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Fraktur 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

I became interested in Meyer and other York County printers because several also printed Taufscheine, the birth and baptismal certificates that I have been researching for years.  Most of them were also very interesting individuals, especially as they used their newspapers as a political platform.  One good example is Solomon

Earlier this year I wrote about Daniel May, printer and newspaper publisher in York from about 1829 to 1843.  He was one of several York County printers to produce Taufscheine, or baptismal certificates, also known as Fraktur.  These colorful certificates, popular from about 1770 to 1870, recorded the birth and

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

I am doing research for an article I’m writing on the prolific York County Fraktur artist Daniel Peterman, who did the certificate above. So far I have recorded 79 examples of his work. His hand-down Taufscheine (Birth and Baptismal Certificates) cover six decades of the 19th century, from the 18-teens

Pennsylvania German birth/baptismal certificate (Taufschein) for Catharina Stambach, born 1835, by Adam Wuertz Only a few days left to sign up for the Saturday June 5 Pennsylvania Germans in York County seminar sponsored by the South Central Pennsylvania Genealogical Society and York County Heritage Trust. Registration deadline is this Saturday,