Book Reviews

Book Reviews [Unless otherwise noted, book reviews are by the Editor.] How to Climb Your Family Tree: Genealogy for Beginners. By Harriet StrykerRodda. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1983. 144 pp. Charts, bibliography. Available from Genealogical Publishing Co., 111 Water Street, Baltimore, MD 21202. $6.95 plus $1.00 postage. Beginners always need help, and in genealogy there is always a new generation coming along to extend, modify and correct the work of this as well as of earlier generations of researchers. Harriet Stryker-Rodda's useful book is divided into three main heads: (1) Doing Your Own Research, (2) How to Use Public Records, and (3) Loose Ends. The critical use of family tradition and what is now fashionable to call "oral history" is included, as is* careful step-by-step analysis of how to use public, private, ecclesiastical, military, and census records. A witty chapter on "Pitfalls" (Ch. 12) discusses (1) the "three-brother tradition," (2) the "we are descended from royalty" tradition, and (3) the "u nreclairned-family-fortune" tradition. Appropriate caution on Ameracan changes of Europiean surnames is included, along with dating problems (old style and new style), and terminological problems (cousin, nephew). The author gives the good advice to be a "Doubting Thomas (or Thomasina)" and check every fact and date against all the available source materials. The book closes with a three-page annotated bibliography of books useful to the beginning genealogist. Connecticut Researcher's Handbook. Compiled and edited by Thomas Jay Kemp. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Company, 1982. Gale Genealogy and Local History Series, Volume 12. xx, 755 pp. Available from Gale Research Co., Book Tower, Detroit, MI 48226. $42.00 ppd. State guides to genealogical and local historical source materials are indispensable to genealogists, professionals as well as beginners. For this reason the Gale Research Company has sponsored and published this unexcelled volume on Connecticut. In addition to its intrinsic importance in New England and American history, Connecticut was one of the key states from which emigrants settled in Pennsylvania and the adjoining parts of Ohio—the Wyoming Valley of Northern Pennsylvania and the Connecticut or Western Reserve of Ohio. The book is arranged in two main sections, (1) Connecticut General Subjects, which include bibliography, biography, census records, church records, state archives, court and legal records, genealogical societies, histori159 160 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine cal societies, land records, loyalists, maps, military records, naturalization records, newspapers, vital records, even witchcraft. The larger part of the book deals with Connecticut's counties (all eight of them) and Connecticut's cities and towns, in alphabetical order. The arrangement of the town materials, which make up the bulk of the book (pp. 111-755) can be illustrated with the example of Danbury, Fairfield County, organized 1685. First come Cemetery Records and Cemeteries, Church Records, Historical Society, Land Records, Libraries, Military Records, Newspapers, Probate Records, Tax Records, School Records, Vital Records, Voter Records, Published Works, and other subjects. Books and articles are included under each topic, and in the case of libraries, historical societies, civil record offices, and even cemeteries, addresses and phone numbers are included. It is certainly to be hoped that similar volumes on other key states will eventually be added to the Gale Series. Virginia Geneaingy: A Guide to Resources in the Universi ty of Virginia Libra y. Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia, 1983. xii, 75 pp., author-title index. Available from University Press of Virginia, Box 3608 University Station, Charlottesville, VA 22903. $5.95 ppd. This volume is a revision of an earlier guide, published in 1977. Credits for the editing of both editions are given in the preface by Roger Leachman, Director of Reference Services, University of Virginia Library. The work is divided into (1) General Aids, including research manuals, bibliographies, indexes, and heraldry materials; (2) Foreign Sources, mostly those of Great Britain; (3) United States Sources, including bibliographies and indexes, biographical dictionaries, histories and genealogies; and finally (4) Virginia Sources, with the same range of materials, plus military records, genealogies, manuscripts, materials on homes and houses, a special section on Charlottesville and Albemarle County, and on the University of Virginia. The bibliographical items are carefully and concisely annotated, call numbers are given for each item, and there is an author title index. A Guide to Genealogical Notes