Family Foods
What foods conjure memories of your family past and present? A few weeks ago, while planning a trip to my parents’ house, I asked if they had any favorite dishes that their parents used...
Tagged: Barbara “Hagenbuch” Huffman
2020: What Will Be Remembered?
As genealogists we always have the word “legacy” in the back of our minds. What will the legacy of our family be? What has it been in the past? What will be remembered about...
Concerning Cows
How’s the Cow? It walks, it talks, it’s full of chalk. The lacteal fluid of the female member of the bovine species is highly prolific to the Nth degree. Some readers of this article...
Family Connections Across the Divide
In January of this year, my wife Sara and I traveled to California where we had lived for nearly a decade. Along with seeing some of our old haunts, we looked forward to visiting...
Ellen Hagenbuch: Photographer
My Aunt Ellen died last February, 2018. The article Last of Their Generation described her life as a lover of family, flowers, and photography. After her death, her niece and nephew (my first cousins),...
Christmas Ornaments
The tradition of decorating an evergreen tree during the Christmas season is believed to have started in Germany during the 1500s. Our early Hagenbuch ancestors certainly knew and practiced this custom before coming to...
The School Christmas Program
In 2014, I wrote about my memories of Christmas at our family church, Oak Grove, when I was a young boy. Though not quite as vivid, I also have some memories of when I...
On Reunions and Summer Picnics
The 74th Hagenbuch Reunion, held at Oak Grove Lutheran Church a few weeks ago, got me thinking about other reunions of the past. Not only the previous 73 reunions whose attendees were primarily descendants...
Home Remedies
Recently my father, Mark Hagenbuch, handed me a recipe book once owned by Bessie Mae (Robbins) Sechler (b. 1888, d. 1973). It was previously in the possession of Harold Sechler (b. 1923), who is...
New Year’s “Back in the Day”
New Year’s Day is celebrated in many ways. In our family on the Montour County farm, it was a day of traditional foods: pork and sauerkraut accompanied by fresh baked bread smothered in butter...
