A Pennsylvania Dutch Genealogy
the genealogy & family research site of Kris Hocker
Edward Witmer (1833-1912) & Lydia (Kline) Witmer (1836-1926)
Edward J. Witmer, son of John and Rachel (Jones?) Witmer, was born in Quakertown 13 Oct 1833 and died near Finland 24 Jan 1912. His wife, Lydia Amanda (Kline) Witmer, daughter of Philip and Lydia (Markly) Kline, was born 26 Mar 1836 near Pennsburg and died 30 Mar 1926 in Red Hill.
VueScan interface
Years (and years and years) ago, I upgraded computers. In the transition, I changed the operating system I was using. After upgrading, I discovered that my scanner would no longer work. Canon, it’s maker, was no longer supporting it with drivers that would work on my new OS. Bummer.
We purchased an all-in-one printer-fax-copier-scanner that I used for any scanning I wanted to do. However, it lives in another room. For big jobs, I’d just carry it to my office, plug it into my computer via USB and scan away. But for little jobs and one-offs it got tedious walking back and forth to the scanner to replace a photo or flip over a document while I scanned it to my computer over the home network. I was considering buying myself a new scanner for my office when I found VueScan.
VueScan is a cross-platform scanning application. It is easy to install and use and:
I installed it, hooked up my scanner and in minutes I was scanning photos and documents. It automatically recognized my scanner and selected it in the source menu. The menus on the input screen allowed my to quickly choose the type of media, the size I wanted, and the resolution I wanted to scan at. Best of all, I didn’t have to go out and choose a new scanner or find a place to recycle my old one.
For $39.95, I got easy to use software that saved my scanner.
Hocker Hunting Camp, circa 1924
A photo taken at the Hocker hunting camp in Perry County, Pennsylvania circa 1924. I’m not completely certain of the folks in the photo, but I think it’s—Isabella (Smith) Hocker, Lillian (Leedy) Hocker, unknown teenager [possibly Lillian or Ethel Allen], Anna Hocker, William Hocker, Bonnie Hocker and Betty Jean Hocker.
Philip Kline (1799-1877)
Philip Kline was born 6 March 1799 in Upper Hanover Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He died 30 January 1877 and was buried in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church cemetery in Red Hill, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He married Lydia Markly on 17 February 1825 in Faulkner Swamp Church in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
Census records are a valuable tool for the family historian. Do you know enough about them to use the effectively?
Initially there was no Census Bureau. From 1790 to 1870, the U.S. census was the responsibility of the federal marshals. Each marshal was to hire and manage the assistant federal marshals taking the census in his district. In many outlying areas it was a challenge to get to the inhabitants because of the terrain, lack of roads, lack of provisions and great distances.
Additionally, people were sometimes superstitious about the census. Before the 1790 census, one member of Congress remembered that “back in the 1770s most of the residents of a New York town had fallen sick right after they had been visited by a British census taker.”1 Another brought up the story from the bible where a plague visited Israel after King David ordered a census.
Every census has a census day—the date the census enumeration was to represent. This date was not the day that the enumerator actually visited the household. The census taker was instructed to include all members of the household on the census day—even family members who had actually passed away between that date and the date the enumerator visited. Additionally, they were not to include any children born after that date, even if they were members of the household when the enumerator visited.
Knowing the date is important for estimating birth years. A person born before the date had already advanced a year in age from the previous year, but those born after the date would not have. Between 1790 and 1820, Congress set the census day for the first Monday in August. Between 1830 and 1900, the date was set as June 1st. In 1910, it was April 15th. It was January 1st for 1920 and April 1st for 1930. Depending on the census year, census takers were given between 1 month and 18 months to complete the enumeration for their district.
Both dates should probably be recorded. Although the census takers were given specific instructions, it’s impossible to know if they followed them.
It’s also important to understand the changing borders between jurisdictions. Between census years new states, counties and even townships may have been added, changing border lines between jurisdictions. For instance, both Providence and Pequea townships were added to Lancaster County after 1850. A family in Conestoga Township in 1850 might appear in Pequea Township in 1860 without having changed their residence at all. A person living in Hardy County, Virginia in 1860 might have been living in Hardy County, West Virginia in 1870, again without having moved.
Just about everyone has heard of the destruction of the 1890 U.S. census, but do you know what other census records are lost or missing?
Until 1830, the census records were required to be deposited with the U.S. District Courts. The president was to receive only aggregate information about the people in each district. Congress enacted a law in 1830 calling for the records from the 1790-1820 censuses to be turned in to Washington. Some of the district court clerks did a better job than others of preserving those records. Some records were either lost before 1830 or were simply never sent to Washington. The following lists the lost records:
For more information about the census records or how to use them effectively, try one of these books:2
Many of you may know that I’ve been researching the Huber families of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. I’ve been recently focusing on the early settlers along Pequea Creek in Conestoga, Martic, Lampeter and Strasburg townships. Census records have been one of the resources from which I’ve been compiling data. To my disappointment, the 1820 census for Conestoga Township is apparently not on Ancestry.com. Yet, from all the information I’ve looked at, those records should exist.
