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Best Guess Land Visits

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Yesterday and today, we spent our time wandering Newberry and Spartanburg Counties in order to try to see where our folks lived. During a visit to the Newberry Library local history room, we came across a description of the Cappleman land in an equity filing that said it was along Cannon Creek. The 1810 and 1825 maps of the area each had a pinpoint that said Cappleman's Hill and Cappleman respectively. With those tidbits of information, we were able to deduce the present-day location of this land... which is currently under development to be the future home of First Baptist Church Newberry! We also visited the Newberry Museum, where we learned about the history of the area and looked through the exhibits to try to find names we recognized. The only one that caught my eye was Senn, the family who donated a large cupboard that was right beside the elevator. Elizabeth Senn was my 5th great grandmother, wife of Heinrich Boozer (their daughter married a Cappleman, and the lineage goes d
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Wherefore Art Thou, Cappleman?

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How is it that a map can show a populated place called Cappleman in the vicinity of where you expect your Capplemans to be living, but there are no records of deeds in their name? Ah, a mystery. But I'm getting ahead of myself. A followup on yesterday's task: finding the current location of what was once Ulrich Boozer's land. Sadly, there are multiple industrial complexes currently on that land, including a power station. Soooo... we won't be able to stand on that little piece of ancestral land. Today's search took us to the South Carolina Department of Archives and History , where we dove into deed and will abstracts, then culled microfilms for scans of the original documents in their fullness. My goal was to locate the land of Francis Mason (my 4th great grandfather), and therefore that of his son James Mason as well. They moved to Spartanburg from Virginia after the Revolution, so they didn't have original land grants but rather purchased from those who did.
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Curiouser and Curiouser

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We slept in a little bit this morning and had brunch at the appropriately named Curiosity Coffee Bar, a highly-rated little place just a couple of blocks from the White Rabbit (our Alice-in-Wonderland-themed bnb). Curiouser and curiouser, we spent the rest of the day at the South Carolina State Library.  The library staff were quite accommodating of our multiple requests from the stacks (I don't have a pic of the big pile of books we left behind at the end of the day).  The things we're curious about make some people (Kef and Dad specifically) shake their heads. Today's finds included a listing of early settlers to South Carolina, among which was my 5 greats grandfather Samuel McGill, described among the "poor protestants lately arrived from Ireland on the encouragement of the Bounty given by this Province." His age was listed as 23, and he was granted that bounty of 100 acres. Although we knew he was born in Ireland, we didn't know what year. So this 1766 lis
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Skipping Ahead...The Great Valley

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Well clearly I fell down on the job regarding blogging the Maui trip. My only excuse is I didn't take my laptop and it's really annoying to blog on a tablet.  But on to the next thing. This week is my trip with mom to South Carolina to stalk dead people. We moved it up to spring this year instead of fall for myriad reasons. So far, we're off to a bit of a slow start, as mom's flights were delayed and I'm just killing time in a Starbuck's outside Charlotte waiting for her to land. Not all bad, though, as it gave me some time to wander a bit. Primarily, I looked for scenic views, and was rewarded with a brief section of the Blue Ridge Parkway. I have to say that the drive through Virginia, in particular the Shenandoah Valley, is one of my absolute favorites. I suppose it's fitting that I would choose this particular lookout as my destination as the sign explains how our folks ended up coming through here...they were among the Scotch-Irish pioneers referenced h
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This is the dawning of the age of Aquarium... AQUARIUM!

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We spent Easter Sunday morning at the Maui Ocean Center, the Aquarium of Hawaii.  I realize now that I'm really out of practice on the travel blog front. I usually have my laptop so I can really type, but I just have my tablet. Maybe I'll go back in and add more detail when I get home. But for now... We spent a lot of time in the reef exhibit and took roughly one million fish photos. I also took photos of the explanations so I could explain things here, but again, easier on the full computer. At any rate, the fish were stunning, and wild, and weird, and interesting.  After the reef, we were starving so we tried to pop into the restaurant. There is no popping. We put ourselves on the 75 minute waiting list and moved on to the turtles, baby sharks, and open sea tunnel, complete with mana rays and adult sharks.  Hunger got the best of us, so we opted for the café
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Maui!

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How sad is it that it's been so long since I've traveled that I forgot I have a travel blog?!  I'm with my college friend Amy in Maui, my first real vacation since COVID shut us all down in March 2020. This is my first trip to Hawaii and we're just beginning our second full day... and it's Easter Sunday!  Looking out from our room, it looks to be a beautiful day. We started the morning with lavender scones and Maui Pie coffee from yesterday's outings. I'll back post about those activities later.  Today we plan to visit the Maui Ocean Center aquarium, a lighthouse, a beach, and possibly a farmer's market. Stay tuned! 
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Schenectady

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A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I was in Schenectady for a PRSA meeting, that I took pictures, and that I'd share them later. Later is now. Schenectady is one of those towns I've always heard of but don't know why. I just remember the name, but not why the place might have been significant. Maybe it's because Grace Adler was from Schenectady, but I doubt it. All of the other popular references are ones I wouldn't have known, but I can't imagine that I paid attention that closely when watching  Will and Grace . Regardless, I knew the name before I moved here. It's about a half hour drive from our house to the downtown area of Schenectady, where we have had lunch, enjoyed a show, and I have had some meetings. It's a cute downtown area, with historic buildings along a very walkable main street called State Street. The place where we had our PRSA event is called Urban Co-Works. It's an interesting flexible office space that allows no
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