Family History Trip - October 2011

I had been interested in taking a Family History trip to Pennsylvania for years, I would get out maps and look at the areas where our ancestors had lived, Jacob & Ann Cloward lived in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, but all the locations were within a 30 mile radius, Jacob was born in Cecil County, Maryland, he and Ann were married in Pottstown, Pennsylvania according to the information I have found from others so far, Wendy and I traveled to Pottstown, but haven't been able to confirm this information yet, and Jacob's brother Thomas and his family lived in Delaware, I'm assuming that Jacob and Ann moved there to be closer to Thomas and his family, and possibly for work,  from the information I have gathered so far, they struggled financially early on.  At least one of their older daughters went to live with an uncle by the name of Miles, we are still looking for more information on him.  Anyway, in the spring of 2011, Alisha, our oldest daughter, and her husband, Brad announced that they had decided to move to Philadelphia so that Brad could attend Dental School at the University of Pennsylvania.  As hard as it was to have them move away, I was excited at the prospect of finally going on not just one but probably several Family History Trips out to Pennsylvania, because now I would have another reason to go visit.

Pottstown Historical Society, Pennsylvania

Malia, a member of the Pottstown Historical Society helped us out so much 

while we were looking for information on our ancestors

The Wilmington & Brandywine Cemetery in Wilmington, Delaware

There are 5 generations of Clowards buried here, starting with 

Thomas Cloward and Eliza Jane DuShane, 

Thomas being a brother to Jacob, our direct ancestor

 Thomas Cloward's Headstone

 His wife's headstone, Eliza Jane DuShane

 The Cloward Family Plot Headstone

 We went to Amish Country for just a few hours while we were on our trip, 

so beautiful!

 This is the George Harlan Cabin, built in the late 1600's, we stayed here a couple of nights while we were on our trip.  It is owned by the sweetest lady, here pictured with Wendy, Wendy had called to find out information about the Friends Cemetery in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, Beverly answered the phone, and Wendy and her got to talking, she told Wendy that she owned a Bed & Breakfast right by the cemetery, so Wendy set it up for us to stay there for a few nights. After Wendy got off the phone with her, I told Wendy that we are related to Harlan's, and I got to looking and we are distantly related to George Harlan, it was pretty amazing to stay in his family's home!

Alisha drove out of the city to join us this day, it was so much fun to have her with us

Ask me about these last two pictures sometime if you are interested, 

quite an amazing experience!