Jacob's Church Cemetery

Not even 24 hours into my Pennsylvania vacation I hit my first 2 cemeteries. I briefly touched one this a few entries ago. But now comes the pictures. 

I made a few mistakes in my photography since I was excited. Some are blurry but for the most part you can figure out whats going on.

In some of these you'll notice a little kitty. He/she/it followed us around the entire time. I decided to nickname it bonejangles.

Uriah Swank, owner of the civil war sword, is buried here.

First few are the crime scene photography technique. First the signs. Then 360's

Ok next one shows a semi distance one. I later took close ups of each of these. You can see Pitner, Hauck, and Lambert. Has a house in the background. Gives a general idea of where in the cemetery these graves are located. 

And theres bonejangles.

Some very tiny tombstones. 

There is Uriah Swank and his wife... with the cat on top.

kitty looked so sad when we left :(

Genealogical Vacation!

In case you haven't noticed, I tend to post to procrastinate. What better time to procrastinate than during the week when you you go on vacation and your trip is bumped up leaving you less time to clean and pack etc. I was supposed to leave Friday morning 6am.... unfortunately Tropical Storm Irene had other plans. So my mom and I are going to try and leave Thursday morning.

Moving right along... my trip is to Pennsylvania and, whilst enjoying good food, amusement parks, and family, I want to do at least an itty bitty tiny bit of research. Ok mostly cemetery photography. All of these cemeteries are in Northumberland County. Here is a list of the ones I plan/ hope to visit:

Shamokin Cemetery
Saint Stanislaus Cemetery
Presbyterian Chapel Cemetery
Pine Hill Cemetery
All Saints Cemetery
Jacob's Church Cemetery

Two extras are Rush Presbyterian/ Baptist Cemetery and the Lantz Emmanuel Cemetery.

Now, time to do a public service. This is for anyone looking for any of the sixty some people buried at the Presbyterian Chapel Cemetery. If you've googled it, like me, you will find... nothing. at all. except maybe this blog post and findagrave.com which does not help. Fear not! For I have discovered where it is!

After endless google results coming up empty, I got the bright idea... Hey! Why not check ancestry.com's message boards! It seemed so obvious. So here it is.

Presbyterian Chapel Cemetery is located 2.5 miles outside of Elysburg, Pa. It is off of Snydertown Rd. Traveling down the road you pass an industrial park on the left, keep going. There will be a bible church and semi modern home next to it with a driveway and grove of trees between. The cemetery is apparently in that grove. Lambert Pitner, his wife Elida Farley, and their daughter Nancy Pitner Persing are buried in that cemetery. Not sure who else is, but thats all listed on findagrave.com

When I return I will have more blog posts with the cemeteries and pictures of people buried there. Now I'm not just going to take one picture of the sign and then the headstones. No no, that's not how I work. I'm going to do this as if it were... a crime scene. Hey, I have no job offerings so I have to put my degree to use some how. Crime scene photography includes overall photos, or 360 degree shots, as well as progressive shots from far away, to middle ground, and finally close ups. That way if anyone reading would like to visit those cemeteries they can have specifics instead of just wandering blindly. Eventually the photos will go on to findagrave.com but this is quicker for now.

This will probably be my last post until after vacation (unless I find something really REALLY exciting and just cannot help myself. Note, any such post will be very short as I am still debating taking my laptop with me and will only have iphone and nook. le gasp!)

(Side note: is genealogical even a word? Or am I just making stuff up? No red spell check line so I assume I'm ok.)

Eureka! I found it I found it!

My title doesn't sound enthusiastic enough. When I finally found a missing piece of the puzzle I actually started jumping up and down. Yes folks, that is what my life has come to. Excitement over dead people. But since most of you reading my blog are probably interested in genealogy too you can understand.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this in an earlier post or not but there is a Civil War sword in my family. I first found out about it when I was in 6th grade learning about the Civil War and thought it was "soooo cool" to have a sword in the family. And it is. Very cool.

I've been doing this genealogy thing for a while now. Really focusing on it since 2009. My grandfather told me he got the sword from his grandfather. Silly me I assumed it would be his paternal grandfather. My brain assumed since my grandfather's last name is Persing that it would have been a Persing that owned the sword. Whoops. Anyway, I did find Civil War veterans in that branch of the family. (This was almost a year ago) I was very excited about finding Ilif Persing and when I told my grandpa... surprise! He got the sword from his other grandfather. Marion Hauck. So it was back to the drawing board. Then I found some Hauck's in the civil war.