and Charts in the Archives Branch, Virginia State Library. Compiled by Lyndon H. Hart III. Richmond, Virginia: Virginia State Library, 1983. vii, 167 pp. Index of family names. Available from Virginia State Library, 12th and Capitol Streets, Richmond, VA 23219. $5.00 ppd. The Archives Branch of the Virginia State Library has in this work inventoried its collection of genealogical notes and charts, which have been given or deposited by their authors, or purchased by the library. The items are arranged alphabetically, based on the surname (or first surname) in the individual work. The items are not annotated except for a brief physical description. The materials range from manuscripts, printed works with Book Reviews 161 manuscript annotations, typescripts, photostats, and blueprints, to xerox copies kind of historical recapitulation of the genealogist's problems of reproduction. There are 1009 items included. The usefulness of the compilation would have been increased by the addition of the names of the counties in Virginia where individual families were settled. Preliminary Survey of the German Collection. By Ronald Smelser, with Thomas Dullien and Heribert Hinrichs, Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press, 1979. Finding Aids to the Microfilmed Manuscript Collection of the Genealogical Society of Utah, Roger M. Haigh, Editor, Number 2. lviii, 580 pp. Available from University of Utah Press, 101 University Services Bldg., University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112. $40.00 ppd. The worldwide microfilming program of the Genealogical Society of Utah has made the work of genealogy in this country easier in providing access to records which earlier were available only through travel abroad. The German areas included in this immense list of records filmed by the Mormons include Baden-Wurttemberg, Bayern, Hessen, Niedersachsen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland, and Schleswig-Holstein all part of the present state of West Germany. A few records are included from specific areas in East Germany, filmed not there but in West Germany. Also included are some records from former German-speaking areas which are now in France, Poland, or Russia. The records listed include Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Mormon congregational records, court records, military churi7h books, and registry office materials. To give the reader some idea of the range of the materials, the records of the Palatinate—the area from which so many of our Pennsylvania German families derived—are extremely fully represented. To give an example, for the town of Neustadt, there are 44 films of civil and church records, Catholic and Protestant, from 1584 to 1929, filmed in Speyer and Trier. For the little town of Mussbach, now an administrative part of the greater Neustadt government, there are 17 films, covering the same range of material from 1699 to 1957. The value of having these materials on film in the U.S. is obvious for American-German genealogical research, emigration research, and social history research. Having them all available at Salt Lake City has even begun to draw major German genealogists to our shores, who make annual visits to Utah, where everything is at their fingertips which in Germany would involve a great deal of intercity travel. The list of records is arranged as follows: location (place, parish, town, etc.), nature of material (church book, civil record, etc.), where filmed, dates covered, and number of rolls. The gaps are also significant. In Baden-Wfirttemberg, for example, the Roman Catholic Diocesan Archive at Freiburg 162 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine gave permission for the filming of its holdings, while the Protestant Archive at Karlsruhe refused permission. It is to be hoped that eventually more of the German church record depositories will be completely filmed, as well as those many country parishes which still administer their own, unfilmed, church registers. Eighteenth Century Emigrants from German-Speaking Lands to North America. Volume 1: The Northern Kraichgau. By Annette Kunselman Burgert. Breinigsville, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania German Society, 1983. Publications of the Pennsylvania German Society, Volume XVI. xxiv, 461 pp. Maps, illustrations, family name index. Available from the Pennsylvania German Society, Box 97, Breinigsville, PA 18031. $40.00 ppd. Emigrant origins of Pennsylvania German families have busied many scholars on both sides of the Atlantic since the 1920s when Adolf Gerber published his pamphlets on emigrant data gathered from the church registers of Wurttemberg. This splendid new volume is the latest in a lengthy series and is the work of Annette K. Burgert. It is the first in what is