SHERWOOD - When he was a teenager, Wells College chemistry professor Christopher Bailey made quite an interesting discovery.
While poking around his basement, Bailey found a series of letters written by his great-grandfather, John H. Haynes, after he left his Washington, D.C. home and traveled to Alaska to take part in the Alaskan Gold Rush from 1897-1918.
On Sunday evening, Bailey, who is an amateur genealogist, presented a program called “Hold On to Your Bag of Sand” at the Howland Stone Store Museum.
The presentation, which was part of the museum's monthly � Sunday Socials” series, consisted of Bailey's lecture on what he discovered from reading the letters, along with useful tools for performing genealogical research.
“When my great-grandfather left D.C. in 1897, he gave each member of his family a bag of sand, and promised them that he'd eventually return to fill it with gold,” Bailey said Sunday night.
After discovering the letters, he continued, Bailey took an interest in genealogy, and now teaches a family history class at Wells College.
The professor has journeyed with his students to Washington, D.C. on several occasions to perform research at the National Archives Administration, and earlier this year, he and several students traveled to Salt Lake City - which he said is like the genealogical Holy Grail.
“The Mormon Church does a lot of genealogical research, so (Salt Lake City) is a family historian's Mecca,” he said.
Sunday's lecture included accounts of Haynes' description of the Alaskan countryside and the people he met, and his eventual disappointment at never amassing much of a fortune.
“So our family was left ‘holding the bag,' so to speak,” he joked at one point.
Bailey said that he recently discovered that on Haynes' return trip in 1918, the boat he was traveling on sank, and with it millions of dollars in gold.
“So the obvious question is, was some of that gold my great-grandfather's?” Bailey said.
To Learn More
What: 2007 Sunday Socials
Where: Howland Stone Store Museum, 2956 Route 34B,
Sherwood
When: Monthly
Cost: Free
For more information: Call the museum at 364-8307
On Sunday evening, Bailey, who is an amateur genealogist, presented a program called “Hold On to Your Bag of Sand” at the Howland Stone Store Museum.
The presentation, which was part of the museum's monthly � Sunday Socials” series, consisted of Bailey's lecture on what he discovered from reading the letters, along with useful tools for performing genealogical research.
“When my great-grandfather left D.C. in 1897, he gave each member of his family a bag of sand, and promised them that he'd eventually return to fill it with gold,” Bailey said Sunday night.
After discovering the letters, he continued, Bailey took an interest in genealogy, and now teaches a family history class at Wells College.
The professor has journeyed with his students to Washington, D.C. on several occasions to perform research at the National Archives Administration, and earlier this year, he and several students traveled to Salt Lake City - which he said is like the genealogical Holy Grail.
“The Mormon Church does a lot of genealogical research, so (Salt Lake City) is a family historian's Mecca,” he said.
Sunday's lecture included accounts of Haynes' description of the Alaskan countryside and the people he met, and his eventual disappointment at never amassing much of a fortune.
“So our family was left ‘holding the bag,' so to speak,” he joked at one point.
Bailey said that he recently discovered that on Haynes' return trip in 1918, the boat he was traveling on sank, and with it millions of dollars in gold.
“So the obvious question is, was some of that gold my great-grandfather's?” Bailey said.
To Learn More
What: 2007 Sunday Socials
Where: Howland Stone Store Museum, 2956 Route 34B,
Sherwood
When: Monthly
Cost: Free
For more information: Call the museum at 364-8307
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