Clarion County, Pennsylvania, Since 1818, Were Lutheran

May 2020 GSP NEWSLETTER Finding your Pennsylvania Ancestors

Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Newsletter

In this issue: as board secretary but continues as a member of First Families Corner ················································ 2 the GSP board, and we share the position as GSP If you could sit on this Bench ···································· 2 webmaster. Nancy Nelson continues as First Vice- The Delo(e) clan of Pennsylvania ······························· 3 President and Jane Benner joins the EC as 2nd Flora the Dog ·························································· 5 Confined ································································ 6 Vice President. We also welcome new board Spanish Flu ···························································· 7 members, Tina Lamb, Mary Phalan and Kathryn Surveyor General Records ······································· 8 Donahue. Data Collection························································ 9 We enjoy hearing from you. Check out our Featured County Clarion ·········································· 16 volunteer opportunities and continue to send us About GSP ····························································· 17 your interesting family research stories and suggestions. We welcome submissions to the A Message from the President newsletter

These times they are a changing, and it is unlikely Stay safe in these trying times. we will experience life as it was just a few months Nancy Janyszeski, President ago. As board members, we are successfully attending virtual meetings from home. This has The GSP online digital newsletter the potential for virtual meetings and programs in Our office is currently closed, but our website is the future. How great that our membership will be open at https://www.genpa.org. able to attend no matter where they live. We look forward to when we can continue with The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania has a holding events, scheduling programs, answering new executive board, and I would like to thank questions, and being a source of information to past President, Carol Scheaffer, MD, for amazing our membership. accomplishments in just a few short years. I look forward to the coming year and continuing the The GSP team is monitoring emails and programs and goals that she has initiated. Carol membership status (expirations, renewals, etc.). worked endless hours, both in the office and Some of us have participated in virtual meetings virtually. She coordinated events, such as the using different software options. GSP has signed annual Ulster Event, programs, special interest up with ZOOM to host meetings, and we are groups, book sales, newsletter articles and family excited about the prospect of virtual research inquiries. Carol is continuing as a presentations. member of the executive board in the Treasurer’s position. Our special interest groups such as DNA and Angie Indik is now the Genealogical Society of Research will now be available for anyone to Pennsylvania’s Secretary. Angie has been an attend. The goal is to have speaker presentations active board member, and we welcome her as our on genealogical topics, such as Genealogy 101 new Secretary. Valerie Lutz has stepped down and special interest research.

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Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Newsletter FIRST FAMILIES CORNER GSP’s First Families of Pennsylvania program has just had its biggest year ever! Even so, many prospec- tive FFP-ers have put off submitting applications because they want to qualify based on their earliest possi- ble Pennsylvania ancestor. While this is a noble goal, it can lead to indefinite procrastination. There is a solution to this common dilemma. After your application has been approved, if an earlier date is found, or an earlier ancestor in the same direct line is discovered, we will adjust the dates on the application and send out a new certificate, at no additional cost. We recently processed such a request from GSP member John Richardson, of California. John had proved his ancestor back to 1782. He then discovered documentation that his ancestor was in Pennsylvania in 1779. In another case, an application that had been on hold since 2014 has been approved because new information was uncovered. So, get started today! Print out the application instructions on our website and refer to them often. Gather your documentation and start filling out the FFP application. Although we don’t do the actual research for you, we are here to answer questions and make suggestions. Let’s make this year an even bigger success for our First Families of Pennsylvania program.  If you could sit on this bench If you could sit on this bench for an hour with one of your ancestors, which one would you invite to join you? What is the person’s name, relation to you, and dates (ballpark) when he or she lived? What questions would you ask? Email your response to [email protected].

