For those of you who don't know, my Jessamine County ancestor was Jacob Zike, married to Katherine Avery. Their daughter, Susannah, married James Scott in 1808 in Jessamine County and then removed to Indiana. Another child of Jacob's married into the Trisler family, which was my interest in that collateral family line. Clyde told me lots of stories about him and the man he came to Kentucky with, Earthinghouse. If anyone on this list has anything they would share with me about either of those families, I would be grateful. Also, if anyone has a copy of the pension papers filed by Earthinghouse, I would appreciate them, it would save me the time it will take to get them from Washington DC. And I hope that all of you won't mind that I think I talked Clyde into telling their story again on this list. The first time he did it, I was not a member and have never found it.

Back to my trip. We arrived in Cincinnati Tuesday afternoon, got the rental car and drove down I-75 to Nicholasville. We just loved the green, all the trees, and all the manicured fields and yards. Manicured is the only way to describe them, so different from our eastern Washington desert.

We got into our room in Nicholasville, drove around the town for a while and called it a night. The next morning I was up early and to the Jessamine County Historical Society to meet Clyde. What a gentleman. And there also was Ernestine Hamm, it seemed like meeting up with old friends again, which is exactly what it was, thanks to this list and the people on it.

Due to the time change (Kentucky 3 hours earlier than Washington), Mom and Dad weren't quite up so I went back and got them and Clyde gave us the royal tour. He showed me the land where Jacob had lived, took me to an old stone mill (I have a wonderful picture there of Clyde leaning up against an old fence under the shade of the trees), showed me the area where Jacob is most likely buried (too many trees and bushes to get to the actual site), showed me the location of the church that was later moved to Wilmore, took me to that church in Wilmore, and also took me to the Rohrer graveyard where I photographed the tombstones of Rev. Rohrer and his wife, who may have married my ancestors Susannah Zike and James Scott. After Clyde's tour, I visited the Jessamine County Courthouse and obtained copies of Jacob's will and his estate settlement and also copied the marriage license between Susannah and James Scott. That document had not been laminated, was very fragile, but what a thrill to hold and copy the original. My first.

Thursday was the picnic and what a great day. As Clyde has already said, no problem finding our way, with all the flags and red, white and blue decoration where we turned off. Here I met Howard Teater, Bax McClure, Kathy Hall, and Pat Hunt, and so many other people I can't remember their names. One nice lady who is a cousin of Kathy's came with her family from Missouri for the celebration and it was so neat to visit with her.

On Thursday I used my Mother's video camera and between the dedication of William's Price new stone and the program provided that day, I have 58 minutes of video tape. My Mom will get the video tape transferred to VHS in the next few days. I asked her to do 3 copies, one for the Jessamine County Historical Society, one for myself, and one for any kind soul who has 2 VCR's and would be willing to copy the tape and provide it to anyone who would like it. I don't have the equipment to do it myself. My Mom will also be securing the original video tape in the hopes that someone on the list has or knows someone who has a DVD burner and could transfer the video tape to CD. I don't have that equipment either.

I also took several pictures with the digital still camera while we were at the picnic, and would be happy to share those with everyone also.

Friday morning was goodbye to Jessamine County, with a stop at the Historical Society to say thank you, copy a few pages of Tina Trisler's work and get a copy of the Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper. If anyone would like a photocopy of the original newspaper article, just send me your snail mail address and I will mail it to you.

While in Jessamine County, I spent many hours in the Maple Grove Cemetery and was able to take about 2,000 photographs of stones there. I didn't get the entire cemetery, it is much to large for the little time I had there, but what I did get, I will be more than happy to share with anyone for the asking. I will put all the photos on a CD, mail it to the Historical Society and anyone else for the asking. I should be ready to go with that little project in a couple of days. When I take the picture, the digital camera gives the file a name like P0800347 and I am in the process of renaming all the files with the name or names on the tombstone, and when I am finished, all the files will be easy to manage because they will be alphabetized.

Also while in Jessamine County, I visited the residence where the tombstone of William Shreve is in the backyard. I was not able to meet the people now in possession of the residence. It is a grand old house that they are in the process of re-furbishing (I believe rather than restoring), and I also took pictures of the home. Later today I will get them moved from the laptop computer I took with me to this desktop computer which has the internet connection and email them off the Janelle. If anyone else wants copies, just let me know.

We left Jessamine County, headed for Louisville where I spent time in the Pennsylvania Run Cemetery there and I found the stones of other family members I was looking for there. We spent Friday night in Frankfort and then Saturday morning headed for Paris in Bourbon County.

We found a nice little motel a couple of blocks from the Paris Cemetery and got a room there for the duration of our trip. While there, I photographed a number of the stones in the Paris Cemetery, didn't get that one done either, too large!!! Sunday morning we went to the Battle Grove and Cherry Grove cemeteries in Cynthiana where I found more family buried and on Monday we spent the day at the Kentucky Horse Park. My Dad is a horseman from way back and we all throughly enjoyed one of the highlights of Kentucky.

Jo, while in the Paris Cemetery, I found several Arnspringer stones there. When I finish renaming the files in the Maple Grove cemetery, I will start on the Paris Cemetery, and if you are interested in copies of these stones, just let me know and I will email copies.

Yesterday morning was bittersweet. It was good to be going home, but so sad to be leaving Kentucky, all the hospitality and all the family history I was able to find. But United Airlines beckoned and we left from the Cincinnati airport yesterday morning, arriving back in Spokane last night.

One of my brothers was there to pick us up from the airport and it was so neat to listen to my parents telling my brother about our stay in Jessamine County. He was just amazed at all the people we had met, the things we had done, and especially the attention that Clyde gave us with the private history tour. I just sat back quietly and thought to myself, that was just what I was told I would find and I did. How great.

I know that there was a lady on this list who was asking about the Scott family in Jessamine County. Although I don't know if we can connect our families, I did get a lot of Scott stones photographed in the Maple Grove Cemetery, and if that researcher would like to contact me, if I can provide her copies of any of the photographs, I will be more than happy to do so.

In closing, thank you so much to all the people of Jessamine County for making my first trip to Kentucky the greatest, hope all of you enjoyed reading my little account (which I will gladly contribute to the web site) and if any of you want any pictures, just speak up and I will send them.

Rita I. Konzal
Colfax, WA