After Michigan it's across the midwest into western Pennsylvania, back to my fathers birthplace, Republic, Fayette County. I'm still hoping for more clues into the Trimbath origins. I had such wonderful success with the Buksar lines the last time I was there, perhaps this time I will be as lucky with the Trimbaths. We plan to spend a week or two in the Fayette area, with trips up to Cambria County were Tonys great-grandfather John Bionaz might be buried.

Following this we're off to Upstate New York and across the border into Cornwall, Canada. Our Baker Loyalist ancestors settled in Moulinette, Ontario following the end of the Revolutionary war. This town no longer exists, it was swallowed up by the building of the St. Lawerence Seaway in the 1950. Lucky for us the church and graveyard were relocated into Upper Canada Pioneer Village. Next we plan to head back down into New York and visit our cousin John Losee (he's my 3rd cousin once removed, and Tonys 7th cousin). John is the person who started me off with a bang working on my family tree. We can't wait to meet him and his family.

Tony enjoyed our last trip east, especially the visit to Gettysburg, so we will be stopping there for a longer look, plus maybe a few other battlefields in the area. We also want to spend a bit more time in Washington D.C. (maybe the National Archives!!) We plan to continue to head south thru the Carolina's and into Georgia, Tony and I have always wanted to visit Stone Mountain, after this we'll head west into Arkansas and visit with Tonys sister and family. Then home thru Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Phew! Good thing we are allowing 3 months for the trip. I'm really excited and can't wait to start hunting for more family.

We left the end of April heading for Salt Lake and the Family History center. I had some wonderful good luck with Tony's Howe lines from Michigan. I have been searching for clues to Alexander Howe's connection to the Howe lines from Westmoreland, New Hampshire and I found it. It was a copy of a will for Alexander who died in 1851 (no wonder I could never find him after the 1850 census) In the records accompanying the will were references to his brothers Danforth, Edward and Robert. I had already connected them to the New Hampshire Howe's so Alexander fit right in. Another piece of data was the fact that Alexander's wife Belinda had been married previous to a man named Caryon and Edward who I thought was Alexander and Belinda's son was really Edward Caryon. Mary Ann Howe, Tony's 2nd great grandmother, was their first child together. Now I am able to carry the Howe lines back much farther and have included 2 more Mayflower ancestors to Tony's lines.

From Salt Lake we head to Colorado Spring and a visit with my mother and grandmother. My mother unfortunately was still struggling with an infection following a knee replacement last year. We had a slight change in plans, we would continue on to Nauvoo for the Temple open house and then return to Colorado Springs the end of May so she could have surgery. We arrived in Nauvoo to rainy weather but nothing could dampen our spirits upon seeing the beautifully rebuilt Temple standing as a testimony to the faith of the early members of the church. We stayed in the Nauvoo area for several days, attending an open house tour and visiting many rebuilt sites in and around the area.

After Nauvoo we decided to head east and then south thru Indiana into Kentucky and down thru Tennessee, very beautiful country, so green and lush. We spent a couple days in Memphis visiting Beale Street and taking a paddleboat cruise on the Mississippi. Then it was on to Arkansas and a brief visit with Tony's sister in Lonoke. We were back in Colorado Springs by the end of May and would spend the next 2 months caring for my mother as she recovered from surgery. Expect the un-expected. By the 1st of August she was doing much better but still facing another surgery the end of August. We decided we could still manage to get to the East Coast for a couple week. So we loaded up the truck and pulled our trailer out of storage.

