AncestorsOnBoard Now Online

http://www.ancestorsonboard.com/ (Subscription Based)
Ancestors On Board is now online. The site states:

Passenger lists with over 30 million records from ships sailing to destinations
worldwide.

Findmypast.com, in association with The National Archives, has opened ancestorsonboard, a new database featuring Outward Passenger Lists for long-distance voyages leaving the British Isles from 1960 right back to 1890.

With ancestorsonboard, you can search for records of individuals or groups of people leaving for destinations including Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa and USA featuring ports such as Boston, Philadelphia and New York. Images of the passenger lists are available to download, view, save and print.

You can search many passenger lists to the US including Ellis Island, Castle Garden, and other ports at

Immigrant Passenger Lists
Passenger Lists Database Searches to USA

Pennsylvania Dutch Thanksgiving

September 24th is Schwenkenfelder Day, the day some Pennsylvania Germans celebrate Thankgiving.



On September 24, 1734, shortly after their arrival in Pennsylvania, the Schwenkenfelders celebrated their first Gedaechtnisz Tag, the September Thanksgiving. Though less than 3,000 people in Pennsylvania still observe Schwenkenfelder Day, it is the oldest continuous Thanksgiving tradition in America.



Who are the Schwenkenfelders? They are 'Plain People' who are the followers of the Anabaptist mystic, Kasper Schwenkfeld von Ossig, a contemporary of Martin Luther, born in 1490 of an old aristocratic family in the Duchy of Leibnitz. They were prosecuted everywhere in Europe until they fled in 1733/34 to Pennsylvania because of its religious freedom. Schwenkfelders Schwenckfelder Passenger Ships: Pennsylvania Merchant 1733 St. Andrew 1734

Bucks County Pa Biographies

Biographies from History of Bucks County, by J.H. Battle published in 1887, have been transcribed.


Biographical Sketches include:

Althouse, Samuel; Bewighouse, Abraham; Bewighouse, John; Bibighaus, Samuel; Bissey, John; Brumbaugh, Simon; Buehrle, William; Crouthamel, Reuben; Detweiler, Jacob; Diehl, John; Duffy, Neil; Effrig, Anthony; Fluck, Reuben; Fluck, Sylvester; Lacey, Edwin.

Look for more biographies to be added as this is an ongoing project.