While on a project in Arizona last summer, I had the pleasure of spending some time with Lee and Linda Shoptaugh. Lee, grandson of Laura Alta (Davis) Shoptaugh, has in his possession much of Laura’s genealogical research and he was kind enough to allow me to photocopy a good portion of that research. Included in the materials copied was a travel diary and correspondence that Laura penned while travel to the Midwest and East Coast on an extensive genealogical research trip.
The travel diary and correspondence details her time on the road from Chicago to Miami to Boston and her time reconnecting with relatives, visiting significant family and historical sites, and discussing the findings of her research. There are currently 69 seperate documents related to her travels that have been added to this site’s document sharing section (Other’s Research –> Laura’s Research –> Research Trip Diary). There are two additional documents that require further analysis to determine when and where the correspondence was written. Enjoy.
Laura Alta (Davis) Shoptaugh
Laura and I are kindred spirits. She invested a great amount of time documenting her family’s history before she passed away in the late 1950s. She was a teacher early in life, eventually went to college and studied business, worked for a few years as an book keeper and stenographer, then married her husband, James Andrew Shoptaugh, in the late 1890s. James and Laura eventually made their way to Oakland where Laura and James raised their 4 kids, established a church where James was the minister, and began a printing business. Below are a few photos of Laura provide by Lee:
Wakefield Genealogy: The Southern Branch in Indiana 
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