Steve Buscemi and his PA Civil War Ancestor on WDYTYA?

I watched Steve Buscemi trace his family history on the NBC TV show Who Do You Think You Are? and found his family story interesting.   The episode focused on Steve's great-great-grandfather, Ralph B. Montgomery, who was a dentist, then grocer, then Civil War soldier, then dentist again in a different town with a different family. 

Ralph B. Montgomery, Steve Buscemi's gggrandfather, was a soldier in the 91st Regiment of the Pennsylvania Volunteers that were recruited in Philadelphia.  He is listed as R.B. Montgomery in Bates' Pennsylvania Volunteers of the Civil War which says about him:

Deserted January 11, 1862; returned May 22, 1862; deserted again September 2, 1863

The TV show implied he deserted because of the horrors of the battle of Fredericksburg, but the battle was December 12-15, 1862 and he deserted the first time the previous January - 11 months before the battle happened.  His second desertion was 9 months after Fredericksburg, and there were other battles his regiment fought after Fredericksburg and before his second desertion including Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.  So, I don't understand the mention of  Fredericksburg on the TV show in connection with his desertion.  But as Steve Buscemi said, "He saw things that no man should see".

Many soldiers in Ralph B. Montgomery's  91st regiment, company F  are listed as having deserted. 

An important fact about Civil War desertion not mentioned during Steve Buscemi's WDYTYA? episode is that not all those listed as Civil War deserters were actually deserters.

According to "Desertion During the Civil War" by Ella Lonn written in 1928,  Pennsylvania had  24,050 men listed as deserting the Union Army.

And it is estimated that at least 25% of the total number of men reported as deserters may have been absent from muster roll for a legitimate reason.  Sometimes these men were in hospitals, or dead, or missing, or prisoners of war, yet listed as deserters because communication and record keeping were very poor at the time.    In addtition, some went home to recover from their wounds and returned to their regiment as soon as they were able.  Sometimes, men were later found serving with a different regiment, yet marked as a deserter with their original regiment. 

That is what happened to Ralph B. Montgomery.  After his second desertion, he returned to the Philadelphia area, where under an assumed name, he enlisted again in the Gettysburg Campaign in the PA Emergency Militia, 20th Cavalry. He served honorably there and was discharged.

Real deserters, or at least those who were caught, in the Pennsylvania Volunteers were dealt with harshly and executed by firing squad as an example to others.

If you find your ancestor is listed as a deserter during the Civil War, don't immediately assume he really deserted.  Look first to see if he returned to his regiment, or joined another regiment, or is listed as a POW, or had been wounded or had died.

Learn more about researching your Civil War ancestor.

Tim McGraw and his Palatine ancestor Jost Hite

After seeing the show Who Do You Think You Are? last Friday night, I realized I wanted to know more about the German Palatine ancestry of Tim McGraw.  Having Palatine ancestry myself, I feel a connection to his story.  I like to find out how a family’s history fits into the history of our country.  I like to find out why families do what they do which I guess is a reason I am drawn to genealogy.

You can read a transcribed story of the History of the Palatine Immigration.   It begins with the earliest Palatine immigration and where they settled in the United States.  It also tells about the “Golden Book”, mentioned on Who Do You Think You Are?, which encouraged the Palatine people to leave their homes in the Rhine country for London to eventually settle in the Carolinas, or other of Her Majesty's colonies. It also tells of the tremendous hardships the Palatines found as they settled, and how they were cheated in New York.

Books
I did find the story of Hans Josh Heydt, or Yost Hite, as his name is sometimes written, in a digitized book at Ancestry.com called Virginia Prominent Families, originally published in 1907 by Louise Pecquet du Bellet.

Chapter XIII Hite, Madison, Fontaine and Maury Families.
The Hite Family in America begins:

“In 1710, Hans Josh Heydt, or Yost Hite, as his name is spelled in English documents dated at the time of his emigration, a native of Alsace, Germany, came from Strasburg to New York, with his wife, Anna Marie, née du Bois, and their little girl, Mary. He came in his own ships, Brigantine Swift and Schooner Friendship, bringing with him sixteen (some say more) Dutch and German families, as tenants for lands he expected to settle.

Hite remained in Kingston, New York, until 1715, when he came south to Germantown, Penn. In 1717, we find him on the Schuylkill River, where he bought lands, and in 1720 built a mill at the mouth of Perkiomen Creek, and a dwelling house, which is at present (1907) the country home of Gov. Samuel Pennypacker, of Pennsylvania, and became a thrifty, enterprising farmer and manufacturer. The mills are now called Pennypacker's Mills.

