Index to Pennsylvania's Colonial Records Series

Book Reviews Index to Pennsylvania's Colonial Records Series. Compiled by Dr. Mary Dunn. Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, 1092. xi plus 228 pp. $20.00. In the maddened rush of some genealogical publishing houses to bring forth hurriedly-compiled indexes and hastily-edited transcripts and abstracts, it is a welcome relief to find the Genealogical Publishing Company's publication of the late Mary Dunn's index to the 16 volumes of Pennsylvania's Colonial Records. Her task was formidable; the Colonial Records series comprises the recorded minutes of Pennsylvania's executive government in its varied forms from 1682 to 1790 and collectively numbers over 7000 pages. With the help of Mrs. Martha Reamy, who indexed volume 13, Dunn completed her work shortly before her death on 6 May 1984. Her manuscript, located at the Uniontown Public Library, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, was published in her memory by the Friends of the Uniontown Public Library. Despite the somewhat misleading title of the series, Colonial Records spans the colonial, revolutionary, and post-war periods of Pennsylvania's history, and reflects the operations of the executive branch of government, including the Committee of Safety (30 June 1775 to 22 July 1776) and the Council of Safety (24 July 1776 to 21 April 1777 and 17 October 1777 to 4 December 1777). All told, Pennsylvania witnessed 12 executive governments between 1682 and 1790, some of which were brought about by popular mandate, others that were imposed by extra-legal activities, and in two instances, executive governments that rested solely on the authority of the original patent granted by Charles II to William Penn to govern his colony. In the latter, Penn was forced to resort to his Letters Patent from the king, as the colonists were completely deadlocked over the adoption of a new charter, or frame of government. In another instance, the minutes tell the story of Pennsylvania's fleeting experience with royal government (1693-1695). Except for the two years that William III directly intervened in the colony, Pennsylvania was a proprietary government under the authority of the Penn family until 1776, when it became a commonwealth based on popular sovereignty 326 Book Revierin 327 and a member of the United States. Within the scope of these volumes and the political and social history they contain are not only the names of governing officials, but also of the thousands of individuals who, for whatever purposes, had reason to interact with the governor or his council. Those people included merchants, ship captains, lawyers, militiamen and soliders, ministers, debtors, Native Americans, farmers, immigrants, prisoners, and traitors. Mary Dunn's index therefore will prove to be an extremely useful tool for genealogists, historians, and researchers who are interested in Pennsylvania's first 108 years. The index itself is to the 1851 to 1853 edition of the Colonial Records that was published on the order of the state legislature and was part of an ambitious publication program that has since resulted in the production of 138 volumes of Pennsylvania documents located in the Colonial Records and the nine series of Pennsylvania Archives. Dunn's efforts easily supplant the awkward and limited work of Samuel Hazard, who in 1860 published his General Index to the Colonial Records., and while including a subject index, provided only a limited name index. Unlike Hazard, Dunn provides a complete name index, including the frequently confused anglicization of Indian names. One caveat to researchers, however, is to be sure to search for alternate spellings. In some instances, Dunn has indicated in parentheses other possible spellings, but in many other Cases she has not. Of greater significance, however, is the completeness of her work; researchers should feel confident using the index. Furthermore, Mary Dunn's index is a good example of what can be done in order to make the thousands of documents and numerous source materials that are extant but only marginally used more accessible. That she was undaunted by the sheer size of the task she undertook is a credit to her energies and resourcefulness. Hopefully, her efforts will spur continued interest in professional and competent compilation and indexing of the mountain of material that remains in our libraries and archives, including the remainder of the Pennsylvania Archives series. Joseph S. Foster Massachusetts Genealogical Research. By George K. Schweitzer, Ph.D., Sc.D. By the Author, Knoxville, Tenn., 1990. 279 pp., paper. $10.00 postpaid. In the past few years, Dr. Schweitzer has become popular in the genealogical world as an entertaining speaker and as the compiler of 328 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine guidebooks to research in several states. One of his more recent publications is this guide to Massachusetts research, with acknowledged assistance from William H. Schoeffler, director of research at the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston. Following his established formula style of coverage, Dr. Schweitzer packs a lot of information in his guides, and the Massachusetts guide is no exception. There is no index, but a detailed table of contents quickly reveals the expected topics of birth records, cemeteries, censuses, land records, newspapers, tax records, probates, and so on. In order to put in so much detail, the author uses a good deal of abbreviating, which some readers may find awkward. As found in his other works, Dr. Schweitzer begins his guide with background information on the history of the commonwealth, followed by an alphabetically-arranged discussion of record sources, then a list of major record locations, and ending with "Research Procedure" and listings of important records to be found at the county and town levels. Few guides such as Dr. Schweitzer's come close to real advice on how to