GeneaBlogie

From top: 1. Downtown Denver. 2. 16th Street Mall. 3. Colorado State Capitol. 4. Denver Int'l Airport. 5. Coors Field

Editor’s Note: It doesn’t usually take nearly 30 days on Amtrak to get from Salt Lake City to Denver.  A funny thing happened on our virtual tour: real life, i.e., work, family, health.  But we expect t continue the tour, with interspersed other stuff. We’ll make it to our next stop, Kansas City, a bit quicker!

The California Zephyr  rolls into the mile-high city of Denver  at 7:18 pm on our second day out of Sacramento.

Like a number of other Western cities, Denver owes its existence to the discovery of gold.  The shiny metal was found in 1858, at the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River.  Soon a town sprung up, which was named after the Governor of Kansas Territory, which is where Denver was then located.  As the population of Denver exploded with every new discovery of gold, and with the admission of Kansas as as state in 1861, Colorado Territory was established.  Soon Denver became biggest city in the Rocky Mountain west. It was and is important hub for agriculture and transportation. Denver is the center of a metropolitan area of 2.5 million people.

We’ve come here on the Grand Genealogical Journey for several reasons.  First, and most importantly, we have cousins here.  My grandfather’s brother, Henry William Gines (1903-1980) and his wife Ora Wilkerson, had three children: twins Frank William Gines (1935-1999) and Henry Edward Gines (1935-1993); and a still-living daughter.  Although all the children were born in Kansas City, at some point Frank and Henry moved to Denver.   Their children and grandchildren remain there today. So we’ll spend a few days here getting to know them and learning about them.

But there are genealogical resources here also.  The Denver Public Library hosts the Western History and Genealogy collection. Additionally, the public library is the site of the Blair-Caldwell African-American Research Library named for Omar Blair, first black president of the Denver School Board, and Elvin Caldwell, Denver’s first black city council president.

Separate from the library, there is the Black American West Museum, “dedicated to collecting,preserving, and disseminating  the contributions of Blacks in the Old West.”

Denver is also home to the Colorado State Archives, located at 1313 Sherman Street.  The Archives contain a number of valuable records; some are available online.  The one quarrel I have with the Colorado Archives is that they advertise that they have an index marriage records from 1975 to the present, but this no longer true. The state has put extreme restrictions on public access to birth, marriage and death records. If you click on the link for marriage records on the Family History page, you end up at the site for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.  And there you find Colorado’s silly restrictions on vital records. At the time the new regulations were put into place, I called it a “stupid” move.

Now if the state’s website is correct, it’s even dumber than I first thought. Look for example for who’s eligible to receive a certified copy of a death certificate.  There’s a lengthy list, but each category has particular restrictions.  A genealogist must submit a notarized release from an “immediate family member” as well as proof of that family member’s relationship.  There is no time when the record becomes open to the public, so eventually, when there are no more “immediate family members,” the records become inaccessible.   But, wait  . . . !  Just beneath “Genealogists” is the category for “Inlaws/aunts/uncles/nephews/nieces/cousins.” A person in that category must present proof of a “direct and tangible interest” whatever that is, if the death certificate is less than 25 years old. But, if the death occurred more than 25 years ago, an inlaw/aunt/uncle/etc., may receive a certified copy by showing proof of the relationship. Incredibly, the table parenthetically states that “a family tree would be acceptable” proof! For a state that’s worried about identity theft, Colorado clearly has not done its homework. A “family tree” as acceptable proof for a distant relative to prove a relationship, while close relatives like children must produce a birth certificate!

I don’t mean to spend most of our time here in Denver bashing the state government over public records access (as important as that is).

We need to head out to Fort Logan National Cemetery, where the twin cousins Frank and Henry Gines are buried.

The cemetery is in the at 4400 West Kenyon Avenue, in the western portion of the Denver urban area, completely surrounded by development.  The cemetery was originally the post cemetery of Fort Logan, the history of which begins in 1887, when General Sheridan selected the site for a garrison. In 1889, the site was named for Sheridan’s Civil War colleague, General John A. Logan.  Logan, a lawyer, had been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives  when the Civil War  broke out.  He resigned his seat in Congress to command a volunteer unit from his home state of Illinois.  An extremely effective commander. Logan was  eventually made a Federal general and commanded, among other units, the Army of the Tennessee, and served as military governor at Vicksburg.  After the war, he returned to Congress, eventually winning a seat in the Senate.