At this time the Indians, maddened by the encroachments of the whites, took revenge by making raids upon the colonists in both Pennsylvania and Maryland, ruthlessly murdering settlers and destroying property.”

More about Yost Hite and his move to Virginia…

The book continues telling the story of Jost/Yost Hite and their children. It states that Yost Hite could not get the Governor of PA to help protect the settlers from the Indians, so he left for Virginia. 

Magdelene Hite, Jost’s daughter, and Jacob Chrismann , her husband, were the ancestors of Tim McGraw.

Magdelene Hite, third daughter of Yost Hite, like her two older sisters, married before she came to Virginia. Her husband, Jacob Chrismann, was a German and came to America from Swabia. They also settled near Yost Hite and their home became known as Chrismann Spring, where they died, leaving a large family of children.

Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and Their Descendants,  digitized by Google Books, also tells the story of “Joist Hite”.

I enjoy reading the stories of the pioneer families, but I found the story of Tim McGraw’s ancestors sadly ironic.  Jost Hite left New York to settle in Pennsylvania.  Because of the Indian raids there, he left Pennsylvania in 1730 to go to the Shenandoah Valley where years later (according to the historian on Who Do You Think You are?), Jost Hite’s grandson (and Tim McGraw’s ancestor), Isaac Chrismann, was killed along with two of his sons in an Indian raid.


Hans Jost Hite can be also be found in the family trees at Ancestry.com. This family tree which includes Hans Jost Hite is well-sourced with a source citation for almost every entry. In addition to the family tree which includes his parents and descendants, there are written stories and photos of documents, houses, and monuments including one of the Historical Marker for Jost Hite.


Want to know more? Start your FREE family tree online to enter what you already know about yourself and have Ancestry.com help you find your family story.

German Palatines and Tim McGraw

I found it interesting to hear about Tim McGraw’s German Palatine background when watching him on the TV show Who Do You Think You Are? .

The historian on the TV show said that the term Palatine is what the English called the Germans, and while that is so, the Palatine is actually a specific area of Germany.  See map.

Having Palatine ancestors myself, I feel a connection to Tim McGraw’s ancestry (and apparently Elvis’ ancestry too since his ancestors were on the same ship coming over as Tim’s). 

Palatines immigrated to the British colonies before the American Revolution and Tim McGraw’s Palatine ancestors, who were some of the first to arrive, came to New York in 1710.

My Palatine ancestors came to Pennsylvania in the mid-1700’s.  Since the English in Philadelphia didn’t want the German immigrants in the city of Philadelphia,  they sold them land outside the city so these German settlers could act as a buffer between the Indians and the English in Philadelphia.   That land which later became known as Lancaster county turned out the be some of the most fertile land in the country.  The descendants of these Palatines became known as the Pennsylvania Dutch (Pennsylvania Deutch or Pennsylvania German).

Other Palatines settled up and down the east coast.  Like other early settlers, they were subject to terrible privations and extreme hardships.

If you are interested in learning more about the story of the Palatines, where they settled, and the hardships they bore, there is an free online transcription of the fascinating History of the Palatine Immigration  written by Daniel Rupp in 1876.

Like Tim McGraw’s ancestor, Johan Jost Hayd, many of the German immigrants eventually prospered.

Some Palatine German Immigration books are free to read on Ancestry.com

• PA Immigrants, 1770- 1775
• Pennsylvania German Pioneers

I read once that each Palatine who immigrated in the 1700s has 10,000 descendants, so there are many of us in the US who descended from these brave immigrants.  Have you been able to trace your ancestry back the the 1700s?  Start your FREE family tree online to enter what you already know about yourself and have Ancestry.com help you find your family story.

Pennsylvania Genealogy Links

Here are some of my favorite state-wide free PA genealogy links.

Land and Maps

• Land Records at the Pennsylvania State Archives
  Scanned land records which are viewable online from the Pennsylvania State Archives.
• Ancestor Tracks
  Scroll down to the map of PA and select a county to see the free Atlases and Land warrants.
• American Memory Panoramic Maps 1847-1929
  Pennsylvania in the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress.

Military
You can learn a lot about an ancestor from his military pension records.  Here is how to
Order pension records from NARA.

