The word from Missouri–not Kentucky!

Even the best laid plans and planning can be upstaged by the weather–and that’s what happened to me.  Seems over 300 roads in Kentucky are blocked–mostly by flooding waters running into the Cumberland River on lthe South and into the Ohio on the North–either way, I am blocked from getting in.  And nobody wants me in.  Except me.

Same story for Western Tennessee–you might review a map of the meeting of the huge rivers in the central US–if you haven’t viewed them lately.  Couldn’t get into any part of Western Tennessee.  The Cumberland, the Tennessee, the Ohio, the Missouri, the Arkansas, and the Mississippi converge and merge there.  They empty the majority of the states and then flow south to the ocean.

Since I speak on migration patterns into the Central US, this whole river system is central to that presentation.  Very soon, Linda Brinkerhoff and I will complete a book that  has been underway for a long time, covering traffic into and through this part of the United States.  We have amassed some incredible maps and documents that demonstrate these migration patterns and how important they are for tracking really difficult ancestries.  We’ll announce it first in these pages–so you will want to stay tuned.  

So I am in Missouri–reliving some parts of my husband Alma’s time in Missouri.   Springfield and then Nevada, MO.  He helped to build a local church house and I am revisiting it and the environs around it.

Then on to Mid-Continent Public Library, Genealogy Division in Independence, Missouri.  Been a while since I visited there and I am excited about the opportunity that presents itself to me.

I’ll blog about all the new stuff that you might enjoy using for your hard-to-find ancestors.   Your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle  http://www.arleneeakle.com

PS  While I was driving around the floods, we missed the 2 May 1611 anniversary of the King James Bible–one of the most significant events in Anglo-American history!  The speech patterns in the American South still include the English of that work.  Written in colloquial and educated speech of the day, so our ancestors could understand it.  Cheers. AE

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