Old Towns on Curly Roads

Wednesday July 27, 2011

Yesterday we started out going to New Hartford, NY.  Which is a suburb of Utica.  Our great, great, great, grandfather and GGGGmother were married and possibly buried there.  That’s what we’re trying to find out.  We started at the library but it didn’t have many records, we moved on to the Historical Society but decided we needed more basic material before researching there, (besides, it was $5 apiece and we wanted to make sure it was worth our while.)  It was a huge old building.  We had been told the main Utica Library would have what we needed so we went there.  It looked like this was housed in a huge, old mansion.  A lot of smaller rooms with ornate, black iron staircases going up and down.  We were told the genealogist wouldn’t be in until 3:00, so we headed out for lunch. 

We decided to skip Utica for now and head to Richfield Springs.  Another 20 miles away.  This is where the Tunnicliffe’s were from (our forebears before the Hickenbothams.  We have a biography which tells their story, we just want to find the places.  We started at the library (of course), and found a book on Tunnicliffe geneology.  Christy started typing information into her computer (Family Tree Maker) and made a proclamation, “No baby in this family will be named John or Elizabeth”. After I read through some of the geneology I added “or George”. 

Richfield Springs, NY library and Foof

 This library was also in an old, old building:  Think used book store.  Little bitty rooms with bookshelves everywhere.  Local records office was in the basement.  They had no cemetery records or birth certificates, and you could have grown mushrooms down there.  I was told to go to Cooperstown for county records.  Off we went.

Christy in garden outside the Richfield Springs NY library

It was 4:30 when we got there so decided to get a hotel for the night and go the next day.  Hotels were $220 to $275 per night.  Uh uh.  We headed back to our $80 Microtel.  It was 60 miles away, but $200 an hour ain’t bad.  We had roast beef au jus at a hot dog place for supper. We put our destination into the Garmin GPS and headed back.  This is where the curly roads comes in.  I think we hit every back road we could: beautiful views, lovely houses, quaint old towns, but Christy (who gets carsick) said she would be in trouble if she wasn’t doing the driving.  I think we’ll just follow the maps today.  We will stay here at our Microtel again tonight. 

Shower time.   Ruth