Our friend, Beth Powell, had received a notification of a Family History & Genealogy Conference sponsored by the local FHC and The Cumberland County Historical Society which would be Saturday, October 27, 2007. Several of the talks interested me: Roots Research in South Jersey, NJ State Archives, Obscure Sources and Deeds in Cumberland County. Beth also invited us to stay at her parents' beach home in Ocean City, Maryland while we were up there! So we decided to take her up on that offer and save some $$ as an added bonus!
I printed off some information from the CLUES - Connecting the Libraries of Cumberland County, New Jersey website, which listed the names of several genealogical places in the area and I was ready to go. Ron brought all his art gear, a book to read, and a radio and ear phones to listen to Rush Limbaugh.
In preparation for the trip I did a couple of things. I had bought some FamilySearch business cards from the Distribution Center while in Utah last week. Very often, when I met people I want to exchange email address with them; but I don't have a business card to easily do that. So Missy suggested that I print my information on a label and put it on the back of the card. So I made up some of those. Also, I carefully made a schedule of places to visit, what hours they were open, etc.
We drove from home directly to the Salem County Historical Society. It was open 12-4 on Wednesdays. The first thing I always look at in a new HS is to check the Family File. I xeroxed some material from the Husted FF and some obituaries from another source: indexed scrapbooks full of obituaries, the earliest dated 1893. This Historical Society did not seem to have too much other information that I did not already have, so I crossed the street and went into the Salem County Courthouse. I looked through the Grantor/Grantee Deed books for any early material and made a copy of a deed from Isaac Johnson, Esq. to Hosea Hewstead in 1829, just for fun. But could not find anything else too interesting.
Ron drove around a little and took some pictures of some interesting sites. This area is very old, being established about 1670s, I believe. This Church was across the street from the Salem Historical Society and the house was found while he was driving around. This afternoon might have been a little boring for Ron; it was rainy, so the light for taking pictures was not the greatest. He sat in the car and listened to the radio and worked on a picture.
This is the Church across the street from the Salem Historical Society.
One old house that Ron found.
The Courthouse closed at 4:30, so then we drove to the beach condo. After a few phone calls to Beth, in the rain, we got the garage door number correct and got in! Her father had inherited the original house; tore it down, designed a new place and had it built. The street level was two sets of 2 car garages with a front door and entryway in between. An elevator or stairs took you to the second floor condo (theirs) or the third floor condo (Beth's cousin's). It was very spacious, with 3 large bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, family room, formal dining and large formal living room with game tables, large deck overlooking the ocean, etc. We felt very blessed to have been able to stay in this wonderful place while we were here.
We asked someone about eating establishments and were told about the Crab Trap across the causeway (bay). Evidently, Ocean City New Jersey has no liquor allowed so the main eating establishments were across the bay. They served way too much food, so we brought half of it back to eat another day.
Thursday, we got up and took about an hour walk along the boardwalk. The weather was gloomy but at least did not rain during that time. Most everything was closed for the season; but it was a nice walk, with the wind blowing against us one way and pushing us the other way.
Then we stopped at the local McDonald's and ate (GASP!) breakfast. I selected the sausage on a biscuit and OJ. Ron got Egg McMuffin. Off to the Vineland Family History Center (thanks again to MapQuest, which was hard to follow; but when we stopped to ask directions to Vineland, the man said you are here!). The FHC hours posted online were inaccurate, so when we got there I had to call the Director, who told me it was now closed Thursday during the day but open in the evening. I had been previously been told that they had a collection of local films from the FHL in SLC, so that was my interest in going there. So we found the local Vineland Public Library (thanks to the CLUES listing) and I had an adventure in the Local History Room, looking at old books, finding some pictures of Husteds who served in the Civil War, etc. Ron hooked up to the wireless internet, could listen to Rush and catch up on all his blogs, etc. I drove over to the Vineland Historical Society, leaving him there.
The Vineland Historical Society is in an old building built 1910 in the downtown area. It is on a one way street. After going on two different streets THE WRONG WAY, I finally figured it all out! (I wondered why that man was shaking his hand at me?) They don't believe in large signs to announce that a street is one way....Heck! they know which way the street goes... The main person who works at that library was on leave of absence. They have hired the fix-it-up man who came originally to fix some water damage in the basement to help! That was interesting; but he did have an interest and helped me find some items. They had 12-20 books that were xerox copies of notes from a very famous local researcher, Charles E Sheppard. I have looked at them on microfilm at the FHL in SLC. Unfortunately they are not indexed, and one needs to go through each book and see what he has in there. I did not have time, but the helper man copied one set of notes that an independent person had made on the Husted family. He also pointed me to a set of Ledger Books, where another person, Charles Couson Baker, had gone to every cemetery in the area in the 1930s and copied all the headstone information. This also was NOT indexed, so every page had to be scanned and Husted family information had to be gleaned out. We also could not xerox this book, so I just typed the information directly into my computer. (TEDIOUS work, this genealogy). I need to check to see if the FHL has microfilmed that set of books!
