Meeting and Events

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​ *** Note new meeting location!***
Monthly meetings are held in the Meeting Room of the new York County History Center facility at 121 N. Pershing Avenue, York, Pennsylvania, unless otherwise noted. Free parking available behind the building. Meetings are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.

The business portion of the meeting begins at 2:30 PM, followed by the program.

​To register for in-person attendance or Zoom registration, visit
 https://www.yorkhistorycenter.org/event/south-central-pennsylvania-genealogical-society
To attend via Facebook:   
Note: Facebook livestreaming of these meetings in no longer available. 
Use Zoom to watch the meetings live or watch later on the  SCPGS playlist of the YCHC You Tube channel.

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​Our upcoming meetings are scheduled as follows ...

May 4, 2025, 2:00 p.m. Off-Site program
A visit to the Adams County Historical Society
Gettysburg Beyond the Battle Museum
625 Biglerville Road, Gettysburg, PA 17325.
Please note that the museum charges a $15 admission per person for this program. 

If you would like to attend but cannot afford this amount, please come anyway and the SCPGS will cover your fee. We would ask that you notify us in advance that you will require financial assistance so that we have an estimate of how much money we will need. Send your request to [email protected] or [email protected].

Anyone wishing to carpool, please meet in the parking lot behind the York County History Center (121 N. Pershing Avenue).  We will leave at 1 p.m.

The Beyond the Battle Museum features more than 1,000 rare artifacts and the latest technology, exploring more than three centuries of remarkable stories. The premier exhibit—Caught in the Crossfire—invites visitors to step inside a meticulously recreated Civil War-era home and experience the ordeal of Gettysburg’s civilians through sights, sounds, and special effects.

While the Museum tour is self-guided, there will be a guided tour offered exclusively to SCPGS of the Charlie Glatfelter Research Room and Archives. 
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June 8, 2025
Hometown History: When Peach Bottom Welsh quarried slate to make roofs that seem to last forever
By Jamie Noerpel and Jim McClure

In the 1840s, the Welsh came to the Delta-Peach Bottom area to quarry slate, as they had in Wales for generations. The quarries boomed for 75 years and then declined from the World War I era to World War II, but the Welsh influence remains today. When high school students from Wales visited Delta in 2023, some felt that they were in their native country. Some found their hometowns inscribed on tombstones in Slateville Presbyterian Cemetery. “The Welsh cracked the stone in one direction,” the region’s primary history book states, “and split it in the other to make roofs that seem to last forever."

About the speakers
Jamie Noerpel -  ​After earning a B.A. from York College, Pennsylvania Jamie Noerpel taught high school history for ten years at Milton Hershey School. She now directs the York County Safety Collab, a coalition of law enforcement and the community geared toward youth crime prevention. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in American studies from PSU with a focus on history, environmental studies, and literature as well as a certification in folklore and ethnography. She co-founded a website called Witnessing York, writes a local history blog for YDR called Wandering in York County, operates a local history podcast called Hometown History, and launched Project Penny Heaven - an initiative to install a permanent monument in York’s potter’s field. As a born and raised York Countian and an academically trained historian and folklorist, she's here to speak about Welsh from Peach Bottom.

James McClure is the retired editor of the York Daily Record/York Sunday News, after serving in leadership positions at the news organization for more than 30 years. In that time, he also served as USA Today Network’s state editor for Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland, overseeing six daily newsrooms. He previously served as East Region editor for Digital First Media with oversight of 24 daily newsrooms. He is the author or co-author of 10 books on York County history, including “Never to be Forgotten” in 2024, an expanded and updated general history of York County. In 2025,  he was inducted into the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association Hall of Fame. He is a partner with Jamie Noerpel and Dominish Marie Miller in the streaming/YouTube series “Hometown History.”

SCPGS 50th Anniversary Celebration!
Saturday, September 20, 2025, 12 noon to 4 p.m.
York County History Center, 121 N. Pershing Ave., York Pennsylvania

This year the South Central Pennsylvania Genealogical Society is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the society. More information will be forthcoming here and in the SCPGS newsletters during the year.

PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND NOW BY SAVING THE DATE!

​PAST PROGRAMS ARCHIVE
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April 2025 - Farview State Hospital: Pennsylvania's Institution for the "Criminally Insane"

March 2025 - History and Genealogy of New Sweden

February 2025 - Veiled Chapters of The Hampton Plantation
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January 2025 - Show & Tell & Ask
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November 2024 - Not Your Typical Cemetery - Local Native American Burials
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October 2024 - Tour of the new PA State Archives

August 2024 - A Visit to YCHC’s New Reading & Research Room

May 2024 - A Visit to Conewago Chapel, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

April 2024 - Research at the New Pennsylvania State Archives Building

March 2024 - How to Find a Needle in a Haystack Without Even Looking
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February 2024 - Tracking the Migration of Black Families

​January 2024 - Show & Tell

November 2023 - Catharine Ziegler and Her Defense after Being Accused of Witchcraft in 1829
in York County

​October 2023 - The 1863 Pennsylvania Campaign
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August 2023 - Pennsylvania German Language Heritage

June 2023 - Unearthing Camp Security
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​May 2023 - Tour of Saint Luke's Union Church Cemetery
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April 2023 - Researching PA Civil War Draft Records

March 2023 - Pennsylvania Prison Records
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February 2023 - African American Genealogy

January 2023  - Show & Tell & Ask
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​November 2022  - Revisiting Online Research of German Ancestors

October 2022 - Indian Languages Influence in the Susquehanna Region
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August 2022 - Using Online Deeds in Family History Research
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June 2022 - Henry James Young Awards
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May 2022 - Researching the History of Institutionalized People in Pennsylvania

​Apr 2022 - The Challenges Facing the Continental Congress in York

Mar 2022 - 18th Century Gunsmithing in Eastern PA
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Feb 2022 - PA’s Celtic Language Heritage

​Jan 2022 - The Architecture of the Dempwolfs
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Nov 2021 - The Churches and Chaplains of York County During the Civil War

​Oct 2021 - Genealogical Resources of the York County History Center’s Library and Archives

​Aug 2021 - Pennsylvania State Archives’ Online Resources

Jun 2021 -History of the Henry James Young Award

May 2021 - MA & PA Railroad  Heritage Village visit

​Apr 2021 - Cumberland County Records
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Mar 2021 - PA State Archives Moves Into the Future

Feb 2021 - York County Coroner's Office
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Aug 2020 - Using Online Newspaper Collections in Research

Oct 2020 - Genealogical Adventures During the Pandemic

Nov 2020 - Using Oral History in Genealogical Research