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Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Newsletter

The Delo(e) clan of Pennsylvania By David M. Delo I could tell you the earliest-discovered ancestor of the surname Delo(e) was my gr-gr-gr- grandfather Michael Matthew Deloe (1746-1782), killed and scalped by Indians at Fort Dilloe, near his Fort-stockade in Washington County, Pennsylvania. But that would not be true. To set the record straight, the earliest recorded ancestor of the family was Henri Deloe who worked in Brittany, France, as early as 1232 A.D., as an “undertenant” for the Duke of Rohan, a forerunner of one of the military leaders of the French Huguenot army in the late 1500s. Yes, all of the Delo(e)s were Huguenots, and Lutheran, not Calvinist, an assumption I made since nearly all of the Delos who settled in Clarion County, Pennsylvania, since 1818, were Lutheran. Our surname made it through the 38 years of the Wars of Religion in France, and if we adhere to statistics, 25% of Delo Huguenots fled France for the Netherlands, England, and perhaps Germany, before or immediately after King Louis XIV of France--in an attempt to eradicate “heretical” Protestantism from his kingdom--issued the Edict of Revocation (1685) of the Edict of Nantes (1598). The record for the largest number of French Delos of the 1500 and 1600s was found in the town of Sedan, France, near the Belgium border. The French records I translated from data in a French genealogy site, said: The Delo or De Lo family is an old family of Sedan. The home of Henri De Lo (1612-1676) in 1657 was on the corner of La Place d’Armes in front of the Chateau of Sedan. In the police files, of June 17, 1657, Henri possessed “Sixteen Quarters.” That meant he had the Coat of Arms and possessed knowledge of his 16 ancestors to his great-great- grandparents. “Seize Quartiers” in those two centuries, meant proof of nobility. Hmmm. In England I discovered the earliest Delos resided, not in Kent County, on whose shores they originally landed, but in London in the early-1600s where they most likely were weavers of cloth. The vast majority of Huguenot refugees who arrived in England between 1550 and 1720 were artisans, and they not only brought their weaving skills from France, they destroyed their French looms in disgust and revenge before they fled. Michael Matthew’s only identified son (there were two) was George Deloe (1774-1820) who married near Pittsburgh and traveled with wife and child in 1818 to what is now Clarion County. That is where our American line filled out. Like all good farmers, George needed lots of children to help out. Well, large families were also necessary because 20% to 80% never made it to their teens. George had ten children by his first wife, remarried a woman who brought four of her own, and then they had another six. I do not exaggerate when I say George had 110 grandchildren.

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Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Newsletter

I researched and created a 115-page genealogy of the 14 lines of the Delo(e) family. Our ancestors were present in every war from the French-Indian War (1756-1763), the Revolutionary War (Michael Matthew at Fort Pitt), and the War of 1812 where George was mustered in, and then the Civil War in which two dozen Delo(e)s fought for the North, including three Lutheran Chaplains, each of whom attended seminary school at Wittenberg College in Ohio. My gr-gr-grandfather, (David Michael like this author) served the Northern Army at the Wheelwright’s Shop in Franklin, Tennessee. When he left, his peers gave him a silver watch dated January 1, 1864, and spelled his name David De Loe. He was one of the first Delo(e)s to leave Pennsylvania, but not the last. Just after the Civil War a group of my great-uncles and great-aunts left for Elkhart, Indiana where the families dispersed and fizzled out around 1900. I believe about half of all current (2020) Delo(e)s still reside in Pennsylvania. When I first researched our family in America (1968-1970) I didn’t pay much attention to the surname Dillow. I probably should have, for I later understood that the surnames Delo(e), Del(l) on(e), and Dillo(w) were interchangeable in the 1700 in the four colonies from which the names first appeared: PA, VA, WVA and NC. Michael Matthew Delo was a Dillow, and early eastern Pennsylvania Delons were spelled a dozen different ways including Dillo and Delo. I finally figured out that census takers were among the few literate individuals in colonial days. When they recorded a family name, they wrote it phonetically. They also filtered the sound through their family origin: an Englishman might spell Delo as Dello, Dellow, Dillo or Dillow; if he was a Frenchman, he might spell it Deloe, De Loe, or Delon; and a German would most likely spell it Delo or Dello. When the first Dillows from North Carolina moved into the Northwest Territory, and settled southern Illinois, the first Census (1820) recorded all of their names Delo. I tracked one Delo family in Pennsylvania through six decades of Census and in every decade their name was spelled differently. I also found that Delos in Virginia soon became Dillows, and Dillow in Pennsylvania eventually became Deloes. Obviously, the more vowels in your surname, the greater the number of spellings you will need to cope with. The Delo(e)s of Clarion County, who I found in a dozen counties by 1900, were common, down- to-earth folk who stayed out of jails and courts except as elected officials. A number were ministers, and educators, and served in the army. My gr-grandfather David Michael was the only one ever described as someone who was “restless.” He resided in several states, owned several wagon shops, married twice, and sired seven boys, six of whom served in the Civil War. In a number of ways, I believe I am a lot like my namesake. End