• PA Civil War
• PA Spanish American War
• Pennsylvania State Digital Archives
• PA National Guard Veterans' Card File, 1867-1921
• Civil War Veterans' Card File, 1861-1866  
These 3" x 5" cards were initially prepared to serve as an index to Samuel Penniman Bates' "History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-1865 .
• Mexican Border Campaign Veterans' Card File 
• Spanish American War Veterans' Card File of United States Volunteers
• Revolutionary War Military Abstract Card File
• Militia Officers Index Cards, 1775-1800 Indexes

 General

• Pennsylvania Archives
  The Pennsylvania Archives were originally published as a 10 series of historical records in 135 volumes, covering the initial colonial settlement through the Civil War. The series contains military, tax, marriage, and land records, as well as documents from American history covering the Revolutionary War and the Whiskey Rebellion. Pennsylvania researchers will be glad to have these archives online and searchable. The Archives include:
  
  • Early Pennsylvania settlements, from 1664 to 1780.
  • The Revolutionary War (1775–1789).
  • The Whiskey Rebellion (1794).
  • The War with Mexico, 1846-1847
  • More Pennsylvania history through 1880.

• US Pennsylvania GenWeb Archives
• Pennsylvania Disasters
  Ever think your ancestors must have disappeared into thin air? You might find them here. I did - a whole family who was killed in a railroad accident.

Vital Records

• Philadelphia Death Certificates, 1803-1915
  FamilySearch - Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints.
• Pennsylvania Marriages 1885-1889
  Pennsylvania State Archives
• Philadelphia Marriage Index, 1885-1951
FamilySearch - Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints.  

Newspapers
Search for obits, birth announcements, marriage announcements and other newsworthy events.

• State Library of Pennsylvania
  Includes the Pennsylvania Necrology Scrapbook of obituaries clipped from Pennsylvania newspapers between 1891 and 1904.
• PA historical newspapers
• Google News Archive
  Search for obits in the PA newspapers in the Google News Archive.

Free Ancestry Ancestry has some totally and always free Pennsylvania databases in addition to their fee-based Pennsylvania Databases.  The PA databases below are always free - no free trial necessary, but you may be asked to register.

• PA Immigrants, 1770- 1775
• Pennsylvania German Pioneers
• Pennsylvania Biographical Sketches, 1868
• PA Oaths of Allegiance, 1727 - 1775
• Susquehanna County, Silver Lake Township, Pennsylvania, 1878 -79 tax rolls

Searching City Directories at Footnote

I was pleased to see that Fold3 (formerly Footnote.com) has begun to add city directories to its collection. If you have ancestors who lived in a city, these directories can be a great genealogy resource since they were published annually.

City Directory Uses
City directories show the husband's name, address, & occupation. If the husband has died, the city directory will show the widow's name and address. It also will generally note her husband's name. How is this useful? If you follow a family in the city directories year by year, you can learn the year of death of the husband by noting the first year that the wife appears as a widow.

City directories can also be used to follow a family's migration and note the year the moved from a city. I've also been able to use city directories to pinpoint the location of a family so that I could find them in census.

Searching Footnote City Directories
When I first started searching the Footnote city directories, I found it a bit confusing. I searched for the surname Mahady, but the search results came up with Maguire. Close, but not the same name. But when I went to the city directory image, it turns out that Maguire was the name listed at the top of the city directory - the first name that showed on the page of names. Like a phone book today, a city directory has beginning names in the top corners for each page, and this is the name that Footnote gave as a result.

Once you get a result at Footnote, zoom in on the page images and pan down to the name you searched for. The Mahady family was on the city directory page that started with Maguire.

You can browse each page to eyeball any possible surname variations, and find a family that an exact name search might have missed.

So far, Footnote has multiple years of these cities:

• Chicago
• Boston
• Philadelphia
• Washington, D.C.

and for many cities in New England states.

Fold3 Free Trial

Schwenkenfelder Day

September 24th is Schwenkenfelder Day, the September Thanksgiving, 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. It is the oldest continuous Thanksgiving tradition in America.

The Schwenkenfelders 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. Schwenkenfelders were prosecuted everywhere in Europe until they fled in 1733 and 1734 to Pennsylvania because of its religious freedom.

Schwenkfelders

Schwenckfelder Passenger Ships:
Pennsylvania Merchant 1733
St. Andrew 1734

Pennsylvania Archives

Footnote.com has the complete Pennsylvania Archives online for free access. The free access is on a permanent basis.

The Pennsylvania Archives were originally published as a 10 series of historical records in 135 volumes, more than 100,000 pages, covering the initial colonial settlement through the Civil War. The series contains essential records including military, tax, marriage, and land records, as well as documents from American history covering the Revolutionary War and the Whiskey Rebellion. It is great to have these archives online.

