Day 83 - USA Tour - Missoula, MT

Overnight: Missoula, MT
Ancestor Research Day

This morning we headed for Cracker Barrel, which is off the freeway on the way to downtown Missoula.

Our first stop after breakfast was to the Missoula County Library. We had been told that they have a genealogy research room. So, this was encouraging. We spent about 2 hours there. We did get some new information from the city directories of 1909, 1911, and 1913.

We found an entry in the 19ll book that showed Dave's great-grandfather, Antione, was removed from the directory as it states "removed to Fairview, Washington." You may remember that Antione was a sawyer (blade sharpener for loggers) and he was killed when he and two others (one could have been his son, Henry) were logging a tree and the wind shifted. The tree fell on him and crushed him. Knowing the name of the city gives us a place to hunt for more information farther down our USA Tour road.

In the 1909 directory, the amount that Antione owed for property taxes was listed. He owed $650 for his 120 acres. It seems that the amount of taxes that each resident owed is listed in the city directory.

We also found some resources for future research. There is a set of books titled "Your French-Canadian Ancestors." It seems there are about 25 volumes, but the library only had 5 of the 25 volumes on hand, and we don't have enough names to link back beyond 1800s. However, we have a resource to check later. These books trace ancestors back to the 1500s.

On the way back to the RV, we placed two phone calls to Migneault residents living in Montana. One lives in Missoula, a Mabel Migneault. I left a message for her. The other was in Whitefish, MT--a Dennis Migneault. We also had to leave a message for him.

We went back to the RV and fixed a hot dog lunch. Shortly after lunch, we received a message from Dennis. So, we hopped into the car and drove to the top of the hill to return his call.

Dennis and Dave, we found out, share the same great-grandparents: Antione and Denise. Dennis was named after Denise. So Dave and Dennis are second cousins. Dennis was very receptive to gathering/sharing information with/from Dave. During the hour-long conversation, Dennis never mentioned the name of his grandfather--and it was a question that Dave forgot to ask. Dennis' grandfather was a brother to Sonny (Dave's grandfather); however, we are not sure which brother.

Dennis did say that Mabel Migneault who lives in Missoula is his mother. So, he was going to call her and see if she had any pictures or stories to share with Dave about the family. We hope to hear from her tomorrow.

We will be driving to Whitefish, MT, this weekend to meet Dennis. He is 59 and still working. We are looking forward to meeting him.

Dave got a few tidbits about the family from Dennis, which he is still trying to put together. But, Dennis told us his mother had many more stories. So, we hope she'll call tomorrow.

Dave busied himself with organizing his genealogy notebook while I worked on the blog. I went to bed early and finished reading the Lewis & Clark book I had been reading.