January 2025 Program
Show and Tell and Ask
Watch the recorded presentation here.
Summary by Becky Anstine:
For the past several years, our first meeting of the year has been a “Show and Tell.” Since the weather at this time of the year is so unpredictable, it was decided not to have a guest speaker for this meeting - thus making it easier to cancel the meeting if the weather was bad. Our timing was perfectthis year – today, January 6th is a snow day throughout the county – snow all day with up to six inches possible!
Michael Staub started with his experience of finding and helping to preserve the Leber Family log home and tracing the Leber Family in York County. Since his wife’s maiden name was Leber and she wasGerman born, he wondered if there was a connection between her and the York County Lebers. He had several newspaper articles about the preservation process with Historic York and a copy of the Leber Family Book.
Jonathan Stayer had a power point showing a database that he has been developing which involves individuals from York County who served as guards at Camp Security. Through the database he hopes that information in it will provide data on when they served, length of time, their involvement with the building of the Camp, and which militias were involved as guards.
One of our new members, Beth, shared her search to prove that various family stories which had been passed down needed to be shared with family members to show that those stories had gaps that needed to be filled in to make the family history more accurate.
Becky Anstine showed a bank that she had found at a craft show. The bank was made from an old post office box. As a child, Becky had to walk to the New Freedom post office and get the family mail from their box – number 233. That number later became their house number – 233 N. Third St. When she saw that bank at the craft show – it brought back some old memories.
Steven Raffensberger came from Lancaster, hoping that this meeting would help him connect with Raffensberger family members of York. He hopes to be able to find if there is a family connection between the two counties. He also brought a self-published book on the Raffensberger family.
Margaret Burg shared the patent information that a cousin had found involving her Boullion ancestors.The family was in the shirt making business and later the upholstery business. At the time the patent was developed in 1848, the family was in New Orleans making shirts with tucking down the front – the equipment made it easier to make the tucks and have the tucks consistent. Later it was adapted to be used in making tucks when upholstered furniture.
Erica Runkles had a packet of letters that she had purchased on eBay. All of the eleven 1880s letters had been written to one girl who was connected to her family. Erica read one that described some daily activities, different relatives who visited and who the young girl was planning to visit.
Tom Gibbs joined our meeting late – he had been part of the York Twinning Association’s 12th Night Tour and spoke about the area around the Unitarian Church and Springdale area where the Grier Hersh and Jacob Barnitz homes had been built.
This was a relaxing and entertaining way to start the new year as we look forward to celebrating the 50th anniversary of the South Central Pennsylvania Genealogical Society
Summary by Becky Anstine:
For the past several years, our first meeting of the year has been a “Show and Tell.” Since the weather at this time of the year is so unpredictable, it was decided not to have a guest speaker for this meeting - thus making it easier to cancel the meeting if the weather was bad. Our timing was perfectthis year – today, January 6th is a snow day throughout the county – snow all day with up to six inches possible!
Michael Staub started with his experience of finding and helping to preserve the Leber Family log home and tracing the Leber Family in York County. Since his wife’s maiden name was Leber and she wasGerman born, he wondered if there was a connection between her and the York County Lebers. He had several newspaper articles about the preservation process with Historic York and a copy of the Leber Family Book.
Jonathan Stayer had a power point showing a database that he has been developing which involves individuals from York County who served as guards at Camp Security. Through the database he hopes that information in it will provide data on when they served, length of time, their involvement with the building of the Camp, and which militias were involved as guards.
One of our new members, Beth, shared her search to prove that various family stories which had been passed down needed to be shared with family members to show that those stories had gaps that needed to be filled in to make the family history more accurate.
Becky Anstine showed a bank that she had found at a craft show. The bank was made from an old post office box. As a child, Becky had to walk to the New Freedom post office and get the family mail from their box – number 233. That number later became their house number – 233 N. Third St. When she saw that bank at the craft show – it brought back some old memories.
Steven Raffensberger came from Lancaster, hoping that this meeting would help him connect with Raffensberger family members of York. He hopes to be able to find if there is a family connection between the two counties. He also brought a self-published book on the Raffensberger family.
Margaret Burg shared the patent information that a cousin had found involving her Boullion ancestors.The family was in the shirt making business and later the upholstery business. At the time the patent was developed in 1848, the family was in New Orleans making shirts with tucking down the front – the equipment made it easier to make the tucks and have the tucks consistent. Later it was adapted to be used in making tucks when upholstered furniture.
Erica Runkles had a packet of letters that she had purchased on eBay. All of the eleven 1880s letters had been written to one girl who was connected to her family. Erica read one that described some daily activities, different relatives who visited and who the young girl was planning to visit.
Tom Gibbs joined our meeting late – he had been part of the York Twinning Association’s 12th Night Tour and spoke about the area around the Unitarian Church and Springdale area where the Grier Hersh and Jacob Barnitz homes had been built.
This was a relaxing and entertaining way to start the new year as we look forward to celebrating the 50th anniversary of the South Central Pennsylvania Genealogical Society