Dwight Eisenhower served at Fort Logan from 1924 to 1925.  Fort Logan was an active military post until about 1946.  Its hospital was then used by the Veterans Administration  from 1950 to 1960 as a new VA hospital was constructed in Denver.  In 1960, the Army gave most of the post to the State of Colorado.  It is now one of the campuses of the Colorado Mental Health Institute.

We’ll find the Rev. Frank Gines at rest in section 6, site 530.  He served in the Army as a paratrooper and then worked for the federal government as a civilian. He also served in the security office of the Colorado Rockies major league baseball team.  Like his father, Henry William Gines, Frank was a Baptist preacher.

Frank’s twin brother, Henry Edward Gines lies in repose in section 10, site 587.  He had a lengthy Army career, serving in Vietnam and eventually reaching the rank of Sergeant Major.

And on that solemn note, our visit to Denver ends.  Denver also marks the end of our trip on the California Zephyr.  The train itself goes on to Galesburg, Illinois, through Nebraska and Iowa  bypassing our next stop, which is Kansas City.  So after a good night’s rest, it’s off to Denver International Airport to board a comfortable 90 minute flight to Kansas City.

The California Zephyr pulls out of Salt Lake City at 4:10 a.m. on its 15 hour eastbound trip to Denver.  The trip between Salt Lake City and Denver is, like everything else on this trip, extremely interesting.  Here’s a brief description of some of the sights we’ll see:

• Provo, Utah: 45 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, this growing town of over 100, 000, is home to Brigham Young University, which as might be expected, has several excellent genealogical resources.  These include the Center for Family History and Genealogy (find online at http://familyhistory.byu.edu/) and the family history collections of the Harold B. Lee Library (online at  http://lib.byu.edu/sites/familyhistory/ ).  Provo is also the home of ancestry.com, and several other commercial genealogy companies.
  

  The campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah

• Green River, Utah: 100 miles from Provo, this is one of the gateway communities to Canyonlands National Park, about which the National Park Service says:

“Canyonlands preserves a colorful landscape eroded into countless canyons, mesas and buttes by  the Colorado River and its tributaries. The rivers divide the park into four districts: the Island in the  Sky, the Needles, the Maze and the rivers themselves. While these areas share a primitive desert atmosphere, each retains its own character and offers different opportunities for exploration.”

Canyonlands National Park Home page at http://www.nps.gov/cany/index.htm

A trail along the Colorado River in Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Soon we cross the Colorado state line and at about 11 a.m. we come to to the town of Grand Junction.  This is the largest city on Colorado’s Western slope.  The town of 60,000 is the anchor to a metropolitan region of more than 150,000.  The city is a transportation hub for traffic moving between Colorado and Utah.

City of Grand Junction, Colorado

Two hours later, the train arrives in the popular town of Glenwood Springs, Colorado.  The main attraction in this town is the Glenwood Hot Springs Lodge and the  Glenwood Caverns.  The town sits atop natural hot springs, to which thousands of tourists flock every year.  The town is at the end of Glenwood Canyon, where in the 1970s a famous fight between certain local interests and environmentalists, led by, among others, the singer John Denver was waged over whether the route of Interstate 70 would go through the Canyon.  (Denver and the environmentalists  won).

The California Zephyr at Glenwood Springs, Colorado

The Zephyr then finds its way through Glenwood Canyon and upslope to Granby, Colorado, elevation 7945 feet.  Granby, a village of 1500, is adjacent to Rocky Mountain National Park. Like Glenwood Springs, Granby exists because of the Denver & Río Grande Western Railroad.  At Granby, the train continues its ascent up the slope.  In about half an hour we are at Fraser, Colorado, elevation 8,574 feet, which shares its Amtrak station with the nearby village of Winter Park, elevation 9, 052 feet.  People come here to sunbathe.  (Just joking–but if you’re lucky, you’ll find a sunny day to ski at Winter Park ski resort.).

Winter Park, Colorado on a sunny day; Continental Divide is in background.