A flying trip was made across several states (Iowa is mostly cornfields) though we did enjoy watching all the Harley owners going West on I-80 heading for Sturgis, South Dakota. We landed in Niagara Falls as our first major stop, I had been there as a child but it was Tony's 1st trip. We booked a bus tour of the Canadian side that included the Skylon Tower, Journey behind the Falls and of course the Maid of the Mist boat tour. One night we were treated to fireworks over the falls and of course the beautiful scenery. Tony had an ancestor who was killed at the Battle for Queenston Heights so we planned a tour of the park and mounments on the Heights. Also since he is such a military history buff we had to drive up to Fort Niagara and see the fort and buildings. From Niagara we headed east across the state stopping for a bit in Palmyra to see the Temple and Sacred Grove. The tour of the Joseph Smith homestead and farm was very nice and we had a lovely walk thru the groves of sugar maple trees.

Next we headed north to the Canadian border near Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. Tony has Loyalist ancestors who following the Revoluionary War headed north into Canada. Many settled in Moulinette, Stormont, Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. We spent a lovely day searching thru the St. Lawerence Valley Union Cemetery in Long Sault. We also visited the nearby Upper Canada Village Pioneer Memorial in Morrisburg. Unfortunately the town of Moulinette no long exists, it is part of the 6 villages that were casualties of progress, they disappered under the waters of the newly created Lake St. Lawrence, when the St. Lawrence Seaway was built. We happened upon a small settlement of old building and stopped delighted to find "The Lost Villages Museum", eight heritage buildings that had been moved and restored to the Ault Park by members of the Lost Villages Historical Society. There is a website for the society and you can find them at Lost Villages Historical Society

After visiting Canada we headed down towards Schenectady and a quick visit with our joint cousin John Losee, he is the person who helped me get started with a bang on my Bukovina German ancestors, and is also Tony's cousin thru their shared Dutch lines. While we were visiting we discovered that Tony and John's wife Kristy are also cousin, this time thru their Mayflower ancestor! We had a lovely visit and wish we could have stayed longer. From New York we headed to Gettysburg and a long awaited break for Tony from all the genealogy, he's a history buff and loves military history the best, so Gettysburg was perfect. From Gettysburg we went further south into Virginia for a visit to Jamestown and Yorktown before heading west to Repbulic, Pennsylvania my fathers birthplace. We spent a couple days there searching again for my elusive grandfather. Then it was time to head back to Colorado. My mother underwent 4 more surgeries before a final one Oct 1st, and then spent the next 6 weeks recovering. We were there to help her thru it all and returned home to California the week before Thanksgiving. What a trip, We're glad to be home but are already making plans for our next journey in the summer of 2003.

Updated 7-8-2003

If you've been here before you have read of our trips last year, both to do genealogy research and to take care of my mother. We returned home in time for Thanksgiving and spent a relaxing 6 weeks until..... Christmas eve 2002, I received a phone call from my brother, my mother was back in the hospital. She had fallen and broken her leg, yes the one she had so many surgeries on earlier in the year. It was a bad break, a spiral fracture of the femur. Well, Tony and I packed our things and headed back to Colorado Springs on New Years Day 2003. We would spend the next two months caring for her and my grandmother.

Fortunately for my mother she healed very quickly and by the end of February we were able to head home. Actually we spent a week in Salt Lake City at the FHC library and as a treat stopped in Las Vegas for the Nascar Race. The break was nice but it was good to finally be back home mid March.

In June we began making plan for our summer trip. First on the list was to purchase a larger trailer, we enjoyed our small trailer last year but decided we needed something larger. So we are now the proud owners of a 28 foot Keystone Laredo 5th Wheel, it's beautiful and we can't wait to take it out. Our trip this summer will take us 3 months. We plan to leave the end of July and head up the California coast to Santa Clara to visit with family. Then on to the Redwoods (I've never been there, Tony grew up in near Sacramento). Next it's on to Crater Lake and then up to Seattle, more family there and hopefully lots of old family pictures for me to copy. We would like to visit Vancouver and take a boat tour of the Puget Sound. Also on our agenda are Glacier and Lake Louise, Yellowstone and Mt Rushmore. Then September 19-21 we will be in Ellis, Kansas for the Bukovina Festival. Following this we'll head to Colorado for a visit with my mother and grandmother. Finishing off our trip will be a trip to San Antonio, Texas to see our daughter graduate from Air Force Basic Training the middle of October. We should be back home the end of October.

