PaGE – Helping History Come Alive

I’m preparing for another research trip to the Pennsylvania State Archives this week. I’m so excited as it’s a pretty new building that has only been open for a month or two (I think) and I’m going with my PA Ancestors group that I’ve been either listening to via a podcast since 2019 I believe – and a group I’ve been interacting with via Zoom for a bit so needless to say I’m excited that I get to venture to the Pennsylvania state capital to hang out with some genealogy junkies for a day.

Finding Focus

My biggest obstacle so far has been trying to come up with what I’m going to research. I was so excited about just going and meeting my favorite podcast person in person (she knows I am a fan girl) that now that it’s the Monday before the trip I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to focus my research on.

I guess I feel that my people aren’t important enough to make it into the State Archives (probably because I don’t see them being fancy enough to make it into the Bedford County Archives). Not that my people need to be fancy or important, I just wish they’d be found.

Coal Mining

But the Pennsylvania State Archives seems to have a lot of information about coal mining and so a part of me has found myself making a list of names in my family (at least on my dad’s side) of those who were coal miners (so far I’ve listed a dozen men – on just my dad’s paternal side – 2 are my direct line ancestors) in a hope of trying to figure out the mines they may have worked in and a hope of finding out more information about the men themselves (possibly) and the companies they worked for. My next step is to begin researching the men on my dad’s maternal side.

Religious Records

Another topic listed under the Research Guide is that of Religion. As a person who hasn’t really taken as much time as she should to find the religious records of my ancestors, knowing the WPA surveys on church records could come in handy for me – and they are apparently at the Pennsylvania State Archives. I remember these being mentioned a great deal at PaGE last year (this was the Pennsylvania Genealogy Event that was put on by the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania). So it’s one more thing I can look into should time permit.

Birth Certificates

I do have a birth certificate I want to get for my great-uncle, Donald Blair. When looking him up in the Birth Indices on the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s website, he has no name but found his record due to it also listing his mom’s maiden name (Bertha Childers). I found when I received my grandfather’s birth certificate it noted that he was the fifth birth of my great-grandmother, when he should have been the 4th – so was there another child that I am unaware of? Did they make a boo-boo? I’m hoping that Donald’s says fifth too and that would resolve that. I’ve tried to find my grandfather’s older sister, Genevieve’s birth certificate to see what hers would say, but I have been unsuccessful in finding it. I’ve never found a birth certificate for the oldest child, Darrell Blair either, but do have his death certificate from when he passed away at 4 months old. On Vada’s birth certificate, the second oldest, it does state on her birth certificate that she was born 2nd.

You can see in the center underneath where it has “Vada Blair” written in red where it lists the number order of birth and it states “2nd”. This was found on Ancestry.com

Under the carrot showing Charley Wilmer Blair you can see that he is listed as the Number in Order of Birth is 5th. He should be fourth (Darrell, Vada, Genevieve, Charley Wilmer aka Leroy). This birth certificate I ordered up from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Social History

Lastly, if nothing else I would think there would be Pennsylvania history books there that will enlighten me on the social history of Pennsylvania. Not having been taught in Pennsylvania and learning the specifics of Pennsylvania history I am sure there is something to be learned on the shelves, or even possibly in a museum-like atmosphere that I can gain knowledge on a day in the life of my ancestors. This could be from both parts of my family as I have to remind myself my mom’s family was from northern PA and sometimes it feels like it’s a night and day difference from “Mother Bedford”.

Overcoming My Feeling Overwhelmed

I am sure part of my frustration at this point is that I just feel a bit overwhelmed. I don’t want my trip there to be wasted – as it’s a 5-hour drive for me. But it will give me experience in an archive in what I hope to be a friendly environment.

I shall report more next week when I return from Harrisburg.

Today is the final day of October 2023 and did you accomplish anything for Family History Month? I didn’t really have a chance to work on my family history much, but I did seize some time to take some classes that I’ll share with you.

PA Ancestors

I belong to a group on the website PA Ancestors and I began the month by taking a class entitled “Discover Your Ancestors Workshop”. It was very helpful – I found it allowed me to focus on my problem at hand (we worked on a brick wall throughout the workshop). Though I haven’t knocked my brick wall down yet, I do have a better sense of records I need to go through in order to find more information on Suzanna Akers (I focused on her alone as opposed to her and Andrew combined).

In case you are unfamiliar with PA Ancestors, it is a group run by Denys Allen and it focuses on Pennsylvania Genealogy. It began as a podcast and has grown into a group. Just so incredibly helpful as those of us who research Pennsylvania know it can be challenging.

NGS Class: Foundations 102

I also realized that I had not worked on my Foundations 102 class much since ordering it in early July (I thought I had done it in August) and since you have 6 months to complete it (you can get an extension) I figured I’d better get a move on as I was on the second module still.

I did manage to finish module 2, which was all about using FamilySearch.org, I am now working on the module about Vital Records. I still have a deep dive into Census Records, Newspapers, and Cemeteries to go before it concludes at the end of December.

This is a class you can purchase through the National Genealogical Society. I have found them to be quite interesting, some stuff I know, but other things I don’t. My goal is to complete all the classes they have in order to advance my genealogical education.

If you are interested in learning about the educational opportunities with NGS, click here.

Finishing Up the Pennsylvania Genealogy Event, or PaGE

I’ve also tried to watch all the recordings that I wanted to see and their corresponding Q&A videos for the Pennsylvania Genealogy Event, aka PaGE, that took place the first week of August. I spent the extra to have access to the recordings for a few extra months so I could watch everything (if they do this again I’ll know to work less and pay attention more during the live Q&A’s as they really tried hard to have those who attended interact throughout the week).

Some of the presentations were just phenomenal and I’m so glad I took the time to listen to each and every one as I still learned things that I might not have known before.

Most Importantly

I learned throughout the month I need to take the time to spend on my family history. I miss making the discoveries about my family and that feeling I get when I get one step closer to figuring out a monumental find. Between starting a new job, and my son being a senior… I feel like I’m in a whirlwind and never have time to just sit down and relax (when I do I instantly fall asleep, I’m typing this after eating a quick lunch so I hopefully will complete it).

I hope you were all able to make good use of Family History Month, if you made any discoveries please share them in the comments below. If you didn’t because you were busy, I totally understand. There’s always November.