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
Family history research is so absorbing because you never run out of relatives, and you sometimes find some surprising ones. For example, I am distantly related to President Dwight Eisenhower. We both descend from immigrant Hans Nicholas Eisenhauer, (b. 1691), but our lines split way back. See below for my
An exciting trove of art by late Yorker Ralph Eck (1930-2015) has recently been discovered. The paintings are on display at Millersville University’s Eckert Art Gallery, but only until May 11, so you will have to act quickly to see the exhibit. The gallery, in the Winter Art Center at
We hear the word “impeachment” bandied about; do we really know what the word means and how the process works? I am no expert by far, but I did learn a lot while researching my recent York Sunday News column. The column came about when I recalled that the
Over the years the York County History Center Library and Archives has collected many plans for preservation of our local historical architecture and other resources. Most of them are full of good ideas on how not to lose those valuable resources. Unfortunately, many have not been implemented at all, and
In response to my recent York Sunday News column on the 1914-1915 York County campaign for woman suffrage, Brenda Neff kindly shared a photo of four of the local suffragists. It is great to put some faces on community participants. Note that the sashes closely resemble the two in the
We will mark the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution this June. Before that women and men all over the country had spent years trying to get individual states to allow women to vote. By 1914, woman suffrage was in effect in only
Suppose you were ready to spread your toast and the margarine was white instead of yellow. It is not very appealing, is it? Some of you might remember when margarine came packaged with a capsule of yellow food coloring; it was mixed in at home to make the spread look
Harry Houdini (Ehrich Weiss) and his wife Bess (Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner) were young circus performers in 1898. They came to York County with the Welsh Brothers circus in September of that year. The show set up at Poplar and Edgar Streets with two performances each day for several days. The
Each of our York County communities, no matter what size, seems to have its own uniquely rich history. My own families settled, some well over two hundred years ago, in the southeastern part of the county. I still have so much to learn, especially about the rest of the county.