The Pennsylvania Archives show four important historical times:

• Early Pennsylvania settlements, from 1664 to 1780.
• The Revolutionary War (1775–1789).
• The Whiskey Rebellion (1794).
• More Pennsylvania history, through 1880.

If you have Pennsylvania ancestors, especially early Pennsylvania ancestors, it is worthwhile to check these out.

It is difficult to browse the archives since they are only listed as Series 1, Series 2, Volume I, and Volume II, etc. But you can search just within the Pennsylvania Archives.

Footnote.com has some other databases that are always free. You can read about them at Footnote Always Free Databases.

Examining the full Revolutionary Pension Files at Footnote.com

Fold3 (formerly Footnote.com) in partnership with with the U.S. National Archives, is digitizing the Revolutionary War Pension Files to post online. These are the complete pension files taken from the National Archives microfilm publication M804, which includes an estimated 80,000 pension and bounty-land warrant application files. These pension records give full details about each veteran's history and service, as well as information about his family, state of health, and life after the war. Many of these pension files can contain upwards to 80 pages.

To locate a Revolutionary War soldier, you can use the browse menu if you know the state where the soldier served,. You can also use the Footnote search engine but you have to be very aware that there were many surname spelling variations during the 18th century.

I used the browse menu to look for my Revolutionary War ancestor, but since the digitization of the pensions is about 10% complete, my ancestor's records are not yet online. However, I did find my 5th great grand uncle, Harmon Aughe of Chester County, Pennsylvania.

His pension file begins with his affidavit of his duties as a soldier. He says he was drafted while living in Pikeland township, Chester Co.. Pennsylvania and that he was involved in building breastworks. He describes his movements "thence to Chadd's Ford on the Brandywine where the battle was fought...thence to Chestnut Hill and Germantown, where the battle was fought, thence to winter quarters in Valley Forge, Chester Co. Pa.





In these few words, I realized how the history of my country and the history of my family were intertwined. He was present at two early battles we lost to the British, and also wintered at Valley Forge. Valley Forge is the story of suffering, sacrifice and ultimate survival against terrible odds, against hunger, disease, and the cold and became our symbol of the will to prevail.

Further down in his affidavit, Aughey states he knew General George Washington, General Lee and General Wayne.


His affidavit give a lot of genealogy information.. He tells that his date and place of birth is written in the family bible which is now owned by his sister's daughter who lives in another state. He tells of his migration from Pennsylvania to Virginia to Ohio to Indiana. He gives the names of his children and the states where they live.

Unfortunately for Harmon, he also states he lost his discharge papers as he pioneered to Indiana and no one in Indiana can substantiate his affidavit. Because of that and also because part of his war duties were wagon service to carry supplies, his pension claim was disallowed .

At the end of his file is a letter written to NARA during the 1930's inquiring about his war service. The letter doesn't say why the inquiry was made, but I assume it was either for genealogy reasons or to obtain documentation to join the DAR. If so, this letter give the names other descendants of the soldier, possible distant cousins, along his address.

All the names in his pension file are annotated and indexed for easy reference and searching.

I was glad to find the genealogy information, but learning that he survived the winter at Valley Forge and knew George Washington and Mad Anthony Wayne was the most exciting to learn.

If you want to view these fascinating Revolutionary War pensions to read about history as our ancestors lived it, Start Your Free Trial with Footnote.com.

Centre County and Clinton County Pennsylvania Biographies

Centre County and Clinton County Pennsylvania Biographies

Biographical Sketches and Genealogies have been extracted from the book History of Centre & Clinton Counties, published by John Blair Linn, 1883


PA Biographical Sketches include:

Alexander, Elizabeth; Alexander, James; Alexander, James; Alexander, Josiah; Alexander, William; Alexander, William; Allison, Archibald; Allison, Matthew; Allison, William; Anspach, John; Antes, Philip; Austin, Jane; Bailey, Richard; Bailey, William; Baird, Jane; Baird, Nancy; Baker, Samuel; Barber, James; Barnhart, Henry; Barnhart, Jacob; Barnhart, Mary; Bathurst, Antes; Bathurst, James; Bayard, Dr. A. W.; Bear, George; Beaver, James Addams; Bechdol, David; Bell, John; Benner, John; Benner, John; Benner, Philip; Berry, Jacob; Bierly, Anthony; Bierly, Anthony Jr.; Bierly, John; Blair, David; Blair, Eleanor; Blakely, Elizabeth; Boal, David; Boal, Elizabeth; Boaz, John; Boggs, Andrew; Boggs, John; Boggs, Robert; Boggs, William; Bollander, Stephen; Botorf, Jacob; Brady, William Perry; Brew, Thaddeus; Brisben, William; Brisbin, John Jr.; Brisbin, John Sr.; Brungart, George; Brungart, Jacob; Brungart, Martin; Bryson, Robert; Buchanan, General George; Buchtel, John; Burchfield, William; Burnside, James; Burnside, Thomas; Caldwell, Jane; Caldwell, Thomas; Callahan, Charles; Cambridge, Constans; Cambridge, John; Campbell, Cleary; Campbell, David; Campbell, James; Canfield, Dr. Ira; Carner, William; Carson, Margaret; Cathcart, William; Chambers, Elijah; Chambers, James; Conser, John; Cook, Martha Walker; Cook, William; Cooper, Rev. Samuel; Corman, George; Crothwaite., Robert; Curtin, A. G.; Curtin, Dr. Constans; Curtin, Roland; Curtin, Roland Jr.; Dale, Christian; Dale, Henry; David, Daniel; De Hass, John Philip; Dobbins, Dr. Daniel; Dougherty, James; Downing, Thomas; Dubbs, Oswald; Dubbs, Oswald; Duncan, David; Dundas, Isabella; Dundavy, D.; Dunlap, Col. James; Dunlap, John; Eckley, Eli; Elder, A. M.; Ellenbarges, Jacob; Ertle, Valentine; Etters, John; Etters, John; Etters, Mary; Everhart, William; Everly, Christian; Ferguson, Thomas; Fetzer, Michael; Fisher, Rev. Peter; Frank, George; Furey, John; Furey, William; Gast, Christian; Gast, Christian; Gast, Nicholas; Gill, William; Glenn, John; Glenn, John; Graham, George; Gramly, Adam; Gramly, Francis G; Gramly, John; Gray, John; Gray, John L.; Gray, Peter; Gray, Peter B.; Green, Joseph; Green, Joseph Jr.; Green, S. Miles; Gregg, Andrew; Gregg, John Irwin; Hale, James T.; Henning, John

Look for more biographies from Centre and Clinton Counties as this is an ongoing genealogy project.

Pennsylvania Civil War Genealogy

The Pennsylvania Civil War site has recently undergone an update. All information is now organized by county or by regiment making it easier to find information. You will find

• Regimental Rosters
  
• Soldier Biographies


• Newspaper Transciptions about the soldiers


• Soldier Civil War Diaries and Journals


• Prisoners of War


• Medal of Honor Recipients


• POWs


• Pension Index


• Deaths and Burials

You will also helpful hints, both on-line and off-line, to locate your Pennsylvania Civil War ancestor with a guide to ordering service and pension records from NARA, a great source for genealogy info.

Erie County, Pennsylvania Biographies

Erie County Pennsylvania Biographies
Biographical Sketches and Genealogies have been extracted from the book History of Erie County Biography, published by Warner, Beers & Co.; 1884.

PA Biographical Sketches include:

John Abell; F.F. Adams; Dr. Charles Aichner; George A. Allen; William P. Atkinson; F. A. Austin; Elijah Babbitt; Francis Bailey; Isaac Baker; Peter Barker; H.R. Barnhurst; William Bates; F. Bauschard; George Baxter; John Baxter; Philip Becker; C. R. Beechling; E. Sherlock Belknap; E.C. Bennett; Rev. A. L. Benze; Ludwig Bier; John H. Bliss; Jacob Bootz; Maximilian Bosch; Jonas Bowers; Joseph Boyd; John Boyle; C. Brandes; Gustav F. Brevillier; C.M. Briggs; Conard Brown; R.B Brown; S.H. Brown; William A. Brown; G. W. Brubaker; J. M. Bryant; J. Bryce; A. P. Burton; George Burton; Lewis Bush; James Campbell; C. M. Carlson; John Carter; James Casey; Thomas Casey; A. H. Caughey; E. F. Christian; David Clark; William Clark; H. V. Claus; F. A. Clemens; John Clemens; Frank Cleveland; Washington Cleveland; John Coates; J. R. Cochran; Robert Cochran.

This is an ongoing project, so watch for more biographies to be posted at a later date

Schuylkill County, PA, Hero Dead of World War II

Schuylkill County Genealogy Ties announces the addition of Schuylkill County's Hero Dead of World War II, a list of the almost 1000 World War II military personnel casualties from all of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.

