Genealogical Gems

The National Genealogical Society (NGS) has released its 2016 Family History Conference program. The program, which includes more than 170 lectures, is now available online   and as a sixteen-page registration brochure . Nationally known speakers and subject matter experts will address a broad array of topics, including records for Florida and its neighboring states; migration into and out of the region; military records; state and federal records. Other topics will discuss genealogical research on African Americans and women; methodology; analysis and problem solving; and the use of technology, including genetics, mobile devices, and apps useful in genealogical research. The conference will take place at the Greater Ft. Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from 4 May to 7 May 2016. Registration opens on 1 December 2015 at http://conference.ngsgenealogy.org/register/ . A number of special events have limited seat...

Baltimore held a huge celebration of its founding in 1880. Numerous societies and organizations joined the City in celebration. There were many parades throughout the celebration. On Friday, 15 October the Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Knights of the Golden Eagle (KGE), the American Mechanics, and the Heptasophs (IOH) were among those participating in the parade.    The celebration – known as the Baltimore Sesquicentennial – ran from 11 October through 19 October, 1880. It celebrated the founding of Baltimore in 1730.   Sources “ BaltimoreSesquicentennial Celebration ” Maryland Historical Society.   Lancaster Daily Intelligencer. ( Lancaster , PA ), 16 October 1880. Chronicling America : Historic American Newspapers . Library of Congress.        Society Saturday is a genealogical prompt of GeneaBloggers.   © Jeanne Ruczhak-Eckman, 2015

Huguenot Street is historic and, for three upcoming weekends, haunted! The Haunted Huguenot Street program runs the 16 th and 17 th , the 23 rd and 24 th , as well as Halloween weekend itself, 30 th and 31 st October. A guilt boy reveals his nightmares at the Jean Hasbrouck House. This session is based on events that Abraham Hasbrouck himself recorded in his 18th century diary. At the historic burial ground guests will be treated to an interpretation adapted from Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology during which the dead will speak for themselves.    Inspired by, according to the HHS, decades of reported paranormal experiences, a house maid is haunted by the ghost of the tragically demised Gertrude Deyo at the Deyo House mansion.    These are the three highlights of the weekends. However, the entire street will be decorated in Halloween and fall decorum.   The tours sell out quickly. They will leave the DuBois Fort Visitor Center ...

The annual meeting to elect directors of LancasterHistory.org is scheduled to take place at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, 20 May. The meeting will be held at LancasterHistory.org, 230 N. President Avenue , Lancaster .  Margot L. Brubaker, Kate Carlisle, Craig G. Coleman, and D. Robert Fenninger have been nominated for three year terms by the Board Resources Committee of LancasterHistory.org. Their terms would end in 2018. Brubaker currently serves on the Board. Members may also nominate candidates. Those nominations however must be made at least five days prior to the date of the meeting. The nominee must provide written consent that he or she would be willing to serve if elected. In other news, the Library and the Archives will be closed on 25 May in honor of Memorial Day.   Society Saturday is a genealogical prompt of GeneaBloggers.   © Jeanne Ruczhak-Eckman, 2015

The Molly Maguires was a secret predominantly Irish society known for its activities in the Coal Region of Pennsylvania. Depending on who you ask depends on the second part of the definition. They were either a group of Irish men and women who stood together fighting for the rights and safety of the coal miners and their families. Or, they were a terroristic group of Irish men who wreaked havoc in the coal regions. I suppose it depends on what side of the mine shaft you stood. Disclaimer: Now before I delve into this society, I should put out my disclaimer and opinion now since I am sure it will come out in my writing. My 2x great grandmother, Anna Keating Walsh (later changed to Welsh), is rumored to have been a Molly Maguire – according to my cousins (her great grandchildren). Hence, my interest is also centered around the Shenandoah area as that is where my family lived for a spell. While I would like to get to the truth regardless of which it is, I have to say that my Irish...

Earlier this week, the National Genealogical Society sent out a reminder that the deadline was fast approaching for their annual Family History Writing Contests. The deadline for six of the competition entries and award nominations is 31 December. The winners will be recognized at the NGS Family History Conference, 13-16 May 2015 in St. Charles , Missouri .   The competitions are: Family History Writing Contest : NGS recognizes the best genealogy covering 3 to 4 generations. Award for Excellence — Genealogy and Family History : NGS presents this award to an individual or nonprofit organization for an outstanding genealogy or family history book published during the past three years. Award for Excellence — Genealogical Methods and Sources : NGS presents this award to an individual or nonprofit organization for a book, article, or series of articles published during the past three years on genealogical methods and sources. Ne...

