Genealogical Gems

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...

I am embarrassed to say I do not recall my Uncle Paul and therefore I know little of him. He is one of my paternal grandfather’s brother. It was today, 21 years ago in 1995, that he died. Uncle Paul (on left) with Uncle Nick and my grandfather (Joseph) Born Paul Hruszczak, he is one of the sons of Panko Hruszczak and Bessie Matys. Like his nine siblings, he was born in Rock Run, just outside Coatesville, Chester County . Some of his records state his birthdate as on 18 September 1922. Others state he was born 1 October. All agree he was born in 1922. Hence, I believe the difference is simply the Old/New Calendar difference. I have found this on several other family records as well from that generation and their parents. His name change from Hruszczak to Ruczhak most likely happened – like my grandfather’s did – when he went to school. The teacher at Rock Run either could not pronounce Slavic names or refused to try. My grandfather had a few opinions about that but tha...

This week’s prompt is conducting cluster research. Cluster research, as defined by Thomas MacEntee is, “ When you research the friends, associates and neighbors (aka F.A.N. club) who were part of the community of your direct line ancestors. Most times this means focusing on the geographical area where your ancestors lived or the locales from and to which they migrated.” What a great definition! I did this without even realizing it when I started researching my Hruszczak line and my parish family. Many Ukrainians in Coatesville lived in Rock Run and many of them worked at the steel mill together. In this particular case, it helped me more understand the family dynamics within my parish more so than any specific information about my family.   For example, the 1930 census shows my great grandparents and their family living next to the Zydnsky family. They lived next to the Urbans who were next to the Maskulas. I did find a nephew living with the Maskula family who I had not...

I came across some old journals while cleaning this weekend and decided to go through them. Over the years I have used my journals as a notebook when out and about, a record of genealogy notes, a simple diary, a writing journal and finally a place to vent. My reason for going through them is actually two-fold: first, to make sure I have gleaned all possible genealogical information from them; second, to make sure I remove the venting entries so they are never seen or worse taken the wrong way if left behind.   The earliest I still have in from 1992, the year I got married. The first entry is dated 25 October 1992, a Sunday: “Today is hubby’s parents’ 42 nd anniversary. They got married at a JP in East Petersburg, Lancaster County , in 1950. … Father Fiore said mass this am. Good sermon too. He talked about prayer and how sometimes it’s not that God doesn’t answer or that He ignores but rather that we simply don’t pray right or don’t as for the things we really need.” ...

Greg Jemison graduated from Coatesville in the early 1970s. By the end of the decade he was on baseball cards! In fact, I recently came across his card on eBay. His 1979 Official minor League Photo Fact Card shows that Jenison played Outfield for the West Haven Yankees in the Eastern League.    He batted left handed and threw right handed. He played 13 games for the Yankees in 1979. During those 13 games, he made 55 appearances at plate. Jemison enjoyed eight runs that season, including a Double and a Triple. That season he also enjoyed his highest batting average of .311. The New York Yankees was the parent organization to West Haven .   Born 15 July 1954 in Coatesville, he graduated Coatesville and went on to Seton Hall University . He played for the Gulf Coast Rangers in 1976 at just 21 years of age. He went on to also play for Asheville Tourists, Tulsa Drillers, West Haven Yankees, Alexandria Dukes, and Nashville Sounds.       He w...

The Navy is honoring Private George Alfred Johnson, USMC. Johnson was a member of the first Raider battalion. He was killed 9 August 1942 during landing operations on Tulag Island in the Solomon Islands . The Navy named a destroyer escort ship after Johnson, according to the Intelligencer Journal On This Day in 1944. The ship was launched at Bethlehem Steel Company’s yard in Hingham , MA on 12 January 1944. His mother, Mrs. Alfred R. Johnson of 140 East Chestnut Street , Coatesville, was expected to be in attendance.   On This Day is a prompt I started this month to further explore historical events. I will make every effort to keep events localized to that of my research or research I am conducting for others. However, from time to time, it will simply be a subject that captured my attention.   © Jeanne Ruczhak-Eckman, 2015

