MEETINGS and EVENTS
Monthly meetings are held in the Meeting Hall of the York County Heritage Trust, at 250 East Market Street, York, Pennsylvania unless otherwise noted. The business portion of the meeting begins at 2:15 PM and the program begins at about 2:30 PM.
Our 2012-2013 year meetings are scheduled as follows ...
Sunday, August 26, 2012 DNA, Part II
Our speaker, Darvin Martin’s interest in DNA stems from a long-standing drive to understand his family history. A soon as DNA tests for genealogical purposes became available commercially, Darvin began to explore his deep ancestry, using DNA to link his Swiss and German Mennonite/Amish surnames into a world family tree. The results are striking, and reveal a complex ancestral diversity for most people of European ancestry, including Asian and African components.
Sunday, October 7, 2012 Mapping the Susquehanna
Benjamin Henry Latrobe is best known as one of the fathers of American architecture, but his work surveying the Lower Susquehanna in 1801 has more impact on area residents today. Latrobe described the Turkey Hill rapids or falls as “most formidable”. Latrobe described his trials and tribulations of this daunting job of mapping the steep banks and rocky spillways of the Susquehanna before the building of the dams that now form Lake Clarke, Lake Aldred and the Conowingo Pond.
Our speaker, June Lloyd will share a PowerPoint presentation that includes slides of the early maps and watercolors Latrobe painted of this area of the river.
Sunday, November 4, 2012 Camp Security
York County is home to the only undeveloped Revolutionary War prison encampment site in the United States, known then and now as “Camp Security”. Established at the end of July 1781 on land presently located in Springettsbury Township, this prison camp housed as many as 1500-2000 British privates and noncommissioned officers, and their families, captured at the pivotal battles of Saratoga and Yorktown. During its existence, the facility consisted of at least one stockade and a less restrictive village site called “Camp Indulgence” by its residents. It was guarded by York County militia as well as a company of men from Col. Moses Hazen’s Continental Army regiment, “Congress’s Own” or the “Canadian Regiment.” Following the preliminary peace treaty between the fledging United States and Great Britain in the spring of 1783, the prisoners were released and marched to New York during the second week of May 1783. In the past year, more than 150 acres of this historic land were purchased for permanent preservation through a consortium of historical and conservation organizations with the assistance of state and local government.
Jonathan Stayer, supervisor of reference services at the Pennsylvania State Archives, will discuss the fascinating history of Camp Security — the selection of the site, its construction, the prisoners and the guards, prison conditions and escapes. Mr. Stayer has been studying the encampment for more than thirty years, and he will show slides of documents and artifacts associated with the site. He also will describe the latest exciting findings in British archives as well as the ongoing efforts to preserve the area.
Sunday, January 6, 2013 Civil War on the Light Side
The program will include a short session on little known facts and curiosities about the Civil War, as well as a “show and tell” session. Members and guests are encouraged to bring pension papers, photos, memorabilia, stories about ancestors who served, etc..
Sunday, February 3, 2013 Private Burial Grounds
York County is home to many private burial grounds. They are the final resting place for some of the earliest rural inhabitants. These burial grounds were established because descendants of the landowners and in some cases the closest neighbors wanted their loved ones buried nearby. Their stories are not strictly limited to a list of the people buried in these graveyards. This is a presentation that emphasizes tracing the landowners of the private burial grounds back through time. The graveyard caretakers are the recent landowners with no family connections to the burial grounds; sometimes theirs is an interesting story, although all too often theirs is a story of neglect.
This illustrated talk will present a case study of discovering the stories related to the Dosch Burial Grounds; which is located on several incarnations of Lauxmont Farms in Lower Windsor Township. This is an interesting graveyard from all aspects. Of the caretakers, one threatened to plow the graveyard under; one removed the gravestones, to potentially use in a building project, and one took great care in restoring the burial grounds. The longest running landowner was the founder of Emigsville in Manchester Township; his in-laws are buried in the graveyard. The relationship of the burials to each other and to the various landowners is the story of most interest to genealogists. Nonetheless ALL these stories add interest to a family history.
