Day 84 - USA Tour - Missoula, MT

Overnight: Missoula, MT
Ancestor Research and R&R Day

Today we are kind of waiting around to hear from either Dennis or his mother, Mabel. So, after a snack-like breakfast of toast with Velveeta and apple butter, I got a burst of energy. (Yea, I like weird combo foods; just ask LD!)

I cleaned up and even removed all the floor vents and vacuumed them out. Felt good to get a few things "extra" clean.

We decided to go for lunch at the truck stop because I totally wore myself out; and, besides, we just had a hankering for a burger.

On the way up the hill, we received a call from Dennis. He said that his mother would like to talk with us and that she did have a few pictures to share. She was waiting for our call, so Dave called her. She was delightful and had lots of information to share with Dave.

Dave and Mabel spoke for over an hour. He obtained stories that he has added to his binder. He recieved some information to research. And, he was given the name of Helen Migneault in Shelby. Mabel said she knows a lot about the Migneaults. So, we'll call when we get there and hope she'll see/talk to us.

One of the stories we heard while we were in Lambert, was that someone was murdered on the Thornton Ranch (next door to the Migneault Ranch). We had heard that the cook was involved. But, no details and no one could remember it all. So, that kind of dropped.

After talking with Mabel, we are getting a little bit more information. But, none of it has been confirmed with documentation yet. We heard that the cook (a woman) on the Thornton Ranch was a friend of Ray Migneault's. Something transpired and we think Ray killed Dave's great uncle, Charles Migneault. Charles was the brother of Dave's great-grandfather, Antione. We do know that Ray went to prison and learned to be a barber while there. After he was released from prison, he became a barber in Shelby. Mabel said Ray was one of the kindest men she knew. It's a spicy story that just craves investigation!

Another bit of useful information was that Mary (first-born of Antione and Denise) ran a hotel in Shelby. Denise lived with Mary until Denise passed away. Dave is hoping that he can find some information about Denise (maybe her grave, at the least) when we go to Shelby tomorrow.

After his conversation with Mabel, he was REALLY hungry. So, we enjoyed munching on our burgers and hashing over all the information he received from Mabel.

Upon returing to the RV, Dave (yet again) busied himself this evening with organizing his genealogy notebooks. I worked (yet again) on the blogs and photos.

Gotta get to bed as we have a lot of packing and dumping tomorrow morning to move onward. I had a hard time finding a place that has WiFi in the Shelby area. We have to camp 25 miles from Shelby. Nighty Night.