October marks National Family History Month. This series on the Genealogical Record of the Schwenkfelder Families celebrates researching and preserving family stories and memories. It is a meaningful way to value family connections. So how do you read a family entry in the G(enealogical) R(ecord)? The first line of the family entry is indented ½ inch from the margin. In the case of a progenitor, the family number is not hyphenated, but the family number for all the progenitor’s descendants is hyphenated. For example, the progenitor’s number is 38; his first-born son’s number is [38-1]. The male descendants are numbered sequentially from 1 to infinity. If a person is the direct descendant of a Schwenkfelder immigrant, his or her name is printed in all upper-case, bolded letters, e.g.: [38-7] JACOB YEAKEL … m … SUSANNA SCHULTZ. The bold upper-case letters indicate that both persons in this marriage are bloodline descendants of Schwenkfelder immigrants. (Yeakel and Schultz have no E-numbers because they were born in Pennsylvania.) The man is listed first. A mixed marriage comprises one Schwenkfelder and one non-Schwenkfelder. The non-Schwenkfelder’s name is in upper-case, but not bolded, e.g.: [38-35] ANNA YEAKEL … m … MICHAEL HILLIGASS. The Schwenkfelder always comes first in a mixed marriage. When a Schwenkfelder woman marries a non-Schwenkfelder, the woman is listed first. The photograph accompanying this article shows two marriages between Schwenkfelders and one marriage between a Schwenkfelder and someone outside the group (a mixed marriage). All these Schwenkfelders were born in Pennsylvania, so there are family numbers but no emigrant numbers. The way each family entry is structured is easy to see. There is even an example of a first marriage in the case of multiple marriages: Barbara Urffer was Samuel Krauss’s first wife. #the_schwenkfelder #NationalFamilyHistoryMonth #genealogy #PaGerman (fb)

Today is a good day to think about some local place names most of us utter every day...and that have been spoken by those who lived here before us for centuries, although with different pronunications than we use today. The Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center is located in the Upper Perkiomen Valley, named for the creek that has its source in Hereford Township, Berks County. "Perkiomen" is derived from a Lenape word meaning "the place of the cranberries." For us locally, it is the daily living reminder of the Lenape people, who lived and thrived here for thousands of years. Perkiomen is just one of the those place names. Have a look at these two maps drawn by David Schultz (also spelled "Shultze"), an 18th century Schwenkfelder descendant and surveyor. The Heritage Center is very fortunate to have these extraordinary maps in our special collection. How many Lenape names can you identify on the maps? You may have to look closely, because Schultz was using phonetical spellings. (Schultz map left, 1767; right, approximately the same time period) #Lenape #IndigenousPeoplesDay #the_schwenkfelder (fb)