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Quarantine Blues? Longing to Get Away? Our Ancestors’ Travel Quotes

Photo: Baltimore & Ohio electric locomotive, 1895. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Introduction: In this article, Mary Harrell-Sesniak searches old newspapers to find some of our ancestors’ comments about traveling, hopefully to provide a humorous antidote to those feeling confined by the coronavirus quarantine. Mary is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background.

Are you tired of quarantining and longing for a trip?

Photo: “Bristol” locomotive of the Western Railroad Corporation of Massachusetts, c. 1870. Credit: Florida Memory, Image # RC18205, http://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/39460

If the answer is a resounding “yes,” let me take you on a virtual tour of old-time travel quotes found in GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives. Chances are you’ll find them as hilarious as your ancestors did!

How Old Is That Quote?

Most of these quotes were inserted into newspapers to fill empty space or to entertain, so authorship is impossible to identify. More often than not, when I make a follow-up query, a quote will pop up much earlier than first thought. For instance, I first found this love and canal boat quip in 1897 – but with more searching, I discovered it dates much earlier, to at least March of 1871.

Wheeling Daily Register (Wheeling, West Virginia), 16 March 1871, page 5

I first found this next travel quip being recycled in a 1919 newspaper. With the popularity of travel lectures, one perceives it was just as funny then, as it was in 1899!

Topeka State Journal (Topeka, Kansas), 19 May 1899, page 5

The first date of publication is useful to debunk others’ claims to modern-day authorship, which is why I’ve chosen to transcribe the following travel quotes showing the first year I found them.

Hope you enjoy them! There’s much to think about from our ancestors’ travel quotes.

Canoes

Photo: a man and child canoeing on Santa Fe Lake, Melrose, Florida, c. 1905. Credit: Florida Memory, Image # RC19771, http://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/40969

Cars & Trolley Cars

Photo: trolley car on Ash Street, Fernandina, Florida, c. 1910. Credit: Florida Memory, Image # RC01843, http://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/25707

Air Travel

Photo: a 1912 model “B” Wright, 40 HP airplane, Tampa, Florida, c. 1910. Credit: Florida Memory, Image # RC10603, http://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/33227

Cruising

Trains

Hotels

Photo: postcard showing four Kloeppel hotels in Florida, 20th century. Credit: Florida Memory, Image # PC15037, http://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/333050

Taking a Stay-cation or Traveling on Vacation?

Debunking Authorship

One intriguing application of looking up quotes is to debunk the many claims of modern-day authorship! If you wonder if you are original, or if someone has misattributed someone’s words, it’s a simple matter of looking it up in GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives!

If you have a favorite travel quote, or found one of these earlier than noted, please leave me a comment.

Don’t forget, if you’re looking for the perfect gift for the stay-at-home genealogist, my book, Where there’s a will, there’s always a genealogist, is available. Also available in hardback.

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