Included are photos of the men of Schuylkill Haven who gave their lives during World War II. Service Records for these men are available from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO to the next of kin.

For more information, go to
Ordering Pension and Service Records.

Schuylkill County Genealogy Ties
Schuylkill County's Hero Dead of World War II

Looking for a Pennsylvania Ancestor? Part I

Want to research your family in Pennsylvania? Here are some great transcriptions of original source material and other resources to help find your Pennsylvania ancestors.

PA Biographies Biographies of Pennsylvania residents written in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Family History Centers in Pennsylvania Locations of Family History Centers, branches of the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Genealogy Search Engines for Pennsylvania Search Pennsylvania databases

Passenger Lists
German Passenger Lists to PA 1734-1808

PA Civil War (1861-1865)

• Rosters
• Pa Civil War soldiers by county
• 1883 Pension Lists
• Biographies of Pa Civil War soldiers
• Medal of Honor Recipients
• Find your Civil War Ancestor
  

Pa Spanish American War (1898-1899)

• Rosters
• Medal of Honor Winners
• Find a PA Spanish American Ancestor
  

1895 Atlas of Pennsylvania
ARIAS - Pennsylvania Digital Archives


Passenger Lists to Pennsylvania
Ship Passenger Lists to Philadelphia 1727-1808.

Looking for a Pennsylvania Ancestor? Part II

Want to research your family in Pennsylvania? Here are more great transcriptions of original source material and other resources to help find your Pennsylvania ancestors.

Passenger Lists to Pennsylvania Ship Passenger Lists to Philadelphia 1727-1808.

Pennsylvania GenWeb State & county resources on include census, vital records, queries, surname listings, publications, associations and libraries, lookup volunteers.

Pennsylvania GenWeb Archives Transcriptions of original source material from the state of Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania Mailing Lists Genealogy mailing lists for Pennsylvania and its counties.

GenForum Pennsylvania Add or post Pennsylvania queries.

Ancestry Message Boards Pennsylvania Add or post Pennsylvania queries

Pennsylvania Research Guides The Mormon Church offers these free genealogy research guides to help you locate genealogy records. Includes an individualized search strategy by event and date.

Pennsylvania State Archives
Box 1026 Attn: ERA Harrisburg, PA 17108-1026
Tel: 717-783-3281

Archives Research Service
Division of Vital Records
State Department of Health Central Building 101 South Mercer Street
P.O. Box 1528 New Castle, PA 16103

(724) 656-3100
Birth (since 1906) $4.00;
Death (since 1906) $3.00
Marriage: Marriage License Clerks, County Court House, in county where license was issued. Cost varies
Divorce: Prothonotary, Court House, in county seat of county where divorce was granted.
Cost varies.
Access to birth and death certificates is limited to next of kin. Submit a readable copy of applicant's driver's license or other picture ID with your request. Make check or money order payable to Division of Vital Records.

Pennsylvania Volunteers of the Spanish American War

Pennsylvania Volunteers of the Spanish American War has posted the names of thousands of Pennsylvania soldiers who served in the Spanish-American War of 1898-1899. Use these rosters to find proof of marriage, proof of children's birth, death certificates and even more by sending away for a soldier's pension records.

"Anyone who has done family or genealogical research in Civil War records will
be pleasantly surprised at the fullness and accuracy of the Spanish-American War
pension records" according to NARA

Pennsylvania Volunteers of the Spanish American War

• Rosters
  Thousands of Pennsylvania soldiers are posted and more are coming.
• Spanish-American War guide
  Contains instructions explaining how to send away for your ancestor's pension records. Pension records typically include the application forms, proof of marriage, proof of children's births, a summary of military service, and death certificates. They may also contain physical descriptions, interviews, and if you are very lucky, a photograph of the soldier and letters he may have written.

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.

Steinmetz Genealogy

"Phillip Steinmetz was born in the province of Schwabruken, Rhein Baiern, Prussia, southwest of Antwerp, Belgium. He was by profession a lieutenant of Hussars, in the army of the empire, belonging to the illustrious family, of whom we have the genealogy of six generations of military men, of whom the late General Steinmetz, of the Prussian army, was one."

Read this free multigenerational genealogy of the Steinmetz family which follows the many branches of the family from their arrival in Pennsylvania on the eve of the American revolution until 1907, the date of publication.

• Philip Steinmetz Genealogy
  
• George Steinmetz Family Genealogy