This would hardly be the first time I’ve found an error in the census records—and I’m not just talking a transcription error. Those are all too common, but easily addressed (thank goodness!). No, I’m talking mislabeled or misplaced records. So, when I saw that an Ancestry Errors Wiki had been created, I was actually relieved. First, that I wasn’t only one experiencing these kinds of problems and second that there was going to be a means of finding out about these errors!
Here’s what Michael Hait, creator of the wiki, had to say about it.
For this reason, I have created the Ancestry Errors Wiki. This wiki will provide a hub for genealogists to notify other genealogists of errors that exist on various subscription genealogy websites. In time, these errors may be corrected, but until then, researchers should be able to search for any known existing errors, and adjust their research accordingly.
The purpose of this site is not to report indexing errors. Both Ancestry and Footnote contain effective internal mechanisms for amending and modifying indexing errors. This site is for the reporting of imaging or programming errors only.
The site uses the wiki platform, so that any user can create and edit content. This will allow the site to include information based on the research experience of the whole online genealogy community.
I would like to invite all genealogists to visit the site and add any errors of which they are aware. Only with all of our help will this site be a successful and useful resource.
Visit the “Ancestry Errors Wiki” at http://ancestryerrors.wikia.com/wiki/Ancestry_Errors_Wiki. For more information, contact Michael Hait, CG, at michael.hait@hotmail.com.
So, if you’re having problems locating records that should be there, head over to the wiki and find out if someone else has had that problem, too. There might even be a solution. If I can find these records for Conestoga Township, I’ll be posting about them.
When we find a genealogical record we like to wring it dry of evidence, pulling every piece of information we can about our ancestor from it. However, we may miss some obvious clues if we don’t understand some basic facts about that record.
Michael Hait has posted an excellent article entitled “Five things you have to know about every record” on his blog Planting the Seed. What are the five things? They are:
Head over and check out his post. You might learn something. I did.
Lydia (Markley) Kline (1806-1890)
Lydia (Markly) Kline was born 22 October 1806 and died 8 April 1890 in Pennsylvania. She was buried in the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church cemetery in Red Hill, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. She married Philip Kline on 17 February 1825 in Faulkner Swamp Reformed Church in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
Marriage and Death Notices from the Harrisburg Chronicle, 1820-1834
I’ve been working on this book on and off since my previous book was published. The editing, formatting and indexing took the longest. Then in the excitement of research successes, I forgot about it. After recently finding it again, I polished it up and decided to give self-publishing a try. And now—after some trials and tribulations in getting it ready for print—it’s available for sale!
This book includes 175+ pages of marriage and death announcements from a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania newspaper published in the 1820s. Because newspapers of the time commonly shared information, there are announcements from multiple Pennsylvania counties as well as other states.
During this period marriages and deaths were not recorded by the state, so church records, newspaper announcements, and family records may provide the only documentation of these pivotal events in our ancestors’ lives.
“Monday, 5 August 1822, Vol. X—No. 10
Married—At Huntingdon Pa. on the 11th July last, John Williamson, Esq. attorney at law, of the borough of Indiana, Pa. to Miss Eliza Steel, daughter of Samuel Steel, Esq. of Huntingdon, Pa.”
The book is available in both paperback and downloadable formats. It includes an every name index.
Pages: 236
Binding: Perfect-bound Paperback
Interior Ink: Black & white
Dimensions (inches): 6.0 wide × 9.0 tall
Print: $21.99
Download: $12.99
Available for purchase on Lulu and Amazon.
This book is a follow-up and continuation of my previous book Marriage and Death Notices in Harrisburg Area Newspapers, 1835-1845.
Helen (Wieder) Kelly's 1938 Nursing School Graduation Photo
My great aunt Helen (Wieder) Kelly passed away Saturday, 16 July 2011, at age 94 years. She was the youngest daughter of Edwin J. and Mary Catharine (Waage) Wieder of Pennsburg, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Pennsburg High School in 1935 and studied nursing at Garfield Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C., graduating in 1938.
She married Charles W. Kelly Jr. (U.S. Marines), of Melrose, Massachusetts, and the couple had two daughters. They resided near Tampa, Florida.
She will be buried in September at Arlington National Cemetery with her husband. She was predeceased by her husband in 1983 and both sisters, Gertrude (Wieder) Wismer in 1963 and Mildred (Wieder) Greulich in 2002.
She will be greatly missed by her family.