Happy birthday, Gigi! Gigi is what we called my paternal grandfather. Today would have been his 97th birthday. His name was actually Joseph Ruczhak, tho many in Coatesville called him "Hotdog!" I always knew him as working at Lukens Steel Mill but sometime before that he owned a steak shop/corner grocery store up Rock Run. He was born 5 January 1918 to Panko and Bessie Matys Hruszczak. He was their second child. He was baptized at the Holy Ghost Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (now Ukrainian Orthodox) and his Godparents were Sophran Mliczka & Catharine Zywczyn. Unfortunately, I know nothing of his Godparents. He went to the Rock Run School, which is where he actually met Baba (Anna Kurenda). Years later, on 16 July 1939 to be exact, the two finally married. Throughout his life he worked for Bethlehem Railroad, as a bartender, owned a steak shop/grocery store, and worked at Lukens Steel Mill as a grinder. He told me once that he had intended to work for the Rail...

  Second grade with Sr. Mary Devota. Coatesville Area Catholic Elementary School. Coatesville, Chester County. 1976-77

First grade at St. Cecilia's in the Coatesville Area Catholic Elementary School. The school has moved outside of Coatesville now.

  Kindergarten 1974-75 Craig Ridgway School (used to be located at 356 Charles Street, Coatesville, PA)   First row: Cindy Mickel, Tim Glauner, John Long, Robert Cummings, Patricia Anderson, Antoinette Carter, Jeffrey Crisswell, Ross Bickering. Middle row: Wendy Russell,  Brenda O'Neill, Romont Jones, Eric Myers, Carol Prekup, Jonathan Barnes. Back row: Eric Taylor, John MacDougal, Marquette Trice, ME, Stacey Osborne, Joseph Bowman and Mrs. Hadley.    

Lukens Steel Mill - now ArcelorMittal - is the oldest continuous running steel mill in the Nation! It can trace its origin to 1793 when Issac Pennock founded The Founding Slitting Mill. He partnered with Jesse Kersey in 1810 forming the Brandywine Iron Works and Nail Factory. Pennock, after a few years, bought out Kersey, who by the way was the son in law of Coatesville founder Moses Coates. Pennock then leased it to his own son in law, Dr. Charles Lloyd Lukens. A year after Lukens became involved with the business, the company was the first US mill to produce boilerplates. Thus began their involvement with the shipping industry. Daddy didn't talk a lot about the mill but from time to time there would be some news story about a sub or a ship. He would make a comment like "It'll hold if that steel came from us!" Daddy was a UT inspector for years at the mill. After high school, the only time he wasn't working at the mill would have been when he was drafted an...

The National Iron & Steel Heritage Museum welcomes readers to a holiday open house from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, 13 December. Stroll through candle lit grounds and enjoy holiday refreshments as you listen to carolers and the Lukens Band. Tour the historic buildings, and shop at the museum store. A train display and a visit with Santa Claus is sure to excite the little ones. The Museum is located in the Lukens National Historic District, 50 South 1st Avenue, Coatesville.

The month of May has been designated by Congress as National Military Appreciation Month. As such, Genealogical Gems will feature a veteran or current member of the military each day. Today, we begin with Daddy - Joseph Ruczhak, Jr. Daddy fought in Vietnam and like many Vietnam veterans, he did not have the most positive experience, to put it nicely. I however am very proud of my father. This is him at left. It's a picture from an old issue of Lukens Life, the company newsletter for Lukens Steel Mill in Coatesville. Daddy worked there, His father and his grandfather worked there as well. Many other family members did too as it was the largest business in the Coatesville area - still is although it has long been bought out by another company. At the time of this photo, Daddy was a Specialist Four in the Army First Infantry Division. While I do not have a date for the article and photo, it was late 1965 or early 1966. Daddy arrived over there in 1965, having been drafted. ...

