12
May
2008
NGS Conference 2008 Trip: The Old Phelps County Courthouse
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Category: Missouri, Research
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Monday, May 12, 2008
Today I went to the Rolla Health department to see if I could get Mom’s birth certificates, as well as Minnie Melton’s and Lewis Jesse’s death certificates. Unfortunately, they only have birth and death certificates from 1980 to present. They told me I had to go to the state level health department in Jefferson City. Argh.
However, not all was bad. One of the things the gal at the Rolla health department told me was that the county-level records may be at the “old” courthouse. Well, I went over to the “old” courthouse to find that a tour was going on for third graders of the old courthouse and the really old Rolla high school, which was across the street. What luck!! That was a great experience, to walk around in the same rooms in which my great-great-grandfathers once walked, where Judge Lewis Fields Wright once tried cases. Needless to say, I took LOTS of photos. They also had a room where they had authentic ladies dresses and clothes from the civil war era to the early 1900s. WOW! To stand so close (without touching) those dresses… I felt like I was back in time to the 1860′s.
So, my stay in Rolla on Monday wasn’t a failure after all… it was indeed, awesome!
I was done with the tours of the old courthouse and the school at noon. I then headed back to Jeff City to go after those elusive birth and death certificates. I found out at the archives that I had to go to another site for them, and that they were $15 a piece. So, I bit my lip, drove out there, and paid $56 for two birth (Mom’s and Papa Case’s) and two death certs (Minnie Case & Jesse Collier).
All in all, it was a great day…. however, it took a downward turn as soon as I hit Kansas City. What a dump! This town is worse than Philly.
I got to my hotel to which I had reservations, and it turned out to be a real dump, and it was an “outie”. I hate outies — I don’t feel safe in them. They’re the kind of “motel” where the doors to the rooms are on the outside of the hotel, rather than going inside and down a hall. I didn’t know what to do, so I went back to my second choice on Rt. 70, the Best Western. But it was an “outie” too, and the Super8 next to it was an “innie”, but half the roof was gone from a previous storm that blew through the area.
So, when I struck out three times, I decided to get back onto Rt. 70. I saw a Holiday Inn Express at the next exit, so I followed the sign. But it turned out to not be favorable either (right across from a sports stadium). When I was heading back to Rt. 70, I noticed a Drury Inn… which had a room for tonight, but apparently there was a KC Royals baseball game in town, so they said they didn’t have a room for me on Tuesday. I got the room anyway… I figured I could get another room for tomorrow.
But I’ll think about that tomorrow…