planned as a series of similar volumes dealing with other "emigrant areas" of Germanspeaking Europe. The Kraichgau is in Northern Baden, in the lower reaches of the Neckar Valley. The Neckar flows northward through Wurttemberg, crosses the Baden border and after passing Heidelberg joins the Rhine at Mannheim. Much of this area was governmentally subject to the Electoral Palatinate in the 18th century, the time of the great migration of the Pennsylvania German forefathers across the Atlantic. The materials presented in this volume come essentially from the Lutheran and Reformed church registers of the area, as laboriously read on Mormon microfilms by Annette Burgert over a period of years. To these were added the emigration records of additional parishes as abstracted by a West German colleague, Carla Mittelstaedt-Kubaseck, whose fundamental research on the so-called 1709ers is internationally known. The plan of the work is alphabetical, by individual emigrants, from Samuel Heinrich Abendschon (Na. 1) of Schwaigern to Bernhard Zweysig (No. 624) of Mauer. In each case the pertinent German parish registers are cited, with full family details, and then the American (mostly Pennsylvanian) records are added. Where available, the emigrant's arrival in America is reported from Strassburger-Hinke, Pennsylvania German Pioneers. Where the will of an emigrant is on record, that too is abstracted. There is provided a basic introduction on the Kraichgau and its history, and as a sample from one of the villages of the area, some citizen lists of I ttlingen, from which "an unbelievably large number of persons emigrated"; these lists date from 1579, 1718, 1751, and 1752. The Kraichgau was not only a prime area for emigration to North America before 1800, it was also an important transition point for emigrants who left Switzerland in search of work opportunities and/or religious Book Reviews 163 tolerance. Many of the latter were Mennonites, and a valuable appendix lists the Mennonites in the Kraichgau villages beginning in 1651. Most of the illustrations, which show the reader the took of the villages and landscapes from which the emigrants came, were taken by the Pennsylvanian Jeffrey Godshall. One striking feature of the book is the inclusion of photographs of Pennsylvania towns or churches which were named for or by Kraichgau emigrants—Sinsheim, York County, Bendersviile, Adams County, and Bindnagel's Church, Lebanon County, to give three examples. The entire volume is meticulously done, and will benefit hundreds of Pennsylvania families and family historians for years to come. We compliment Annette Burgert and the Pennsylvania German Society for making this material available to researchers. And we look forward to Annette Burgert's additional volumes on other compact emigration areas like the Kraichgau. Pfilizer-Palatines: Beitriige zur Ein- und Auswanderung sowie zur Volicslcunde und Mundarfforschung der Pfalz und der Ziellander pfilzischer Auswanderer im 18. und 19. jahrhundert. Edited by Karl Scherer. Kaiserslautrn, West Germany: Heimatstelle Pfalz, 1981. 532 pp. Illustrations, index of authors with addresses. Available Heimatstelle Pfalz, Benzinoring 6, 6750 Kaiserslautern, West Germany. This volume, long awaited on both sides of the Atlantic, is a memorial tribute in honor of Dr. Fritz Braun, founder and long-time director of the Heimatstelle Pfalz in Kaiserslautern, the principal research center in West Germany concerning itself with the history of German emigration to North America and other parts of the world. The title can be translated: "Pfilier— Palatines: Contributions to Palatine Immigration and Emigration, Folk Culture and Dialectology of the Palatinate and the Lands where Palatine Emigrants Settled in the 18th and 19th Centuries". It is the second volume in the Series: Beitriige fur Bevolkerungsgeschichte der Pfalz (Contributions to the History of the Population of the Palatinate), edited by Karl Scherer and Roland Paul. For American-German genealogists the book is a treasure-trove. Important to Pennsylvania German researchers are two articles dealing with immigration into the Palatinate: (1) Karl Zbinden, "The Palatinate as Goal and Clearing House for Swiss Emigration," and (2) Gerhardt Hein, "The Origin of the Palatine Mennonites". The articles on emigration from the Palatinate include Dr. Gerhard Kaller's "Archival Materials on Emigration History in the Baden State Archives at Karlsruhe" (Dr. Kaller is Director of the Archives). Karl Scherer gives excellent overall historical guidance in "Pfalzer-Palatine: A Leading Theme in the Migration History of the 18th Century". Two articles deal with the Irish Palatines, i.e., the so-called 1709ers who were "transplanted" under Queen Anne to County Limerick. The first of these is Riidiger