Leaving the U.P. and heading south towards our RV Dreams Rally in a few days. The drive was 176 miles today. In order to break up a long drive, we stopped halfway in the little town of Paris, MI. We are checked into space 6 of the Paris Park Campground.
Most of the drive was in the rain. We drove through Petosky, MI. I'm a genealogy nut and Petosky was the home of several of my Ferguson relatives. I really enjoy seeing the actual area that they were living in.
Once we were settled in our spot for the night, and it quit raining, we took off on a little genealogy loop drive. We drove through Big Rapids by the Mecosta Historical Society Museum. It was closed. Only open on Fridays.... Boo!
Then we drove through 3 of the towns that my early Fergusons lived in the 1860s.
I looked at each old farm and wondered if this was the one. I'm sure the actual structures are all gone by now, but it is fun to wonder.
Now I knew some of my family were buried in the Coral Cemetery.... and we found it.
It really is a pretty big pioneer cemetery. As we pulled in the first driveway, Donna spotted a big tombstone with the Ferguson name on it.
Yepper! she found the Ferguson family plot right off the bat!
We cleaned off the tombstones a bit and took lots of pictures.
Here lies my Great Great Grandfather's brother Elias. Born in 1830 and died in 1888. Here also in his wife and 3 of their children.
Cool stuff. I'll be adding their tombstone photos to my online genealogy database at www.thefergs.com.
Back at the RV, Donna added all the Great Lakes and the U.P. of Michigan to our 'States Visited' map
Stay tuned...
How exciting to find your relatives markers. We are very close to you I guys. We're at Sleeping Dunes Natl Park in the Platte River campground until Fri and then we'll stop in Muskegon to have some warranty work and we'll see ya Sat. Let's hope for more sunshine!
ReplyDelete