The House Along the Allemaengel Road, Part 1
On March 25, 1738, Andreas Hagenbuch (b. 1715) received a warrant for 200 acres of land in a corner of what is today Albany Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania. This place was the at edge...
Category: History
Homestead Economics: Conclusion
This series of articles started with a question: What economic activities contributed to the success of the Hagenbuch Homestead in Albany Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania? Before beginning to write, I already had some ideas....
Homestead Economics: Distilling Liquor
Many early American farmers distilled their own liquor, not just for their own consumption but also for additional income. According to Mount Vernon, where George Washington ran a sizable distillery, the average Virginia distiller...
Homestead Economics: Crops, Livestock, and More
Of all the different economic activities at the Hagenbuch Homestead, agriculture was the most important and this only increased with time. After acquiring the homestead property in 1741, Andreas Hagenbuch (b. 1715, d. 1785)...
Malinda (Hagenbuch) Ferry and Her Family
My father, Mark, and I have mentioned before about how our Hagenbuch female lines don’t receive enough attention. There are a number of reasons for this. However, the primary one stems from the custom...
The Harrises of Hidlay: Part 2
It’s sometimes difficult for me to remember how I got started on some of my genealogical work from decades ago. I know that I did very little work on other branches of the family...
The Harrises of Hidlay: Part 1
On February 10, 2015, I wrote an article about my great great grandfather’s brother and his family. Samuel Hagenbuch was born in 1806 and lived on what became a six generation family farm in...
Our Family’s First Christmas Gift in America
The further we go back in time, the more difficult it is to tell the story of our Hagenbuch family. Precious little information remains from early 1700s when our ancestor, Andreas Hagenbuch (b. 1715),...
Hagenbuch’s Meat Market of Bowmanstown
I’m always amazed by the family-related ephemera that appears on eBay: an old family photo, a receipt printer, and a Fraktur to name a few. Recently I found another curious item—a small, promotional screwdriver....
A Buch In the Hand is Worth More In a Bush
I have taken some liberty with an oft-used phrase about birds in hands and bushes. If it caught your eye, then it did its job! We know that our last name is pronounced and...