Benzing's "The Activity of the 'Commissioners for Settling the Poor Distressed Palatines in Ireland' in the Years 1709-1713"; 164 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine while Dexter Hawn deals with "Palatines and Their Descendants among the Loyalists in Canada" (many of these New York-Canadian Palatines had come from Ireland). Henry Z. Jones and John P. Dern here publish the names of the I 709ers who, on account of their adherence to the Roman Catholic religion, were returned to Holland by the British authorities in 1710. Alfred Hans Kuby, Palatine churchman and genealogist, gives fascinating details on the passengers on the "Snow Ketty" which arrived at Philadelphia in 1730 and where they originated. Leo Schelbert furnished an essay on the spiritual world of the Reverend John Peter Miller (1709-1796) of the Ephrata Cloister, and William Henry Harbaugh wrote for this volume a model genealogy entitled 'lost Herbach-Harbaugh from the Gersweilerhof and His Descendants in the U.S.A." The remainder of the articles deal with folk culture, cultural history, and dialectology, including three articles on Pennsylvania German dialect and dialect literature. The materials on individual 19th century Palatine emigrants (Konrad Krez and others) will interest German-American historians. Bibliography & Source Materials for German-American Research. Vol. 1: U.S.A. Edited by Arta F. Johnson. Columbus, Ohio: The Copy Shop, 1982. 111 pp. Available from Dr. Arta F. Johnson, 153 Aldrich Road, Columbus, OH 43214. S10.80 ppd. This bibliography grew out of a 90-page work entitled Bibliography & Source Materials . for Researching Gelman-Speaking Ancestry, which was prepared for the 1982 Grand Rapids Conference, "Three Centuries of German Immigration," sponsored by the Western Michigan Genealogical Society. It is a useful listing of books and articles, libraries and archives on GermanAmerican genealogy in the United States. It is divided into (1) Background Material, (2) Immigration, Naturalization, Migration, (3) Religious Groups, (4) Special Groups (Palatines of New York, Salzburgers, Hessians, and Russian-Germans), (5) Source Material for Individual States, (6) Libraries & Archives in the U.S.A., (7) Sources for Individual Families, (8) Societies & Publications for German-American Research, and (9) Genealogical Book Publishers & Vendors. Individual chapters were prepared by specialists, as for example, Annette K. Burgert on Emigrant Origins, Hank Jones on the I 709ers, Clifford Neal Smith on the Hessians, and Robert E. Ward on Records of Naturalization. church and Pastoral Records in the Archives of the United Church of Christ and the Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society, Lancaster, Pa. Compiled and edited by Florence M. Bricker. Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society, 19811. 49 pp. Available from Schaff Library, 355 West James Street, Lancaster, PA 17603. $5,00 ppd. The German Reformed Church, now part of the United Church ofChrist, Book Reviews 165 was always one of the major Pennsylvania German denominations. The central depository of the parish records of this group is the Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society, housed in the Schaff Library, Lancaster Theological Seminary, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania genealogists generally know the Hinke Collection, housed there, but many other scholars besides William .1. Hinke laboriously transcribed and translated early German church records, and these, along with many originals, are deposited in the society's collections. This indispensable index lists all the society's church records (transcriptions or originals), pastoral records of individual ministers, and cemetery records. The bulk of the material is from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, where the Reformed were strong in the earlier periods, but there are also records from Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The book is arranged by state and county. Call numbers and film numbers are given in 'every case. Where a record has been partially or totally published, citation of the book or periodical is given. This book should be in every genealogical library in the country, and should serve as model for similar indexes for some of the Pennsylvania denominations which have not yet compiled such aids to research. Records of Pastoral Acts at the Lutheran and Reformed Congregations of the Muddy Creek Church, East cocalico Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 17301790. Translated by William J. Hinke and Frederick S. Weiser. BreinigsOle, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania German Society, 1981. Sources and Documents of the Pennsylvania Germans: V. iv, 237 pp. Available from the Pennsylvania German