Eleven Years On

Honestly, I can’t believe that another year of Hagenbuch.org has come and gone. Eleven years now—was there ever a time I was not working on genealogy and brainstorming another article for this site?

As most readers know, the past year has been challenging for our family. Last fall as my father, Mark, and I celebrated ten years of work on Hagenbuch.org, it was becoming clear that his health was failing. Together, we began to plan for the future of the site.

Part of that plan was to update and republish older pieces, like the story of the Buchbaum. Past articles were edited and reformatted, revisions were made to correct names and dates, and pictures were added or improved in quality. Some weeks my father felt well enough to write, such as about Halloween illustrated with images of his grandchildren. When he lacked the strength to put down his thoughts, he was able to rework and share previous articles, like this one about uprighting a fallen gravestone in 2014.

Preparing to serve Thanksgiving dinner in the Colonial Room at the Hagenbuch house, 2024

Dad began hospice care at home in November of 2024, and this experience inspired him to discuss how we care for our ill relatives. At Thanksgiving, he compared memories of the holiday to its present celebrations, then updated a previous article with additional ephemera from the Hagenbuch Archives. Dad next wrote about Hagenbuchs who were born in January. Two weeks later, on January 14, 2025, he published what would be his final article, The Farm Barn and Its Environs: Strength and Gentleness, and emailed the following to me:

I may be ending my articles for a while… I am so sorry but you know I have really been coming to the end of articles, and I thought it would be good to end with strength and gentleness…

Love you. DAD

Heart colored by Andrew M. Hagenbuch

Six weeks later Mark O. Hagenbuch died at the age of 71, and we lost the heart of our family. Genealogy was one of his lifelong passions, and writing for Hagenbuch.org was one of the last activities his body permitted him to enjoy. His vibrant life was celebrated in two services, as he requested: one at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Watsontown and another at Dills Tavern in Dillsburg.

Losing Dad could have ended this site. However, this outcome was something both of us desperately wanted to avoid. Since he was a boy, Dad believed in the importance of documenting family history and stories. Previous generations saw his passion and entrusted him with their memories and photographs. To end now wouldn’t only be disappointing to Dad, it would also let down those who came before him. That’s a lot of weight for us—the living Hagenbuchs—to carry upon our shoulders!

Mark Hagenbuch, age one, in a Taylor Tot stroller at the family farm, summer 1954

Over the last year, I have published a new piece every other week, my same pace of productivity as when Dad was alive. While one article did include notes for articles that Dad never finished, there rest were my own, like this one about nonsense AI content on Find a Grave. Today, there are over 550 original articles on the site. In addition, I’ve been updating and republishing previous pieces to keep Dad’s voice present on Hagenbuch.org. For example, I reworked two articles about Dad’s childhood memories of hog butchering and expanded upon these with my own hog butchering story from 2001.

There were a number of discoveries made this past year too, such as a Taufschein inscribed by Timothy Hagenbuch (b. 1804), a Shrine Club pin worn by Ray Hagenbaugh (b. 1904), and a vinyl record recorded by Dave Hagenbuch. One find, a watercolor painting by L. Hagenbuch, eventually uncovered a family artist named Louise (Schantz) Hagenbuch (b. 1875). Another discovery, a childcare school project, filled in details about the childhood of my paternal grandmother, Irene M. (Faus) Hagenbuch (b. 1920).

We also learned a lot about various Hagenbuchs and their families. Willoughby Hagenbuch (b. 1923), who was injured in World War II, demonstrated how to live a rich life in spite of adversity. Similarly, Joann (Hagenbuch) Dake’s (b. 1939) obituary revealed her legacy of compassion, love, and wisdom. Then there was a William Hagenbuck (b. 1846) of Indiana, Norman E. Hagenbuch (b. 1917) who had a drilling business, the Hagenbuchs and neighboring families of Marion Township in Iowa, and a group of Hagenbuchs that once resided in Birdsboro, PA. Finally, a story about a silver dollar told to my father by his great uncle Percy “Perce” Hagenbuch (b. 1880), helped us to understand the dynamics between a mother and daughter-in-law.

Of course, photographs and other media are a particularly good way to learn about our family. For several years, I have been exploring how home movies can preserve family events. In a series of past articles, my father looked at the Hagenbuch picnic at Knoebel’s Grove in 1937, Sarah (Hagenbuch) Foust as a teacher from the early 1900s, and Samuel Hagenbuch (b. 1806) with his extensive family. Old newspaper articles are another way to learn about relatives. One about a young David Hagenbuch on the railroad tracks aided us in exploring his family line.

David Hagenbuch, age three, with his dog, Prince, 1957

Most readers know that the name “Hagenbuch” has been pronounced and written in a number of ways, since our family arrived here in 1737. This past year, I updated and republished a lengthy series of articles tracing Andreas Hagenbuch’s journey to America aboard the Charming Nancy, how he settled in Pennsylvania, where he acquired land in 1738, and how he established the Hagenbuch Homestead by 1741. We looked at music heard during Andreas’ time, examined the dangers faced by his family on the frontier, and followed the expansion of the Hagenbuch Homestead through 1855.

One of our most popular food articles—the recipe for Grape-Nut ice cream—was featured again, and another food-related piece included a review of Alan Keyser’s book about how the Pennsylvania Dutch ate in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Keyser’s book quotes passages from the last will and testament of Christian Hagenbuch (b. 1746) which I later published in full.

Brothers William and Henry watch their sister, Rosanna, as she sleeps.

It should come as no surprise that many articles are dedicated to looking at the past, whether that is through stories about gifts given during Christmas or remembering our beloved relatives. That said, there are posts that glimpse ahead to the future. This year one special piece did just that. It documented the birth of my third child, a daughter named Rosanna G. Hagenbuch. It has been a busy year to say the least!

As I worked on this recap, I struggled to pick a featured image for the top of the article. For the past ten years, the photograph would be some version of my father and I standing together. What would be appropriate now that he was gone? Should it be me standing alone?

Eventually, I found an image that best depicted my feelings about this past year. That photo, at the top and bottom of this piece, was taken during a visit to the Hagenbuch Homestead in October of 2010. Dad and I are walking together, four years before we founded this site. I don’t remember what exactly we are discussing, but I bet it is about the location of Andreas Hagenbuch’s original house—something we wouldn’t learn until 2024. Dad’s love of genealogy made such discoveries possible.

I want to continue sharing my passion for family history with you. Now, more than ever, this requires you to pitch in and share something too. If you would like to have your family’s stories and genealogy featured on the site, please contact me using Facebook or the email Contact Us form, and make sure to have images, names, and dates ready to share.

Thank you for your continued support!
-Andrew M. Hagenbuch

Mark and Andrew Hagenbuch at the Hagenbuch Homestead, 2010