John & Anne Wiley

Yesterday we drove to Crown, PA to walk the lands of my ancestors, and it was interesting at times imagining them there. In the quiet green behind a church I stood on the graves of many on both sides of my grandfather’s family and found it quite powerful to touch their headstones.

7791 Roots

I stood on the abandoned railroad that was a lifeline to the village before the highway, gazing back into the distant past.

7733 Train On Time

We remarked driving the area, how good a time of year this is for such an exploration. With leaves off most of the trees it was easy to see old cabins and ruins, and get a sense of this as a once thriving village. It has seen mining, farming, and a wide variety of other activities for the industrious settlers. Now it’s making a minor comeback as a retirement area for people seeking a quiet country life.

So today we go down to DC for an exploration of our nation’s roots…

We got an uncharacteristically early start this morning, and were rewarded by a pair of cardinals next to the street.

7440 Cardinal Point

Life flows downstream when we’re not fighting it perhaps. The troubles of our ancestors flow down to us, and we can choose to wear ourselves out or play like otters. Today we talked about our mutual desire to play more with “frustrating” things. In quotes because in my heart I doubt that anything can frustrate me if I choose instead to enjoy it. So when Dex acted up during our drive today, I took a breath and smiled. Suddenly everything was fun again. I thought of the anger and frustration response learned from my Dad, and how much anger his Dad had taken on in turn from being orphaned out by his Dad. Excellent preparation then for exploring a hollow along a creek, where some of my more distant ancestors most likely lived, worked, hunted, hiked, courted, built homes and families, and left behind impressions of their times.

7504 Ancestral Creek

We pulled into Foxburg for the night and scored a wonderful off-season hotel room with a balcony over the Allegheny, featuring these two views.

7542 Up River

7520 Down River

After dinner we went for a long walk, first on a paved path along the left bank of this photo where Anne spotted an expressive rock face.

7577 Rock Face

The paved path was probably on an old railroad because it still sported several old telephone poles amid the smooth slabs of massive boulders.

7599 Pole & Boulder

Then we climbed the steep slope with scattered loose shale and slippery matted leaves, to reach an old abandoned road bed where we followed a deer trail that found sure footing over the many mud and rock slides that had conspired with volunteer trees to obliterate the road. It went up and down with the terrain, so we imagined it had been there for at least a century and probably several. On the way up we passed an even bigger boulder adorned with an open heart etched into the mostly smooth vertical side somehow by eons of trickling water. How many people have paused here on a “honeymoon” journey of discovery?

7634 The Open Heart

Today we’re exploring in a rental car. A few years ago we discovered I’m not me. Anne had hired an exceptional genealogist for my birthday, to research my paternal grandfather’s ancestry because he’d been placed in an orphanage at age 8 along with his two sisters when his mother died. Turns out he’d changed his name for reasons we can only guess at, but our expert had been able to uncover the facts leading us back to the 1740s just North of Pittsburgh. So today we begin a short ground tour learning more, photographing terrain & tombstones.

Yesterday we found what remains of the nice home in Pittsburgh where my grandfather’s older sister had worked as an escape from the orphanage.

7340 Attic Escape

She probably lived in that attic room, and it must have seemed heavenly after her time in the orphanage. Then with some help from Abby (our phone’s GPS) and a lot of help from Louise, we found the actual orphanage.

7365 Gramps' Orphanage

Turns out it had burned down, but in the center of this snap you might make out the bell they’ve placed as a memorial. After a fascinating guided tour of Wheeler we paused at Suzie’s magnificent farm.

7394 Paradise Found & Lost

Beautiful as it is, the WV mining laws have allowed many negative impacts on the quality of air, water, and sound here that remind us how precious is what we have inherited from ancestors and how we pass it on to descendants. Even with all the mining mayhem, it’s a relaxing place to Be.

As a promise of today’s discoveries we were treated to a gentle sunset drive back to Pittsburgh.

7427 Pitts Sunset