The first stop was at Most Blessed Sacrament Cemetery.
It was hot muggy and the sun was shining but we were there for a good hour tromping around the grounds. Well, I was- everyone but Donna went back to the car to wait. This was our first stop on this day.
We started off by parking right next to my great great grandfather, Amos Witman, who was born in 1848 and died in 1925. He was buried right next to his wife Catherine DeThamble. There were lots of Witmans buried in this cemetery. I'm not sure how many of them I'm related to, but it's very likely that I'm related to them all - I just need to figure out how. I have to say, standing on the ground where your ancestors literally are is pretty special.
After wandering around for a bit and noticing all the familiar names, we began to joke that we were related to everyone on the Cemetary. Luckily I had done a bunch of family history and taken all the names through the temple so I was fairly certain of the last names I was seeing that they had married a Witman. My cousin Chris also had is app out and was able to verify that I was related to them. I probably have 70 pictures of tombstones. The list of relatives includes, Stengels, Melcher, Ecks, Schmoyer, Kehs, Adam, Yeager, and more.
The coolest thing that happened was that I began to feel silly for starting to go row by row looking for potential relatives (everyone was also patiently waiting for me in the car and it was stiflingly hot outside) when I came across a tombstone that had been laid against another. When I got up to read it I realized that it was a Reichard. I looked over at the tomb next to it and realized it said Augustus Reichard. I was pretty sure this was the Augustus married to Emma Witman whom I had the experience with. I have never been able to find anything out about her husband and son after she died at 25. I didn't know If he had left the area with their son Hugh after her death. I didn't know what had ever happened to Hugh either. Well, I finally found Augustas. Literally. I was standing on him. When I pulled the resting tombstone away from the one it was leaning against, tons of these pincher bugs started crawling all over. I gathered some courage not to scream and not to let go of the rather heavy stone, and tried to read through them. When the bugs finally cleared away, it was Hugh! Here was Hugh and also the second wife of Augustas was burried by them. What a find. It felt amazing. I felt like they wanted me to find them. I can't describe what it felt like to find someone I had been searching for.
Lancaster - Intercourse - Amish country.
It was so fun to drive through the country. I love the houses here. The stone is beautiful and the setting of the homes- gorgeous! It was neat to be able to see the Amish driving their buggies on the road. We wandered around some shops and I bought a couple things.
I also loved being able to see a covered bridge and drive through it. Everything was just enchanting. I dreamt of living there while we drove around.
Cloister
This was an interesting celibacy village. They were completely isolated from the outside world. They never left it. They were completely closed off and isolated. It reminded me of m knight shamalas movie The Village. You wonder why a community like this couldn't figure out that it would die out if you weren't having children. But it was beautiful.
Bavarian village
This was interesting in the fact that it was normal housing with the residents having a shop on the front room. Not all of the neighbors did this, but there were a lot and then some of them were resturaunts. They were all brightly colored houses. Sadly, I didn't take a single picture of the village.
Roadside stand
All the driving around the country was making me want to stop at a roadside stand. We finally found one after we decided to search for one. I think the stand we stopped at was probably menanite. It's hard to tell the difference sometimes. One of the major differences is if their driving a car, or wearing a print on their clothing, are they using power tools? It's fun to guess when your driving past all the farms.
Dinner
We ate dinner at another place that used to be something else. Chris loves those kind of restaurants. I think this is when the suspicions of how much food I eat were confirmed. I eat like a bird compared to everyone else. I am trying not to go home with an extra 10 pounds with me... Especially since we stop for ice cream and eat out 2 meals every day.
Dad driving
My great aunt Barbara doesn't like to drive at night so she asked my dad to drive us home at 10:30 pm. Oh boy! My dad doesn't see that great and he's not as familiar with the area as he used to be. I was worried for our safety. Barbara joked a couple of times that it was the blind leading the blind as she tried to call out directions and my dad tried to follow them....Luckily we made it back to the house safely both nights my dad drove us home.
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