What a cool story about your many-times great-grandfather. Imagine finally being within sight of your destination only to lose everything and everyone. All those poor people. Wow.
I've read so much about settlements moving into new areas by wagon, it never sunk in how much travel was done by ship on the great lakes. I hadn't thought about how many lives were lost as a result of storms, over-crowding, and simple negligence. It set me off on an exploration of the history of the Great Lakes shipping and travel routes to Canada's West.
It also reminded me of how much information is hidden away in plain sight simply by digging into the local papers in an area. I learned when one of my great great uncles died and how, when another moved west and that his family waited before following him.I learned there was possibly a fourth unknown child in that family. All of that in one little paragraph. Amazing resource I've not paid much attention to in the past.
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Date: 2016-08-27 01:23 pm (UTC)I've read so much about settlements moving into new areas by wagon, it never sunk in how much travel was done by ship on the great lakes. I hadn't thought about how many lives were lost as a result of storms, over-crowding, and simple negligence. It set me off on an exploration of the history of the Great Lakes shipping and travel routes to Canada's West.
It also reminded me of how much information is hidden away in plain sight simply by digging into the local papers in an area. I learned when one of my great great uncles died and how, when another moved west and that his family waited before following him.I learned there was possibly a fourth unknown child in that family. All of that in one little paragraph. Amazing resource I've not paid much attention to in the past.