Sometime between then and now my mom took a trip to Pennsylvania and I asked her to take some pictures of the sword among other things. Using the pictures (and comparing with others online), I was able to determine that the sword was from the Union Cavalry. I assumed Union before since, hey, Pennsylvania. Anyway it is a US model 1860 Cavalry Saber. Company (I think?) Mansfield and Lamb Forestdale RI inspected by CEW. The year on the sword is 1864.

Back to Hauck. I looked to see if Henry Hauck (1841-1898) could have owned it. Well, he wasn't in the Cavalry. And none of his siblings were either. So Marion didn't get the sword from the Hauck side. Then the other day I was thinking... I didn't look at Marion's mother's side of the family.

Marion Hauck's maternal gandfather was Uriah Swank (1841-1902). Hellooo goldmine. He was listed as a private in the 7th Cavalry Regiment Pennsylvania. He enlisted 27 Feb 1864 and was mustered out 23 Aug 1865

To make this even better, I was recently making a list of all the cemeteries I want to visit when I go to Pa in a few weeks (you might be a genealogy addict if....) and Uriah was one of the last ones I found before deciding to look for the sword's owner again.

And now for some pictures of the sword :)

Hauck Part 2

Good Morning! A few updates since last time:

 Marion Hauck was a carpenter. On his WW1 draft card he is described as tall with a medium build. Grey eyes and light brown hair. Apparently he had his appendix removed too.

Wilfred Hauck was a blacksmith in 1910 and was married in 1890

Henry Hauck was a coach maker according to the 1870 census. That sounds pretty cool.

The sword: Marion gave the sword to my grandpa. Henry was around during the civil war but nothing suggests that he owned the sword. I believe it is a cavalry sword, obviously union side. Theres a belt buckle with an eagle on it. I guess I'll have to look into it a bit more. I wonder if one of Henry's brother's owned it? If anyone knows about the civil war and the weapons and stuff please comment.

Henry's parents were David Hauck and Anna Lantz. Like I said last time, Lantz is a different blog entry.

David's parents were Andrew Hauck and Sarah.
Andrew's father was John Hauck abt. 1750
John's parents were Jacob Hauck abt. 1720 and Margaret b. 1728.

Nest time: either Pitner or Lantz. Havent quite decided. I like the Pitner side better though. It leads to some very cool people. Well, Lantz has some cool people too.

Hauck Part 1

The information I have on the Hauck family goes back to the 1720s. I won't get that far tonight. I'll only go back until the 1800s. I won't include much information on the Pitner or Lantz connections. Those surnames need their own entry.

My grandfather's mother was Eleanor Hauck. She was born in 1913. When I was younger I thought this was neat because I kept thinking that the Titanic sunk in 1912 (Mind you, that movie came out when I was in third grade and I was a bit obsessed with it). I used to call her Nana. She used to make the best Italian wedding soup, tapioca pudding, and milkshakes. She had this really cool thing on her counter. It was like the controls to a blender on one side and the attachment for a blender on the other. She also had a swing in the back with big stones underneath and ivy that would climb up the sides of the stones. I think I colored on her walls when I was little too. I heard stories about her not being a very good driver. I know she drove into a gas station at some point. When she was in the assisted living and nursing home I played with her wheelchairs (one was automatic. and very fun) She passed away in the summer of 2002.

She had a brother named Wilfred.
Their parents were: Marion H Hauck and Ruth Pitner. Ancestry.com has some draft cards (WWI and or II) for Marion.

Marion's parents were Wilfred R Hauck and Mary Eldora Swank (She went by Dora). They were both born in the 1860s.

Wilfred's parents were Henry L Hauck and Hannah Rhoads. Henry was born in 1841. He had many brother's and sisters. I won't get into that right now but it may play a role in a kind of mystery.

My grandfather has a civil war sword that was passed down from the Hauck side and I'm trying to find out who actually owned it. I'll get into that later.

Next time: Hauck family to the 1720s and details of the civil war sword. Maybe even a picture. Depends on how I'm feeling that day.