Grave Undertakings, Vol. 1, Elizabeth Township, Lancaster Co., PA.

Book Reviews Grave Undertakings, Vol. 1, Elizabeth Township, Lancaster Co., PA. By Martha J. Xakellis. Closson Press, Apollo, Pa., 1989. 96 pp., paper. $12.00 postpaid (Pa. residents add 6% sales tax). Contents include a map of Elizabeth Township with cemetery locations and tombstone inscriptions from the following cemeteries: Old Zion Reformed Church Cemetery; Emanuel Lutheran Cemetery; St. ohn's Lutheran Cemetery; Hammer Creek Mennonite Cemetery; Coleman Memorial Chapel Cemetery; Sahm/Kunzi Graveyard; Lexington/Kauffman Cemetery; Brubaker/Bar Graveyard; Eby Graveyard; Steintnentz Cemetery; Brubaker Graveyard; former Badorf/Sahm Graveyard; Stauffer Graveyard. Ms. Xakellis checked her readings with those of earlier readings, when available. If names were on an earlier list but the tombstones no longer existed when she visited the cemetery, she so noted the previous inscriptions. There is no index in this book; the names are listed alphabetically under each cemetery. Emanuel Lutheran and St. John's Lutheran cemeteries are mapped out with references to wherethe tombstones appear. A short description is given of each cemetery, and there are photographs. This book is indeed helpful; however, it would have been more helpful if the tombstones had been recorded in order so as to suggest possible relationships based on the placement of the burials. Jane Adams Clarke Bibliography oplassachusetts Vital Records, 2d ed. By jay M. Holbrook. Holbrook Research Institute, Oxford, Mass., 1988.280 pp, on one fiche, filmed at 42X. $6.00. This microfiche is subtitled An Inventory of the Original Birth, Marriage, and Death Volumes. In Massachusetts there are approximately 375 communities. The 1988 Bibliography lists collections of the vital records for 191 of these communities and catalogs 61 towns not listed in the 1986 edition, including every town in western Massachusetts. 104 Book Reviews 105 At present some 154 of these 191 listings are available on microfiche. The Bibliography indicates whether a town's records have been published or filmed. If filmed, it shows which records have been filmed, how many microfiches there are, and the contents of each microfiche card. The Bibliography also includes the Microfiche Indexes ofMassachusetts Births, Marriages, Deaths, 1841-1895 . Since the filming of the Massachusetts vital records is an on-going project expected to continue another five to eight years, the researcher will not find a listing of all towns. Douglas A. Weeny Genealogical Abstracts of The Laws ofFennsylvania & The Statutes At Large. By Candy Crocker Livengood. Family Line Publications, Westminster, Md., 1990. 356 pp., index, paper. The Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania and the Laws of Pennsylvania contain much information, including changes of names; divorces and annulments; oaths of allegiance; debtors in prison; legitimizations of children for inheritances; Revolutionary War information; and many other items of interest to genealogists. Although individual books do have indexes, there has been no comprehensive every-name index of these volumes. Covered in these abstracts are the years 1682 to 1820. In addition to an every-name index there is an index to places. Also included is a bibliography. Name and place spellings have been left as found in the original law; therefore, all phonetically applicable names should be checked. The originals of these laws and statutes are available in many libraries and should be checked if an entry of interest is found. This is an extremely useful book. Jane Adams Clarke Guide to Microfiche Indexes of Massachusetts Births, Marriages, Deaths, 1841-.1895 . By Jay M. Holbrook. Holbrook Research Institute, Oxford, Mass., 1989. 24 pp. $5.00. Statewide birth, marriage, and death indexes from 1841 to 1895 are on deposit at the Massachusetts State Archives in Boston. These indexes have been filmed and are available on microfiche. For each name listed, the microfiche index identifies the year and the town of the birth, marriage, or death, but vital records and/or town records should be consulted for further information. 106 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine With this guide the researcher can pinpoint which of the hundreds of microfiche cards he or she needs to consult. This is a handy guide for those who have access to the microfiche indexes or who want to purchase the microfiche cards for a particular surname. Douglas A. Weeny 1767 Berks County Pennsylvania Archives. Compiled by Katharine F. Dix. Closson Press, Apollo, Pa. 33 pp., index, paper. $6.00 postpaid (Pa. residents add 6% sales tax). The information in this volume is extracted from the Pennsylvania Archives, 3d series, vol. 18, which contains information on Berks County for the period from 1767 to 1785. Not all of the years are represented. The volume is a computerized index. The first column contains the name of the taxpayer/land owner. The second column is the page number of the volume in the published Pennsylvania Archives. The third column is the township where the person was recorded. This can be helpful as an index. But, with all such endeavors, the original volumes should be consulted. Volumes 27-30 of the Pennsylvania Archives, 3d series, are indexes to the previous 26 volumes of this series and should also be checked. Jane Adams Clarke A Fitch Family HistoT English Ancestors of the Fitches in Colonial Connecticut. By John Townsend Fitch. Picton Press, Camden, Me., 1990. 