Updated 2-10-2004

Wow 2004, seems like we just were celebrating 2000 and worrying about the Y2K bugs, remember that? What a wonderful year 2003 was. Tony and I with our brand new Keystone Laredo 5th wheel headed up the California coast the 1st part of August. The scenery was beautiful and we stayed over a couple days in the Bay area to visit family. I'd never been to Mt. Shasta and was excited to see snow on the top of the mountain in August. Next stop was The Dalles, Oregon to see my grandmothers sister and of course take a Columbia River cruise on a paddlewheel boat. It was amazing to see the windsurfers and parasurfers? (looked like snowboards on their feet and they were attached to parachutes) With the river currents and wind in the gorge the rides looked wild.

Next on the agenda was Washington state with a stop in at Mt. Saint Helens. The area has been replanted but near top of the road up, there are still many blown down trees and the amount of mud in the river valley is incredible. Our trip to Washington involved meeting with Tony's cousin who lives in the Tacoma area. His mother spent many years working on the Baker Family Tree. She passed away several years ago, however all her original work still exists and I was eager to go thru it. I spent hours scanning old photos (even a couple of tintypes) Tony's sister Betty-Lu was happy to get a CD full of great old photos. Fortunately another cousin will be taking over these records so the traditon can be continued. After leaving Tacoma we headed east into Idaho and Montana. In Great Falls, Montana we were able to visit some of the sites Lewis & Clark journey thru on their way west. Lots of celebrations in honor of the 100th year of their trip.

Next we headed into Canada, we had planned to visit Glacier National Park but there were some bad wildfires burning so we skipped it this trip and instead headed up to Calagary. We have a good friend who lives and goes to school there, it was nice to visit with him and we loved the Canadian Rockies. Our trip would not have been complete with a visit to Lake Louise which is the most beautiful shade of green-blue I've ever seen. We continued north following the Columbia Icefields Parkway seeing a mother bear with 3 cubs along side of the road what a treat. The finale of the day was a trip out onto the Columbia Glacier. Even in August it was cold enough to need coats and scarves. After returning to the United States our next stop was Yellowstone. We stayed in the area for a week touring the park daily. Next it was on to South Dakota and Mt. Rushmore, in Cody, Wyoming we met another couple who had been in Yellowstone and were heading for South Dakota also. Don and Doreen became our traveling buddies for the next week as we stoped at the Famous Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota. What an interesting story there, people come from all over the world to visit Wall Drug. At Mt. Rushmore we attended a night lighting of the mounment and an evening of Patrotic music. On Septembe 6th there was a night blasting at the Crazy Horse mounment, something that only happends once or twice a year. It was really awesome to see all that dynamite go off.

At this point in our trip we were ahead of schedule to attend the Bukovina German Conference in Ellis, so we decided that as close as we were to North Dakota we should take the time to visit the birthplace of Tony's father. Esmond, North Dakota is pretty close to the Canadian Border and is near Devil's Lake. We found RV space in the parking lot of an Indian Casino on Devil's Lake and that became our base of operations. We managed with the help of a cousin (who we didn't realize was a cousin until we talked a bit) to locate the "Baker" family farmstead. No one lives there anymore but the land is still being farmed. The house is still standing and appears to be in okay shape however the land is reclaiming the barn as it is sinking into the ground. The waters of Devils Lake are much higher than they were 100 years ago and ground is softening. With help from our new "cousin" we located an old church cemetery where there are Bakers and Christoffersons buried. Not far from Esmond is an area called Rich Valley which is certainly an appropriate name, the area is very lush and green and deer are everywhere. We were able to locate records for Tony's great-grandfather Charles Alonzo Huyck who was at one time a clerk of the school district as well as a rural mail carrier. We found school reports (early day report cards) for several of his children and his signature on those reports. We had a lovely visit with the current day Postmaster of Esmond and found Charles name on a list of mail carriers.