The Lancaster County Historical Society has announced that it will be closed to the public from 31 December through 10 January. The staff will use this time to prepare for the coming year. The Society will reopen on Monday, 12 January. The Regional History Colloquiums will begin again on 22 January. Richard Hertzler will present My Lancaster County through Photographs at 4 p.m. that Thursday. The following Thursday, the 29 th , Bill Rothermal will present The Shutte Car Company: Custom Cars in Lancaster . All Colloquiums are free to the public. The Historical Society, known also as LancasterHistory.org, is located at 230 N. President Avenue. Society Saturday is a genealogical prompt of the GeneaBloggers.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of touring the Archives at Lancaster County Historical Society , President Avenue, Lancaster. The tour was part of the American Archives Month. The Archives are normally not open to the members and the public. The tour group was small - just me and a retired couple who had never been there before. Our guide was Heather Tennies, who is the Director of Archival Services. She is from New York but her love and appreciation of history is clearly evident. The tour began in the Library where a new photo exhibit was in the process of being hung. The exhibit was panoramic views. Various images were on the right as we walked in but the left side was several photos, which easily could have been connected, of the "new" bridge over the Susquehanna River which connects Columbia to the York County side in Wrightsville. The bridge was appropriately named the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge and the photos were dated (date on last photo) 1930 when the Bridge was ...

Today Lancaster City Mayor Rick Gray will proclaim it is Lancaster History Day. His proclamation will officially be presented to Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County President Lisa Horst at 10 a.m. The presentation will be made by City Council Member James Reichenbach at the Sehner-Ellicott-von Hess House at 123 North Prince Street .  Click HERE to read the full article as it appeared on Examiner.com this morning.

We all feel the need to freshen up once in awhile. We get our hair done up or our nails done. The Chester County Historical Society is no different! In January 2015 the Society's library will be temporarily closed for a face lift. They are calling it the "January Big Dig". During January, the backlog of valuable library materials requiring the cataloging, rehousing, and processing of material, will be addressed.  The Library will be closed naturally during that month. Each year, the Society receives over 4,000 research requests. The museum and gift shop will remain open. During January, the CCHS will offer FREE regular museum admission. The temporary exhibitions will be unavailable. The '60s! Winds of Change , will open on 26 February 2015.   CCHS is located at 225 North High Street, West Chester.

Thursday, I had the day off from the Nursery so instead of housework or other work, I naturally headed to the Lancaster County Historical Society. First I looked up an obituary for Sue Fuller Graham for someone else. Piece of cake! Facebook is really great for making connections in places one has no access to and this was just that case. A guy mentioned in a group that he was looking for this particular obituary from 1991. It is old enough that the local paper here would only give access if you have a paid subscription. I mentioned I was heading over to the Historical Society this week and could look it up on their microfilm. He knew the exact date that the obit was published so that made the search quick and easy. My next project was admittedly a brick wall. I was asked to find out information about a Laura Manley Seats. The person making the request knows little about the woman except that she passed away sometime around 1961 due to complications after an operation. Needle in ...

Historic Huguenot Street will remember the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572 this weekend. On 24 August 1572, over 2,000 Protestants were slain in the city of Paris during what is now known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. Public programming is planned to provide guests with a historic look back at the event and its effect on the future of the Huguenots in France. A series of two educational and touching vignettes will be performed today at the DuBois Fort at noon and 4 p.m. Inspired by Giacomo Meyerbeer’s grand opera Les Huguenots (1836) and John Everett Millais’ pre-Raphaelite painting “A Huguenot, on St. Bartholomew’s Day, Refusing to Shield Himself from Danger by Wearing the Roman Catholic Badge” (1852), the vignettes will depict the circumstances of two star crossed lovers on the eve of the massacre. These performances are free and open to the public. Throughout the weekend, the daily interpretation of the Crispell Memorial French Church will be updat...

Yesterday, on the Fourth of July, we took the girls to Valley Forge. They said they enjoyed it - the encampment, the reading of the Declaration, Washington's Headquarters, - everything! There is also a church there and I came across a society that I had not heard of before: the Society of the Descendants of Washington's Army at Valley Forge. The Society, according to its website , was founded by Donald G. Cronan of Manhassett, New York. The purpose of the Society was "to compile a roll and preserve the identity of the individual soldiers, especially those who lie in unmarked graves". Private Jacob Eckman died at Valley Forge that fateful winter. Pvt. Eckman served under Capt. John Lorah in the German Regiment , 5th Division in Brigadier General Peter Muhlenberg's Brigade . He died there on 20 May 1778.