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Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Newsletter How Flora the Dog Fetched My Ancestor’s “Missing” Daughter

I recently starting creating a family tree on Ancestry and had been scanning and uploading a lot of old photographs, including one of my great-grandfather George Cooper with his dog Flora (per a caption in a family scrapbook). I knew that he had been born in England, likely around Manchester, but his birthdate varied from census to census, so I couldn’t identify his birth or baptism records, especially because his name was very common. I did know that his father’s name was William per the record of his marriage in 1879 to Martha Smethurst, and that he and Martha came to the United States after their marriage. My mother had told me that this was his second marriage and that he had a daughter from his first marriage who had remained in England when George came to the United States; I didn’t know whether George’s first wife was still alive or whether they had divorced, and I didn’t know her name or their daughter’s name, so I figured that part of his story ended there. Imagine my surprise when I was following up on some tips in Ancestry and saw the photo of George and Flora his dog posted on someone else’s tree! It had been posted in 2011, long before I’d tackled my old albums, and I wouldn’t have given it a second look back then. Today, however, since I’d just scanned the same photo into my tree, it caught my eye because of the dog in the picture. I scanned the user’s tree and discovered that she was descended from George Cooper’s daughter Annie. I wondered if I had stumbled across the “missing” daughter George had left behind in England! According to that user’s notes in Ancestry, Annie had grown up in England but came to the United States in 1886 to visit her father and returned for another visit in 1906. The user posted the ship’s manifest from 1906 showing Annie coming to visit her father George Cooper at 1516 Glenwood Avenue in Philadelphia – that street name rang a bell with me, and sure enough, George Cooper is listed in the 1910 census at 1516 Glenwood Avenue. So we had a match! And I found out George’s daughter’s name and a little about her story, including the continuing relationship between them. Clearly, she was never considered “missing” to George and his family. All the pieces seemed to be fitting, so I checked my DNA matches, and the user is a 4th-to-6th cousin of mine through George—she’s descended from Annie, and I’m descended from George’s son George Ed- ward, one of his five children from his second marriage (Joseph William, George Edward, Albert Henry, James Arthur, and Mary Alice). Thanks to that user’s research—and mainly thanks to her posting the photo with Flora—I now know who George’s parents and grandparents were, so I’m adding some new ancestors to my tree. She’s adding a lot of new ones to hers too, because she never knew anything about that George’s life in the United States or even that he had another family here, so she’s discover- ing a lot of new relatives. All of this means a tip of the hat (or a wag of the tail) to the dog, Flora, because the photo with her was so distinctive that it was easy to recognize. Good dog! Jane Benner, GSP Board Member