We arrived in Ellis, Kansas my mothers birthplace just in time to attend the annual Bukovina Festival and Conference. This was my first time to attend and we had a wonderful time, there were great speakers and lots of friends and cousins to meet. On Saturday and Sunday there was a combined event with the German Heritage Society at the Ellis County Fairgrounds. We attended a strudel making demonstration along with a fashion show and of course Polka dancing every night. After a busy month and half we needed a rest, on next stop was Colorado Springs and a visit with my mother and grandmother. It was nice to relax and visit with them and we had a chance to see my brother and his wife. Their coffee shop August Morning in Longmont was celebrating it's 1 year anniversary.

We had one more stop to make before heading home for the winter. Our daughter Kristin joined the Air Force in September and was graduating from Basic Training October 17th. Leaving Colorado we traveled southeast to San Antonio, Texas and Lackland Airforce Base. Our son and his wife planned their vacation at the same time and flew in just in time to attend Kristins graduation. Then they were off for a week at Disney World. We stayed for two weeks in Texas and then headed home arriving the end of October. Kristin stayed at Lackland and began training as a Security Forces Officer. Once home I've been busy going thru all the records we gathered along the way.

Updated January 2004

We took another small trip this month, Kristin graduated from Security Forces School January 16th and Tony and I wanted to be there for her. She also bought a new car when she was home for Christmas leave and wanted us to drive it out to her. She's been assigned to Holloman AFB in Alamogordo, New Mexico, which is only about 750 miles from here so we can visit easily. Our next trip this year will be 5 days in Las Vegas for the Nascar race the beginning of March.

Updated 5-21-2004

Lets see it's been a couple months since my last update in January (see my diary pages for previous adventures) We did spend some time in Las Vegas, once in March and again in April. Stayed at Sam's Town Hotel/Casino and RV Park. Very nice place to stay off the strip (it's on the Boulder Highway near Flamigo) and on friday nites they have an awesome seafood buffet.

We thought that our next trip would be over the summer to see our daughter Kristin at her Airbase in New Mexico and to tour the southwest. Haven't I said it pays to be flexible and expect the un-expected? Kristin received deployment orders for the Persian Gulf, she's not in Iraq but rather an outlying country. I won't rest easy until she is home again. We decided we needed to visit her before she left so we left on May 4th heading for Alamogordo. Kristin was to leave on May 22nd so we'd have a couple weeks to visit prior to her deployment. Of course that changed and she left on May 15th but we still had 10 days together, sadly though her birthday is May 26th so we had to celebrate early.

Although our visit was short we did manage to see some of the surrounding area, visiting White Sand National Mounment amazing how white and pristine the sand is there. Kids actually use snow sleds to zoom down the sand dunes. We also spent a day visiting the mountains above Alamogordo stopping in Capitan, the birthplace and final resting place of Smokey the Bear. All to soon it was time for Kristin to leave and mom to cry a bit. I've talked with her since and she arrived okay and is settling in. I've already mailed off a care package with many more to follow. Tony and I decided on the way home to stop over in Arizona and vist Tombstone and Bisbee, it was a fun day touring these town and learning about their history.

Now that we're back home it's time to start making new plans for the summer. We're thinking about the Grand Canyon, along with parts of Utah and Colorado. Also we'll be dropping in on my mother and grandmother in Colorado Springs.

Updated 2-1-2005

Our plans to travel in 2004 got sidetracked in June when my mother was admitted to the hospital for an infection in her leg. I flew to Colorado Springs to care for my grandmother who had just had a hip replacement and take care of my mom when she got out of the hospital. It was several months before everyone was up and around. Then the end of September our daughter Kristin returned from her Persian Gulf assignment. She had a eventful summer, before her unit left for the Gulf, they were ATV training and she hurt her wrist. She thought it was just sprained, but instead she broke her scaphoid bone. Casting it for 4 months produced little healing and she returned in September still in a cast. Finally the 1st part of December she had surgery to place a pin in her wrist to stablize the break. We're still waiting to see how it heals and how well her therapy goes to rebuild her strength.

