Trip to Pella, Iowa January 20, 2010

This story starts with a bit of geneology. There is a church-owned website called "new.familysearch.org" where you can log in and see not only your ancesters, but can see who has had their temple work done, and who still needs it. Last year I noticed that Albert Colyn (Gerald Guthrie's maternal great grandfather - see pedigree chart below) had some unfinished ordinances. When I explored further, I discovered that two of their children did not have work finished. The notes indicated that my dad had some source that said the children had died of diptheria but no birth or death info was available. Since then I have tried to learn a bit about how you go about doing geneology with the hope that some day I'll be able to find the info about Minnie and Abram Colyn (or Colijn as it was really spelled in Holland).

Last week I traveled to Omaha, Nebraska for work. Omaha is a couple of hours away from Pella, Iowa where the Colyn's lived and many were buried. Since I was pretty close I thought I'd try to get to the cemetary in Pella and see if the family were all buried close to each other and maybe I'd find Minnie and Abram. Pella is about 15 miles due South from Newton, but I didn't get to Newton because I took a direct route from Des Moines that didn't go that far due East.

As Grandma Judy can tell you, Pella is a dutch settlement that is famous for their tulips in late April and early May. There is definitely a dutch influence still in the town with windmills and old-world shops, etc. I stayed at the Royal Amsterdam hotel and had some interesting and delicious dutch foods.

I got there in the middle of an ice storm, so it was really dangerous to walk around since even the dirt road had a half inch of clear ice that was very slick. My hope is to come back next time I visit the schools in Omaha.

This is downtown Pella. I am on the corner of Main and Broadway I think the streets were.

This is the park in the middle of town square

I think this was a grain mill that is still in town and operational, at least for historical tours.

Traffic light and sign coated in ice from the storm

The ice is really thick, even on thin little twigs

My room at the Royal Amsterdam: $79/night

You've all seen phoney frosted class. This is real thing from the inside of my hotel room. The class panes are really clear like normal windows. The frosting is from the ice storm.

Tiny blades of grass with 1/4 inch of ice

Big evergreen tree covered in ice

Chicken wire around a sapling

The top of the sapling

A little piece of pine twig that fell off of the tree. This was laying on the path just as you see it.

This is the entrance to the Graceland Cemetery in Pella. It is located about a mile north of town just off of Main Street. Most of our ancestors from the first generation that settled in the US from Holland are buried here somewhere. There was no attendant at the little office when I was there. The phone number isn't listed either. But I did find a contact number on a directional sign at the end of the driveway.