Oak Grove Church Memories
As mentioned in other articles, family stories and genealogical nostalgia are just as important as recording names, dates, and places. Memories of growing up have brought me to the realization that there really are...
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For the term "friends family".
Analysis of 1938 Hagenbuch Reunion Attendance
As written previously in other articles, I believe myself fortunate that I grew up in an extended family which included great aunts, great uncles, my grandparents, first and second cousins of my father, and...
1789 Essay on the Pennsylvania Deitsch, Part 3
In the first and second parts of the essay, An Account of the Manners of the German Inhabitants of Pennsylvania, Benjamin Rush proposed a list of the key characteristics of Pennsylvania’s Deitsch citizens. He...
On a Sunday Afternoon
A previous article detailed the family of Hiram b. 1842 and Mary “Orner” Hagenbuch (not to get confused with Hiram Hagenbuch, Sr. b. 1847). The family lived in and around the Montgomery, PA area....
Letters of Samuel and Mary “Davis” Sechler, Part 2
The fifty some pieces of communication mentioned in Part 1 of this series are in a small cardboard box. The letters are divided into two packets wrapped inside the outer sleeves that were once...
Special Edition: Ode to a Hagenbuch Father
Today is Father’s Day, which is celebrated in the United States on the third Sunday in June. It also happens to be the birthday of one special father, Mark Odis Hagenbuch (b. 1953). Noting...
What’s in a Name?
The recent birth of our first grandchild (a sweet, little girl named Hadley Faye Emig; parents – Nelson and Katie “Hagenbuch” Emig) reminded my wife Linda and me how important the naming process of...
Do Our Ancestors Matter Today?
Do our ancestors matter today? And, if they really do, why? This was the question I asked myself after a conversation with my maternal grandmother, Ethel “Brandt” Gutshall. Ethel, whom I call “Oma” (German...
Parlour Games
Who remembers a time when there was no television, no computers, and folks would get together on a Saturday evening to play games? Some people still do this and have an evening once in...
Easter Post Cards from the Past
The sending of Easter post cards became popular in the early 1900s, the main publishers being from Germany. Among some of the family pieces I possess are six Easter post cards from 1908 and...
