We retired in 1999, sold our home in the California desert, and moved to Texas. In May of 2000 we gave up our apartment, hit the road in our pickup truck and began to travel full-time. Over the last six years we've spent a total of about 9 months in Europe, 49 months in the U. S., and 14 months in Canada, where we like to avoid the summer heat. We've visited all the states but Hawaii, and all the Canadian provinces.
About a year into our travels we began to study our family history - or rather the families of our grandchildren, nephews and nieces. We started in Kansas, and eventually found ancestors and relatives in dozens of states, including Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. So far as we've been able to learn, our relatives came from England, Germany, Slovakia, Ireland, Scotland, France, Belarus, and Russia. Our big European trip was to England, where we visited county record offices in Cornwall, Yorkshire, Durham, and London. We found quite a few relatives, some of whom escaped a dreary life in English mines to become homesteaders in the U. S.
We've been reporting on our travels to friends and family by e-mail, and we've been sharing our genealogical results with others through the internet, so now we've decided to have our own website.
We're always grateful for suggestions for improvement; please send us an e-mail.
- Bob and Elsa Pendleton