analyze, interpret, and piece together information found in a genealogical hunt. His "Research approaches" on pages 190-91, while not wrong, are too general to be very useful, and his step-by-step suggestions seem like genealogyby-the-numbers, locking the overly cautious researcher into a formula-only state, much like family group sheets and some computer programs can do. However, the author's good, general advice on how to find repositories and how to conduct oneself once there should be read by those who have sometimes given the field a black eye. In a work of this scope, there is never sufficient space to cover all the ins and outs of even the most common of record groups, but Dr. Schweitzer seems to have been fairly thorough, with a low percentage of error. If and when the Massachusetts guide is revised, however, some of the matters needing attention are: (1) the place of burial should be sought in town and city death records but is not found at the state level until individual certificates were duplicated in Boston in the early 1900s; (2) county superior courts have had concurrent jurisdiction over divorces with the probate courts since 1922, although most divorces are handled in the latter court (page 95); (3) Joseph Carvalho, III's important work, Black Families in Hampden [County], Massachusetts, 1X55-1855 (1984), is missing from the section on blacks Book Rez,iews 329 (page 104); and (4) the original probate papers did not survive the 1827 Barnstable County fire, only most of the record books (page 194). Despite its few shortcomings and a format some may find clumsy at times, this guide is unsurpassed, considering the extensive amount of information crammed into it at such an affordable price. Roger D. Joslyn, C.G., F.A.S.G. Early Anglican Church Records of Cecil County. By Henry C. Peden, jr. Family Line Publications, Westminster, Md., 1990. 105 pp., index. $9.00 plus $1.50 shipping. With the establishment of the Anglican Church as the Church of Maryland in 1692, Cecil County was laid out as North Sassafras Parish, later called St. Stephen's. The records in this small but meaty book begin with a marriage in 1695. Later additions are for a second parish, north of the Elk River, which was established in 1706 as St. Mary Anne's, with the first regular minister assigned in 1722. The wealth of information is somewhat diminished by its crowding into small print, a common problem caused by the effort to keep size and price at a minimum. But as such minor inconveniences can be remedied in this age of mechanical wonders, one must be grateful that the compiling has been done. For Cecil County genealogical research, this book is a real boon. Readers should note that a photostat copy of the original St. Stephen's North Sassafras Parish register is available in the collections of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania (call number Md/C1E). Mary Fallon Richards Deaths Reported by Der Libanon Demokrat, A German Language Newspaper Published at Lebanon, Pennsylvania, 1832-1864. Translated and transcribed by Robert A. Heilman. Heritage Books, Inc., Bowie, Md., 1990. 130 pp., index, paper. $12.50 plus $3.00 shipping. Marriages Reported by Der Libation Demokrat, A German Language Newspaper Published at Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Translated and transcribed by Robert A. Heilman. Heritage Books, Inc., Bowie, Md., 1990. 126 pp., index, paper. $1230 plus $3.00 shipping. Der Libanon Demokrat, a German language newspaper, was published weekly from 1827 to 1866 at Lebanon, Pennsylvania. In 1865 330 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine this newspaper was merged with the Berks County Zeitung, and the name was changed to DerPennsylvanier. A complete run of Der Libanon Demokrat is not available. The compiler advises that editions have not been found for years prior to 1832 and after 1864, but that the years 1850 to 1854 are well represented and, with the exception of 1854, may be complete or nearly complete. The book was compiled from issues available at the Lebanon County Historical Society, the Lebanon Community Library, and the Pennsylvania State Library. More than 1000 deaths occuring primarily in Lebanon, Berks, Lancaster, Dauphin, and Schuylkill counties appear in the first volume. The index covers others mentioned in the reports such as children, parents, and siblings. The second volume contains more than 1000 marriages and records about 2500 people. Entries include the following information where given: date of marriage; groom's name, township and/or county; bride's name, township and/or county; minister's name; parents' names. The marriages reported took place in Lebanon, Berks, Lancaster, Dauphin, and Schuylkill counties, with most being from Lebanon and western Berks County. Although limited in the time covered and the editions extant, these two books should be of great help to those with ancestors in the area covered by Der Libanon Demokrat. if a known marriage or death is not included in these volumes, or if there is a question or doubt as to the entry, the original newspaper should be checked. This is especially important since all issues are not extant, and the marriage or death sought might have been in the missing issues. Jane Adams Clarke A Retrospect of Early Quakerism; being extracts from the Records of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and the Meetings Composing it, to which is prefaced an Account of Their First Establishment By Ezra Michener. Cool Spring Publishing Co., Washington, D.C., 1991 (orig. publ. 1860). 434 pp., 18 illus., hardcover, sewn binding, acid-free paper. $35.00 plus $3.00 shipping. The Cool Spring Publishing Company has produced an attractively bound reprint of Ezra Michener's A Retrospect of Early Quakerism. One may well question why. The book originally appeared in 1860 at a time when bitter feelings stemming from the Hicksite controversies still divided Quaker meetings and Friends families. The author was well