It’s nearly a three-hour ride down the side of the mountains into our destination city of Denver!

Photo Credits: All courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, except photo of Canyonlands  National Park.  Photo of Canyonlands National Park, courtesy of U.S. Dept of Interior, National Park Service

Downtown Salt Lake City

The eastbound California Zephyr arrives in Salt Lake City at 3:45 a.m. Mountain Time.  It’s chilly in Salt Lake at that time of the morning regardless of the season! But you can easily catch a cab at that hour from the Amtrak station (which is not a very pretty or comfortable building) to the downtown hotels.   For me, the hotel of choice is the Plaza, which is next door to the Family History Library.  I’ve also stayed at Little America.  The Plaza has basic (yet comfortable accommodations) such as would be found at any mid-range lodging.  Little America is a more upscale experience.  The Plaza has the benefit of location, but if you stay anyplace else, Salt Lake City has an outstanding light rail system to get you to the Family History Library.

Here’s some advice on preparing for a trip to the Family History Library: First, decide which surnames or areas you want to focus on. Then set goals for your research on those families or areas. Figure out the categories of resources you may need. Go to the Family History Library Catalog online to see what resources are available. Make a list of call numbers and titles of books and film numbers of microfilm and take that with you. [You can do this on the computers at the Library, but it saves time and helps focus your research if you do it before going]. Some microfilm is stored off-site, so if you manage to get organized sufficiently in advance, you can call or fax the Library with a list of those resources, and they may be able to get them before you arrive. Once at the Library, don’t hesitate to ask the staff and volunteers for help. They won’t do the work for you, but they’ll gladly share tips and advice.

LDS Family History Library, Salt Lake City

You can take your laptop into the Library; there are plenty of places to hook up.  But please, please, follow the rules about where you can use cell phones! There are plenty of easy places in the building to use your cell phone, so be a good neighbor on that issue.

I would recommend spending at least three days at the Family History Library, especially if you’re a first-timer.  That’s because I predict that if you have organized well. you’ll start making discoveries pretty quickly and you’ll want to try to get to everything on your list.

The Library’s resources are in a variety of media, including microfilm. I would point out to those raised exclusively in the digital age that working with microfilm is not exactly simple. First there are the physical aspects of the medium: you have to place the reels on mechanical spools and hand-crank through the frames. [There are some electronic microfilm readers, but most are if the hand-crank variety]. Then there is the nature of the content you’re working with: ancient records with no indices in many cases; certainly no “search” function! Those documents that do have indices often are only casually alphabetized. And that’s because before the digital age, “cut-and-paste” was a physical, not a virtual operation, and thus not undertaken. So without careful preparation and some computer aid, microfilm research can be time consuming.

Naturally, the Library has a vast collection of books and other printed matter; don’t fail to examine these resources.   For up-to-date information about the Library, go to https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Family_History_Library.

There is a small canteen in the Library with food and drink vending machines; genealogical research can make you forget to eat real meals!  But afterwards, save some time for a great meal at some of the terrific restaurants in Salt Lake City.  The offerings are quite diverse and range up to the five star category.

Salt Lake City is one of the most attractive midsized cities in the nation; you’ll want to return again to do things other than just genealogical research!

After leaving Elko, Nevada, at eleven minutes after 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time, the California Zephyr continues east on its way to Salt Lake City. The route of the Zephyr through eastern Nevada and Utah mainly runs adjacent to Interstate 80, at least to near Wells, Nevada. The tracks are basically in same place as were the original road of the Transcontinental Railroad, with some deviations. Since this portion of the trip is entirely in the dark, with no scheduled stops, there’s nothing much to be seen. In fact, however, this segment covers some of the most interesting and historic terrain in the nation.

The Great Basin -- Courtesy U.S. Dept of Interior, National Park Service

We’re in the eastern half of the Great Basin, a huge watershed covering more than 200,000 square miles of the western United States and northern Mexico. Although the Basin includes rivers (e.g., the Colorado River) lakes (e.g., Lake Tahoe), and mountains (e.g., the Sierra Nevada) a large part of it is desert. But before this area became desert, much of eastern Nevada and western Utah was submerged beneath the prehistoric Lake Bonneville. This water body, which existed between 32,000 and 14, 000 years ago, covered about 20,000 square miles (or about 10% of the Great Basin). It was 1,000 feet deep. The lake overflowed about 14,000 years ago, leaving several remnants, such as the Great Salt Lake.

