Ten Years On

A decade ago in the summer of 2014, I was living in California and filled with thoughts of my Pennsylvania family and the lives of our ancestors. I knew that years before, my father, Mark, had published a family newsletter, The Beech Grove, and used this to share genealogy and stories. I wondered: Might we relaunch the newsletter as a website? I mentioned my idea to my father and he balked. His schedule was already overbooked with numerous other commitments and hobbies. But I didn’t give up.

Over the next few weeks, we continued to talk, and he eventually warmed to the idea. Things began to move forward. By October of 2014, we had a domain name for the site—Hagenbuch.org—which was graciously donated by our cousin, David J. Hagenbuch. On October 29, 2014 the first post was published to this site and the rest is history!

For my father and I, Hagenbuch.org represents the culmination of decades, maybe even centuries, of genealogical work. One can draw a line directly from family historians like Enoch Hagenbuch (b. 1814) in the 1880s to William L. Hagenbaugh (b. 1878) in the 1940s to my father, Mark’s, work in the 1980s, to our present-day combined efforts. Our Hagenbuch genealogy has deep roots and wide branches filled with interesting personalities and fascinating stories.

Charles Clarence Hagenbuch (b. Nov. 14, 1915) and Homer Sechler Hagenbuch (b. Nov. 4, 1916) with their first teacher, Miss Dye, c. 1923

Today, there are 522 articles on this site. Most have been written by my father and me. However, we have had some collaborators over the years and hope for more in the future. (Please contact us if you’d like to share information about your branch of the family!) Hagenbuch.org contains approximately 580,000 words of family history—a number in excess of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings series. Additionally Beechroots.com, our database of family records, contains a family tree with details for 5,500 relatives. Sitting here now, it doesn’t feel like such a huge accomplishment. Yet, I know it is, given the countless hours it took to research, write, and publish one article a week for a decade. Over a period of ten years, through illness, family additions, a cross country move, and other life events, we never missed a beat. Way to go, Dad!

Over the next few weeks, we are going to celebrate the weight of what the last decade of work on Hagenbuch.org represents to us and to our family. We plan to look ahead at the future of the site and to revisit our mission of documenting our entire family. We will also look back and consider how we got here. That process actually began last week with my father’s article about the conclusion of The Beech Grove in 1992 and continues now with a retrospective of our past year of writing.

Mark Hagenbuch in the stocks at Williamsburg, Virginia, 1964

Storytelling is at the core of everything we do here. In fact, during the last 12 months, my father and I both wrote articles on the topic. In my father’s, he explained about the importance of telling family stories, and in mine I discussed how there is always more to learn about a story. Many stories begin with specific Hagenbuch family groups and their individual members.

Michael Hagenbaugh (b. 1815) and his family in Ohio were examined, as well as the families of Dale Trumbore Hagenbuch (b. 1940) of Quakertown, Pennsylvania and Malinda (Hagenbuch) Ferry (b. 1851) of Spokane, Washington. A small screwdriver found on eBay helped to reveal the story of Norman A. Hagenbuch (b. 1908) and his meat market in Bowmanstown, PA, while an email from Janet Hagenbuch provided more detail about the brothers Raymond, William, and Robert Hagenbuch.

Malinda (Hagenbuch) Ferry in front of her home in Spokane, c. 1920

There were profiles of individual family members too. In one story, the tragic murder of William B. Hagenbuch (b. 1851) was told, while another presented the fascinating life of wealthy widow, Julia A. (Landbach) Hagenbuch (b. 1819). Like all families, the Hagenbuchs have their controversial figures, including thief and physician, Dr. Elmer J. Hagenbuch (b. 1864).

Culture is a big part of what we enjoy writing about, especially when it connects with family stories. Holidays are one such area, and this past year saw articles written about past Thanksgivings as covered in newspapers, memories from around the Christmas tree, and a reconstruction of our Hagenbuch family’s first Christmas in America in 1737. Other pieces explored a mock shotgun wedding at Hidlay Church, our family’s involvement with the Grange organization, and first gifts shared by Hagenbuch couples. Art is a product of culture and a newly discovered depiction of the Hagenbuch coat of arms was examined, along with Taufscheine created for Norman C. Hagenbuch and Maggie H. Linsenbigler.

Family together during the cemetery tour at the 76th Hagenbuch Reunion

My father and I have plenty of opinions, although we usually try to stick to factual articles. That said, we did write a few opinion pieces like my father’s look at the crossroads of genealogy, DNA, and ethnicity. Similarly, I wanted to share my thoughts about what unites us as a family. My inspiration came from the 76th Hagenbuch Reunion in June at Hidlay Church, near Bloomsburg, PA. Everyone we spoke to agreed it was one of the best reunions in recent memory, and the day left my father and I reminiscing about past reunions, as well as discussing how reunions help to hold a family together.

The last year saw articles published about other events too. November events, including birthdays, were noted in one piece, while in another family events of the 1700s were placed in context with American history from that century. In May, my father and I took a trip to a number of Hagenbuch sites and cleaned up the cemetery at the Hagenbuch Homestead. My father then analyzed a 25-year-old video recording of his parents’ 60th wedding anniversary in 1999. The day was filled with relatives, friends, and other familiar faces, many of whom are no longer with us. The video highlighted the importance of preserving magnetic media (e.g. VHS tapes and audio cassettes), along with organizing family photos into archives.

Martha “Mattie” (Hagenbuch) White, 1905

Genealogy is the primary focus of Hagenbuch.org and there were major contributions to uncovering our family’s roots and documenting our family tree during the last 12 months. In preparation for the family reunion, my father wrote a series about the Harrises of Hidlay Church. Our Harris cousins have been crucial to preserving the church, its history, and the gravesites of our numerous relatives buried there. My father also wrote about genealogist Judy Hymes, her work, and her Hagenbuch family line. An obituary for Mildred (Clews) Hagenbuch (b. 1941) led us to uncover an undocumented line of Hagenbuch relatives from Kansas. Other family groups that were detailed such as the descendants of John Ruckle Hagenbuch (b. 1860), the Mark S. Hagenbuch (b. 1953) family from Michigan, and the children of Bion W. Hagenbuch (b. 1860).

One of my favorite parts of genealogy is researching our earliest ancestors in order to paint a picture of their lives. This year I finished the Homestead Economics series that I had started in 2023. The articles illustrated the evolution of the activities that provided a livelihood for our relatives in Albany Township, Berks County, PA. In another series, we announced the discovery of a 1754 survey of the Allemaengel Road which ran through past the Hagenbuch Homestead. The three pieces explored the path of the road and ultimately enabled us to reassess where Andreas Hagenbuch (b. 1715) built his home in 1741.

The fork in the Allemaengel Road is labeled on Benjamin Lightfoot’s 1754 survey map

As my father said to me, “We deserve to pat ourselves on the back once in awhile.” Is this gloating? Perhaps for Hagenbuchs, who can be a modest, reserved group of people. Still, looking back at how far we have come, I think all of us should take a moment to reflect upon our successes. We have a long history, unique stories, and a large family tree full of interesting personalities. But, best of all, we have relatives who want to keep in contact and remember their ancestors.

Looking ahead, my father and I want to continue sharing our love of family history with you. This, however, requires that everyone pitch in and share too! If you would like to have your family’s stories and genealogy featured, please contact us using Facebook or our email Contact Us form, and make sure to have images, names, and dates ready to share.

Thank you for your decade of support!
-Andrew M. Hagenbuch & Mark O. Hagenbuch

Andrew and Mark Hagenbuch behind the gravestone of Jacob Hagenbuch (b. 1777, d. 1842) at the family homestead, 2024