My Family Calendar This Week

My family events this week:

Birthdays

Happy birthday this week to Samuel Buckley, Uncle John (John Ruczhak), Dawn Soanes and Robert Walkling! This week is also my Godmother’s daughter, Mary Roebke’s birthday! May God grant you all Many Years.

Memory Eternal

Polly Deyoe died 154 years ago today (1 February). She is hubby’s 3^rd great aunt. She is the daughter of Jacobus “James” Deyoe and Annatje “Hannah” Walker.

John Bing passed 125 years ago Monday (that is, 2 February). John’s my distant cousin! According to FTM, he is my first cousin five times removed. He is the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Bing. He was born in 1818 in Chester County but at some point moved to Centre County. There he married Melissa Iddings, fathered a daughter Wilda and died on 2 February 1890.

Tuesday is the 16^th anniversary of Mabel Lawrence Geib passing and the 31^st anniversary of John Yuzwiak passing.

Mabel is the daughter of Walter Lawrence and Olive Viola Eckman (hubby’s aunt). FTM considers Mabel hubby’s first cousin once removed. She was born in 1920 in New Providence, Lancaster County, and married Robert Geib in 1941. They had four children. She lived her whole life in the Providence area until she passed on 3 February 1999. She is buried at Zion UCC in Providence.

My Uncle John (John Yuzwiak) passed away in 1984. I was in high school at the time. He was born in 1904. In 1929 he married Baba’s sister Catherine Kurenda. They had two sons: Steve and John. He is buried at Holy Ghost Ukrainian Cemetery, Valley Township, Chester County.

Emma Louisa Eckman Carrigan passed 74 years ago on 5 February. She is hubby’s 2^nd great grandmother. She is the daughter of John Henry Eckman and Elizabeth Longnecker. She married John W Carrigan. She died in 1941 due to exhaustion associated with cardiac myocarditis, as per Death Certificate.

My mom – Barbara Still Ruczhak – passed away two years Thursday (5 February). I think rather than repeating myself this week, I will remember mom on Thursday in a separate post.

Friday will be the 7^th anniversary of Horace Beattie passing. Horace is my first cousin twice removed. He is the son of Samuel Beattie and Nora Kilpatrick. Nora’s sister Mary is my great grandmother. Horace was born in 1918 in Montgomery County. He married Kathryn Hanrahan and they had four children. He died in 2008. Sadly, I never met that branch of the family.

Saturday, 7 February, is the 168^th passing of Lewis and Lucius Ford, as well as the 174^th anniversary of Elizabeth Sides Eckman’s passing.

Lewis and Lucius Ford, twin sons to Francis Smith Ford and Dolly Lucinda Deyoe, are hubby’s second cousin twice removed. According to Find A Grave, they share a tombstone, one on each side but joined together. They died in Lexington, on 7 February 1847, at just two months.

Elizabeth Sides Eckman is hubby’s 4^th great grandmother. She was born in 1757 in Providence Township, Lancaster County. In 1778 she married John Martin Eckman. They had nine children! She died in 1841.

My Family Calendar This Week will be a weekly feature. If you have suggestions on how to improve this feature please feel free to leave a comment below.

Coatesville's First Serial Killer

Young Alexander Meyer was a disturbed and angry young man with some major issues. He had failed sixth and seventh grade, and instead of having to repeat eighth grade again, he finally gave up on school. At age 16 he quit Downingtown Junior High. Meyer is not a relative, nor are his victims (that I am aware). I stumbled upon young Alex while reading Tortured Minds: Pennsylvania's Most Bizarre - But Forgotten - Murders by Tammy Mal. On 11 February 1937 Alexander Thweatt Meyer killed young Helen Moyer as she walked home from school in Coatesville along Modena Road. She was not his first. The jury was out only three minutes after hearing Dr. Michael Margolis' testimony on the death of Helen Moyer. The jury determined Meyer had murdered Moyer and should be held for first degree murder. The jury also condemned the parole system which had released Meyer back into the public, after having served just 14 months in Huntingdon Reformatory, for the murder of two other girls - Anna Blasc

Thaddeus Stevens at the Lancaster Convention Center

Within the Lancaster Convention Center (Lancaster, PA) is a small section dedicated to Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith. The section is known as the Stevens & Smith Historic Site. It is scheduled for development this year. At the moment one can only get a glimpse of it through the Convention Center or by peeking in from the outside. Here at Queen and Vine Streets in Lancaster City, Pennsylvania, Thaddeus Stevens had his law office. Stevens was an abolitionist. An abolitionist is a person who favors the abolition of a practice or institution, especially capital punishment or (formerly) slavery. Stevens was born 4 April 1792 to Joshua Stevens and Sarah (Sally) Morrill in Danville Vermont. One of four children, he attended Vermont University from 1810 to 1812 when the War prompted its closure. He then went to Dartmouth, where he graduated in 1814. He then studied law and found himself set up in Gettysburg, PA in 1816. He practiced law there until 1828 when he found hi

Living History Offers Opportunity to Step Back in Time

Have you ever wondered what it would have been like to work the fields on a plantation during the Revolutionary War? Or stroll through an 18th century village? Or fight in battle during the Civil War? Living history offers an interactive perspective which incorporates historical activities and dress providing a sense of stepping back in time. So, how can YOU step back in time? Rock Ford volunteer Nancy Bradley in the Study of the mansion Rock Ford Plantation, in Lancaster County, PA, will be hosting a Volunteer Tour Guide Recruitment Event on Sunday, 22 March. They need tour guides for its upcoming tour season. Built circa 1794, Rock Ford was the home of Edward Hand and his family. Hand, an Irish immigrant and physician, served as Adjutant General to George Washington during the Revolutionary War. Volunteer tour guides at Rock Ford bring the past to life for museum visitors. A tour guide can be any person aged 18 years and up. No experience is necessary, and trainin

Genealogical Gems

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