Tracing your ancestors' footsteps is a way to get in touch with your family history! In August, I went to Two Harbors, Minnesota, where my grandmother was born, and where her father (Harry Fowler) was an engineer and fireman (meaning keeping the engine fire going to power the train) for the Duluth & Iron Range RR. The family would have routinely seen this view from the harbor out into Lake Superior (the second largest lake in the world, I am told). 

This is a restored train of the railroad that was the lifeblood of the town and for which my great-grandfather worked. He was one of the "committee men" for the Firemen's Mutual Sick and Accident Insurance Association, of the B of LF&E (Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers). 

I saw this great photo in the town museum (in the old RR depot, fittingly), and did not see my great-grandfather's name on this bulletin, nor was he one of the men in this photo, but could easily have, around the same vintage - c 1905-1920. 

The great thing about census records is that often you can find the exact address where your ancestors lived! This was the house that my great-grandfather and probably his brother (they came from a family of builders and carpenters) built, and where the family lived. My grandmother would have come home from the "Railroad Hospital" to this house in 1910 when she was born. 

The family came and went from Two Harbors many times, as they were close to their family who lived across Canada and the US - some in California, some in Connecticut, in New York, in New Brunswick Canada. They often had the maiden aunt "Aunt Addy" who was famous as a grouchy old lady, come and stay with them. 

Here is the train depot/ station, where the family would have embarked and arrived at whenever they travelled to go visit family in Connecticut, New York, perhaps even Havelock New Brunswick Canada. The family papers and letters indicate that this did happen while they lived here. And of course, this was where my greatgrandfather would have gone to work, I assume, as a fireman or engineer for the railroad. I found his naturalization papers (he was from Canada), indicating he was naturalized at the Lake County Courthouse in Two Harbors. I don't have a picture of it, but was able to walk by it during my visit and imagine his experience that day. 

I also tried to imagine my greatgrandmother's life - starting a family here very far away from her own family in Troy NY, and with her husband often gone for work (travel was definitely a part of railroad workers' life). I found a note in family papers from a friend of hers telling her (Marie Louise Pillard Fowler) that she (the friend) couldn't plan their Sunday school lesson because she was traveling. So Marie was very involved with their church, as the whole Fowler family was wherever they lived. Here is a picture of the church they attended, and some family photos of Marie and the Fowler family (with their 4 kids) must have been taken in Two Harbors! 

Today, Two Harbors is a very nice town just northeast of Duluth Minnesota, which I recommend visiting (during the summer!).  I was able to piece together much of this because of genealogy research - census records, military records like draft cards, birth certificates, naturalization papers, family papers, etc. There is a wealth of information about your family history waiting to be discovered!