William D. Allen Sr. wrote: > > (Regarding visiting Casey county we posted the following on the ALLEN > newsgroup website) > > For what it's worth... > > We just finished a ten day genealogy research trip to Kentucky. Thought > other researchers would appreciate some suggestions for Kentucky "on the > ground" research. > > We first visited the Filson Club in Louisville for the better part of two > days. It's a good starting point for genealogy in Kentucky. Plenty of good > motels and restaurants in the greater "Looavull" area. We especially liked > the Bob Evans restaurants for excellent food at good prices. > > Just east on US 65 is Frankfort, the state capital, an old fashioned river > town. Must be that half the houses in town are over a hundred years or more > with a couple still in use that were built in the first decade of the 19th > century. Holiday Inn is the only motel within walking distance of the > Kentucky Historical Museum building, which houses the state genealogy > research library. It's a brand new building furnished with all the genealogy > tools: scads of family, county and regional state books, lots of photocopy > machines and computers for Internet as well as library material locating; > lots of comfortable work desks; and many census microfilm readers as well as > lots of microfilms. My wife hated to leave the library but we had a schedule > to keep. > > Enroute to Lexington we stopped at the Kentucky Horse Park dedicated to > Kentucky race horses as well as saddle horses. Like mash whisky their race > horses are among the best in the world. The Kentucky Horse Park located in > the middle of hundreds of bluegrass horse farms is well worth the stop even > if you are not a horse lover. And the grass does have a bluish tint. > > While at Lexington we took a break from genealogy research and visited the > Berea area where we had dinner in the old Daniel Boone Tavern located on his > original trail from the Cumberland Gap. Berea College is an arts school > where the students learn wood working, quilting, loom rug making, etc. which > are for sale in the student run store. The town is given over to antique > stores as well. > > We left Lexington south on US 68 and visited Pleasant Hill, one of the last > Quaker villages in the USA. It is set in beautiful rolling bluegrass > countryside with stone fences and huge shade trees. > > Then it was on the Harrodsburg Fort State Park, the first white settlement > in Kentucky. It is well worth a couple of hours to see how our ancestors > lived in the late 1700s on the frontier of our new nation. > > We then headed for Casey, Lincoln, Adair and Green counties for on-site > research on our ALLEN ancestors. The court house in each county was a must > for original land deeds, wills, court orders and marriage bonds and > recordings. The county clerk's people in every instance were gracious and > tolerant of genealogists. Some counties have taken very good care of their > ancient records, preserving them in transparent plastic while other counties > are letting them crumble to dust. > > We also hit the county public library in each county and in every instance > found a genealogy section and an active genealogy society. It was humorous > to walk in and have the librarian tell us "It's in the back room (the > genealogy section)" before we even open our mouth. You get the impression > they see lots of us genealogists, even in counties way off the beaten path. > > It was so exciting to find my gggg-grandfather's original homestead at the > Casey courthouse and then get to walk the ground where he built his log > cabin and planted his first crop. Even found the old family graveyard with a > headstone for one of his sons being born in 1806. Plus there were many > unmarked field stones on the graves of the oldest inhabitants. > > Enroute back to Louisville we also stopped at Abraham Lincoln's birth place > just south of Hogdenville on state 61 which is worth a visit if only to see > the hundred foot tall oaks that Lincoln's father Tom had to cut down to > build the cabin Abe was born in. They have preserved parts of the original > cabin's timbers and used them to build a reproduction of the original cabin > built inside a truly majestic marble monumental building. Also saw the > spring where Abe's family drew their water. > > We found very good highways with minimal traffic throughout the state, even > in the off-the-path counties. After having visited probably half the states > in our nation we nominate Kentucky as perhaps the prettiest state of them > all. Of course mid May is probably the best time of year to visit since the > temperature got above 80 on only one of the ten days there and then with > relatively low humidity. > > We stayed at the Brown Motel in Liberty, Casey county and ate at the "Bread > of Life" for breakfast and lunch and at "Whiskers" for dinner. Great home > cooking in both cases. Gladys Thomas and Noreen at the public library in > liberty were so helpful in digging out books for us. We can't thank them > enough! > > Adair has an excellent Best Western on the Cumberland Parkway. We did not > stay over night in Lincoln or Green county. > > Hope this aids in planning a genealogy trip to Kentucky. You will enjoy > visiting the timbered hills, grassy meadows and tinkling creek beds where > our courageous ancestors turned their dreams into our nation's reality. > > Yours truly, > > Bill and Loydean Allen > > end > > -----Original Message----- > From: StallMW5@aol.com <StallMW5@aol.com> > To: KYCASEY-L@rootsweb.com <KYCASEY-L@rootsweb.com> > Date: Wednesday, May 05, 1999 9:57 AM > Subject: Re: [KYCASEY-L] Casey County Fair to have Genealogy > > >That is a wonderful thing to do, and I will be excited now to visit Casey > Co. > >again for more information. My Aunt from LA is planning a visit to KY this > >summer and I plan to bring her my Mom and another Aunt to Casey Co. > >Maybe I can meet more cousins . > >Wilma from Owensboro,Ky > > > > > > ==== KYCASEY Mailing List ==== > To send a message to the list, Send your message to > KYCASEY-L@rootsweb.com Allens, Sorry you missed Bardstown in Nelson Co. It is a charming little town with a real, live drugstore that serves lunch at a counter! Everyone so friendly and chatty and it sure is a quieter pace. The library across from the court house and very convenient and all helpful. Appreciated your thoughts from other areas we may need to visit. Nancy Ahrbecker