Jacqueline’s Jaunts

Larned, Kansas, here we come. I can’t believe I slept until 10:00 AM. I’m feeling better each day, and Barry’s cough is almost gone.  Beautiful day today with clear blue skies. The drive was windy most of the way. We arrived around 1:30 PM, checked in at the museum ,  and parked where they directed us to. We will be staying here for the next 2 nights. Great grassy spot with a view of the old buildings that were moved here for the museum. There was a nice breeze. We ate lunch and then walked over to the museum. What a fantastic museum. The exhibits are excellent. You can tell they take a lot of pride in their museum. It was not dusty, all the glass was clean, floors were clean. The buildings outside were all in great shape. Lots of history in this area since it’s part of the Santa Fe Trail. A lot of the artifacts are real. I loved the indian clothing they had on display. There was also a very large bison. It was magnificent. They are such majestic animals. We ended up spending ...

Today I'm visiting the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas, which has been on my list of places to conduct research for a few years. The library has records for the 102 nd  Infantry Battalion during World War II. My Grandfather, R. D. Griffin, served in L Company, 406 th  Infantry Regiment, 102 nd  Infantry Division.          Our RV park was only an hour from Abilene, Kansas, so I had to go. Yesterday, while we were traveling, I arranged to meet the archivist today. She will pull the boxes I need to review, and I will be there most of the day. Barry will hang around the town. Have I mentioned how much I love my husband?  Once we arrived, I checked in with security and went upstairs to meet the archivist, Kristyn Crossley. She led me to my table and showed me how to fill out the pull forms. Once I filled out the forms and my boxes pulled, I got to work. I had 15 boxes to go through. All these files were from General Frank Keating, ...

I was up early today. I had to be at the First Baptist Church in Stonewall around 9:00 AM to meet with Belinda Griffin. She is going to pull the church record books to see if they have a record of my Grandma Griffin’s baptism. I’m going alone while Barry gets the RV ready. We are leaving Sulphur today when I return from Stonewall.   The drive was nice, but it was strange driving in Oklahoma by myself. I don’t know why, but it was. Once I arrived at the church and was inside, Belinda found the books, and I began my page-by-page search. It wasn’t too long before I saw Grandma. She was listed under 20 May 1945. Uncle Richard did say she was baptized while Grandpa was serving in World War II. Did you see me doing the GENEALOGY HAPPY DANCE? I have so many questions: why did she want to get baptized while Grandpa was away? Why only her and not any of her children? Any other family in attendance? I’ll never know the answers to these questions. I finished looking through the rest of t...

We slept in and did a few chores this morning: today’s agenda, another cemetery, Holdenville Cemetery. The drive was about an hour and fifteen minutes from our RV park in Sulphur. My Grandma Griffin’s older brother and sister-in-law are buried here, Herbert and Ethel Landrum. I know most of the people I have visited are on Find A Grave, but I want the photos I use to be mine and to include the GPS coordinates.  This is a large cemetery for such a small town, and it is beautifully maintained. We found their gravesites right away, thanks to the information provided by the Find A Grave source person. They included a map and the plot information. After the cemetery, we drove through what remains of Holdenville today, which is not much. It’s so sad to see all these old towns boarded up and deserted. To think they were once bustling with activity.  Since we would be going by Stonewall on our way back, I wanted to stop at Highland Cemetery one more time and talk to my Great Gran...