Friday, September 17, 2021
The drive from Williamsville, NY to Gainesville, VA should have been around seven hours. It was much longer. There was a lot of construction on the Pennsylvania Turnpike that slowed traffic to a crawl in several places and each time we encountered one of these zones traffic was backed up for miles. The frustrating part was that in only one of these zones was work actually being performed.
We’re going to be staying at Deborah’s brother’s house until a day or so before the wedding (the actual point of this entire trip). Her mother and father have already been here for about a week. We have a lot of catching up to do. For our first night in town we were treated to dinner from Manhattan Pizza. Nephews David and Robert joined us. It’s truly New York style pizza and, although it might not be mistaken for the real thing, was pretty good.
Saturday, September 18, 2021
For the most part we hung out around the house. For dinner we had a home cooked dinner. It was a festive occasion as the prospective Bride and Groom joined us for a Thanksgiving-like meal of roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and the best Thanksgiving food ever: cranberry sauce from a can.😉
Sunday, September 19, 2021
Last night Deborah had shown Stephanie, the Bride, her outfit for the wedding. It was not deemed colorful enough so today the five of us met Stephanie at an outlet mall to try to find something better. Deborah’s usual pattern is to find something she likes in the very first store she goes into, spend the next few hours traipsing through every store in the mall only to return to the first store and buy the very first outfit she tried on. Today was no exception. After several hours pounding the pavement we were all too tired to try to find matching shoes. We left that activity for another day.
We had dinner at a nearby restaurant called Blue Ridge Seafood. It reminded me of one of those run-down shacks you see in Maine that usually have the best lobsters. This place was equipped with long picnic tables covered in thick butcher paper. I had a good feeling about this place. Deborah and I started off with a cup of New England style clam chowder. It was very thick (maybe even too thick) and filled with large chunks of fresh clams and the usual vegetables. It was very good. For the main course Deborah ordered the twin crab cake dinner and I ordered the fried oysters. It was our intention to share. The crab cakes were darn good. They were mostly fresh crab with a spicy seasoning. The oysters were not up to the same standard. They were a little watery and didn’t burst with flavor. Could they have been frozen?
Monday, September 20, 2021
Deborah’s father, Richard, has always been interested in the family’s genealogy. COVID has provided him with a lot more time to pursue his hobby. A large chunk of his father’s family came from Luray, VA. His new discovery was a website called FindAGrave that pinpointed the whereabouts of many of his ancestors. This morning we headed out to rural Virginia to try and find some of their markers.
Some of the cemeteries were rather old and small and had rather vague descriptions of their locations. We scoured the web for additional information and found very little. We tried using Google Earth to see if we could find them visually in the areas we suspected they were. We didn’t have a lot of success.
We headed for Beahm’s Chapel Cemetery. We knew that a number of his relatives had been interred there. We hoped that, perhaps, it had been consolidated with some of the smaller cemeteries or at least we’d be able to find a local with more knowledge of the area.
Beahm’s, named after a local family, was a large, well kept cemetery with magnificent views of the surrounding mountains. There was an office on the grounds but they were closed on Mondays. We corralled one of the groundskeepers and asked him a few questions. All he knew was that there were a lot of Judds buried there. We spread out and spent about 90 minutes scouring the cemetery. There were many family plots spread throughout with the name Judd. Richard recognized many of the names and suspected that most were distant relatives. We photographed over 100 graves but never found the exact ancestors we were looking for.
A little disappointed we headed back into Town. We needed more information and we needed a bathroom break. Both were to be found in the Luray Visitor’s Center. We were advised to try the local library; they had an extensive genealogy section and were just across the street. They also made a recommendation on where to get lunch. Our next stop: West Main Market and Delicatessen.
Because of COVID we couldn’t enter the deli. A woman came to the door, took our order and told us we could eat at one of the tables outside. They had hot and cold sandwiches and salads. We all ordered sandwiches. Deborah and I shared an asiago chicken panini. It was freshly made and quite delicious.
By now the group was getting tired and there was little enthusiasm for continuing the adventure. Finally we decided to try the library. The general sense was that we wouldn’t find anything and we could call it a day. The librarian was very helpful and provided us with a stack of books containing information on the local cemeteries. We each took a few books and starting scouring them for information. The first book I tried was no help. I picked up another and perused the index. Something caught my eye and I turned to page 267. There it was: the name of the person and the name of the cemetery we had been looking for. There were even some vague directions on how to get there. I took out my iPhone, went to Google maps and converted to satellite view. Bill came over and helped me trace out a route. We took pictures of all the relevant pages in the book and were on our way.
The problem was that the cemetery resided on personal property. We pulled up the drive, looked around and didn’t see the cemetery. Nobody wanted to trespass or even knock on the door and ask any questions – nobody but me that is. I walked up the long drive, knocked on the door and asked the woman who answered about the cemetery. She knew exactly where it was. I asked her if she minded if the family looked about. She was very gracious.
The cemetery wasn’t easy to find because it was in an area that was completely overgrown. I pushed my way through the undergrowth and found the fence that surrounded the cemetery. According to the books we’d read in the library the cemetery hadn’t been maintained in many years. It was in pretty bad shape. Some of the gravestones were laying on the ground and some had been worn so badly they couldn’t be read. I photographed as much as I could and headed out. No one else was brave enough (or foolhardy enough) to follow me in. Afterwards I hoped that I hadn’t been tramping in poison ivy. That would have been a disaster. Donna said it looked like Virginia Climber Vines; I hope she was right.
This sounds like quite an adventure!!
It was like a treasure hunt. It was so much fun.