I've not posted anything lately - I've been very busy with moving things from our office of 15 years to my house - I've thrown away tons of dated paper (and paperwork) - and emptied, in order to move them, twenty 4-drawer file cabinets. I've about 3 more cabinets to go. It's sort of like seeing my past life go by ... years of "work efforts" being tossed or shredded - computer-related "stuff" gets obsolete so very quickly - some days I feel obsolete too!
Recently, I logged into Ancestry.com and saw a "shaking leaf" attached to my paternal g-grand-father. Curious, I went to see what it was all about and was surprised to find a record of him and his wife traveling on the SS Northland from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida, arriving back in the USA on February 24, 1928.
Harry Davis Mousley was born on July 3, 1883 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and died at the age of 47 on November 9, 1930. He (hopefully) enjoyed his trip to Cuba that he took about two years before he died.
My dad has no direct recollections of his grandparents - or their journeys - as they were both dead before he was born.
The Peninsular and Occidental steamship line was a part of Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railroad. It leased the SS Northland from the Eastern Steamship Company for the winter travel/tourist season. The ship on the far right is the Northland.
In a strange coincidence, the same day I found this record in Ancestry, my parents called and informed me they were going to the Florida Keys for three weeks this month, and will be in Key West on February 24!
Maybe my dad will sense the ghost of his paternal grandparents there? I have stood at the cruise ship dock in Key West - and seen the remains of the Florida East Coast Railroad in the Florida Keys - many of the railroad bridges are now fishing piers and/or part of a 132 mile long walking trail, of which I have walked about half. Did my g-grandparents ride the the long-gone train (it died in 1934 when wiped out by a hurricane)? I can only wonder.
