Back in the late 90’s I decided to take a trip to Rome. At the time I was living in Kansas City. I took a little vacation time and drove up to Muscatine, Iowa to spend some time with my sister. From there I was able to take a long day trip to Rome.

By now you have probably figured out that I was not going to Italy. Instead I was taking a trip to Rome, Wisconsin to see where my 4th great-grandfather had lived.

I did not know what I would find on the trip as I was not able to find out much ahead of time. Remember, this was in the early days of the internet. Now, I would do a lot more research before making a trip to hunt down family history.

However, I did have a very successful trip. I don’t remember the office that I stopped at, but they had large plat books from the 1800’s and I was able to find where Orsamus Braman lived. I also visited the local courthouse and found some other information about him.

I was given pretty good directions and was quickly able to find where he had lived.

When I pulled into the driveway the current owners were working in their yard and we had a nice visit while they showed me around. They knew who the original owner was and they were excited that a descendant was making a visit.

They told me a little bit about the history of the land and showed me the barn that he had built. It is the log portion in the picture above.

You can get a glimpse of how nice their yard looked. They were retired and spent a lot of time landscaping the property, which was really large.

Here is a view from the other side of the barn. I really like the old fieldstone foundation of the building.

They also showed me the house which still retained a small portion of the original structure he had built. They also showed me a copy of the deed and took down my address. They later sent me a copy of the history of the property.

I then took a trip to the library to see if I could find where Orsamus and his son Isaac were buried.

I don’t have the name of the cemetery right now as I am simply working from these pictures that I found while looking for something else tonight. My notes from the trip are buried somewhere else 🙂

However, this is the cemetery where they were buried. In the picture above you can see several rows of tombstones leaning up against the cement outlines of the burial plots. It was in these that I was able to find the tombstones of my ancestors. Unfortunately the cemetery had not been well cared for in the past and many stones were damaged and no longer at their original locations.

Here is the tombstone for my third great-grandfather Isaac Braman. Unfortunately, all that remained was the top part of the stone with a tree of life and his name. He died in 1860 at the age of 34.

Here is the gravestone of my 4th great-grandfather Orsamus Braman. You cannot see his full name on the stone, but I knew what his death date was and when he was born. If you look closely you can see the date, Oct. 5, 1873. Also, you can barely see the word AGED in the middle of the picture and below you can make out 74 Yrs. He was born in 1799. Also you can see the ‘O’ in the upper left corner of the stone and part of the ‘R’.

For more about Orsamus you can read my Ancestral Postmasters post that I wrote earlier this month. He was the postmaster of Rome.

You can also find a description of him in my post, Ancestor Description.

I was planning on writing a post about a trip to France I made many years ago, but ran across these pictures while looking for the pictures from France. My mind quickly wandered in a different direction.

Steven