The Bonneville Salt Flats -- Courtesy U.S. Dept of Interior, Bureau of Land Management

One of the most picturesque areas once under Lake Bonneville is the Bonneville Salt Flats.   Familiar to many people from movies and car commercials, the Flats have been the site of land speed trials. In 1935, Briton Malcolm Campbell first broke the 300-mph barrier at Bonneville. By 1964, after several attempts, Craig Breedlove, driving the turbojet-powered  Spirit of America, passed 600 mph at Bonneville. The current land speed record over a 1 mile course,  a supersonic 763 mph, is held by Andy Green of the UK.  He drove the twin turbofan ThrustSSC to the mark in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert on October 15, 1997. [In 2003, an Air Force rocket sled travelled a three-mile railed course at 6,416 mph (Mach 8.3; hypersonic) in the Tularosa Basin in New Mexico. It was unmanned.]

The California Zephyr, as mentioned, generally follows the route of I-80 thr0ugh Nevada and Utah. Before the highway was I-80, it was the now-historic US 40, which originally ran from Atlantic City, New Jersey to San Francisco. Even earlier, however, the same general route was used by the Pony Express during its brief lifetime (1860-61).

Territory of the Pony Express -- Courtesy Library of Congress

The Pony Express ran between St Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento. With riders switching to fresh horses at stations along the route  The Express could get a letter from coast to coast in about ten days.  The success of the Pony Express was in part its undoing.  Its speed and efficiency often was a conversation starter about a transcontinental railroad.

The Salt Flats present an eerie image in the daylight; omnipresent mirages seem to want to tell a story that they know.  In the dark of night, as the eastbound California Zephyr passes by, the scene is spectral.

Another sight we miss in the darkness is Promontory Summit, Utah.  This is the place where, on May 15, 1869, a golden spike was driven to link the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad, thus completing the western portion of a transcontinental rail system. Actually, we wouldn’t be able to see the site even in daylight, since the rail route was reconstructed in 1904 to bypass Promontory.

The Last Spike is driven at Promontory Summit, Utah, to link the Central Pacific Railroad from Sacramento to the Union Pacific from Omaha.

The California Zephyr, eastbound,  arrives in Salt Lake City at 3:45 a.m. Mountain Time.

The California Zephyr arrives at Galesburg, Illinois

Amtrak’s California Zephyr runs between Emeryville, California (near Oakland), and Chicago, Illinois. The present Zephyr is the latest incarnation of a venerable train that began service in 1949, as the Golden Age of Trains was about to begin its decline.

The route of the Zephyr is one of the longest operated by Amtrak. The original Zephyr operated on the tracks and stock of three different companies, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Denver & Rio Grande Western, and the Western Pacific. The present day route varies a bit from the original, but it still remains one of the most scenic passenger rail routes in America.

Our virtual journey will take us from Sacramento to Salt Lake City aboard the Zephyr. The train leaves from Emeryville, 75 miles southwest of Sacramento, each morning at 9:50 am and arrives at the historic Sacramento Valley Station two hours later. It will have made stops in Martinez and Davis. Also boarding the train with us in Sacramento are several volunteer docents from the California State Railroad Museum will narrate and comment on the portion of the trip between Sacramento and Reno. This five hour trek over the Sierra Nevada is one of the most scenic parts of the Zephyr’s route.

We’re basically following the route that Theodore Judah had laid out for the Central Pacific railroad. It winds through the northern portion of California’s Gold Country in Placer and Nevada counties. A little over an hour from Sacramento, the train stops at Colfax. a picturesque town of about 1,500, settled originally in the Gold Rush days.  The Railroad Museum docents point out that during the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, President Grant dispatched Vice President Schulyer Colfax to view the progress of the construction.  The people of the small mining community that had once been known as Alder Grove were so impressed that the Vice President of the United States had come to their town, they named the town after him!  And indeed, next to the Amtrak station, which contains a number of interesting shops, is a statue of Schulyer Colfax.    He was popular in California, having been in Congress (from Indiana) when California was admitted to the Union.  Colfax was a strong abolitionist, which also contributed to his popularity in free California.