The whole family had a wonderful time over Thanksgiving, we took a cruise to Ensenada, Mexico. We left Los Angeles on Monday afternoon, cruising overnight to San Diego. Tuesday was spent visiting Seaport Village and relaxing on the ship. That night was a formal diner and we had our picture taken in front of a backdrop of the staircase of the Titanac. (see the picture I've posted below.) Wednesday we spent the day touring Catalina Island in a rented golf cart. Later in the day we took an underwater boat cruise. On Thanksgiving day we were docked in Ensenada and had a busy day. We took a tour of Ensenada's wine country and visited a winery. They also press their own olive oil and we brought back several bottles. Back on the ship we watched the sunset as we sailed out of the harbor. Later that evening we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner and enjoyed our final night at sea. Friday we arrived back in Los Angeles tired but left with great memories. We've decided our next cruise will be Alaska or Hawaii, not sure which.

Even though I was away most of the year, I managed to complete some genealogy. While at my mothers I worked on adding more names to my Bukovina Germans. Using the book "Illischestie A Rural Parish in Bukovina" I added the following families to my database: Keller, Kerth, Kipper, Kissinger, Wendling and Zachmann. Check out the link to my database below for more details. Recently I was able to find the parents of Alexander Howe' s wife Belinda. Turns out she is the daughter of Abraham Terpenning and part of a Dutch family that settled in New York in the early 1700's. Great news on these lines that I've been been focusing for the past three years. It was only a couple years ago that I found Alexander's parents. Recently I was searching through the "Athens Messenger" (Athens County, Ohio) Imagine my surprise when I found references to Mrs. and Mrs. Owen Martin and the visit of Mrs. Martin's two sisters! I have been looking for Emma Martin's family for 5 years. I never even knew she had sisters, I was even more surprised to find that their maiden name was Beverage. Emma had listed her maiden name as Larison when she married at 16. I've never placed her with any Larison in Ohio, so I have a new direction to search.

As for our plans to travel this year, we are planing to leave in May heading for Florida. We have never been to DisneyWorld and are looking forward to spending a week at Ft. Wilderness Campground located in the Walt Disney Resort. We also want to see the Everglades and Key West. No trip to Florida would be complete without a tour of the Kennedy Space Center and we're hoping the shuttle will be on the launch pad. The remainder of the summer will be spent touring the south, the Georgia, the Carolina's plus many other states. We plan to be gone about 4-5 months.
Updated 3-10-2006

We started 2005 with great plans, first it was off to New Mexico and a visit with Kristin at Holloman AFB. While there we took a day trip to the Carlsbad Caverns, really awesome amazing what nature created. Our time with Kristin was too short and soon we needed to be on our way towards Florida. We did have time for stops in Vicksburg, Mississippi and New Orleans. Lucky for us we were able to tour New Orleans not knowing that in only a few months Hurricane Katrina would wreck havoc and take so many lives.

While we were in New Orleans we visited the French Quarter and the National D-Day Museum. Dinner downtown included shrimp so large it took 4-5 bites to eat them, yummy!! Also we took a boat tour into the swampland near Slidell. Saw some amazing animals, alligators and nutria and heard stories told by a local Pearl River resident. Arriving in Florida we spent an entire week at Ft. Wilderness Campground on the grounds of Walt Disney World. The only way to see Disney World is to stay right in the park, we loved it. The park transit picked us up practically at our RV door and delivered us to the destination of our choice, MGM, Epcot, The Magic Kingdom or the Wild Animal Park. The RV park had a huge pool open 24 hours a day and a lake with boats and a view of the nightly fireworks at the Magic Kingdom.