288 pp., hard cover. $40.00. Subtitled English Ancestors of the Fitches in Colonial Connecticut, this handsome volume comes "Smyth-sewn, case-bound full standard size (6" x 9") and quality linen covered." The text is embellished by 72 maps, photographs, and other illustrations. John Fitch traces his family from 1400 through a single line that survived as a number of other Fitch parallel branches died out in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The book documents the line of descent from William Fitch (ca. 1400-1466) of Wicken Bonhunt, County of Essex, England. It is the story of fourteen people (and their progeny): six generations in England spanning 250 years, and eight generations that lived in America covering the next 300 years. Author Fitch uses the generation numbering system known as the Register Plan of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, with the English forebears in lettered reverse chronology and American de- Book Reviews 107 scendants in number chronology. The bulk of the text, as the subtitle suggests, concentrates upon the former, and a long chapter is devoted to the principal Fitch of each generation, while the latter are merely listed in a brief genealogy next to the bibliography, appendix, glossary, and index at the end of the book. This is a patrilineal line of Fitches with the wives' identities mainly established through their husbands and their own information inserted where available. The Fitches were countrymen, originally tenants and then freeholders, commoners of respectable standing. Some were merchants, and more than a few were clothiers engaged in the manufacture of wool cloth who farmed out the spinning and weaving to local rural women. The author maintains chronological momentum with margin dates at frequent intervals as he relates Fitch family doings to the historical events of the successive generations. Genealogists and general readers alike should applaud this highquality research effort matched by a publication level which assures durability and represents good value. John A. Baird, Jr. Centennial Register, 1888-1988, Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution. Edited by Mark Frazier Lloyd. Published by the Society, Philadelphia, 1990. 994 pp. Students of early American history as well as contemporary genealogists will welcome this handsome and substantive volume which marks the one hundredth anniversary of this Pennsylvania hereditary and patriotic organization. The Society insignia emblazoned upon the front cover and Rembrandt Peale's portrait of George Washington just inside the cover confirm the high quality of this publication, and the contents match the physical impressiveness of the volume. Editor Mark Lloyd, director of the University of Pennsylvania Archives and registrar of the Society, provides a comprehensive introductory section of text which includes the by-laws, constitution, list of founders, and cumulative roster of officers and managers. He also features a trenchant article by Honorary President Martin P. Snyder that notes the beginnings, century of service, and future potential of the Society. The roll of members and roll of ancestors together comprise the bulk of the book. 108 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine Each member's listing includes both state and general society numbers assigned to each individual, his years of birth and admission to the Society, and the name and life dates of his qualifying ancestor(s). The ancestors' roll provides birth and death (month and year) dates for each man, his Revolutionary War service record, and the names of his descendants who have been or are members of the Society. The Centennial Register is a welcome addition to the field of military genealogy. John A. Baird, Jr. QuakerMarriage Certificates, New Garden Monthly Meeting Chester County, Pennsylvania, 1704-4799. Compiled by Gwen Boyer Bjorkman. Heritage Books, Bowie, Md., 1990. viii plus 307 pp., map, index. $25.00 plus $3.00 shipping. While marriage records of New Garden, one of the earliest Monthly Meetings to be established in Chester County, have been transcribed before and are freely available at Friends' Historical Library located on the campus of Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pa., Gwen Bjorkman's compilation makes these records readily available to libraries and those attempting to locate family members in this locale. The book's biggest asset is that it includes the names of the guests at the wedding who may or may not be Quakers and may have very few available records in Chester County. It also provides a full description of the layout of each certificate, with the location of the parents' names on the right-hand side of the page below the signatures of the bride and groom. The introduction has a picture and description of the New Garden Meetinghouse taken from Ezra Michener's 1860 "Retrospective of Early Quakerism." Aubrey H. Baldwin, III Western New York Land Transactions, 1804-1824, Extracted from the Archives of the Holland Land Company. By Karen E. Livsey. Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1991. 472 pp., indexed, cloth. $35.00 plus $2.50 shipping. The Holland Land Company was a stock corporation formed by six Dutch banking houses for the purpose of buying land in New York state, and by 1797 the company had purchased some 3.3 million acres of land in western New York, west of the Genesee River. By 1839 all this land had been sold to individual settlers and speculators. The Book Review 109 papers relating to the land transactions were subsequently shipped to Amsterdam and are in the custody of the Amsterdam Municipal Archives. They have been microfilmed, and the 202 rolls are available through the Holland Land Company Manuscript Preservation Project, Reed Library, State University of New York, Fredonia, N.Y. Copies are at the Library of Congress, the New York State Library, the New York Public Library, and the Genealogical Society of Utah Family History Library (LDS) in Salt Lake City. The heart of the microfilm collection is the "Land Tables," showing year by year which lands had been sold, to whom, and on what terms. This present work is an index to the Land Tables from their inception in 1804 until the year 1824. Covered are the acres known as the Genesee or Holland Purchase plus the 40,000 Acre Tract and a twelve-mile strip known as Morris' Reserve, both east of the Purchase. Touching on some 40,000 individual land transactions, the extracts in this volume provide the purchaser's name, the location of the purchase, the date of the transaction, the type of transaction, and a citation to the original source and the microfilm. The information extracted from the records should guide researchers to a location in western New York where a person may have resided at a given time. Included in this volume is a short history of the Holland Land Company, as well as an explanation of how best to utilize the records with the information contained in this book. It should be noted that the Holland Land Company also had land in western Pennsylvania, covering in part areas in present-day Luzerne and Bradford counties. The Pennsylvania lands are not covered in this volume. The work done by Ms. Livsey is one key to unlock the door to the vast amounts of information in the records of the Holland Land Company. She should be congratulated and encouraged to continue this project. Jane Adams Clarke A Collection of Memorial Concerning Diverse Deceased Ministers and Others of the People Called Quakers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Parts Adjacent, from Nearly the First Settlement thereof to the Year 1787. Heritage Books, Bowie, Md., 1990. viii plus 439 pp., index. $27.50 plus $3.00 shipping. This book, termed a Heritage Classic, is a reprint of the work published by the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends in 1787 on 110 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine the press ofjoseph Crukshank, in Market Street, between Second and Third streets, Philadelphia. It contains thumbnail sketches of 162 Public Friends (ministering Quakers) with some last expressions and exhortations of many of them. The title is a most exact statement of this book's content, but it is less than half of its contemplated use, which the anonymous editor shows in his preface: "Although they who are departed hence in the Lord, can receive no addition to their happiness by any testimonial of their surviving friends, however just ...yet it is right that the remembrance of those should be preserved, whose lights have so shone before men as to excite the beholders of their good works. With this in view, our yearly-meeting considering that many memorials of our departed friends lay dormant in records, directed a Collection to be made of such of them as were most likely to be of general benefit by publication, some of whom will be reminded of the sincere piety and virtue of their ancestors. The following is affectionately recommended to the descendants of these worthies, to the readers in general and particularly to the youth, who may derive profitable instruction of the happy effects of an early devotion of heart. h is hoped that there are many to whom the contents of this Collection will afford information, edification, and encouragement in the pursuit of their most substantial interest, a life of true wisdom, piety, and virtue; and that the number of such may increase is the design of the following publication." The reviewer can only add this word. Don't pass this classic by, or you will miss all of the above, in addition to much invaluable historical and biographical material, and much amusement. Aubrey H. Baldwin, III Welsh Tract of Pennsylvania: The Early Settlers. By Charles H. Browning. Family Line Publications, Westminster, Md., 1990. 