WELCOME FOLKS

Please Note:  I am not comfortable with putting personal info on here for family members who are still alive, this blog revolves around family members who have passed on. It contains photos, documents, and memories.  The whole point of this blog is to share the info I have collected or been given over the years. If you notice a mistake, please contact me with the correct information.

Source: Bing clip art

WELCOME

The little town where I live in Indiana has recently (since Thanksgiving 2011) had 4 house fires.  The victims all have lost family photos, documents, and heirlooms.  I'm not stupid enough to think it can't happen to me.  So, I decided to post on here info on my (deceased) family members, so the photos aren't lost and all those documents that I collected over the years as I worked on the family genealogy aren't either.

My mother's family has been in Lancaster County, PA since 1717 (other stories and secondhand info says 1710) when they came from Germany, and my father's family moved there from Bucks Co, PA (they were German immigrants in the 1770's) or neighboring Monroe County in the 1870's.  Some came because of Amish or Mennonite religious beliefs and some because there just was a wander lust and some because there was not enough land to support the growing number of boys.

I'm proud of my roots.  I have files and boxes of family info that I collected over the years so this is going to be a long-drawn-out project, so bear with me.

 Family names you will see here (to name a few) are APPLEBACH, FINDLEY, GARNER, GROFF, MUSSELMAN, MOSSER/MUSSER, RESSLER, STOVER, ULRICH, WOLFE and YOST.  I am the oldest child in my family, the oldest grandchild for Pappy and Grandma GARNER, and just one of many on the APPLEBACH side.  I have "cousins by the dozens" and many, many assorted relatives - some still living in Germany.

If I don't source the information or photos, I've probably inherited the photos or was given them long ago and have no idea where they came from at this point - otherwise, I do try to say were the info came from.

However, I also pay money for documents and spend hours on a weekly basis researching photos, documents and family connections - much of that by contacting obscure relatives or actually going to courthouses, newspaper offices, or libraries.

Even as a small child I was fascinated with my family.  We are a big family and there are many stories and many photos.  I was a quiet, bookish, curious child who frustrated the adults because I was always asking questions.  As I got older and folks ran across extra photos or newspaper articles, they would give them to me (probably to humor me) and I would quietly file them away neatly with notes or comments.

By the time I was graduated from high school, I had quite a collection of family info with little effort on my part.  Then I discovered that the reference sections of libraries tended to have census records, cemetery records, and family info.  Then came the discovery of the Mormon libraries.  However, once I had little ones of my own to care for, all these records were neatly filed away for that vague "someday" when I could work on them again.

I guess that vague "someday" has arrived due to several circumstances:  my aunt is doing one family line, many of the older people have passed on, I'm certainly not getting any younger, my kids are adults, and the knowledge that this info needs to be left for others.  By putting some of it on a blog, it may also help others to find info on some relative of their own.

Make yourself a cup of coffee or tea, pull up a comfy chair and see where these Lancaster County Family Ties take you. Like any family; there are good and bad, pretty and ugly, funny and sad, and never dull people.  No family is perfect, and some are very dysfunctional, but they are family.

Source: Bing clip art

Several relatives have suggested I put this blog into book form.  That falls under the topic of maybe and someday.  I would rather share the information now and help other people whose research overlaps with mine. Happy reading.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
NOTE: THE PHOTOS USED IN THIS BLOG ARE IN MY POSSESSION UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.