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Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Newsletter CONFINED In November 1948, there I was, a 6-year-old, experiencing a school and community outbreak of mumps. The Trenton Evening Times, on its “Local News” page, announced that I had mumps and was “confined” to my home as a result. I remember having some initial symptoms like fever and fatigue and then devel- opment of pain and discomfort in glands near my ears. With rest, medication and the benefits of a cloth soaked in “something smelly” placed beneath chin, pulled upward to embrace my glands and ears and then tied atop my head, I began to feel better and then rather enjoyed my “confinement”. The adults in my life could visit if they had mumps in their past, and there were gifts designed to keep me busy (coloring board, crayons, stickers, board games and puzzles). I had my mother’s full attention. She read stories to me and prepared my favorite foods. I could listen to the radio (TV was not in homes in my town until a few years later). All in all, the experience was not so bad. Among my visitors was my maternal grandmother, Laura Murphy Earlin, generally called “Nan". Although focused on me and how I felt, she shared with me her experience in the 1918-1920 Spanish Influenza pandemic. Her experience in a pandemic was certainly much more serious than my “confinement” for mumps. Nan was admitted to a hospital and, subsequently, discharged to further recuperate at home, a total of six months from onset of the disease and full recovery. While still in the hospital, Nan’s husband Newell C. Earlin died of the Spanish Influenza on 7 February 1920 and her brother William A. Murphy similarly on 22 March 1920. The hospital issued a pass to Nan, allowing her to leave the hospital to attend the funerals of each of those men. The 1918 pandemic was quite long, stretching from January 1918 to December 1920. Initially there was a period of mild illness, but, with time, the disease became more severe. By 1920, when Nan was ill and the two men in her life died of the disease. According to The National Archives website, 16 million people were killed in World War I but 50 million succumbed as a result of the Spanish Influenza pandemic. (1) Gertrude Farrell Glenn Murphy, Nan’s mother, widowed in 1916, moved into the Earlin home and took care of Nan and Newell’s three children Wilma, Elmer and Margaret, as well as the household in general. After recovery, Nan went to work full-time in a variety of places - a factory, a candy shop, and a bakery. By the time I was a young adult, she was manager of an S&H Green Stamp Store. For those unfamiliar, those stores allowed you to redeem “Green Stamps" acquired when purchases were made in a variety of places for merchandise. I saved and accumulated enough stamps to “buy” several small appliances and linens for my first apartment. Whatever she did, Nan worked long 12-hour days to support the children and her own mother. By the time her mother died (1926), the children were old enough to help with tasks such as laundry and meal preparation and Nan was able to continue working. She never remarried and took pride in her capability to handle life and provide for her family. Despite the Spanish Influenza Pandemic, Nan lived a long life, working and watching her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow. She died in 1969. Laura Murphy Earlin, often referred to by others as Nan, often referred to herself as “a tough old bird”. 1. "The Deadly Virus: The Influenza Epidemic of 1918," National Archives and Records Administration (https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/ :accessed 5 April 2020), para.2.

Carol Sheaffer, GSP Treasurer

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Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Newsletter

Some interesting links regarding the “Spanish Flu” The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has an article on their website with guidance on how to research records related to the 1918 epidemic in the Pennsylvania Ar- chives

1918 Influenza Epidemic Records

https://www.phmc.pa.gov/Archives/Research-Online/Pages/1918-Influenza-Epidemic.aspx

Additional sites provide articles and videos that provide an historical context on the spread in Philadel- phia.

PBS: The Flu in Philadelphia

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/influenza-philadelphia/

History.com: Philadelphia Parade Exposes Thousands to Spanish

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/flu-epidemic-hits-philadelphia

The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia: Influenza (“Spanish Flu” Pandemic, 1918-19)

https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/influenza-spanish-flu-pandemic-1918-19/

Penn Museum: Spit Spreads Death: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918–19 in Philadelphia

https://youtu.be/agMLD6WCHiA

Smithsonian Channel: How Philadelphia City Officials Helped the Spanish Flu Take Hold

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MzoAm6LUZg

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Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Newsletter

Pennsylvania Surveyor General Records at APS Valerie-Anne Lutz GSP Board of Directors If you’re looking for early Pennsylvania (and some Delaware) residents, try the surveyor general lists at the American Philosophical Society Library & Museum in Philadelphia. Most lists are for Philadelphia properties and nearby counties (1682-1698), but one list is for New Castle, Sussex, and Kent Counties in Delaware in 1700. Previously unavailable online, the lists are now available in the APS Digital Library at https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/. As handwritten manuscripts that have not yet been indexed, the lists are not full-text searchable, but they are browsable. All lists include names. The list of metes and bounds of lots in Philadelphia includes some entries with street names and some with names of adjoining property owners. Some names are listed as renters. Most are alphabetical lists, but the “Account of lots returned [Front, High, Walnut, Chestnut, Mulberry, 2nd Streets…]” is arranged by street name, with lists of residents and the width of lots. The list of warrants for lots in Philadelphia includes only names, acreage, and the date. The Silas Crispin list includes names, acreage, and county or township. The New Castle, Sussex, and Kent lists do not include locations other than counties, but can be used as a supplement to deeds and other records. Alphabetical listing of metes and bounds of lots in Philadelphia, with a sketch of lots from Mulberry to Sasafrass fronting Front Street. (1682/1683-1692) Alphabetical listing of warrants for lots in Philadelphia, on the west side of the city towards the Schuylkill, but includes lots at the center of the city. (1682/1683-1692) List of warrants and returns of surveys of lots, lands, etc. received of Silas Crispin (1683-1694) Account of lots returned [Front, High, Walnut, Chestnut, Mulberry, 2nd Streets: 2nd and 4th Streets: etc.], 1698 October 27 Alphabetical listing of surveys, from Assistant Surveyors, in New Castle, Sussex and Kent Counties, and loss in Philadelphia, 1700 June 19

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Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Newsletter

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Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Newsletter

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Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Newsletter

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Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Newsletter

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Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Newsletter

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Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Newsletter

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Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Newsletter

Pennsylvania Queries Queries regarding Pennsylvania ancestors may be submitted to [email protected] for inclusion in the Pennsylvania Queries section of The GSP Newsletter. Queries should be brief, specifying an individual or family, origin of same, and PA residence if known with actual or approximate dates for vital information.

