My Portland, OR Genealogy Trip Journal, Part 1

Well, I finally made the trip. It was much more limited than planned, but I think you might find it interesting to see what happened and what I learned. I've been wanting to travel up to Portland for a while now because I have the death certificate of my great grand-father, Adalaska Frakes, on my Mom's side that says he was buried in Aloha, OR - a suburb of Portland near Beaverton. So, the stars aligned and I found a gap in my schedule that I could take if I was willing to drive up there.

Driving wasn't bad -- except for the heat. Most of the way the temperatures were above 90 degrees. I don't have air conditioning because I live in the amazingly moderate climate of the Bay Area. I might change my mind on the next car after this trip! It's so much less energy-draining to drive with moderate temperatures. And I'm a temperature wimp living in the Bay Area. If the thermometer rises above 80, I start sweating and moaning.

Anyway, I made it all the way up to Eugene on my first day. Leaving around 10:45 am and arriving in Eugene around 4 pm. I stopped in Ashland for a nice break plus a couple quicker gas/snack breaks. I drove about 500 miles that first day. After breakfast at Starbucks the following morning, it was on to Portland where I stayed at the excellent and affordable La Quinta in the Northwest industrial part of Portland.

La Quinta was great with free wi-fi, clean and attractive accomodations, friendly staff and close (2 miles) from the really fun and hip NW 23rd St neighborhood with great restaurants, coffee shops, bookstores and a vast variety of shops. After freshening up and resting up in my room for awhile in the afternoon and hooking up with one of my best friends from my college days at Portland State, I drove to the Northern end of 23rd and walked all the way up to Burnside and back. Scored a great prawn burrito along the way which I ate voraciously when I got back to my room around 9 pm.

Saturday I had free for genealogy pursuits. It was about 93 degrees but I managed to research on the internet and then go looking at burial sites in Aloha and environs. Around 5 pm, I was lying under a tree at Hillsboro's biggest cemetary. I spent about 45 minutes resting and chatting with my housemate as she tried to locate my ggf's death certificate - yep, I didn't manage to find it before leaving on the trip. She couldn't find it, so I just strolled the grounds and probably covered 2/3rds of the gravestones. No luck but it was a lot of fun looking and photographing old gravestones. You would be surprised the sense of anticipation you get. Any collector will like this kind of thing -- the prospect of snaring a photo of the tombstone keeps you going.

There's lots more to this story, so stay tuned. You might want to subscribe to my RSS feed if you haven't done so yet. Three quarters of the journey is ahead. By the way, the photo above is a high rez scan of my grandmother. One of the fruits of my labors yet to be described.

Technorati Tags: genealogy, port, travel

Comments

[Gary Hodges]

Hi Janet, just wanted to let you know I really like your blog and intend to return often to see how your doing. I was wondering if you would pay a vist to my new blog called "StudentsOfDescent".
http://apoetsblues.typepad.com/studentsofdescent/

The purpose is mainly merging the use of Google Earth and Genealogy. I just posted a project I'm working on called "Early PA Migration." I hope to generate alot of interest on this. If you find the time to visit, I'd love any feedback you might have on my blog or anything else. Thanks, Gary

[Genealogy Beginner]

Janet,

Just a quick note to encourage you to journal the rest of your trip. I'm very interested in how people plan and take genealogy trips involving cemeteries. I write a beginner's genealogy guide and my section on cemeteries needs some beefing up.

How did the rest of the trip go?

Chris

[Scott]

I like this blog a lot. I personally use
ancestry.com to find my relatives.

[Best Ancestry Sites on the Web]

Here's a directory of some of the best ancestry sites on the Web (in addition to this one ). http://www.betyourboots.com/ancestry.html

[Karin]

In Sweden I´m quite alone having a genealogical blog. Now I can see I´m not. Out there in "the world of blogs" there are a few more. I´m not alone. Thank you. I´ve been looking around trying to find inspiration to continue. I think I´ve found it.

[Shawn]

Genealogy roadtrips are fun. The wife and I are planning a trip to Baker Oregon, when we have the funds... I have a ton of family buried there. (We live in Estacada, OR).

Peace,
Shawn M. J. Mann
http://www.QuillSpirit.org

[John]

Hi there,

I've just come across your blog. Looks really interesting, I will have to visit again. Best wishes in your research from the UK.

[Ralph Link]

Janet, sounds like quite the journey! I would love to hear how everything else turned out. Start posting again!

Ralph Link
genealogyPro Professional Genealogy Services
Web Site Development, Hosting and Promotions
http://genealogyPro.com

[Thomas Hamburger Jnr]

Hi Janet
That's a great story you're telling - it sounds like a fun trip, too! Congratulations on a friendly blog.

THJnr

[Nikki-ann]

It's great to hear about people doing family history trips. I live in the UK and all my family are English/Welsh, so I don't have far to travel when doing my research, but it's still great to get out there and do a bit of leg work.

I look forward to reading more about your trip. I hope you're having a good weekend. Take care :)

[Shalini]

We have a site called ohile.com for building family trees - we are also interested in genealogy. Could anybody interested in genealogy give us tips on how we could evolve better ?

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