Views of Jasper

Last weekend, I went to Jasper with Jerry's family. Unfortunately, Jerry could not make it, but I still had a good time. The main purpose of the trip for the others was to ski. My main purpose was to enjoy the natural beauty of the Canadian Rockies.

The concierge showed me a map and drew me a path around the frozen lake that would be an easy walk. He kindly told me which trails to avoid if I did not want to be attacked by a cougar. Then he sent me on my way.

I promptly got lost. Apparently snow covered trails are hard to follow even if it is only circling the lake. At this point I would like to mention that I found other lost folk on my search to reunite with the trail.


The advantage to getting lost was, of course, seeing some gorgeous outlooks. I saw oodles of animal prints, but no animals. I wouldn't have minded seeing an elk but I wasn't disappointed that I did not find any wild cats.


The weather was perfect for a weekend in the mountains. The skies were perfectly clear and the weather was just warm enough to enjoy being outdoors.

Genealogy - Look What I Found

When Jerry and I first met with our bishop, he asked what I was going to do with all my free time. I told him I wanted to work on genealogy. Sure enough, the next week, Jerry and I were called to be family history consultants. I have had a chance to do a lot of research and this morning I made two great finds.

This is a photo from a book about Oil City, Pennsylvania where some of my ancestors lived. I chose this page because it tells about St. Joseph's Church were the Quinn family attended. The entire book can be found here.
After I learned about this church, I was prompted to see if I could find online cemetery records. I actually found where a number of my ancestors are buried. This is St. Joseph's cemetery.

I found photos of gravestones and other information that I have been looking for at findagrave.com. Here is a little of what I found.

Eugene Quinn is my grandfather's great grandfather.

Rebecca is Eugene's wife.

Laura is one of their children and my grandfather's great aunt. I like how moss covered this one is.

It was very exciting to find this information and I am still looking for information on this family. I can't wait to find more!