A genealogy cruise to Alaska

 

                                                                                    Creek Street, Ketchikan

It's inevitable, every time I go away, I forget something. This time it was my Ancestry password. Access to my account on Ancestry would have come in handy on my travels, a cruise this time. The trip had been set up by my genealogy society, the BCGS, to mark our 50th anniversary. Of course, the anniversary was last year but COVID put cruise plans on hold. This September we finally go to go.

Plans morphed under the delay. The ship changed, our cruise was scheduled for a slightly different time on a different ship. Then it changed back. (No wonder I had a hard time remembering the dates we were going.) People dropped out, some others booked at the last minute. Two speakers had been planned for our at sea days, only one made it. That one was Blaine Bettinger. As he's a DNA expert, there were talks about that as well as other family history topics. The good thing about cruising is there were also plenty of other things to do and see. There were also plenty of stops on our trip to Alaska so, I got to do one of my other favourite things, explore history. 

There was lots of history on display when our ship docked and we were let loose in the towns. Our first stop, Juneau, gave us a taste of the Alaska of yesterday as we walked the streets of the historic downtown. In Skagway we were more adventurous, taking a street car tour of the old parts of town. Our driver took us to the Gold Rush Cemetery where she regaled us with the story of Soapy Smith. That scallywag was brought to his end in a shootout, an event dramatically brought to life by our guide. Creek Street in Ketchikan was our next glimpse into Alaska history. There we toured Dolly's House Museum, the actual house in which Dolly, another colourful character, kept the men of the city entertained, if you know what I mean.

I don't know of any links to Alaska in my family's past but I enjoyed how the stops along the way used the stories about their cities to celebrate their past. It's inspiring to see history brought to life with such enthusiasm. The cruise genealogy talks also gave me food for thought and a desire to take my research further. 

But it's too bad I didn't have my password. It would have been good to look at my DNA info while what our speaker had talked about was fresh in my mind. Now I'll have to take a closer look and try and remember what he talked about. This time I swear I'll look at the syllabus and not just add it to my pile of genealogical information.