuff.
We took a taxi into city center to the Central Public library and started looking through newspaper microfilm from the 1840's. We didn't find much new stuff nothing to be honest. We are hoping to have better luck tommorow at city hall and the historical society. We will also be photographing headstones.
We ate in this cool neighborhood called Chestnut hill. It has neat restaurants and bakeries and stores. We ate at this one with outdoor dining available but by the time we had walked around we decided we would enjoy the AC more then the ambience. I had Ostrich, it was pretty good and so was the tiramisu. Tammy had this fancy chicken thing with mixed greens on top, it was pretty.
We ended the day by watching a little of the NBA finals with some philly 76er fans.
Day 7, June 14th, Flag Day!
We started out on the right foot today. We went to the City Archives hoping to find a death record. The only problem was our death was from 1829 and they went back to 1860. We had some scattered success looking in the cemetery records but still no Stephen (Charles) Colladay.
Next we went to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania There was plenty of information but we were already running low on time, both there and our next destination. They closed at 4:00 and we took some interesting info from there. It turns out that someone else in our direct line, most likely Edward Francis Colladay, had hired a genealogist to find the same person we are looking for. A big genealogist from Philly was unable to locate him at the time, 1959.
So we headed to Germantown to get pictures of Stephen (Charles) Colladay's parents and brothers graves.
By the time we got dropped off at the cemetery we realized that we did indeed need a key to get in. We had called in the morning and whoever we talked to said we didn't. We had sent our cab away and we were in an area that cabs don't drive in a lot. So we walked 6 blocks to where we were to get the key. We arrived just in time to be told that they were closed and to come back tomorrow.
Tommorow we will go to New York City on an Amtrak train. We did find where Frank Colladay's dad is buried. we hope to find him there it is a neat cemetery. This is supposed to have a beautiful entrance. Pictures to follow.
Friday, June 15th
We not a pretty ending to the research phase of this ugly trip. We didn't find as much as we did last year overall. We added basic information and photos.
We left early this morning to go to Germantown and went to the Historical Society to get the key to the Hood Cemetery. We arrived right when they opened at 9 am. The first person we spoke to still denied any knowledge of a key for the cemetery. Finally another person arrived and gave us the key they weren't sure if they were the right keys.
We went a few blocks to the cemetery unaccompanied. Funny thing the none of the 3 keys seemed to work. We did what any other 30 something white kids from Kansas would do while in a ghetto area. . .we jumped the stone fence. I gave Tammy the interlaced finger stirrup lift up and she crawled over. I found a rock sticking out and used it as a step. We were in.
It took quite awhile and we had given up a couple of times when we finally found the group of stones. Photos taken, we were off to 30th street station and the Amtrak train.
It took about 1.25 hours to get to NYC. We started off ok until in the cab Tammy started reading and discovered that the place we were going to get a death certificate was closed on Fridays after 1 pm...it was 1:15. We went ahead and went to that area because there were other govt. offices there.
Long story short we didn't get squat in New York and couldn't get a cab to save our life. But we did acccomplish the following things touristy wise in NYC:
Ate a hotdog at Nathan's
Bought cheap knock-off watches of a sidewalk vendor dressed as Superman.
Bought a I "heart" New York T-Shirt
Had a frappacino at Starbucks
Had a pretzel from a street vendor
Rode in a taxi
Gave money to a street "musician"
Gave money to a bum
Well I have to go, we are going over 700 miles today.
Bye
Saturday June 16th
All we did was drive and eat. We left Philadelphia at 8:30 AM CT, and arrived at Terre Haute, IN at 8:30 PM CT. We got out of PA just in time ahead of the bad weather. We caught the edge of it but missed the flash flooding. We drove 730 miles and ate at The Tumbleweed restaurant in Terre Haute. There was no sign of Death Penalty protestors here but the Miss Indiana Contest was here tonight. We have around 610 mile to go today. Se you all soon.
We made it home in good time after leaving Terre Haute at around 9:00 am. Filled up twice and stopped to eat lunch in Columbia, Missouri. We arrived in Hutch around 7:40 PM.
The last few days were disappointing research wise. But we did have a few good days at the beginning. Here is a list of genealogical accomplishments:
Located and photographed Nelle (Cummings) Cole's grave in Blue
Springs, MO along her parents and grandparents
Located and photographed Sarah Jane (Lutes) Colladay's grave in
Waterloo, Iowa along with her mother, father and some siblings.
Located and photographed Colladay Point in Stoughton, WI.
Also located and photographed the graves of the Colladays who left their name on
the point (GGGG-Grand Uncle William McLean Colladay)
Photographed the old Colladay lot in the Germantown cemetery although most were unreadable. Including the Grave of GGGGG-Grandfather and Grandmother Charles & Ann Colladay.
Located research from 1959 showing Edward Francis Colladay researching the identity problem we are.
Located and photographed the location of Charles Henry Colladay's home in NYC Under the Brooklyn Bridge.
Unanswered questions:
Was Frank Colladay's Grandfather's name really Stephen? The only timely dated documemt we have found lists his name as Charles. There were several Charles Colladays alive in Philly at this time and we are unable to prove that we have our branch placed in the correct tree. http://www.shopkansas.net/gene/colladaybible1.tif this is a picture of a family tree that we put him in.
Here is the logic behind this placement.
We think our Stephen Colladay Husband of Fanny Mershon is the First Born son of Charles Colladay and Ann McLean of Philadelphia. Charles and Ann also had a daughter named Mary who married a man named Gabriel Coit.
We know that Stephen and Fanny named their children Charles Henry and Ann Jane, presumably after their paternal grandparents, (middle names after maternal grandparents) Charles and Ann moved to and lived in NYC until Charles Henry died in 1856. The Coits, Stephen's Sister and Brother-in-law also moved to NYC around the same time.
In the research requested by Edward Francis Colladay in 1959 he mistakenly suggested that Charles Henry and Mary Colladay Coit were siblings. They were actually Aunt-Nephew. But the fact that he had that name suggest two things. Our branch knew of and lived near the Coits, and that the name Charles was easily confused across the generations as father and son both died young.
Well that's it for this year. Thanks, for following along with us and emailing us along the way. It is good to be off the road.
visit our complete genealogy website
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Starting Mileage
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Current Mileage
We traveled a total of 3364 miles by car in 10 days. 1400 of it the last two days.
