First stop yesterday morning was the Civil War Museum. When I arrived downtown, I was slightly annoyed to find there is no free parking in Winchester. The idea of me parallel parking the Equinox is laughable, so I bypassed the parking meters and headed to a parking garage…where I learned that parking was a whopping fifty cents an hour. With a maximum of $4 a day. I told you this place was awesome!
At the museum, I got another solo tour. Normally this kind of one-on-one attention would make me uncomfortable, but not here. People find out I’m a descendent of the Hollingsworth family and they get all excited! I’m like “genealogy geek royalty.”
There are lots of relics at the Civil War Museum, but the coolest part is the graffiti on the walls—the old courthouse was used as a prison and a hospital during the war, and the city passed hands something like 72 times, so there’s both Union and Confederate scribbles. My favorite was the “Jefferson Davis Curse.”
After the museum I walked through Old Town Winchester and stopped at a pub for lunch (grilled cheese, tomato soup and a Smithwick’s…heaven!). Then I headed to an antique mall, because I could spend hours wandering around in those places (just ask Jeremy). Once again, I got amazing personal attention. I had only been there a few minutes when an employee walked up to me and apologized for not greeting me sooner. I asked her a question about an item that didn’t have a price, and she then offered to call the dealer directly to ask…and came back with a 50% reduction. I am totally moving here.
So what was this item? A crumbling Victorian-era photo album, complete with family photos and related newspaper clippings someone had saved and tucked in between the pages. Someone’s family history was just sitting there in a corner! I just couldn’t let that happen, so I bought it and am hoping to track down a relative who might like to have it.
My next stop was the archives at the local library. I think I totally made the librarian’s day when I walked in and said I was researching the Hollingsworth family. He kept pulling resources for me and telling me stories, such as one about Mary Hollingsworth, a six-foot-two woman (hmm, I didn’t get that family trait...but my Grandma did) who posed as a man and moved out west to make money working in the lumberyards. She apparently did a really good job of posing as a man, because she ended up engaged to her boss’s daughter, then freaked out and ran back home to Virginia before the wedding. The boss then sued her for breach of contract, or some such. (This story leads to a lot of questions—first off, you don’t just end up engaged to someone. Wouldn’t Mary have had to propose? Perhaps she really loved this other woman, but freaked out as the wedding approached because certain…issues…might arise on the wedding night?)
Anyway, I did a few hours of research at the archives, then walked across the hall to a meeting of the local genealogy society. As expected, and I am not exaggerating, I was the youngest there by 25-30 years. In fact, my entire time at the library I was referred to as “young lady,” and not in a “you are in big trouble” kind of way. Someone even asked if I was still in school.
The theme of the meeting was ““Coffin Maker, Undertaker & Funeral Director: The Other Death Record Sources.” I now know more about the history of funeral homes than I ever thought I would. Can you name the Father of American Embalming? I can! (Dr. Thomas Holmes, BTW).
And now, sadly, my solo adventure is coming to a close…although I am planning another one! I’ve got to head down to Conyers, Georgia to explore my more recent Hollingsworth ancestry. Mystery! Intrigue! Hiding the cattle from the Yankees! Arsenic poisoning! There’s a lot more to learn, and many, many creepy/strange/geeky things this 32-year old still wants to do.
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