Day 7 (August 28, 2008)
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Day 7 we embarked on a "short" 100+ mile road trip to the big city of Lincoln Nebraska. Here we expected to locate the state Historical society, rummage around some old records, and visit the state vital records office for death/birth certificates.
After a quick breakfast, we all piled into the car and made a dash for Lincoln. It took about 2 hours and arriving around 10:30am. We found a parking spot near the historical society at settled in. The area was on the campus university grounds and it was full of people walking to and from classes. Mom opted to stay in the car whilst Dad and Brian went in for some serious researching.
The building was large and full of records. An amazing site. The entrance had a 100' long index card system along the wall as you entered in addition to a security guard/information officer. This was where we started looking. After a short time with the Webers' and Foy's, we found several good leads and took plenty of pictures. Unfortunately, not all of the information was related to us, but still good reference materials. By the time we had finished, we headed into the main area and were required to lock up any bags, etc... good policy, but inconvenient all the same. There was a charge to visit and just as we were starting, they informed us that the society was going to close for lunch, and everyone was required to leave the building.
This was in the best of interests, but again, very inconvenient. We left and went back to the car to collect Mom. She was having fun watching the activities of the college students walking buy and preparing a party at a frat house. We were told there was a food eatery location on campus within walking distance and that we could head north just a few buildings for sustenance.
We located the building in short order and were amazed that half the population of Lincoln Nebraska had too. Waiting in line for a good 15 mins at a "Runza", it went fast, as we talked about the information we had collected and how things were going so far.
After lunch, Mom returned to her car for relaxing and Dad and Brian went into the records room once again. Our search through the newspapers and books was limited at best to some key findings on Charles Foy's property ownership found on micro-fiche and some obituaries. We spent roughly 2.5 hours and left before they closed in order to make it to the state Vital records, a few miles away in Lincoln.
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We drove to the Vital records and as this would take some time, dropped off Brian while Dad and Mom stayed in the car (drove around). Brian was fortunate to locate birth and death certificates for Foy's and Weber's, which is amazing when you think about how far across time and distance much of the information has traveled.
We ate dinner in Lincoln and then headed off back to Hastings for a good nights rest.
See day 8 for what happened next!
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