Michael Scott Caldwell's Genealogy Repository

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Welcome to my Genealogy Repository

I designed these pages to present genealogical research on various families from whom I descend, as well as several other articles of interest. I created this web site to allow other interested researchers easy access to my discoveries.

Unlike some other genealogical web sites, I designed these family outlines to include actual source references whenever possible. Although I did my best to source the information properly, I encourage viewers to use my information only as a guideline for future research, and not as primary source material.

For my regular visitors, follow this What's New link to learn what I have recently added to this site.

E-mail: mscaldwell {“at”} optonline [“dot”] net

Last updated Friday, 27 August 2004


Family Outlines (alphabetical order)

AKERS
Robert Akers and Sarah Hart were the progenitors of a large number of Akers descendants in early Providence Twp., Bedford County, Pennsylvania, in the area that is now Brush Creek Valley, Fulton County, Pennsylvania.

BARTON
George Barton and his wife Rebecca (possibly Moorhead or Muirheid) were early settlers of the same area as the Akers and Hanks Families. The observant visitor will see that there were numerous intermarriages among these three families.

BURNS
Thomas Burns and Catherine Hainley lived in southern Blair County, PA in the mid-19th Century. Their large family scattered across Blair and Cambria Counties.

COLBERT
Robert Scott Colbert and Rebecca Witherow, previously from Hardy County, Virginia (now West Virginia), emigrated to Johnstown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania in the mid 1850s.

DEEMER
Frederick Deemer, a Revolutionary War Veteran, and his wife Lydia Eberhart raised a large family in Indiana and Armstrong Counties, Pennsylvania. Descendants also lived in adjacent Westmoreland County.

DICK
Harmon Dick and wife Margaret were early settlers of Woodbury Township. Bedford County, Pennsylvania. Several of their children remained in the general area of Bedford and Blair Counties, several moved somewhat west to Indiana County, and at least one, George, settled in Richland County, Ohio. My direct ancestor was Daniel, who remained in Bedford / Blair County, Pennsylvania.

HAINLEY
Samuel Hainley and Elizabeth Shoenfelt were early residents of Woodbury Twp., Huntingdon Co. PA, in an area that later became part of Blair County, PA. Some of their ten children remained in the general area, but others relocated to other parts of the country.

HAIR
Matthew Hair and Mary Roberts, originally from Jenner Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, moved to Fairfield (now St. Clair) Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania in the early 1840s.

HANKS
William Hanks Jr. and wife Sarah Benson were early settlers of Providence Twp., Bedford County, Pennsylvania. Their children raised families in what is known now as Brush Creek Valley, Fulton County, Pennsylvania.

HAYDEN (ancestry)
This is a simple ahnentafel, or ancestor table, showing the known ancestry of Nathaniel HAYDEN, Jr., of Rostraver Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. The following section details descendants of Nathaniel.

HAYDEN (descendants)
Nathaniel HAYDEN, Jr., and wife Abigail OSBURN (or Osborn) were early settlers of Rostraver Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. This section details what I know of their descendants. The vast majority of my data concerns the descendants of their son Thomas Osburn HAYDEN, my own ancestor.

HELSEL
John HELTZEL / HELSEL and wife Jane TIPTON were early settlers of what is now southern Blair County, Pennsylvania. The family of their eldest daughter Sarah, married to Jacob RESSLER, is enumerated in the Ressler outline below.

HENDERSON
Apparently siblings, Charles and Samuel HENDERSON were early settlers of the region of Fairfield Township and Derry Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Their sister Jane Henderson was married to Alexander McCURDY, and their family is also enumerated here. It is not clear who were the parents of these Henderson siblings.

JAY
Thomas Jay was born in Loudoun County, VA and emigrated north to Bedford County, PA some time between 1810 and 1820. He was married twice, and had children to both wives. He left numerous descendants in southern Bedford County.

JOHNSTON
Peter Johnston and Sarah Snyder, before settling in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, in the 1830s, were probably originally from Warren County, New Jersey.

KLOTZ (ancestry)
The ancestry of Johann Martin Klotz is in the form of an "ahnentafel", or "ancestor table". Each linked date takes the viewer to an image of original vital records pertaining to this family.

KLOTZ (descendants)
The descendants of Johann Martin Klotz, who was born 10 December 1736 in Simmozheim, Württemberg, Germany. He emigrated to America as a teenager with his parents, Johann Jacob and Martha (Faissler) Klotz, on the ship "Chesterfield", arriving at the port of Philadelphia in September 1749. Johann Martin Klotz died in 1776 in Berks County, PA, and his descendants moved west to Maryland and central Pennsylvania.

LAPE
Nicholas Lape married Katherine Shunk (see Shunk section below). They resided in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

McCURDY
James McCurdy, born in County Antrim, Ireland in 1756, and his wife Nancy McKinney settled in the region of Fairfield and Ligonier Townships, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in the late 18th Century.

