Sunday 8:30 AM....Letchworth State Park

We had a little time before church to drive up the road that runs through Letchworth State Park. The road starts at the beginning of the town of Mount Morris where we are staying. This canyon is known as the "Grand Canyon of the East." It was very beautiful.

They have built a dam just below where I am standing in the one picture. (I tried to take a matching picture of Carl but his eyes were closed.) It is called a dry dam. It is only used if flooding is going to occurr, which happens about every 7 years. It was dry behind the dam today.

I think the pictures give you an idea of how beautiful the Genesee River Valley is. For this little area, the Genesee River is the highlight of the geography. It was what made the area so fertile and such wonderful farm land. We see mostly corn fields and lots of dairy cows.

Sunday...7:30 AM Williamsburg area and Cemetery

So, while Dad finished showering and getting ready this morning, I ducked out and visited the
Williamsburg Cemetery. Williamsburg was the first name of the first white settlement in what is now Groveland. The land was purchased by some wealthy Eurpeans. They had Charles Williamson act as their US liason because he could legally buy and sell land in the US. He imported a group of Germans to build a road from Pennslyvania to the area. (that is a story in itself). And established this little village after himself...thus "Williamsburg."

It kind of has the same story as Fillmore, Utah. At one point it was thought it would be the hub of Utah and they planned to put the state captial. But people and history had other ideas. And Salt Lake City ended up being the state capital. Charles Williams thought "Williamsburg" would be the center of activity, but as fate had it the village a bit further north "Geneseo" became the bright spot and the county headquarters, etc. Plus, once the Erie Canal came, that became the center of attention.

So, the short of this long story, is that Williamsburg disappeared rather quickly. Charles Williamson cam in 1790. Levi Dunn came in 1795. He is reported as living at "The Hermitage" which was Charles Williamson's personal farm. But by 1825, Williamsburg was a ghost town. The town of Groveland grew up just south of it, and the town of Mount Morris to the west.

The cemetery was very cool though. I don't think any Dunns are buried there. Most of the burials are Fitzughs and Carrolls who must have bought this land later.

Some great pictures, however.

Bed and Breakfast

Mount Morris...Alliegience Bed and Breakfast

We are here in Western New York! Carl's taking a quick nap, but I can hardly wait to go-go-go. Okay, I'm a little tired too, but we got here with no problems. Arrived in Buffalo about 4 PM, got our rental car and started driving towards Mount Morris where we are staying at a Bed and Breakfast. Apparently the man who wrote the pledge of Alligience (Brian, where are you to spell for me) was born in this town. He left when age 6, but they can still claim him.

The drive from Buffalo to Mount Morris is very beautiful. Rolling hills just like Texas hill country, but with deciduous forests. There would be a small house with a field of corn of each side. The roadsides are bordered by rows and clusters of yellow ragweed out if full bloom. It really looks lovely, although may not do wonders for Carl's hayfever. Behind the house is often a two story red barn with a four-sided roof. Some are in better condition than others.

From Buffalo, we turned off Highway 90 at Batavia. Batavia is of interest to me because there is a record of a marriage of a Simeon Dunn and Polly Hansen (I think it is) is 1807. But we can't figure out who this Simeon Dunn is and if he is one of ours. We actually had dinner in Batavia at the Peking Buffet (all you can eat Chinese). Eric would have loved it, they had clams in the shells, mussels, sushi, and all kinds of things. We found plenty to eat that we liked and were filled up. We stopped at Target and got some treats. Oh oh, I got another jar of Nutella (sometime ask about the fun RS activity we had last Thursday).

From Batavia we drove past all the rolling hills and farms I have described. I wish we had had time to stop and take pictures. We got to our bed and breakfast here in Mount Morris about 6:30. Then we took a walk up the street to see the little shops even though they were all closed by now. As you can see by the pictures, it was already getting dark.

Apparantly Mount Morris is also famous for their State Park... it is known as the Grand Canyon of the East. Not sure how it is going to hold up compared to "the Grand Canyon" for someone who has grown up in the West. But hopefully we will find time to go see it as well as do family history.

The mansion we are staying in dates back to about 1838. It was owned by a promient lawyer named Luish (or something like that). We'll try to take more picture of the inisde. It's like being in a museum.

GROVELAND.... here we come

Saturday, September 11, 2010

We are at Hobby Airport in Houston, waiting for our flight to Baltimore and then on to Buffalo. Paul and the girls drove us down to the airport. The weather is bright and sunny. Hopefully we have remembered everything....or at least the essential things.

This trip, I rented a 3g card (think that is what it is called) from a company called RovAir. It allows me to have internet access anywhere. It's nice.

Today, is my sister, Lisa's birthday. I tried to call her yesterday, but did not reach her. I will try again later today.

And, of course, it is Sept 11th. So on the news are memorials about 9/11. It was a day that changed history. I remember I was headed to the family history center when the news started to come. I took a radio with me and listened while I was there. Sarah was home, but was at an endowment session at the temple. Carl was at work, they listened to the information there.

Margaret Snyder

I have been working on a narrative of the life of Simeon Adams Dunn just to cement in my mind what we have learned. I realized I really don't know the story of his second wife, Margaret Snyder. I have put out some inquiries and stared some research.

From what I can gather, she must have joined the church with her brother, Robert Anderson Snyder, and come to Nauvoo with him. Robert Snyder appears to have lived in close proximity to Simeon Dunn. I assume he got to know the family, and thus Margaret, in this way.

The image is the Hancock County Deed index, shows both Simeon Dunn and Robert Snider, their block and lot, and reference to deed book.

DNA

So, thanks to Paula's help, we have been able to make some headway on understanding where our Dunn line is in regard to DNA testing. The image above is the data we were looking at. It takes a while to figure out what it is all about and what it tells us, but we are learning.

Basically, the current (medium price range) genealogy DNA test evaluates 37 "DNA markers." The names of the markers are the numbers along the top of the table (for example: 393). Males who descend from a common ancestor are going to have the same or very close number or value for each marker. So if you have identified the string of 37 numbers for your ealiest ancestor. In theory his male descendants (same surname) are all going to have the same identical (or very close) string of 37 numbers.

Okay. So, all you DUNN male surname people out there who descend from William Dunn (of Connecticut)' or his son, Samuel b. 1753, or Samuel's son James b. 1793/ or his great grandson, Simeon Adams Dunn b. 1803/ etc. etc. It appears that your DNA marker is:

13-24-13-11-11-11-12-12-12-13-13-29-17-9-9-11-11-26-15-19-29-15-15-16-?-10-12-23-16-12-12-12-13-15-11-13-23-10-13-12-30-24

We are looking for a male Dunn descendant of Joseph Moroni Dunn who would like to be tested. Any volunteers? Must have DUNN surname and direct descent from Joseph Moroni Dunn.

If you would like more information on the websites to look at etc. Contact me.

SMGF.org

www.worldfamilies.net