Universal York

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1810s Archives

Some months ago I wrote about the Pennsylvania German Birth and Baptismal certificates (often known as Taufscheine or Fraktur) that were produced in the Hanover print shop of Wilhelm Daniel Lepper and Samuel Endredy Stettinius.  These two printers established Hanover’s first newspaper Die Pennsylvanische Wochenschrift, in 1797 and issued their

Do you ever wish you knew what your ancestors were like?  After all, they were living, breathing souls just like you and me.  Most of you probably know or knew your parents and all or many of your grandparents.  Some even remember a great-grandparent or so.  Just multiply those family

We sometimes seem to have a love/hate relationship with old buildings.  We act like we would love to save them for their historical ties or architectural significance.  On the other hand we often seem to hate committing funds to preserve them.  This isn’t a new problem. There have always been

Some of you might be lucky enough to have Pennsylvania German birth and baptismal certificates that were done for family members well over 100 years ago.  Or you just might be intrigued by the art and design of these unique folk art documents and perhaps collect them.  I have written