Our next destination was Key West, we drove all the way to the tip of the Keys and stayed at Sigsbee Navel Base in their RV park. Sites right next to the water with sunsets that everyone brought their lawn chairs out to see each nite. The high point of our stay was a catamaran trip to Dry Tortuga, a island about 90 miles from Key West. It's the site of an old pre-civil war fort and National Park. We spent the day touring the park and I was able to snorkel for several hours. After two weeks in Key West we decided to head north, Hurricane season was starting and we wanted to be out of the Keys before any storms came our way.

We stayed most of June near Kennedy Space center and felt some of the outer bands of Hurricane Arlene and Cindy, mostly just heavy rain and winds. We really liked the area around Patrick Air Force base, it's just below the Kennedy Space Center. We were right on the Banana and Indian Rivers, and across Highway A1A from the Atlantic Ocean. Daily we could watch Dolphin, Manatee and Pelicans from our RV site. A blue heron had it's hunting grounds just down the gravel path along with several alligators. We spent 3 weeks just enjoying the area. Tony especially enjoyed our trip to Daytona USA, we took a tour around the track and spent the day at the Daytona USA exhibit.

The rainy season was really starting so we decided to head to Georgia next, originally we planned to see Savannah, then Charleston, but it was raining along the coast we headed towards Atlanta. We stopped at Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, about 60 miles south of Atlanta. The weather cleared for the most part except for a brush of Hurricane Dennis, tornados hit outside of Atlanta destroying part of the Atlanta Motor Speedway. We took day trips to Stone Mountain, awesome piece of rock and the views from the top were unbelievable. Also we visited Andersonville National Park and the POW Museum there. For the 4th of July we attend a party at the Lane Peach Orchards enjoying music, ribs, peach pie and the best peach ice cream we've ever eaten. Robins AFB has a wonderful nature center with birds, reptiles, rabbits, ferrets and many other critters. I love anything cute and furry so I spent many days visiting with animals and helping out feeding and caring for them. I made two wonderful new friends Sharron and Sharon who run the RV park and nature center. We plan to visit Robins again this year to see all our friends.

The sad part of our summer was just ahead, the middle of July my mother called from Colorado letting us know that my grandmother was ill. She had been in the hospital briefly the 1st of the month but no real diagnosis. When my mother called they had re-admitted her and done a bone marrow biopsy. The news was bone cancer, a very agressive form. We packed up the RV and drove from Atlanta to Colorado Springs in 4 days, arriving the day she was moved from the hospital to hospice. Over the next five days family arrived, our children from California drove in and our daughter came from Holloman. My uncle (her son) and his wife came also. On Monday July 25 in the afternoon she passed from life with her family surrounding her. I've placed her picture below as a tribute to her life, she would have turned 90 years old in October. We spent the remainder of the summer and fall with my mother who had back surgery in October. We brought her to California for a visit and to recover in the warm weather over Christmas and the entire month of January. She's back in Colorado now and doing wonderful, she plans to visit us this fall when our weather cools down again.

As for Tony and I we're already planned for our trip this year. We'll be leaving towards the end of March for a 5 day stay in Daytona Beach at the Great North American RV Rally. After that we plan to head into Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia. I want to do some research on my grandfather Charles Trimbath so we'll spend some time in Pennsylvania. On his WWI draft registration he listed Zara, Sigar, Austria as his birthplace, there is a town called Zara (now Zadar) in Croatia . Perhaps this is the lead I've been looking for. Recently I've found some new data on our mysterious Emma Larison, I finally was able to track down her death certificate, turns out she died in 1913 and her husband Owen remarried a woman named Emma Beverage. Emma Larison is the daughter of Abel Larison and Rachel McGraw, I've updated the family tree with this new data, and I'm working on Owens mother next. Additionally recently a Slovak cousin Jane Kozak Crosby has contacted me with data on our connected lines and some wonderful pictures of the villages of Markusovce and Lieskovany. Check out my Slovak pages to see some of the photos I've added.

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