Responses to queries will be forwarded to the contributor by the Newsletter Editor.

Share your Research or Family History Story  Briefly share amusing, touching, unusual, interesting or tragic stories you have unearthed in your family research -Submit your story in plain text to [email protected]

Q&A Do you have questions about Pennsylvania genealogy? We have answers! For example, we can answer questions such as “Where\How can I find marriage license records?” or “When did Pennsylvania start recording birth certificates?” We’ll feature the question and answer in the newsletter. Submit your questions (not family specific research) to: [email protected]

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Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Newsletter Pennsylvania Featured County - CLARION COUNTY Pennsylvania became a state 12 December 1787. There are 67 counties and 2561 municipalities. Clarion County was established on 11 March 1839 from parts of Venango and Armstrong Counties. The county seat is Clarion. Prominent People: Jim Kelly, Chris Kirkpatrick, Grace McCalmont Sloan, Ernest M. Skinner, Dominick Labino, Marietta Bones

Microfilm copies of county records along with the tools to help research county records are available at the Pennsylvania State Archives - PHMC > Archives > Research Online > County and Municipal Records (under Genealogy)

Finding Family and Historical Records in Clarion County

I. Register and Recorder's Office in Clarion County: http://www.co.clarion.pa.us/Dept/RR/Pages/ default.aspx

II. Family Search Wiki on Clarion County: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/ Clarion_County,_Pennsylvania_Genealogy

III. Clarion County Historical Society: https://www.clarioncountyhistoricalsociety.org/

IV. Find A Grave Clarion County Cemetery List: https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/search? locationId=county_2256&page=1#loc-city_114709

V. Clarion County Township Map: http://www.usgwarchives.net/maps/pa/county/clario/usgs/

VI. Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania including the counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion (free eBook): https://books.google.com/books? id=FswwAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=

VII. History of Clarion County Pennsylvania edited by A.J. Davis (free eBook): https:// books.google.com/books? id=YswwAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Clarion+County+PA+history&hl=en&newbks=

VIII. Business Directory of the Counties of Armstrong, Butler, Clearfield, Clarion, Cambria, Indiana, Jefferson, Venango, Westmoreland (1896-1897) (free eBook): https://archive.org/details/ businessdirector00mari/page/n4/mode/2up

IV. Chronology of Pennsylvania Counties: http://buckscountyhistory.com/chronological.htm

X. Pennsylvania Resource Guides: https://genpa.org/public-%20collections/pennsylvania-%20resources/

Angie Indik, GSP Secretary and Copy Editor

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Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Newsletter

GSP has a number of volunteer opportunities at home, in the office or on location. E-mail at [email protected] or [email protected] Newsletter: Nancy Janyszeski, Carol M. Sheaffer, Joseph Roby, Angie Indik and Kathryn Donahue

GSP Executive Board President: Nancy Janyszeski ~ Vice-President: Nancy C Nelson ~ 2nd Vice President: Jane Benner Secretary: Angie Indik~ Carol M. Sheaffer MD Treasurer:

GSP Board Doug Mondel ~ Norman Douglas Nicol, PhD Tina Lamb ~ Frank Straup ~ Joseph Roby ~ Mary Phalan ~ Kathryn Donahue 

GSP RESEARCH GSP does not offer phone consultations. We require that all research requests be in writing. Request Form – PDF Document Check the Research page on our website for additional information. https://genpa.org/research/ E-mail research requests to [email protected] The GSP Pennsylvania Resource Guides can help answer where to find great Pennsylvania research sources. https://genpa.org/public-collections/pennsylvania-resources/

The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania 2100 Byberry Road—Suite 111 Philadelphia PA 19116 267.686.2296 [email protected] JOIN GSP

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