After Colfax, the train continues up through the mountains toward the 7,000-ft.+ summit near Mount Judah (yes, Theodore again!). Then, the train begins to descend on the eastern slope through the Stanford Curve,  a back-switch with a terrific view of the Truckee river basin.

Schuyler Colfax, Vice President of the United States, 1869-1873

The next stop after Colfax is Truckee, California.  Truckee is also a picturesque Sierra village, though about ten times the size of Colfax.  Truckee is along side the Truckee river, which is Lake Tahoe’s sole outlet. Surrounding the area is the Truckee unit of the Tahoe National Forest.  West of Truckee, and visible from the Zephyr is Donner Lake, a beautiful freshwater  fishery and recreational area.  But the beauty is mitigated in some degree by the knowledge that the pass through the mountains here was the final resting place of many of  the “Donner Party” who met their demise in the winter of 1846-47. The Donner camp area is now both a National Historic Landmark and a California state park.

Donner Lake on eastern Sierra slope

At this point, it’s all  downhill for the Zephyr.   As we cross into Nevada, the docents point out the site of the first American train robbery. It occurred in 1870 at Verdi, Nevada. Today, Verdi is known for its largest hotel, Boomtown, where travelers still may be “robbed.”

The train makes three stops in Nevada: Reno, Winnemucca, and Elko–towns whose histories are intertwined with that of the Transcontinental Railroad.  It is said that railroad magnate Charles Crocker actually chose the names of Reno and Elko.

Elko County Courthouse

Winnemucca was named for Chief Winnemuca and his daughter, Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, Paiute Indian leaders in Oregon and Nevada.  Theirs is an interesting and complex story that cannot be done justice here. However, for an introduction to their story, see the profile at AccessGenealogy.com.

Chief Winnemucca

Once we pass through Elko, it’s just a hop and a skip to Utah!

Gold Rush and Nevada Genealogical Resources

• California Genealogical Society & Library – www.CaliforniaAncestors.org
• Nevada State Library and Archives, 100 North Stewart Street, Carson City

Next, as the Grand Genealogy Jouurney continues: Utah and the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Photo Credits:

1. California Zephyr: Courtesy of  Trainweb.com (www.trainweb.com); photo at http://www.trainweb.org/amtrakpix/itrainpix/5/

2. Schuyler Colfax: Library of Congress

3. Donner Lake: California Department of Parks and Recreation (photo here)

4. Elko County Courthouse: U.S. Dept of Agriculture (photo at http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/population/photos/ShowCH.asp?FIPS=32007)

5. Chief Winnemucca: Courtesy Burns Paiute Tribal Council (photo here)

Sacramento has often been overlooked by visitors to Northern California; the same visitors are frequently mesmerized by the city some 90 miles away called San Francisco. Dissing Sacramento used to be a favorite pastime of the cognoscenti.   “It’s too hot!”  “It’s too dry!”  “It’s too flat!”  “It’s got no culture!” Even the California Supreme Court refuses to have its main office in Sacramento, which is after all, the capital of California.  The Court long ago chose San Francisco as its seat.

In fact, there would be little of anything that one likes about San Francisco had it not been for Sacramento.

On the site of present -day Sacramento, a settlement called Sutter’s Fort was founded in 1840 by Johann Augustus Sutter,  a former Swiss army officer with something of a history of bad business judgment.   In addition to the fort on the eastern bank of the Sacramento river, Sutter established a sawmill in the eastern foothills.  In January of 1848, one of Sutter’s business associates, John Marshall, found gold at the mill located in Coloma, California.  Despite Marshall’s and Sutter’s efforts let word out, news of the gold discovery spread rapidly.    Soon, several hundred thousand people were on their way to California.  Sacramento became the commercial outpost for the Gold Rush.

Originally known as New Helvetia, the city was planned and named by Sutter’s son.

Johann Augustus Sutter (1803-1880) called himself "John" after he came to America.

