The Heart of the Family
Every family has a heart, and while it isn’t a literal organ—like the one the beats inside us—this heart is an essential, living part of all families. I have been thinking about our family...
Author: Andrew Hagenbuch
Imperfectly Perfect Gifts
One of the many joys of Christmas is the delight that comes from giving and receiving gifts. What child hasn’t wished for some item, written a letter to Santa, or dropped hints to their...
Willoughby G. Hagenbuch: A Rich Life in Spite of Adversity
About a month ago, I saw a piece of Hagenbuch history for sale on eBay. It was a postcard sent on August 4, 1967 by Willie Hagenbuch of Bowmanstown, Pennsylvania to Félix Duval of...
A Boy with a Movie Camera
Moving pictures are a powerful way to capture and preserve history. In 1929, the Ukrainian filmmaker Dziga Vertov released his silent film, Man with a Movie Camera. It was largely dismissed due to its...
Where Does Our Story Go From Here?
Every family has a story. So in that sense, the Hagenbuch family is like any other. Although, when you look past the surface, you’ll start to discover what makes each family unique. Again, the...
Ten Years On
A decade ago in the summer of 2014, I was living in California and filled with thoughts of my Pennsylvania family and the lives of our ancestors. I knew that years before, my father,...
Dr. Elmer J. Hagenbaugh: Library Thief, Physician, and Convict
On January 30, 1890, 26-year-old Elmer J. Hagenbaugh was arrested in Los Gatos, California. He was charged with grand larceny and accused of stealing $206 of books (around $7,000 today) from the State Library...
Dowager Julia A. (Landbach) Hagenbuch
If you have ever watched a Marx Brothers’ film, then you are probably familiar with the character of the dowager—a wealthy widow. In many of the Marx Brothers’ films, the dowager was portrayed by...
There’s More to the Story
Our Hagenbuch genealogy remains a work in progress. Look back at this site’s earliest articles and you will likely find an inconsistent detail or unfinished story. When my father, Mark, and I first began...
Taufscheine for Norman Hagenbuch and Maggie Linsenbigler
A few weeks ago, I was leafing through a book my father, Mark, had given to me: To These Parents: A Compendium of Pennsylvania German Taufscheine, Volume One. One Taufschein—a birth and baptism document—caught...
