Finding our roots

Branson, Missouri (18-23 May, 2010) Wow, this past week has just flown by. We left Arkansas on the 18th and camped at Branson, Missouri. We had been there about 25 years ago with Erin, Katie, (and Emily in utero!) for one of the first real vacations we ever took as a family. Well, in 25 years it has sure changed! We had to make some choices about what to do because we could have really gone crazy with all the shows. We settled on the Sight and Sound "Noah" production which was really good and the set was amazing! We also had to go to The Dixie Stampede as we had gone 15 years ago in Pigeon Forge, TN and it was a fun night with some good food! We did a little shopping, enjoying the unique arts and crafts of the Ozarks.

But one of the main reasons we headed this way was to do a little cemetery searching. Ed and I have both been plugging away at our genealogy for a little over a year now and we were excited to find that we both had relatives buried within 5 miles of each other right here in Missouri! We struck out on the back roads and found our first cemetery pretty easily in the little town of Crane Mo where we found the grave of Ed's great grandmother. Our second cemetery was also an easy find and after getting ourselves oriented we found the graves of my great grandparents quickly. Our last cemetery for the day was a little harder. Our GPS took us to a residential area with no cemetery in sight. We were stumped and decided to call it a day. We stopped off at McDonalds for a drink and as I waited for Ed I made eye contact with an older gentleman. I asked him if he was from the area and if he knew where Osa (pronounced Osee) Cemetery was. Well, he did and although he struggled a bit in trying to give specific directions, he did point us in the right direction and with just a couple of wrong turns we found it! I know it sounds funny to say I had a great time at the cemetery, but I did! We found a whole bunch of relatives including my great-great grandparents. I felt like I was making a historic discovery! Anyway, it was fun. The next day we drove to Springfield and found the graves of my grandfather and grandmother. We also found a church my grandfather had pastored and the house they lived in. People were at the church so we went in and right there in the foyer is picture of my grandfather, who started the church. We talked to the current pastor's wife and she shared some of the history from what I remember from the 60's. It was not only good to hear about the building and house that I remember, but to know the ministry is alive and well; the church is growing and honoring Christ!
Then we headed to a little town west of Springfield called Aurora where my mom was born. There we met some relatives that I had connected with on Ancestry.com (a third cousin I think) who are very nice and he showed us the old homestead where our great grandparents lived and had 21 children (4 of whom died at birth or in infancy)!!!
After I talked to Aunt Toadie I realized there was even more "roots-searching" we could have done, but we'll have to save that for another trip.