My Trails into the Past

When one thinks about our ancestors getting land to settle in the Midwest or West, our first thoughts are that the settler either bought land from another landowner, purchased land from the federal government, or homesteaded the land. My husband’s great-grandfather, Per Alfred Lundquist, settled in Montgomery County, Iowa, located in the southwestern part of the state, in an area of rolling hills. I first checked the Bureau of Land Management’s website of the General Land Office, and he was not listed as buying land from the federal government. [1] Next, I checked with the local county deed records at the FamilySearch catalog, and there I found he purchased 80 acres of land from the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad on 11 October 1883. This land was in Section 30 in Township 71 of Range 37 of the 5 th Principal Meridian. [2] How is it that a railroad company would be selling land to our ancestors? The federal government wanted settlers in the plains and the West. They k...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing is to: 1) Let's talk about what we did as children (not teenagers or young adults) on our summer vacations from school.  2)  Write about your life as a child in the summertime (say, any age between 5 and 12).  Where did you live, what did you do, how did it influence the rest of your life? Here's mine: My first eight years of childhood was spent in Pittsburg, California. We lived in a two-story rental unit on East 9 th Street. As a young child, our yard felt large. We had lots of concrete, which was great for riding trikes, bikes, and peddle cars. The sidewalk was flat, but the driveway sloped down into the backyard. The peddle cars we had were chained-driven. I have never seen examples anywhere of these types of cars. My car was painted blue and I think it was supposed to be a Cadillac. My brother’s car was pain...