Family Projects
We have been involved with a number of projects to research and document the history of our family. In addition to capturing stories about earlier generations, we have also worked to record the memorial inscriptions from cemeteries in the United States and the United Kingdom where our ancestors are buried.
The family of Carl and Elizabeth Schmitt Baldinger, Pittsburgh, PA (1830-1930)
Carl Baldinger married Elizabeth Schmitt in 18XX and together they had seven children. This book traces the lives of Baldinger family in and around Pittsburgh for a century, which included lives of religious devotion and a love of gardening. Includes information about the Hartungs, Kienzles, Krauses, Lenerises, Nocks and Rohauses.
Dear Mr. Wingertsahn Letters about the Baldinger, Schmitt, and Werling Families
While researching her Baldinger ancestors, Judith Russell found a great aunt who had married a Mr. Wingertsahn and had a son named Gerald. Finding few people living with that name, she reached out and began a correspondence in which Jerry remembered stories from growing up and living in Pittsburgh surrounded by family beginning in the 1930s. Judy printed their letters for others to share.
The family of Philip Jakob Schmitt and Barbara Persohn: from Hatzenbühl, Germany to Pittsburgh, PA (1830-1930)
The families of Philip Jakob Schmitt and Barbara Persohn had lived in the Bavarian village of Hatzenbühl, Germany for centuries before the two emigrated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There, they married in 1836 and raised a family that included eight children. The history of the family’s first 100 years is traced through the lives of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The branches of the family included those with surnames Baldinger, Gallegher, Keller, May, O’Brein, Persohn, Robinson, Schnupp, Smith, Werling, and Ziefel.
Children and Grandchildren of Samuel and Martha Jefferson Bell Walker (1770-1820)
Samuel Walker was born before 1755 and married well when he wed Martha-Jefferson Bell, descendent of prominent Virginia families including the Stiths and Wynnes. A veteran of the American Revolution and a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, he died in about 1813. This work outlines the Walkers’s eight known children and their 45 grandchildren. The family spread to Alabama, Mississippi and Texas and included surnames Beams, Eddins, Farrow, Holloway, Mays, and Mitchell.
Kirkhill Burial Ground, Lanarkshire
A project spanning more than 50 years, this is a compilation of the inscriptions memorializing those who are buried in this historic cemetery. The work of Andrew T.D. Brownlie surveying pre-1855 monuments has been added to by volunteers.
Padgett’s Creek Quaker Cemetery: Sedalia, Union County, South Carolina
This survey includes a number of photographs as well as tombstone inscriptions and genealogical information on those who lived in the Sedalia area of Union County, South Carolina. Originally a Quaker cemetery, by the early 1800s the majority of Quakers had left Union County, and they were replaced by Methodists who began services in the former Meeting House by 1819. Family names represented include the Gist, Fincher, and others.
Horn’s Creek Baptist Church Burial Ground, Edgefield, SC
This survey and assessment of Horn’s Creek Baptist Church burial ground, which is recognized on the National Register of Historic Places, includes illustrations of grave markers made in 1980 side-by-side with photographs of the same grave markers taken in 2010. The work also contains an annotated list of previous grave marker surveys made from 1940 onward, tables, a map of the burial ground, an alphabetical index of persons known to be buried there and an annotated bibliography.
The Historic Bush River Quaker Cemetery, Newberry, SC
In June 2005, a group of enthusiastic descendants and friends of the Bush River Quakers gathered for a work day at the Historic Bush River Quaker Cemetary in Newberry, South Carolina. Their goals were to create a map of the cemetery and to do a complete survey of the cemetery monuments with photographs of the markers. The record they created is presented here for future historians studying the Quakers, their time in Newberry, and the Bush River Quaker Cemetery in particular
The restoration of the Champion Easter Family Cemetery, Limestone County, AL
Champion Easter was a large landholder in Limestone Co. in the decades before the Civil War. It came as some surprise, however, when a descendent purchased the land in 1988 and found markers of family graves hidden in the overgrown field. This chronicles how modern Easter cousins connected through the internet and their efforts to restore the family cemetery.
Magna Genealogy 