Pre-Trek Prep

Multiple generations of my dad's family lived in Bedford County Pennsylvania beginning in the mid 1700s. My direct-line ancestors left Pennsylvania in 1884, but many descendants of some of my early ancestors still live there today.

My 2nd great-grandfather, Adam Ickes, (born 1845) and his wife Elizabeth Ellen Harbaugh had a daughter named Allegra. She was their youngest child, born in 1873 in Pleasantville, Bedford County, Pennsylvania. She lived to be over 100 years old. I actually met her when I was a young girl. She was living in a nursing home in Fort Collins, Colorado at the time. It's hard to believe I actually met (and kissed on the cheek) the daughter of a Civil War soldier. At some point in her life she had become interested in genealogy. She handed over all of her research, documents, photos, keepsakes, etc. to my dad sometime back. Several years ago he passed everything on to me.

Allegra Ickes at age 18 

Growing up I knew the basics about many of my identified ancestry: names, relationships, birth places, etc., but in order to take the most advantage of a trip to the homeland of this particular family line I needed to find out a whole lot more.

I've identified 39 direct-line ancestors that lived in Bedford County. The vast majority of them, I believe, were German and Irish immigrants. Several men were Revolutionary War veterans. Two of my 5th g-grandfathers were directly involved in the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794. There were active abolitionists in their families, risking their lives and freedom to help secure freedom for others. Most of the men were hard-working farmers looking to make better lives for themselves and their posterity. Many of the women experienced great heartache from the untimely death of young children. From my research of wills and historical church records, they all seemed to be very devout Christians from various denominations which included Lutheran, Quaker, Methodist, German Baptist, and Independent.

Many online resources were used to get as much information as I could prior to roots trekking in Bedford PA. I scoured findagrave.com for burial locations and any historical info attached to each person. I found historical accounts and stories in old local history books available on archive.org, google books, and familysearch.org (viewable at any local Family History Center). I looked for land records on the PA State Archives website and also found old maps from 1861 and 1877 (St Clair, Union/King, and Pleasantville) showing actual locations of houses and farms labeled with the occupants' names.

My great-aunt Alle's (Allegra mentioned above) research was extremely helpful to me. Many of my ancestral lines have been heavily researched with family research websites available online. Other websites specific to the history and early settlers of Bedford County were very informative as well. I'm sure I'm missing other key resources, but hopefully I'll remember to mention them in subsequent posts. (There was A LOT of incorrect information online as well, especially within ancestry.com family trees.  Those are not primary sources and should not be treated as such.)

I sent emails; matched up old maps with Google Earth; compiled all the information I found by event, family name, and venue; printed simple pedigree charts to keep track of everybody; and made one custom google map showing every cemetery, church, parcel of land, and historical venue I wanted to visit.  My husband, Brent, accessed my Google map on his phone while he navigated our way around Bedford County.

It was the third week in October, 2015. We actually flew into Columbus, Ohio where our daughter and son-in-law are attending grad school at OSU. We left the airport and headed toward PA, only having to return after 30 minutes on the road to exchange our rental car - a delay I was none to excited about - but we arrived with a couple of hours of daylight left on our first day. (From now on I think I'll do my best to avoid flying first thing Monday morning and I'll NEVER book on Travelocity again! But that's another story for another day.)

We finally got a rental car we KNEW we could trust!

We were blessed with awesome weather. We had just missed the peak foliage as the first freeze had happened the previous week, but it was still breathtakingly beautiful. The title image above (may not be visible on a mobile device) was taken from Barefoot Road near Pleasantville at dusk.  I captured 484 images over 2 1/2 days.

All the people we met were incredibly friendly and helpful. The Bedford County phone book listed 63 people with the last name of "Ickes". I've never seen more than one or two "Ickes" listings - myself and/or my dad - in any other phone book. I actually met my first Ickes outside my own immediate family (excluding my dad's sister and great-aunt Allie).

After 3 days in Bedford County we made a quick side trip to Kirtland, Ohio to visit some historic LDS church sites, and we ended up in Columbus, Ohio where another son, his wife and 2 kids joined us for the weekend. The purpose and focus of our week spanned 11 generations. We had a great trip and a great time!

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All original content, images, commentary, etc. copyright © by Joy Denison 2015-2016.  All rights reserved. All writings, poems, speeches, essays, images, scans, likenesses, etc. by Adam Ickes (b 1845) as well as personal histories, images, and all other content by all persons referenced and discussed within the pages and posts in this blog may not be copied, shared, or reproduced in any way without expressed permission by the owner unless included here from other referenced sources or are historical records already considered to be in the public domain.