296 pp., index, paper. $21.00. This book will be a bonanza for persons researching Quaker ancestors in the region of Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties of southeastern Pennsylvania. Welsh Tract, a reprint of the first 276 pages of Browning's 1912 Welsh Settlement ofPennsylvania, details the division of William Penn's 30,000acre Welsh Tract among seven land "companies" in 5,000-acre blocks, for sale at £100 sterling per block, in 1681. Book Reviews 111 The reader meets the founders of the Merion Quaker meeting and other Quaker pioneers who fled persecution in England for their religious beliefs. They left comfortable homes for "distant and wild lands beyond the seas." The Welsh settlers came to what then was called "the wilderness beyond the Schuylkill" and established such communities as Bala, Goshen, Narberth, and Radnor, which retain those names to this day. The book contains not only specific information concerning original deeds but also records subsequent transactions, including further purchases, sales, and, ultimately, property bequests. Author Browning furnishes detailed genealogical data as well, with many pages devoted to marriages, births, and burials. John A. Baird, Jr. Books in Brief Compiled by Jane Adams Clarke Abstracts of South Central Pennsylvania Newspapers, 1791-1795. Compiled by Martha Reamy. Family Line Publications, Westminster, Md., 1988. 190 pp., index, paper. $12.50 (Pa. residents add 6% sales tax). This book is the second in a series of volumes of abstracts of southcentral Pennsylvania newspapers. Included are abstracts from some issues of the Carlisle Gazette Ee Western Repository of Knowledge, the Pennsylvania Herald & York General Advertiser, and the [ Carlisle] Telegraphe. The appendices include the names of those who had unclaimed letters held at the York and the Carlisle post offices. Abstracts of South Central Pennsylvania Newspapers, 1796-1800. Compiled by F. Edward Wright. Family Line Publications, Westminster, Md., 1988. 182 pp., index, paper. $12.40. This book is the third in a series of volumes of abstracts of southcentral Pennsylvania newspapers. Abstracted were some copies of the Carlisle Guyette, York Advertiser, York Recorder, and isolated issues of the Adams Centinel (later Gettysburg Star), the Shippensburgh Messenger, the 112 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine Telegrapize, and the Franklin Repository. The appendices include the names of paople whose letters remained at the post office as published in the Carlisle Gazette, York Advertiser, and York Recorder. Greene County, Pennsylvania, 1820 Census. Transcribed by Mary E. Schultz. Heritage Books, Bowie, Md. 96 pp., index, paper. $15.00 plus $2.50 shipping. This transcription lists the heads of households by name and categorizes the white males and females by age groupings. It also identifies unnaturalized foreigners; persons engaged in agriculture, commerce, or manufacturing; and individuals with slaves or free Blacks in their households. Indexes such as this save time when checking for families in a census; however, the original should always be checked. Bedford County Pennsylvania Archives, Volume 5. Edited by James Biser Whisker, Ph.D. Closson Press, Apollo, Pa. 158 pp., index, paper. $16.00 (Pa. residents add 6% sales tax). This is the fifth volume of the Bedford County Archives being published by Closson Press. Included in this volume are: Plan for Bedford Town; lot owners in Bedford in 1795; sketches of early settlers from the 1941 Pioneer Historical society program; Sheriffs Fee, 1792; some Huntingdon County soldiers; some Bedford County tax lists, 1817-1819; extracts from the Bedford Gazette, 1844-1851; and Bedford County death records. This is a bodge-podgy of information in no particular order, and in some instances the sources are not clearly given. The publisher advises that when more than one volume of these archives is purchased there is a discount. Zion's Evangelical German Lutheran Church of Girardsville, Schuylkill Co., Pa. Compiled by Dr. Glenn P. Schwalm. Closson Press, Apollo, Pa., 1973. 74 pp., index, paper. $8.50 postpaid (Pa. residents add 6% sales tax). This record was compiled from the original church records. Included are baptisms, 18804916; marriages, 1882-4930; deaths, 1881-1930; and confirmations, 1894-1931. A short history of the church is also given.