    MALAMON Yvan 1871 - 1955 Horpyna 1883 - 1962   Buried at Holy Ghost Ukrainian Orthodox Cemetery Valley Township, Chester County, PA   The 1940 Census shows a John (Yvan) and a Horpena (Horpyna) Malamon living on Irish Lane in Valley Township, Chester County. They are both from Austria. They have a 21 year old daughter Dorothy (born 1919) and an 18 year son Michael (born 1922). Dorothy is a dressmaker. She is the only one employed at the time. Michael is still in school. John (Yvan) is also noted as having his "first papers" when you mouse over the citizenship column.     The 1930 census shows two older Malamon children: 18 year old Catharine and 16 year old Nick, in addition to Dorothy (then 12) and Michael (then 10). John (age 60 in 1930) was 30 years old at his first marriage, Horpyna (age 49) was 19. Hence this was - according to the census - their first and only marriage each. All the children listed ...

Happy Father's Day, Daddy! My dad is Joseph P. Ruczhak Jr. He was born and raised in Coatesville, worked in the Mill (Lukens Steel mill that is) like every male graduating then. He put in 40+ years at the mill. The only time away from the mill was when he served our country in Vietnam. He was drafted and served his time, eluding Death on more than one occassion. His dad - my Gigi - was Joseph Ruczhak. Born in 1918, my Gigi worked various jobs, even ran his own steak shop a while, before he too worked at the mill. He loved to play golf and in fact was on Luken's golf team (see photo on the right). He was very active in the parish - Holy Ghost Ukrainian Orthodox Church and today is buried in our cemetery alongside my Baba - Anna Kurenda Ruczhak. Gigi's father was Panko Hruszczak (1893-1968). He came over from "the Old Country" to find work assumably. He was born in Prusy, Sambor, Galicia. He met my great grandmother - Bessie Matyz - here and they were married...

According to their tombstone, he was born 24 June 1873 and passed 2 June 1939. She was born 22 August 1866 and passed 3 January 1937. According to the Chester County Archives, they were married 4 June 1917 in Coatesville. Little is know of Onifer and even less of Rosalia, his bride. I first learned of Onifer while researching my great grandfather, Panko Hruszczak. Panko immigrated to the US on 20 April 1911 aboard the Volturno from Rotterdam, Holland. His last known address was Prusy, Austria. He listed his ethnicity as Austria, Ruthenian. He was an 18 year old single white male. He lists that he was coming to see his uncle Onifer Romanko in Coatesville, PA, that his destination is Coatesville, PA and that a living relative back home was his father Ted Hruszczak in Austria. (According to the Ellis Island Passenger Record). Hence, Onifer would be Panko's mother's - Catherine Romanko - brother.

I love collecting genealogy and local history books. It doesn't matter if it pertains to my specific lines or not. There is just something exciting about looking through physical books and finding information pertaining to the family or the location. I also lately have been storing up my emails. My mail server has told me - very nicely - that it is high time I sort and delete. /sigh Under my Inbox I have several folders. One of which is titled Genealogy. As emails come in they get thrown into their respective "deal with it later" folders. Unfortunately genealogy does not pay the bills; it merely feeds the soul. Hence, many genealogy related emails go in that folder to be dealt with later. Today is later! As I go through them I would like to include here random tidbits that appear helpful in a general sense. In other words if I find a link specifically on Ruczhaks, that would be interesting to a select few people. However if I find something on "The Moving Bord...

Annie Groff Rice was the wife of T. Edgar Rice, the policeman shot by Zachariah Walker. This weekend I attended the 100th Anniversary Celebration of the lynching of Walker, put on by the Coatesville Historical Society. In most accounts, understandably so, everyone focuses on Rice or Walker, but everyone neglects the widow Rice and her five children. Annie R. Groff was born in April 1865. She married T. Edgar Rice in 1888 or 1889. He had been born in October 1865. Their first son, Thomas E. was born in December of 1889. The young couple had two more sons: James Vincent (born August 1892) and George Harvey (December 1895). They also had two daughters: Rachel C. (born November 1872) and Elsie M. (born February 1899). In 1900 Edgar was a farmer, according to the 1900 Census, and the family lived in Newlin. They also had a servant Alfred Hess - an 18 year old farm hand - who lived with them. The 1900 Census showed Annie had five births and all five children were alive. The 19...