When I went to pick up Ron, I asked a library patron about any good restaurants around and he pointed us to The Garden Room. It was in a strip mall in an area that looked a little run-down. But the food was delicious! I had a salmon with crab topping, Ron had shrimp dish. We got to the FHC just in time for it to open and quickly discovered that they did not have much that I was interested in. But the librarian told me that I might want to visit the Lummis Library of Historical & Genealogical Research in the little town of Greenwich; which was a very quaint town, she said. Ron found directions using YellowPages.com and printed them off. There are no major or direct roads to some of these little places. This resulted in a minor adjustment to the pre-planned schedule; but the local expertise and input was very helpful!
Then off to the condo. We could not get Internet (unless someone else had it available, Beth said); so Ron did some reading and I transcribed some stuff into my PAF program.
Friday, Ron hit the McD's and I was ready for something healthier. So a local Wawa had fresh mango slices, OJ, banana, an Odwalla bar and nuts for me. We went to the Cumberland County Library and checked out their collection, which was not much. But they had a very modern library with carrels, electrical outlets, wireless internet and we checked our emails. The librarian was from the town of Greenwich and told me where to find the Old Stone Church, where lots of early Husteds were buried, and also gave me a free Cumberland County Map! We left about 12 to find our way down to the Lummis Library.
Greenwich, Cumberland County, New Jersey was founded in 1670s. A colony of Quakers first settled the area (Fenwick's Colony), then a group of New Englanders from Greenwich, Conneticut came in and gave the town its name. It is a very darling town with little 2 story houses dating to the 1700s and perhaps a few from the 1680s. The road to get there ends at a T with the town main road going to the left and the right. We turned to the right and hit a dead end at this very old house on the water. It was still raining off and on, so we did not get more shots of more of the houses. Some of the houses have been designated historic with labels outside. I understand that it has to be updated using its original dimensions, etc. for this designation.
This Greenwich house was very old and had lots of additions.
Looking from the Greenwich house which overlooks the water, there is a wharf.
Ron found the only local eatery and got lunch for us both, while I went in to puruse records. In the Husted Family File I found a printed page of a James Husted, with the name of the submitter - a woman from WHITE HALL, MARYLAND! I was flabbergasted and I have left a message on her answering machine... Some other thngs that I discovered was some xerox copies of a David Husted bible and a xerox copy of an old letter from a David Husted, his spelling is hysterical! All stuff that I have to go through and put into my PAF program.
I have decided that the only way I can figure this family out is to carefully document each branch and see who is who, who belongs to who, etc. Unfortunately, New Jersey has lost many records that would be important: yearly tax records and, 3 US census records (1800, 1810, 1820), for instance, so records are few and far between. It will be a monumental task to figure this family out!
On the way home from Greenwich, we drove some little roads, getting lost a few times. I took pictures of what is left of the Old Stone Church cemetery. The original Church is long since gone. I did not see a tombstone for any Husteds (saw other related lines) but every tombstone that I saw was from the 1700s. They were pretty well preserved! We also found Husted Landing, a boat ramp in the middle of wetlands (marsh lands) and the Husted-Bateman Road, and the local Husted Boat store.
The Old Stone Church Cemetery is now in a forest.
We saw many signs telling us Husteds lived here. My genealogy cousin, Wil Husted, grew up in this area.
We arrived to the condo about the same time that Beth arrived from Baltimore. She was staying over the weekend and into next week, when her parents were returning from Florida. We had a good visit, ate leftover Crab Trap food plus a salad from Beth and had a good visit. Beth was showing me some new "pendulum" thing she is into. It showed that the Vitamin C that I have been using is not healthy for my body; that my calcium supplements were okay if with one of her Nikken supplement. Interesting. Of course, Ron was skeptical!
Saturday, we packed up and left for the Workshop at the Vineland FHC. Ron went back to the Vineland Public Library, found a quiet research room and began painting a scene he found in the Baltimore Examiner - a new newpaper in Baltimore. It was a reprint from an old picture taken about 1900 on Lombard Street, and was advertising an exhibit now going on in Baltimore. Wait until you see this one! Very impressive.
The workshop had 4 sessions and they were good. Ron drove over for their free luncheon and then came and picked me up at 1:30 when it was over. I wanted to go to the Vineland Historical Society again, so I dropped him off at the VPL and picked him up after it closed at 4 PM. By this time, the rain had stopped and we saw the sun for the first time in 4 days! We arrived home in White Hall about 6:30 PM.
