THE HOLLINGSWORTH REGISTER

VOLUME 14, NUMBER 2.

     that in a cemetery we drove past rested two Hollingsworth cousins of mine from the County Wexford, Ireland family of Edward Thomas Hollingsworth of Cincinnati, Ohio. Just then, by great coincidence, I struck up a conversation with a lady M.D. and Surgeon, who turned out to be a cousin, many times removed, and also one of the same political persuasion. We had a great time talking, and she served me some hard boiled, deviled eggs besides! I took leave of her in Indianapolis, for I had not slept a wink on the trip by bus from Albuquerque. Stopping in Indianapolis was the beginning of my research job in actuality.

     The State Library was only two blocks from my room. I stayed there parts of two days. I also had the pleasure to meet at last, in person, the noted Indiana genealogist, Willard Heiss, and his wife. His personal library is as comprehensive as one could dream of! He specializes in Quaker research in the area, and is the editor of the seventh volume of the Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, begun by the late William Wade Hinshaw. I saw many documents in the State Library first hand.

     My next stop was at Columbus, in Bartholomew County. This town is also the county seat, with a beautiful old courthouse. There, I worked several days, examining the oldest records in the attic. Since I am a Certified Genealogist, I was able to examine the material without much bother from a janitor watching me, or the like. I re-arranged the books in the attic so that the oldest might be found more quickly. You cannot imagine the jumble of records, tax books all over the floor, an old typewriter or two here or there, and tons of boxes of loose papers. Once the "clock man" came in, and I watched him ascend the rickety old wooden stairway to the great bell tower. I tried climbing these stairs myself, but my fear of heights - and of breaking myself in little pieces - stopped me in the mid ascent.

     Though the town of Columbus is an old one, it has a marvelous lot of new buildings, including a great shopping mall which rivals those of the great cities. It was the only time I purchased any clothing on the trip. When the court house work was done, I geared up for the next leg of the trip. That was Saturday, July 1st. As we headed out of Columbus, a tornado touched down nearby. I forgot to say that, on Sunday, June 25th, two days before I got into Indianapolis, a twister had hit that city. I saw crews repairing large buildings, and cutting up trees which had been felled in the storm.

     The great Ohio River greeted us as we left Jeffersonville, Indiana, crossing the Kennedy Bridge into Louisville, Kentucky. I didn't stop long there. A fellow genealogist picked me up and drove me that evening to New Castle, the county seat of Henry County, Kentucky. We drove down the highway just ahead of a great storm front. By the time we got into the little town of 755, the storm had caught up. As I entered my motel room, which was to be home for three weeks, the worst electrical storm I had ever seen broke. For a solid hour, it thundered and lightened and poured down buckets of water. I was sure that a twister was going to destroy the court house before I got to search it. Or ... destroy me and my motel.