Adamstown Library Hosts Genealogy Group

More than 40 years ago, Ken McCrea's father suddenly decided to retire, sell his home, and travel. "I had to rush home that weekend and let (my family) know of anything I wanted to keep," McCrea recalled, adding that he quickly left graduate school at Purdue University to return to Reamstown.

During that visit, McCrea found his mother's collection of old family photographs. "I thought it would be neat to arrange them into a family tree," said McCrea, who noted that the idea was the beginning of a lifelong obsession with genealogy.

McCrea said that the internet has been a boon to searching for one's ancestry, but he warned would-be researchers to beware of errors. "You have to go back to the original sources and reconfirm," he stated. "Don't just accept something as fact."

The number of Germans arriving in Pennsylvania began to increase around 1715, according to McCrea. "By 1727, leaders in Philadelphia noticed (the increase) and started tracking them," said McCrea, who noted northern parts of Lancaster County may be up to 90% German and Swiss. Because German lineage is common in the area, McCrea offered tips specific to searching that history. "About the 1820s, it became popular for people of German ancestry to translate names (to English)," he said. As an example, McCrea noted that the name Zimmerman was often translated to Carpenter. He also pointed out that many family members have similar names because of the tradition of naming the first son after his father's father. "The second son is often named for his mother's father," said McCrea, who stated that within a few generations as many as 50 cousins might share the same name. "That really does make genealogy (research) difficult, especially early on," he said.

McCrea said that researching family members who came to America by ship is easier if the ancestor arrived after 1820, when the federal government began keeping lists of passengers for immigration purposes. "You might get an age, occupation, and a country," shared McCrea, who said that lists created in the 1900s might include the name of the person the passenger was coming to visit and maybe a birth date.

McCrea's interest in his own ancestry led him to work with the Adamstown Area Genealogy Group, which currently meets virtually on the second Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m. McCrea said the group has been meeting for about five years to discuss related topics or research an attendee's family tree.

To learn more about the group, please visit http://www.adamstownarealibrary.org and click on events. Look for "Genealogy Group and Watch Party" on the calendar for more information or call the library at 717-484-4200.