The Harrises of Hidlay: Part 1
On February 10, 2015, I wrote an article about my great great grandfather’s brother and his family. Samuel Hagenbuch was born in 1806 and lived on what became a six generation family farm in...
Tagged: Williamsport
The Letter Archives
I like writing letters and receiving letters. It’s a shame that we’ve lost the art of letter-writing and saving correspondence. –Elizabeth McGovern, actress in Downton Abbey. Andrew and I often refer to the Hagenbuch...
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...
Life as a Lady Physician: Dr. Phoebe H. Flagler Hagenbuch
Prior to the 20th century, it was rare to encounter a female medical doctor. In fact, according to the University of Alabama, only about 5.5% of all American physicians were women in the year...
Can You Document That?
During our 2024 family Thanksgiving festivities in my Colonial Room, I noticed that the grandchildren were playing some old-timey games from my game cupboard. My son-in-law, Nelson, was playing pick-up sticks with his daughter,...
Old Newspaper Advertisements
Old newspaper articles and clippings are a great source of information for family research. Sometimes these have been saved in scrapbooks preserved in the Hagenbuch Archives. Other times, they are discovered using online research...
The Paper Chase: 3500 and Beyond
Several months ago about 2000 names had been added into Beechroots, the computer-based family record keeping tool created by Andrew in 2016. Now, Andrew’s wife Sara, cousin Ben Hagenbuch from the Illinois branch of...
The Privy Bottle, Part 2
This article is the second part in a series. The first part may be read here. After purchasing the privy bottle on eBay, it was taken to a bottle expert—Harry M.—who has collected thousands...
The Privy Bottle, Part 1
This two-part article tells the fictional story and true facts about a bottle recently discovered in a privy in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania. The year was 1875. Mr. Smith, from Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, had taken the train...
Home Remedies
Recently my father, Mark Hagenbuch, handed me a recipe book once owned by Bessie Mae (Robbins) Sechler (b. 1888, d. 1973). It was previously in the possession of Harold Sechler (b. 1923), who is...
