Finally, a visit to Rock Springs Park

I took a little time off because of my Psoriatic Arthritis. In my case it appears to be genetic since Grandma, my mother, my sister Barb and my son Sean have or had Psoriasis. It makes me a little worried about my grandson. I went a little off the subject of genealogy, not much since genetics is important to genealogy.

Back in September I did a blog entry about my grandmother not being allowed at the age of 21. I also mentioned that she finally found a man to date and eventually marry when 2 of her friends decided to fix her up with their brother. I found pictures they took during a summer date in 1922 to the very amusement park where my grandmother would listen to the music and wish that she would be permitted to go to the dances. I was able to identify the amusement park from a blog that is written about the history of the park. I also belong to a Facebook group for people who grew up in or currently reside in Wellsville, Ohio. I also belong to a history group about East Liverpool, Ohio. I never lived there, but it was an important shopping destination when I was a child. That Facebook group led me to the blog about Rock Springs Park in Chester, West Virginia (across the river from East Liverpool). People offer old photographs that illustrate the memories they write about. By the time I was born the streetcars and trolleys that connected East Liverpool, Wellsville, Toronto and Steubenville, Ohio as well as running to Chester, West Virginia where long gone. I did get to see these earlier forms of public transit in the pictures offered by other members of the group.

I have been preparing to move soon and checked my computer for the scanned pictures from one of my Grandmother’s photo albums. As I was checking I rediscovered pictures of my grandparents during their dating days. And in the photos is what I now recognize as trolley tracks. If it had not been for the “memory” groups on Facebook I would not have seen the street cars and trolleys that had been common in my home town and the surrounding area. It appears from the pictures taken that day Joseph and Katharyn used the trolley to visit Rock Springs Park and paddle around the lake in a canoe. Grandma may not have gone to the dances when she was 21, but she did spend time at the park with the man she would marry in 1924.

I did not realize how valuable these Facebooks groups would be to my genealogical research until the days I saw this photograph of my Grandmother standing on the end of the Newell Bridge complete with trolley tracks.