Henry J. Young Award - Stephen H. Smith​​, July 2026

Stephen H. Smith is a York County native known to most of us as one of the YorksPast history bloggers, author of articles and publications on local history, as the chair of the Springettsbury Township Historic Preservation Committee, and as a volunteer at the YCHC Library and Archives. But like so many of us, his interest in local history and genealogy began in 1992 when he began researching his own family tree. At that time, he could only name three of his 16 great-great-grandparents. Through research at the YCHC (then the Historical Society of York County) and the Historical Society of Lancaster County, Steve was able to learn the names and some information on all 16 of his great-great-grandparents. Once
that goal was accomplished, he progressed into discovering the names and a little history on all 32 of his great-great-great-grandparents. But his research often hit dead ends. Does this sound familiar?

Through attendance at the National Genealogical Society conference in 1997, held in nearby Valley Forge that year, Steve discovered ways to focus and improve his research skills. He spent the next four years researching and writing the history of his mother’s Barshinger family, resulting in the publication ofhis book Barshingers in America in 2001. For this effort, the National Genealogical Society recognized the book as the top genealogy and family history book of 2002. As are all of Steve’s writings, Barshingers in America can be found at the YCHC library. After the book’s publication, Steve returned to
his Smith family research and the Gilbert family branch from that line. Though he has not yet finished this research, Steve has donated to the YCHC library the 3-inch indexed notebooks of the research done to date for those two families.

After his retirement as a mechanical engineer, Steve began volunteering in the library and archives of the YCHC (then the York County Heritage Trust) assisting patrons with family research. Noticing his honed research skills, Lila Fourhman-Shaull asked him to assist with research requests on family history/genealogy and local businesses. This work evolved into extensive local industry research and an offer by Jim McClure to join York Daily Records’ York History Blog. Steve’s YorksPast blog began in July 2012 and continues to this day with over 1,400 posts covering local history to family history.

Serving as the chair of the Springettsbury Township Historic Preservation Committee for over 15 years, Steve has also been one of the county’s greatest advocates for preservation. He authored the tenpart history of Springettsbury Township that can be found on the township’s website. He also writes yearly publications on township history sold by the Historic Preservation committee to raise money to assist with their preservation and history projects.

Since 2014, Steve has written articles for the Journal of York County Heritage. In 2020, he authored our Special Publication 84, which uses the 1860 Census to provide a genealogy of the Springettsbury Township region of Shearer’s 1860 Map. In addition to his YorksPast blog posts and publications, Steve has shared his knowledge of family and local history via presentations since 2003 including several times each year at the Springettsbury Township History Night. His present list of 70+ talk topics has been presented multiple times. Given all these accomplishments, South Central Pennsylvania Genealogical Society is pleased to award Stephen H. Smith the Henry James Young Award.
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