When the past gives way to the present

Here's a topic for amateur genealogists and family history seekers: how children can steal the show right from under us and our well made plans.  Take Memorial Day weekend 2013 when some of the Wills family came together to visit the grave of our great grandfather's brother in Port Henry, Essex County, New York.  Two separate generations came together. For one little member of the family, the grave was the site of her great-great-great grandfather's brother, William Henry Wills, born in 1840 in Cornwall and died in 1888 in Port Henry. William Wills served in the New York State 16th Infantry Regiment, Company F during American Civil War.

When we finally arrived at our destination in the midst of a downpour, I risked soaking my camera equipment to take photos of the little star of the day....and what a joy she was. A midst the rain and water everywhere, the older generation forgot the gravestone and forgot the past.  We stood among the droplets enjoying, for a few moments anyway, the present and the future.  Here is what we saw:

Juncta...again

Yes...I know I having posted in a very long time. And there is still so much to research and family history to discover.  Unfortunately, I am in a time and place where my materials are packed in boxes and my files are inaccessible!  So I am using my time to research genealogy on line.  From time to time I come across something new to me.  Recently I discovered an image to share with you....

Many of the FrancoAmerican ancestors who are the subject of this blog emigrated from the Richelieu Valley to Cohoes in the mid 19th century (see Mapping the Route) because this little town was beaming with commerce and employment at the dawn of the industrial revolution.  Cohoes and Waterford are strategically located at the junction of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers where water power energized transportation and manufacturing.  There was a little area on the south side of Cohoes called "Juncta" where the Old Champlain and Old Erie Canals came together and then went on to Albany. Present day Juncta doesn't reflect the lively times it once enjoyed as the social and commercial gathering place of canalers and their families, tavern keepers, horse stablers and business people.  After the expansion of the canal system in 1918 and the dominance of the railroads, Juncta fell into a decline but if you search present day Juncta, vestigaes of it remain.

Below is a low resolution image of Juncta from the New York Public Library's digital gallery.  This was probably illustrated in the early days of the canal - taking a guesstimate it is probably 1840s just before it's heyday.  

The rural nature of Juncta stands out in this image and I can't help recall that this spot is close to the area of Green Island we called "the prairie" in the 1950s.  On the northern side of Green Island, the prairie was full of woods and marshlands - and the island's dump.  Today the area is not as desolate as I remember and many new small industries have been built in the woods and prairie.  Still....behind the new industrial buildings, glimpses of the the Hudson River remain.