June 25, Wednesday – Seeking Roots

In my circle tour around the perimeter of the United States a major objective was finding my ancestral roots in the town of Lansdowne, place of my Father’s birth. Armed with correspondence from Shelby, our family genealogist, I headed for Upper Darby and Hilldale Avenue. With the wonderful assistance of a person on a walk named Paul, I found Shrigley Park along Scottdale Road and Darby Creek. Paul knew the park because as a boy his Cub Scout Troop did corn roasts against the cliff in the park. The park had been mowed so the town was taking care of it. There standing next to the street were two empty posts that I’m sure held a sign once that declared that this was “Shrigley Park”. I had to suppress the immense urge to stop everything and dig holes and sink new posts then erect a new sign.
Paul and I had trouble with the next chore of finding the old Shrigley house. I will have to go back to Hilldale and look again after talking to Shelby on the phone. I found without trouble the 1802 Darby Quaker Meeting House. I felt a bond with the old shuttered stone building because this is were my Father, Grandfather and Great Grandfather and their families worshipped in the way of the Religious Society of Friends.
I was torn between photographing and being still with no camera at all. The camera dominated but stillness and touching the stone flowed from within me.
I also spent time in the Quaker History Library on the beautiful Swarthmore College campus doing some “research” for Shelby on tracing down information on a wedding held on February 19, 1772 of a Shrigley. The hunt turned up empty handed but it gave me legitimacy in asking the college if I could park my RV in the physical plant parking lot for a few days so that I could do some library searches.