The Foundation for East European Family History Studies will hold its annual conference this August.  

This April the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society (LMHS) will host the 35th Annual Family History Conference . The Keynote Address this year is titled "Family History Through Photographs Daguerreotypes to Digital." Seminars this year includes: Identifying and Dating Photographs —Maureen Taylor Finding Your Ancestors Through DNA - Which Test is Beset for Me? —Darvin L. Martin Getting the Most from Ancestry.com —Sabrina Petersen, Ancestry.com Beginner's Luck - A Primer for the Beginning Genealogist —James C. Landis Genealogical CLues in Nineteenth Century Photographs —Maureen Taylor What DNA Can Reveal about Our Health —Darvin L. Martin How to Find the Unfindable —Sabrina Petersen, Ancestrycom Philadelphia Research: Repositories and Records —James M. Beidler House History: Researching a Historic Home at the Lancaster County Archives —John F. Bennawit, jr. The Last Muster: The Revolutiona...

Relive the Civil War a the Chester County Historical Society (CCHS). Professor Joseph Ryan of Villanova University and Professor Robert Kodosky, PhD of West Chester University will deliver  talks on battlefield medicine. The free session, titled "From the Civil War to the Vietnam War: Two Centuries of Battlefield Medicine" will be held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday, 12 September. Professor Ryan's talk will focus on Civil War medicine while Professor Kodosky will focus on the Vietnam War. On Saturday, 21 September the CCHS will hold a symposium titled, " The Echoes of the Civil War ." The program will begin at 8:30 a.m. and last through the morning. Topics will include media at that time and today, human bondage, Southern politics and Frederick Douglas' recruiting of black soldiers. After lunch, attendees will have their choice of walking the Civil War sites of West Chester or a tour of "On the Edge of Battle: Chester County and the Civil War....

My great great great grandfather Chrispin Pierson Van Horn (Chrispin - Sarah - Pierson George Still - Lloyd Pierson Still - mom - me) belonged to the Kenilworth Castle #12 of the Knights of the Golden Eagle, according to his personal records. Aside from being a fraternal organization, I have been able to find little on this organization. From his correspondence, I found that Castle (similar to a Masonic Lodge) #12 was in Philadelphia, which makes sense since he had lived there a while before settling in Mortonville, Chester County. There was a Castle (#9) in Coatesville but he opted not to transfer his membership. I learned from the Chester County Historical Society that the fraternal organization was founded in Baltimore, Maryland 6 February 1873. It was introduced in Pennsylvania on 1 October 1875. Chrispin incidentally lived 1839 to 1902. A recent search led me to a family historian who wrote of the KGE on her blog " My Ancestors and Me ." She linked to a ref...

It is only fitting to cover the Grange this Society Saturday since today - 13 July - is Grange Day! The Grange is a fraternal organization known as The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry. The Grange was founded in 1867 to promote the economic and political health of the agricultural community. It is therefore the oldest agricultural advocacy group. Oliver Kelly was commissioned by then President Andrew Jackson to access the situation of the Southern farmer after the Civil War. Many Southerners did not trust Kelly but, using his Masonic connections, he was able to meet with many farmers and came to realize some sort of organization was needed to unite farmers across the mending nation. The Grange was that answer. The first Grange Hall was Potomac Grange #1 in Washington, D.C. It was founded by seven men and one woman. Kelly was one of those founding members. The lone female founding member was Caroline Hall, Kelly's niece. Having women members was unusual...

The Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society (LMHS) will hold an auction of rare and used books next Friday, 12 April. Six times a year the LMHS auctions consigned or donated rare, out-of-print and used books. The books are on display several weeks before each sale at the Society.  Catalogs appear free on the Society's website . They are also available in hard copy for a small subscription fee. Online bids and credit cards are accepted. Call 717- 393-9745 or e-mail usedbooks@lmhs.​org. The Society is located on Route 30 (Lincoln Highway), just east of Lancaster. It is across the street from Tanger Outlets. Future auctions are scheduled for 14 June, 13 September, 11 October and 13 December. All the dates are Fridays. All the auctions are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.