DAY 14 – JUNE 25, 2013 – Crookston Area

We started our day with a trip to Grand Forks, North Dakota in search of the train depot. We found it without much problem only to find its hours of operation to be midnight to 8:00 AM -- So much for Marcia purchasing a ticket for her return to Rochester tonight. As it turns out, a severe thunderstorm has now hit the area so she may have to wait another day anyway.

Today was a research day that started in Ada, Norman County. Their history center is located in a log cabin with an outdoor “museum” area consisting of a number of old buildings that have been relocated to this site. The inside was very well organized, mostly with obituary and old church cemetery information. In addition, they had books of old newspaper clippings with the obituaries that had been published in the local papers. We spent a couple of hours here and then headed back to Crookston for the Polk County records.

The Polk County center was not nearly as well organized and the research portion was in a very cramped back office. I was able to get a copy of the platt map for my g-grandfather’s property and was surprised to see how many of his neighbors were also family (or near family). I also found a list of the St. Petri confirmations, by year…found my ancestors and may have found a connection to my elusive Peterson family. More work and research will be required to prove this lead but it is a beginning.

Stopped for a late lunch and then a nap but the way the weather is currently not cooperating, the nap may not have been needed. There is now a tornado warning for the area so I don’t think I will be driving to the Grand Forks train depot tonight.

Tomorrow is Art’s birthday and he wants to take me to Moorhead to visit a couple of cousins who live down there and a third attempt at finding my grandparents. The storm should have passed through by then. There is a Vigness cousin living in the Climax area who I hope to meet tomorrow night…he is a friend of Art’s son, John. I am pretty sure that many of the unidentified photos from my g-grandmother’s photo album might be Vigness relatives.

I have made contact with a couple more cousins and will be heading to Thief River Falls on Thursday and then Bemidji on Friday to visit them. I still need to contact the last cousin in North Dakota for a Saturday visit and then I will be heading home.

(I left my camera in the car and don’t want to go get it in this storm so will add photos tomorrow.)