The South Central Pennsylvania Genealogical Society regularly schedules interesting programs. Here, J. Ross McGinnis, author of 'Trials of Hex,' talked with members of the society in November as they stand over the spot where three men murdered powwow doctor Nelson Rehmeyer. Jonathan Stayer, at right, holds a copy of a photo of the crime scene. It's now Stayer's turn to present at the April 6 meeting of the Society. Background posts: The Hessians of York County, Pa., more than mercenaries and Genealogists find mother lode in York County, Pa.
Jonathan Stayer, head of the reference section at the Pennsylvania State Archives, has developed a program about state land records with a colorful title: "Finding 'Lydia's Bottom' "
This comes in the aftermath of another Stayer presentation about the wealth of resources offered by the State Archives: "Peeking into Pa.'s attic" ... .
Under Stayer's care, the presentation at the 2:30 p.m., April 6, meeting of the South Central Pennsylvania Genealogical Society will be as interesting as his title.
He will describe the records -- applications, land warrants, surveys and land patents -- and also demonstrate how to use the indexes and digital copies of these records on the Pennsylvania State Archives Web site.
Stayer has also pointed out the helpfulness to researchers and genealogists of Neal Hively's warrant and survey files and the warrant maps on file in the library of the York County Heritage Trust.
The South Central Pennsylvania Genealogical Society's Web site contains a wealth of information for researchers.
I am hopeful that this email is being sent to - or can be forwarded to the South Central Pennsylvania Genealogical Society.
In doing genealogical research at the Eaton Ohio Genealogical Library, I reviewed a copy of the "Alphabetical Listing of Heads of Households" for the 1800 Federal Census of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.
This was published by the South Central Pennsylvania Genealogical Society in October 1984/January 1985 and identified as Special Publication Number 29.
As fate would have it, the page ( 23 ) that probably contained the names of those individualw with the surname "Good" was blank.
Is there any chance that you might copy that page and send it to the Eaton Ohio Genealocial Library? The mailing address is: 420 South Barron Street, Eaton, Ohio 34320-2402.
The phone number is 937-456-4970.
Thank you,
Terry Good
I forwarded this to SCPGS.
Jim McClure
I am hoping to reach Jonathan Stayer. I know you from Central...was friends with your sister Ruth and also attended Messiah College. My name then was Kathy Boose.
A cousin of mine and I are putting together the family history of the Booses. We've hit a bump in the road...there is a Boose that we have not been able to get information on. We know she existed by the 1910 census although she was not named on that--based on the couple being listed as having 6 living children. Only five were named. I recently found a photo on a disk another cousin spent an extensive amount of time putting together from various collections. A photo indicated the two children on one photo were Anna (who was born in 1910 and listed on this census) and MARTHA...who we suspect might be the sixth living child. This generation is proving difficult to get information on as there were 14 children between 2 wives and the children were often sent to relatives. I am wondering what is the best way to try to find Martha? Ancestry.com does not list her and I believe they go more by the census records which would explain that. Would the State Archives be a place to look? Birth and death records? The hard part is we have nothing on her at all. We don't know if she died (as she was not listed on the next census), was adopted by someone else, or married and her named changed hence looking by death records might not work either. She was born around 1908 or 1909 judging from how many years apart the girls on the photo appeared to be.
Kathy, Jonathan is a wonderful gentleman and scholar. You can reach him at the Pennsylvania State Archives: ra-statearchives@state.pa.us.
Jim