Whew... a AAA mattress and wi-fi !!!

I am Posting tonight from Topeka, KS. In the comfort of a Super 8, with a wonderful king size mattress, cable TV, hair dryer, and the promise of a continental breakfast in the morning.

This has been such a neat couple of days... I've seen the hand of God or His dispatched angels directing our path... having us bump into just the right strangers at just the right times, and us making the wrong turns to find what we needed.

So now I'm going back to Wed morning since I didn't have internet. We had spent the night in Fort Madison, I wrote about having to go 10 miles off the beaten path to find a motel. So in the morning we headed west on Rte to bound for Douds, IA. Knowing that was where Ansel's paternal grandparents lived from US Census reports. So my first stop was to find out where the County seat was, so I could research deed records. That turned out to be Keosauqua, IA. Then to find the Courthouse... It was in a wonderful old building from the turn of the century that had not been remodeled. The ladies there in the Recorders office and the Auditors office were very helpful. I was hoping to find a birth certificate for Ansel's dad, but he was born in 1879, and they didn't start keeping records until 1880. However we were able to find the deed records, and transfers of the deeds to and from Walter G. Marshall to the current owners. Then took a drive out there to see where it was. These pics are of the homestead. The house is probably partly original and remodeled over the years. Except for the home site area, the eighty acres is currently all corn on the gently rolling hills. They had 80 acres of farmland. His paternal grandparents were Walter G. and Sarah Criss Marshall.

Then it was off to Davis County via Rte 2, which is where his mom's family was from. Sylvester and Mary M. Criss Vorhis were his maternal grandparents.

So as we are ho humming our way across the corn stubble fields, imagine my excitement when this car hauler passed me on Rte 2. It was the NASCAR promo-show car for Matt Kenseth.

I kept hoping they would pull over and stop somewhere as it was noontime, but when I got to my turnoff they kept going. Oh well I'm really not a Kenseth fan... now if it was the 24 car or maybe even 88 I'd have passed them and flagged 'em down.

Does the picture below look familiar????

Ok give up???? It was the inspiration for Grant Wood's "the American Gothic" painting.

As we were driving to Davis County, I kept seeing these signs for the American Gothic house... not having a clue what it was about, I decided to stop and look... Actually it was another of those little God things... the curator had a bunch of information for me... and ideas who I needed to talk to and she made some phone calls for me.

So my next stop was the library at Bloomfield, Iowa the county seat for Davis County. They have an incredible genealogy room. But you have to have a guide person to use it, and no one was supposed to be there until one the next day... the librarian called the head person and put me on the phone with her. When I explained my circumstances and that I was researching the Vorhis family, she told me of a woman who lived next to the library who was researching the same family. So we called her, and she came over and helped me for a couple of hours.

Well I'm out of steam for tonight... more tomorrow

OMG !!! Internet withdrawals !!!

I thought everyone was in the same century... the SE corner of IOWA is still in the 50's and 60's.

We did stay at the Bates Motel (or if you are from Burns - the City Center Motel:) last night, on probably 50 yr old mattresses. It was clean, but it was a step back in time. No coffee... There are no Starbucks, no coffee shops, amazing, I never thought I'd hear myself say, where it a Starbucks...

Here we are in Bloomfield, IA, the county seat of Davis Co. Troy is the name of the town we were looking for, but have found that it's been un-incorporated. I spent several hours in the public library last night with a wonderful local woman who was amazing... we found obits of Ansel maternal grandparents and the cemetary records. This morning I went to the Courthouse and found the Deeds on the property... was having trouble trying to figure out where the homestead was as they had several checkerboarded parcels.

I was sort of at an impass... God is sooooo cool !!!! Ansel wanted a cup of coffee, we went to the local coffee shop at 10:30 am it was closed, while looking for another, there was the "OASIS" and low and behold, it is a wonderful coffee house... and with WI-FI !!! So while I'm getting my internet fix... Ansel starts talking to this local oldy... and I explain what we are doing... and he points to a weathered map on the wall and asks if I saw that... (this is in the gucci coffee shop) and for decoration in this Hawaii themed place is a 1900 plat map of the county showing all the owners and a special mark showing the residence. HA !!!! This was sooooooo amazing. Sooo now we are off to look at it. Hopefully tonight we'll get back to civilization and I'll be able to post from a hotel room.

I have so much to say, and no time to write and no time for spell check... love to everyone