Into the Past: My Road Trip to Scranton

April 02, 2025

Connecting & News

I've been telling the story of my 2nd great-grandmother, Mary Jane Sheridan Cassidy, over the past few weeks and had hoped to complete her story this week. However, I was out of town over the weekend happily visiting my daughter, and though I had planned to continue writing while there, that didn't happen. So, I don't have the end of Mary Jane's story this week. I want to give the final chapter the time it deserves, so will work on it this week and have it for you next week. Moral of the Story: Go visit family and connect! Instead, I have some other cool genealogy news and accompanying "morals of the story." First, I was contacted by my 2C1R a few weeks ago. This young man is my son's age and came across my information on Find a Grave for our shared ancestor Catherine Ryan Gilbride (1855-1881). He then found my email and reached out to find out more. Turns out he is very interested in family history and the story of our shared Gilbride family. My dau...

I am participating in 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, a writing challenge encouraging genealogy researchers to write about their ancestors. The challenge is hosted by genealogist, blogger and podcaster Amy Johnson Crow.

Here's my post for Amy's Week Eighteen prompt: Road Trip

By Nancy Gilbride Casey

Part preparation, part dumb luck, part generosity of others, part serendipity. These things equal success on a genealogy road trip, in my recent experience. Scranton and Wayne County, Pennsylvania were my road trip destinations in March 2019—the places my Gilbride ancestors first called home in the United States.

Facebook was the perfect medium to share my discoveries while on the road in Pennsylvania, and I reported back each night to my family and friends in a series of posts I'll share here. They create a neat road trip timeline, while capturing the thrill of the find, somber closure, and other emotions which may only come by actually walking where our ancestors trod.