The Twelve Days of Andreas Hagenbuch’s Christmas
In the town where I live, 12 houses along one street coordinate their holiday decorations. If you guessed that the theme of their ornaments is “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” you are correct! In...
This Week's Article From the Beech Grove
Wreaths of Remembrance
As Christmas approaches, each year for the past several years my wife, Linda, has made evergreen wreaths to give to friends, to hang outside at our abode, and to place on relatives’ gravesites. These...
DNA, Genealogy, and Our Search for Identity
A few weeks ago, I read a story about a man who suspected that he was not the father of his daughter. The little girl had brown eyes, when both parents had blue eyes....
Hi Jane! I’m Your Cousin Mark!
In 2010, we had to make the difficult decision to have Mom and Dad reside at Elmcroft Assisted Living facility in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Mom had a stroke the year before and could no longer...
Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking: Green Tomato and Apple Datsch
My wife, Sara, and I look forward to fall, not just for the cooler weather, but also for the plethora of foods that are harvested during the season. Squashes, apples, and sweet potatoes immediately...
The Wolfes of Columbia County, Part 2
In part one of this series, our readers were introduced to the first four children of Stephen and Maria (Hagenbuch) Wolfe. Maria was born in 1830, daughter of John Jr. (b. 1791) and Christina...
Eight Years On
I felt somewhat dismayed as I sat down to write this year’s retrospective of Hagenbuch.org. In the previous 12 months, only 300 names have been added to Beechroots, our database of family records. Last...
The Wolfes of Columbia County, Part 1
In my last article, I touched on the Wolf/Wolfe family when I researched John and Shirley Mae (Wolfe) Zisch. As mentioned, I used my paper records to trace Shirley Mae back to her great...
Ghost Stories from Childhood
My eldest son, William, is fascinated with ghosts, and not just because of Halloween. His ghoulish obsession actually began last year when he played with some old Ghostbusters toys, and grew after his great...
Alphabet Soup: Abreu to Zisch
If you have been reading the articles that Andrew and I have written over the past eight years, you know that I often reference my “paper records”, as I call them. I wrote about...