McINTIRE
Alexander McIntire and wife Isabella emigrated from Ireland some time in the mid- to late 1790s, and emigrated to what is now western Indiana County, Pennsylvania. They appear to have had only four children, all daughters, each of whom raised large families in the general vicinity of their parents. These families are traced as follows:  Martha McINTIRE and husband Robert ORR; Rebecca McINTIRE and husband John FLEMING; Elizabeth McINTIRE and husband Matthew ALLISON; and Bartraigde (“Barty”) McINTIRE and husband John BLAIR.

MEANS
Daniel Means and Elizabeth Sparks were very early settlers of Providence Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania.

MORGAN
Joseph Morgan was born in Ireland about 1780. Together with his wife Deborah, they emigrated to Ontario, Canada at some point in the 1820s or 1830s. The majority of my material deals with the descendants of their son Richard Morgan, my ancestor, who emigrated to Allegheny County, PA, with his very large family.

REFFNER
Michael Reffner and wife Elizabeth Zigler had eight children; this family lived in early Greenfield Township, Bedford (later Blair) County, PA. Some of their children "went West."

RESSLER
Jacob Ressler and Sarah Helsel, early residents of East Wheatfield Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, left many descendants in Indiana, Westmoreland and Cambria Counties. Sarah was the eldest daughter of John HELTZEL / HELSEL and Jane TIPTON (see HELSEL outline above).

ROBERTS
A very large family. Robert Morgan Roberts and Mary Richford had many children who, in turn, had large families of their own. Originally from Maryland, the family emigrated to the Ligonier Valley in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, where their eldest son John Roberts remained and raised his large family. Other Roberts siblings emigrated northwest to Mercer County, Pennsylvania. I am descended from John.

SIEGRIST
Bartholomaeus "Bartholomew" Siegrist was born in the mid-1600s in Baldenheim, Bas-Rhin, France. Two of his great-grandsons, John and Solomon, settled in Franklin County, Pennsylvania.

SHAW
James Shaw and Catherine Kelley were early residents of Greenfield Twp. Bedford (now Blair) County, PA. James was a son of Irish immigrants William Shaw and Mary Townsend.

SHUNK
Simon Shunk, born Johann Simon Schunck in Walsheim, Saarland, Germany, on 3 May 1749, emigrated to America in 1773 on the ship "Brittania." His wife was Susannah Herman or Harmon and they located in Somerset County, Pennsylvania

Dedication:

I dedicate the Akers, Barton and Hanks sections of this site to my great grandmother, Nancy Maye (Akers) Barnes, known as "Maye". Although she died two years before I was born, I inherited her big box of genealogical research which she had compiled over several decades in the first half of the 20th Century. By the time I received this box, in 1981, her extensive notes and files were disorganized: dusty, torn, parts were illegible, etc. In her honor, I reorganized and supplemented her discoveries, and present them to interested cousins and researchers here. In the endnotes of my outlines, some citations state "Maye's records", which refer to her research.


Old Time Recollections
This is a collection of historical reminiscences of the area and families of the Ligonier Valley, located in the easternmost portion of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. These articles were written by Dr. Francis M. McConaughy, a native of this area, from 1891 to just before his death in 1893, and were published in the Ligonier, PA "Echo" newspaper. Dr. McConaughy was a son of John and Margaret (McCurdy) McConaughy, so there are many articles that mention members of these two families.

Famous Americans
Having undertaken so much census research on my own families, I thought it would be fun to search for some famous Americans who were listed in the census records with their families. These are a few of the fruits of my labors.


The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (selections)

Tilden, from
Vol. LXV, Oct 1911

Bigge, from
Vol. LXVI, Jan 1912

Huckstep, from
Vol. LXVII, Jan 1913

 

 

 

Title Page
p. 322             p. 328
p. 323             p. 329
p. 324             p. 330
p. 325             p. 331
p. 326             p. 332
p. 327             p. 333

Title Page
p. 54               p. 59
p. 55               p. 60
p. 56
p. 57
p. 58

Title Page
p. 44
p. 45
p. 46
p. 47
p. 48

Vol. IV, Apr 1850, p. 173:
Nathaniel Tilden will abstract

Vol. XXXVIII, Jul 1884, pp. 322-323:
Joseph Tilden will abstract

 

 

 

Sutton, from
Vol. XCI, Jan 1937

Hatch, from
Vol. LXX, Jul 1916

 

 

 

 

Title Page
p. 61               p. 65
p. 62               p. 66
p. 63               p. 67
p. 64               p. 68

Title Page
p. 245             p. 249             p. 253             p. 257
p. 246             p. 250             p. 254             p. 258
p. 247             p. 251             p. 255             p. 259
p. 248             p. 252             p. 256             p. 260

 

Tenterden, County Kent, England Parish Register (Excerpts)

Links to images of original vital records pertaining to the Tilden, Huckstep, Bigge, and Hatch families.


Photographs

My Great-Great Grandparents:
Margaret Rebecca Davis and David Barron Caldwell on their wedding day,
1 May 1873, Fairfield Twp. Westmoreland County, PA.

Great-grandma, Frosty Irene (Burns) Reffner, perhaps 1910s.

 

© 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, Michael Scott Caldwell