But first I hit the Adolphustown archive as soon as it opened ... only to find their Internet down. I learned, however, that records are maintained, often on paper, at the office that received the UEL certification request. But identifying the right office requires the Internet. Fortunately, I now know "the key" and more about the distributed recordkeeping of the UEL.
Next stop: Canajoharie, New York. That's where the Van Alstyne Homestead still stands. Surprisingly, it is tucked into a nice residential neighborhood of mostly older homes. But since it was built in 1749, I guess the neighborhood did the tucking. The house -- clearly Dutch colonial -- appears from the outside to be in extraordinarily good shape. It's only open on Saturdays, so exteriors are all I have.
Getting to Canajoharie was a LONG schlep, even with no waiting at the border. I didn't choose "Ignore Highways" on the GPS machine, but I still ended up traversing New York by backroads. After all, I was taking a diagonal route, or would have been, if I had been a crow.
I spend multi-hour drives accumulating odd observations: The grass had not been mowed along most of the country roads, but the grass along the road at Ft. Drum had been shorn like the head of a private entering boot camp. I ignored the turnoff to Poland, but I drove through Denmark and Lowville. Lowville -- isn't that somewhere in a Dr. Seuss book? And you know those round bales of hay encased in plastic that we see back home? The ones that look like giant marshmallows? Well, in New York they don't look like marshmallows. They're still round, but they are yards and yards and yards long, still encased in white plastic. They look like mammoth, white hay sausages. Entertaining. Finally, for safety, the New York State Thruway has created "text stops." That's right. Unserviced spots along the Thruway for the sole purpose of pulling off to read or send a text message.
ICYMI today from the CBC: Canada has just instituted a new policy to provide cash benefits to lift more children out of poverty. Just imagine that. Justin Trudeau's government has this notion that income and poverty are related! With this policy, Canada expects to reduce the child poverty rate from about 11% to less than 7%. In case you want to compare, the U.S. has a child poverty rate of 22%. (That U.S. statistic is my addition. The CBC never mentioned that Canada already has a child poverty rate half that of the U.S. Before this new policy to do better.)
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