With the influx of immigrants from around the world, Sacramento was a booming center of commerce in the 1850s.  The Legislature decided in 1854 to make Sacramento the capital. [The Legislature had sat in Monterey, San Jose, and Benicia.  The apocryphal story is told that Sacramento civic boosters planned a party aboard a river boat for legislators in Benicia.  The boat was stocked with fine liquor and many prostitutes.  As the lawmakers got drunker, the boat moved upriver through the night to Sacramento.  When daylight came, the disgraced legislators were too embarrassed to return to Benicia and decided to stay in Sacramento!]

Sacramento played an important role in  changing the history of America.  A Connecticut engineer named Theodore Judah had come to California and built the Sacramento Valley railroad.  This  was the first railroad west of the Mississippi.  It ran from Sacramento’s Embarcadero to Folsom, a mining town on the western edge of the gold fields.  But Judah had bigger plans: he wanted to build a trans-continental railroad.  To finance his big plan, Judah sought venture capital in and around San Francisco.   There were no takers.  Judah then returned to Sacramento and found four local men, Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, Collis Huntington, and Mark Hopkins, who were willing to take a risk on Judah’s plans.  The “Big Four” as they were known formed the Central Pacific Railroad Company to build Judah’s railroad over the Sierra–a plan thought foolhardy by more than just a few.

Theodore Judah (1826-1863) died before the Transcontinental railroad was completed.

The grand plan was that the Central Pacific Railroad would be built from the west and link to the Union Pacific Railroad being built from Omaha.  Two Acts of Congress and generous grants of government land helped the project along.  And as every schoolchild knows (or at least used to know), six years of work, much of it through the Civil War, culminated in March 1869 with the driving of the last spike to unite the lines at Promontory Summit, Utah.

The greatest technological feat of the nineteenth century wouldn’t have happened as it did but for the four Sacramento businessmen who believed in the project. The railroad changed American commerce forever.

Before the railroad was completed, Sacramento was the western terminus of the Pony Express.

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The “Big Four”: Mark Hopkins, Collis Huntington, Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker.  Stanford went on to serve as Governor and United States Senator from California, and founded Leland Stanford, Jr., University. Crocker later founded a bank which became Crocker Bank (later acquired by Wells Fargo).  It was a Crocker Bank branch in the Sacramento suburb of Carmichael (home of the GeneaBlogie  Bloggcast Center) in 1975 raided by Patty Hearst and the Symbionese Liberation Army, resulting in the killing of customer Myrna Opsahl.

Sacramento today is at the heart of a metropolitan area of about 2 million people.  Agriculture remains important in this region, but a slew of high-tech and service industry business has moved in to supplement state government employment.   Situated at the confluence of the American and Sacramento rivers, Sacramento is nicknamed “River City,” and is sometimes called The City of Trees because of its lush foliage.

So today we’re at the California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento where it all began. The Museum occupies the space on the Embarcadero where the Sacramento Valley line had begun.  It’s regarded as the most popular rail museum in North America.  Stay awhile; have a look around.

California State Railroad Museum

Sacramento is not a town to forget its origins. Today, not far from the railroad museum, you can visit the renowned Crocker Art Museum, endowed by Judge Edwin B. Crocker and his wife Margaret.   Edwin Crocker was the older brother of Charles Crocker and was legal counsel to the Central Pacific Railroad.  “The Crocker” currently is undergoing a multi-million dollar arenovation that will triple the size of its exhibit space. The expanded museum is expected to open in October 2010.  The Crocker is at 216 O Street.

A few blocks from The Crocker is the Stanford Mansion, 800 N Street, a National Historic Landmark known officially as  Leland Stanford State Historic  Park.  Gov. Leland and Jane Stanford resided here.  Take a look around this place!

Although Gov. Stanford and two other  succeeding Governors lived here in the late 1800s, California now has no official Governor’s Mansion.  The Stanford house is California’s official reception center for visiting dignitaries.

When you’re finished there, you can go across the street to the California State Library, located at 900 N Street. The Library’s California History Room has many genealogical and family history research resources,

including the 1852 California State census, a statewide index to the 1890, great register of voters (a very useful substitute for the 1890 census), city and county directories, going back as far as 1850, historical newspapers, and telephone directories dating from 1899.

