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Serbia

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Amidst the Corona pandemic my son Levi and I traveled to Serbia for his first overseas adventure.   The plane there was nearly empty, perhaps 10 other people on board, so we received first class treatment from the flight crew and had lots of room to spread out.  Upon arrival in Serbia, we were greeted by the apartment we rented owners son, who kindly drove us to the apartment.      We spent day one exploring  Kalemagdan Fortress, a place with amazing history, first constructed during Celtic times, it has seen many battles, lost countless lives, been destroyed and rebuilt many times over. Atila the Hun was here in 442 AD, that is over 1500 years before we walked in his footsteps. What we see in the “White City” today was primarily built during the Ottoman/ Austro-Hungarian era. It is no surprise there are said to be spirits hanging around this fortress. Belgrade became the capital of Serbia during the mid-19th century, and that of socialist  Yugoslavia  at the end of  WW

Burning of the Wagons

The above picture was painted by my maternal great grandfather B.Y. Andelin, it is a representation of the burning of the wagons and event that occurred in the Utah Territory (now Wyoming) in 1857. Interestingly enough my paternal great grandfather was at the actual event and left his recollections of what took place. William Isaac White was born Isaac LeBlanc was born sometime between 1829 and 1840 in Quebec Canada, he left Canada and traveled to Chicago as a young where he worked for a time as a teamster; transporting goods between Chicago and Saint Louis. In 1857 while he was in Saint Louis he heard that the Army was organizing men to go west, eventually ending in California.   William left his freight and joined up to be a teamster for the Army, driving a provisions wagon, with the expectation that he would settle in California at the end of the trip.   William later told family members that the actual mission of the Army was to remove the then governor of the Utah Territ