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
The bilingual notice above (transcribed below) illustrates two points. One is that, because the great majority of 18th century York County residents were from the Germanic lands of Europe, official notices were printed in German as well as English, as shown by this broadside. It was printed by Edie and
The field of folk belief among our Pennsylvania German ancestors is a rich one, replete with words. Certain rituals go along with many practices used for healing known as pow-wow, but the words are also specific for each one. They are readily available in books such as John George Hohman’s
Pennsylvania German poet Henry L. Fisher at his attic writing desk Some of my posts earlier this year on York County agriculture drew on the books written around 1880 by Henry Lee Fisher, York attorney and Pennsylvania German (Pennsylvania Dutch) dialect poet. Fisher fondly remembered the harvest times of his
Newspapers were the only media outlet in the 19th century and politics often had the most extensive coverage. Even though some papers in the 19th century claimed to be unbiased in theie coverage, most were not. They were emphatic in their political views, attacking candidates and office holders of opposing
Welsh’s Store in 1902 With Dollar Bible Sign. I still don’t understand why some people get upset when notices are published or signs posted in English and another language, usually Spanish nowadays. They seem to think that English is the only language all of us should use. If public notices
Every now and then some people get all bent out of shape because they think there should be no accommodation for anyone that doesn’t speak or read English. Perhaps they should stop and think that their own ancestors might have been out of luck if that was the case in