A block away from the state library is California’s State Capitol.  Just inside the entrance of the capital, is the state Capitol Museum. This museum has replicas of the offices in the capitol building at the time it was completed in 1874 (after 14 years of construction and 2000% overbudget!).   The museum also has an extensive art collection and an architectural history collection.  And, of course, it has collections relevant to the legislative process in California.

The California State Archives, a division of the office of the secretary of state of California, is located a short walk away from the Capitol grounds at 1020 O Street.  The archives houses, among other things, County records from 1850 to 1987, including probate court files, wills, naturalizations, deeds, homesteads and vital records for 28 counties. You’ll also find here prison records from 1850-1979, military records from 1850-1942, and state mental hospital records from 1856-1934.

California State Archives at 1020 O Street

The California Secretary of State also operates the California Museum for History, Women and Arts, at the same location as the archives.  This museum known simply as The California Museum, has taken on a more diverse set of exhibits under the patronage of First Lady Maria Shriver.

Here at the California Museum, we’re about 10 blocks away from the Embarcadero.  We’ll head back north on 10th Street to I Street, and turn north.  At 8th and I Streets, is the Central Library, the largest location of the 27-branch  Sacramento Public Library. On the second floor of the library is the Sacramento Room, often described as the “Jewel in the Crown” of the Library. The Sacramento Room houses more than 21,000 artifacts of local history in a climate controlled environment.

The Central Library's Sacramento Room

Elsewhere in the library, you’ll find Ancestry Library Edition and the New England Ancestors database. The Central Library also has a collection of Sacramento city directories, a fair selection of genealogical books, and publications from hundreds of genealogical organizations around the country.

I’ll also point out that Sacramento has its LDS Regional Family History Center in the suburb of Arden-Arcade, and in other Family History Center in the suburb of Elk Grove.

So now it’s time to head for the train station.  Fortunately, from the Central Library, it’s just three blocks to the Amtrak Sacramento Valley station. We’ll be catching the California Zephyr to Salt Lake City.  See you on board!  Don’t be late!

Believe it or don’t, but it’s been three years since the Big Train Trip.  I’m really ready to go again, but circumstances currently won’t allow that.  So we started to lay out our virtual genealogical dream trip traveling via Amtrak and other conveyances.  We ran into a set of difficulties soon after the beginning of the trip.  As a result, we’re restarting the trip. At each stop along the way, we’ll describe what research we’ re going to do, where and how we’re going to do it and other sights to see in that locality.

We’ll start in Sacramento.  Our route will take us from California’s capital to Utah’s capital, Salt Lake City.  And you know what we’ll do there!  From Salt Lake City, we’ll move on to Colorado’s capital, Denver.  We’ll spend a few days in and around Denver, then  we board the train and head for Kansas City.  We’ll keep on heading east from Kansas City to Jefferson City, and then on to St. Louis.  While in St. Louis we’ll also step over the Missouri River to Southern Illinois.

From St. Louis we’ll take a short flight to Atlanta, which will be our base for exploring central and western Georgia.  When we’re finished in Georgia, we’ll board the train in Atlanta and rumble on to New Orleans.  After a couple of days in the Crescent city, we’ll hop back aboard for Houston.

Houston’s location affords us a number of opportunities.  We have work to do in Houston itself.  We’ll take bus trips from Houston to Milam County, Nacogdoches, Longview, and Shreveport. Shreveport will be a major stopover itself because we need to explore much of of northwestern Louisiana.

We’ll go back to Houston on our way to the Gulf Coast.  There we’ll stop in Galveston, Corpus Christi and Rockport.  From the from the coast we’ll move north to San Antonio.  After finishing up in San Antonio, we’ll move northwest to Austin and Midland.  We’ll leave Texas for Albuquerque, eventually going to Los Angeles.

Los Angeles will be a two or three day stop.  Then we’ll work our way back to Sacramento via both the coast in the Central Valley by train and automobile.

On each leg of the trip, we’ll describe what is or who it is we’re going to research, the resources will use in that area, the travel options to get there, other historical sites or points of interest.

There will be special editions of The Peripatetic Graveyard Rabbit describing the graveyards we find along the way.

We’ll have regular editions of GeneaBlogie during the trip as well, covering our usual eclectic set of genealogy and historical issues.