Sunday, March 3, 2013 Islands in the Susquehanna
From our speaker, Evans Goodling … My earliest recollections of the Susquehanna River and the Goldsboro area go back to the 1930s when as a youngster I accompanied my parents and grandparents up to my Grandpa George Goodling’s bungalow on a little island about a quarter mile or so offshore from Goldsboro. We would stay for a day or up to a week on the island, swimming in the river, fishing for sunnies and catfish, going for row-boat rides over to Shelly Island to visit with the caretaker and pick grapes at the big old stone farmhouse used as a retreat by the choir members from a large Lancaster church. I spent a part of nearly every summer during the period 1934 through 1955 on Grandpa Goodling’s island with my Goodling relatives, especially enjoying boating and fishing with my bachelor uncle Gordon Goodling, who told me about traditions and legends of the islands in the area. Building on oral history of those early days, I learned that my Grandpa’s island was originally named “Prunkie” and that it had been owned by the Brunk (or Prunk) family who in the 1760s had settled in Newbury Township on over 300 acres of Newberry Township land, incorporating the area that eventually became the village of Goldsboro. The Brunk family probably planted corn and tobacco on the island as early as 1781, later obtaining a warrant in 1810 for the island, with a survey filed with the Land Office in 1815.
Within a radius of less than a mile of Goodling Island (as it is now called) lie three large islands, namely Hill Island, Shelly Island, and Three-mile Island, as well as a half dozen or so much smaller islands. My researches in the records of the state Land Office (which predates the Revolution by several decades) has turned up the first owners of most of these islands who applied for warrants to survey after 1760. Early applicants for warrants included Albrecht Graff, Daniel Shelly, Jacob Shelly, Daniel Elliot, and George Goosehorn. The 1875 Landowner’s map for Londonderry Township, Dauphin County, shows that early residents of the large islands included Shelly, Burger, Shireman, and Greenwalt families. Shelly family cemeteries are found today in the center of Hill Island and at two adjacent locations on the west side of Shelly Island. A schoolhouse for the children of early resident farm families still exists on Shelly Island, although the sandstone farmhouses that existed as late as the 1950s are now gone. I am just now beginning my research on the resident families, particularly that of a Mrs. McCreary who Grandma Goodling used to visit annually on Shelly Island. Many of the islands contain vacation cottages, including one on Hill Island owned by John Garvey of Middletown, who was kind enough to take me and my wife Barbara by boat last fall to visit the neatly-maintained cemeteries on Shelly Island.
Sunday, April 7, 2013 York County in the Civil War
York County provided more than 6,000 men to the Union army during the Civil War (and a handful of Confederates), despite voting against Abraham Lincoln twice. During the Gettysburg Campaign, one out of every seven rebels in Robert E. Lee’s army invaded York County in the days before the Battle of Gettysburg, and York was the largest Northern town to fall to the Confederates in the entire war. Come hear the story of this region in the Civil War, brought to you by Scott Mingus, an author and local tour guide.
Sunday, May 5, 2013 Bible Documentation Day
Family bibles are sometimes the only source for vital statistic information, such as births and marriages. Bring your family bible to the Historical Society Meeting Hall at 250 East Market Street from 1 PM to 4 PM. We will copy, free of charge, your family information to place in the family files in the York County Heritage Trust Library & Archives. Our volunteers will record the family information, condition, ownership and publication information of the bible.
Sunday, June 2, 2013 Henry James Young Award Presentaton
NOTICE: Winter Meetings and Inclement Weather
To avoid placing speakers and members in potentially dangerous situations, SCPGS will cancel meetings if roads are snow covered or icy, or if there is the possibility roads will become snow covered or icy before those attending a meeting would be able to return home. Cancellations are made on the conservative side. To learn the status of a winter meeting that could be cancelled because of weather, call Richard Konkel at 717-843-7043.