This week’s challenge is Favorite Place to Research. I had a bit of a conflict trying to decide if
I wanted to write about where has been my favorite place or where might my
favorite place be to research. Which
came down to Ireland would be my favorite place to go to research if I ever
felt like I knew exactly where to go. I
seem to want the impossible with Ireland.
I’m not sure that I could find out much more than I already have found
at this point at least. Going to Ireland
would be more of a seeing where the family was from rather than a research
trip. Anyway, I decided to go with my
favorite place to do research.
Peoria, Peoria County, Illinois has been my favorite place
to do research since it is where I have lived all of my life. My mother’s ancestors arrived in Peoria
starting in 1838 when my great-great-great-grandfather, Patrick Smyth, came
here. Another
great-great-great-grandfather, James H. Murphy, arrived in Peoria in 1850. Patrick’s daughter, Elizabeth, married James’
son, William, in 1864. William and
Elizabeth Smyth Murphy are my great-great grandparents.
I knew my great-grandparents and their children well, so I
grew up with lots of stories about the family in Peoria, early on knowing where
everyone was buried and went to school, and who they married, etc. This was all a definite advantage for me when
I began to research my family history.
It certainly helped that I also lived in the area! I have been able to
comb through cemeteries, the courthouse and the library whenever I
needed/wanted to do so. That has made
researching very fulfilling and interesting for me.
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