Some of the stops on the GeneaBlogie Grand Journey 2010

(Click map to enlarge)

The GeneaBlogie Grand Journey 2010  starts later this week at Sacramento’s historic California Railroad Museum! Join us, won’t you?

You don’t even want to know what a nightmare the past few days have been from a technical standpoint here in the Bloggcast Center!  Suffice it to say, mind your php’s and your sql’s!  We hope to back to operational status in about 24 hours.

We started on our Grand Genealogy [virtual] Journey several weeks ago.  It was to take us from Sacramento to Georgia and back.   We made it as far as Nevada. What happened?

1.  Life Itself (75%)

2.  Technical Difficulties (software issues) (13%)

3.   SCGS Jamboree (12%)

So what now?  Well, the Journey returns this weekend, starting from the beginning and going through several new episodes!  Watch this space!

This post was originally commenced last Tuesday evening and was entitled Whilrwind Wednesday, and intended for publication on Wednesday, June 16.  But it turned out to be a much more hectic week than I ever could have imagined and I couldn’t get back to this until just now!

And by now, everybody with a computer has written about the SoCal Genealogy Society’s 41st Annual Jamboree which I attended in Burbank.  It was, as we used to say at Albuquerque’s Van Buren Junior High School, a blast!   The following folks made it a special treat for me: (in random order)

Ruth Himan, Thomas MacEntee, Miriam Midkiff, Kathryn Doyle, Lisa Louise Cooke, the footnoteMaven, Becky Wiseman, Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, Elyse Doerflinger, Denise Levenick, Schelly Talalay Dardashti, Maureen Taylor, Steve Danko, Randy Seaver, Amy Coffin, Gini Webb, Cheryl Palmer, Susan Kitchens, Ron Arons, George Morgan, Drew Smith, Janet Hovorka, Susi Pentico, A.C. Ivory, [and deepest apologies to anyone I saw there and left out here!].

Here’s some of what went on  there:

• Becky Wiseman performed a great Act of Genealogical Kindness by taking me to  Rose Hill Cemetery in Whittier, California, to visit my grandmother’s grave. [See Nana's 100th Anniversary for the back story].  We spent considerable time out there (with Becky doing most of the legwork up and down the hills!)  but were unable to locate the grave precisely.  We began to suspect that there was no headstone, which was later confirmed by the person at the information booth at the gate.  Now this is a true mystery to me.  Family members recall that a headstone was ordered and some even claim to have seen it on a subsequent visit. So I don;t know what happened, But be assured you’ll be informed whne we get the full story!
• Maureen Taylor gave a very informative presentation on what she calls “the Revolutionary War Generation.”  She previewed her new book, The Last Muster: Images of the Revolutionary War Generation (with David Allen Lambert; Kent State University Press, 2010) [available for pre-order now on Amazon.com; release date July 1, 2010].  Did you realize that there were people participated in the Revolutionary War who lived long enough to have their photographs taken?  Well, there were, and of course Maureen has tracked down many of their pictures!  Maureen and one of her children hung out in the GeneaBloggers Lounge for awhile on the last day of Jamboree and she was kind enough to spend a few minutes looking at on of my ancient photos.
• Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak gave the Saturday banquet address about tracing Michelle Obama’s ancestry.   Completely fascinating and it gave me a few ideas about both process and sources.
• Lisa Louise Cooke was on the Bloggers Summit panel with me, Thomas MacEntee,  Schelly Talalay Dardashti, and Kathryn Doyle. She did a live version of her podcast alter on featuring Muareen Taylor, Suzanne Russo Adams of Ancestry.com who worked on Who Do You Think You Are? and Friday night keynoter actor and historian Chris Haley (yes, nephew of . . . ). Chris is quite the character and he rose to the occasions both at Friday dinner and on Lisa’s show!  Later, Lisa interviewed me for a podcast sometime this summer.
• Denise Levenick and Amy Coffin, in addition to being their wonderfully personable selves, took a major role in welcoming bloggers and putting together the welcome “kit.”
• Ron Arons was selling his new book, Wanted! U.S. Criminal Records.  Coincidentally, I had used the book just days before Jamboree and as a result had found and ordered two sets of records.

And there were many other highlights!  Spending time with people I don’t see in  person very often and meeting others . . . a great weekend!

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