Society, Box 97, Breinigsville, PA 18031. $12.50 plus $1.50 postage. This volume of 18th century church records, from a Pennsylvania German "union church," i.e., a jointly owned church property with Lutheran and Reformed congregations, provides historical and, genealogical data on a key area of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The Lutheran register of the church was opened in 1730, with a few baptisms recorded from 1728 and 1729, and the Reformed register was begun in 1743. The Reformed records as given here were those translated many years ago by William J. Hinke and are now part of the Hinke Collection, Schaff Library, Lancaster Theological Seminary. The Lutheran records were translated by Melville B. Schmoyer in 1941, but this translation was completely revised by Pastor Weiser. The major part of these records are baptisms, giving the all-important names of godparents or sponsors, a key to family relationships. In addition there are some marriages and confirmation records, and in the case of the Reformed congregation, a series of translated church accounts, articles of agreement, etc., which enlighten us on the workings of an early Pennsylvania German congregation. 166 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine This work takes its useful place beside the second number in the series, Records of Pastoral Acts at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran church, New Holland, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 1730-1799. Cumberland Valley Chronicles: A Bicentennial Histoly, By William H. Burkhart. Shippensburg, Pennsylvania: The Shippensburg Historical Society, 1976. 438 pp. Illustrations, index. Available from William H. Burkhart, 224 E. Orange Street, Shippensburg, PA 17257. $1 1.00 ppd. The large number of local histories issued at the time of the national Bicentennial in 1976 should sometime be listed. They contain materials not ,readily available elsewhere, and in many cases make pointed attempts to concentrate on the century of development in the area since the Centennial of 1876, which produced the first major wave of local historiography in America. Cumberland Valley Chronicles deals with the Shippensburg area in Cumberland and Franklin Counties, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the growing interest in the community's history on the part of the Shippensburg Historical Society, one of those local, sub-county historical societies whose numbers appear to be on the increase in the commonwealth. Among the values of this compilation are the many articles reproduced here from local newspapers of the 19th century, a map showing the town plots of 1821, histories of town industries, and a genealogical bonus of about 90 pages of the old cemetery records of the vicinity. A 14-page doublecolumn index makes the book useful to genealogists interested in the area. Genealogical History of John Francis Huber from Bucks County, Pa., and His Descendants, with Related Families, 1751-1983. By Gloria C. Hartzell, 1983. 500 pages. Illus., maps, charts, indexes. Available from the author, 1449 Yoder Ave., Gilbertsville, PA 19525. $39.00 ppd., plus $2.16 sales tax for PA residents. This impressive work traces in fascinating detail the descent of John Francis Huber, who arrived in Pennsylvania in 1751, into the present (eleventh) generation. All the data on the early generations are completely documented, with civil, church and military records (the emigrant's three sons and his son-in-law served in the Revolution. For contemporary family members and recent generations, the author used questionnaires, which yielded the usual data plus information on educational background, church membership, military experience, occupation, and the like. The author has succeeded in separating this Huber family (some of whom changed their surname to Hoover) from other families of the same name; she has thoughtfully included brief genealogies of the many allied families (indexed on p. 430); and has compiled a huge index (66 pages, of 4 columns) of over 22,000 names. Allied families include Billheimer, Franken- Book Reviews 167 field, Harris, thick, Kleckner, Lichtenwalner, Mader, Martz, Moyer, Ritter, and Solt. The considerable accomplishment represented by this book was made possible by devoting thirteen years to this project and by using all available sources—libraries, historical societies, courthouses and cemeteries (all listed in the Appendix). Published works consulted are listed in a Bibliography, and many family photos are included. The end result is an extremely complete and valuable picture of a family, that will surely be treasured by its members--and will be a fine example to others who have the courage and persistence to launch such a mammoth undertaking. Effingham P. Humphrey, jr.