Joe Wheeler Park - July 24, 2014

Genealogy research is one of my hobbies.  I've been searching for some of my mother's maternal ancestors for years, and my best guess is that this family lived in Franklin County, Alabama during the Civil War.  Unfortunately, the Franklin County courthouse burned - and all the official records with it - in 1890, and I have been unable to locate more than a smidgeon of information online about this family.  Since we are camping in an area that adjoins Franklin County, today's mission was to peruse the Franklin County Archive in the hope that someone had donated some information about my family.

It was about an hour's drive down to Russellville, where the Archive is located.  We arrived at 11 a.m., fully aware that the lone volunteer, Miss Chris, would be closing for lunch from 12 to 1.  She pulled out a couple of books and a folder, and we had time to thumb through them before noon.  As the lunch hour approached, we asked her to recommend a good place to eat that was not a chain restaurant.  She recommended "Too Fat Sisters" on Hwy. 43.  We'd seen the delightful sign on our way in, and knew just where it was.

The parking lot was full of cars when we arrived - always a good sign.  The lunch special was a meat and three vegetable sides - things like meatloaf, country fried steak, grilled chicken, white beans, fried okra, turnip greens, and macaroni and cheese.  (Are you hungry yet?)   Everything was delicious, and the wait staff was friendly and attentive.  We left there so full that we could barely move, all for $15.

Back at the Archives, we quickly realized that we were out of luck in finding any more family information.  As we were preparing to leave, Miss Chris asked if we liked fried pies.  Of course, we said, "Yes!"  She went back to her office and returned with a brown paper bag that held several fried peach pies, and she handed them to us, explaining that a friend had brought them to her, but that she was diabetic and could not eat them.  We gratefully took them off her hands.  As soon as we got in the truck, The Husband pinched off a piece of one of the pies and shared it with me.  Mmmmm!  Heaven!

Our next stop was the Coon Dog Cemetery.  (Cross one entry off my bucket list!)    This cemetery is located about 12 miles down Hwy. 247 (from Hwy. 72), and then about 5 more miles down another country road.  We were surprised at how many graves were there, and how neatly kept it was.  We were also surprised when we looked at the guest register and discovered that nearly 300 people had visited the cemetery in the month of July alone. 

Only first-class, A-1, top coon dogs are accepted for burial there.  It's a very exclusive club!

Wonderful epitaphs on the stones.  This one said, "If he treed in a mailbox you'd better open it and look."

After leaving the Coon Dog Cemetery, and following Miss Chris's suggestion, we went to the Colbert County Courthouse in Tuscumbia to search for my long-lost ancestors among that county's records.  Colbert County was formed in 1867 and had originally been part of Franklin County, so it was possible that the records we wanted were in Colbert, rather than Franklin.  We struck out again.  After that, we hurried to the public library in Florence, Alabama, where Miss Chris said there were old newspapers on microfilm and a professional genealogist on staff to help us find records.  Strike three.  Either the family tree chart entries for these people will remain blank, or I will have to make up something to put in the blanks.

We probably would not have made the trip to Florence except that this week is W.C. Handy Week in the Shoals - there's music all day, every day this week, somewhere in the vicinity - and we wanted to hear a choir that was to perform at a church in Florence at 6 p.m.  We had just enough time after the library visit to walk the downtown area a little bit and have a drink at a local pub before the choir performed.  Downtown Florence is very pretty and trendy, and the choir - the Quad Cities Mass Choir - was AWESOME.  We were glad we'd made that detour.

It was almost dark by the time we made it back to the camper.  We were tired and hot, but we had a fun day. 

The Husband suggested that we "rest" tomorrow in preparation for our trip home.  However, before the evening was over, he discovered that a group called, "Doctors, Lawyers, and Such" will be performing in Sheffield, Alabama at noon tomorrow, and we may have to go see them.  Tomorrow night, there will be music here in the park and we will definitely see that.

Until tomorrow!