Bringing the Dead Out of Hiding

Tim Gruber and his group People for Better Pennsylvania Historical Records Access—"PaHR-Access" to their friends—are trying to expand access to Pennsylvania's death records.

Gruber says he is working with legislators to have a bill introduced that would address the No. 1 problem, from a researcher’s standpoint: That there is no type of index available to the public in which to search. As a “closed records state,” Pennsylvania’s law says that only certain people can even request a copy of the certificate.

One of the main ways that the Division of Vital Records enforces this provision is to require quite a bit of information on the application for a death certificate — including such items as the date of death … which, of course, is frequently what a genealogist is trying to find out from the death certificate! [Link]

PaHR-Access wants genealogists and others to write or call state officials, but what it really, desperately needs is a new name. Something like "Pennsylvanians for Open Records Now," which would make its new acronym... Wait, no, that won't work.

They Must Be From Far Eastern Pennsylvania

Charles F. Kerchner, Jr., has started a project to find Asian DNA in Pennsylvania Germans.

Kerchner’s project looks to prove or disprove that some people, or sub-groups, within the Pennsylvania German ethnic group may have a small but detectable percentage of Asian genetic content, possibly introduced into their ancestors’ genomes from the major invasions of southern Germany by tribes from Asia, such as the Huns and Mongol hordes more than a thousand years ago or of ancient times from the Scythians. [Link]

Why Windish?

Sometime prior to 1920, the Slovenian population of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, stopped being Slovenian. Stephen C. Antalics explains why:

A review of the archives of Ellis Island ship manifests for these first immigrants reflects only Slovenian ethnicity. The 1920 federal census for these same immigrants in Bethlehem reflected them as 100 percent Windish. So, were they Windish or Slovenian? And why is Bethlehem the only place in the world where the term "Windish" is used today?

The Hapsburg Empire had two Slovenian communities, one in Austria, the other in Hungary. This gave rise to severe dialect differences. Dialogue was very difficult. The Hungarian government dispatched clergy to America to encourage its Slovene immigrants to preserve Hungarian sympathies over their Slavic ethnicity by becoming "Wends." This plot failed in every U.S. community -- except Bethlehem. [Link]

Sketching Fetching Models

Jonathan Stayer spoke Sunday to the South Central Pennsylvania Genealogical Society about the wide range of materials available at the Pennsylvania State Archives, where he is reference archivist. I'd love to take a peek at these records:

There are dog records. York County was the only county, Stayer said, where dog owners actually sketched out a picture of the beloved canines on their applications. [Link]

Whitetail or Shirttail

Quilts to be displayed at a Pennsylvania tavern this weekend testify to the poor marksmanship of generations of local hunters.

The late Helen Kuzma, who owned the Beechwood Inn in Ogletown with her husband, John, from 1947 to the 1970s, made quilts by hand using the shirttails she snipped from patrons who missed getting a deer.

The many plaid and solid-color flannel and wool shirttails were embroidered with the owner’s name, so there was a record when a hunter would claim they never missed a shot.

Each year, Kuzma would hang that year’s quilted record of misses as well as previous years’ quilts. [Link]

Interracial Interaction in Intercourse, PA?

From The (Hanover, Pa.) Evening Sun of Aug. 29, 2005:

Volunteers sought for study on Pennsylvania Dutch dialect

By JEFFREY B. ROTH
For The Evening Sun

Speech is telling, and Jennifer Bloomquist can tell if people are from southcentral Pennsylvania by the words, phrases and idioms they use.

She is collecting this linguistic harvest from the area under the auspices of the National Science Foundation.

Bloomquist, an assistant professor of linguistics and African-American studies, and her student assistants at Gettysburg College are beginning their final year of the two-year, $40,000 grant.

They're investigating if the language of rural and urban blacks in Adams, York, Lancaster and Dauphin counties has been added to or influenced by the dialect peculiar to this area, she said. That includes Pennsylvania Dutch's influence on black Americans and vice versa.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Back to the Burgh

In honor of the most recent of my alma maters (please, no comments about Latin plurals), I must commend the Historic Pittsburgh project mounted by the University of Pittsburgh.

What began in 2001 as a collection of historical maps of and texts about the city has blossomed into a full-scale genealogical treasure trove. You can now view a detailed chronology of Pittsburgh history, or search census schedules from 1850 to 1880 by first or last name, place of birth, occupation, sex, or (for 1880) street name.

The Historic Pittsburgh Image Collections were launched in September of last year, and now boast 7,674 photographs from 27 different collections. Explore by time, location, collection, or by one of four themes—Pittsburgh at Work, Pittsburgh at Play, Pittsburgh at Home, or Pittsburgh Personalities.

This website has become essential for family historians with roots in Western Pennsylvania—and for Pitt graduates nostalgic for their days in the Cathedral of Learning.

Third-Class Cemeteries in Pennsylvania

From the Pittsburgh (Pa.) Tribune-Review:

Aging volunteers ask city's help in maintaining old cemetery

By Dan Hilliard
for the Valley News Dispatch
Tuesday, June 14, 2005

For the past five years, a group of volunteers with relatives buried in Round Hill Cemetery along Industrial Way have made sure the grass surrounding its chalky tombstones is clipped and neat.

Now, they'd like the city to lend a hand. Preferably two, attached to a lawn mower.

[snip]

The volunteers are backing up their request for city funding and labor with a 1923 state law requiring "townships" to adopt abandoned cemeteries.

Solicitor Stephen Yakopec said the volunteers' reasoning is dead wrong.

According to Yakopec, the law requires only townships to adopt abandoned cemeteries. Lower Burrell dropped its township status and became a Third Class city in 1935.

If state legislators had intended to saddle Third Class cities with abandoned cemeteries, Yakopec said, they would have done so in writing.

[snip]

Despite the city's apparent lack of legal obligations, Mayor Donald Kinosz said he will not allow the cemetery to become an eyesore.

"Ultimately, we've got to take care of it, somehow."

Kinosz said he and Yakopec will meet with the volunteers soon to plot their options.

He also said he will try to contact the cemetery property's last owner, though he said a seance might be more appropriate than a telephone call.

"The ones who started it probably are in it," he said.

[Read the whole story]