An Anniversary and a New Beginning

An Anniversary and a New Beginning byjeffrey L. Scheib* TN JANUARY OF 1895 there appeared before the members of the Xthree-year-old Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania a slim volume of 40 pages, printed for the Society by Edward Stern 8c Co., Inc., at 112-114 North Twelfth Street in Philadelphia. The unprepossessing little booklet, optimistically described on its title page as “Vol. I,” and “No. 1,” and also as “Miscellany No. 1,” was the first appearance of the Publications of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania. As the Society’s publications program enters its second century in 1995* the periodical launched so hopefully one hundred years ago remains vigorous under its current name, the Pennsylvania Genea¬ logical Magazine. The beginnings of the Society’s publications program, and, indeed, of the Society itself, were part of a phenomenon in the United States in the late nineteenth century. Popular interest in history and genealogy was stimulated by the Centennial of American Independence in 1876. During this period a number of hereditary and genealogical societies were founded, including the Daughters of the American Revolution and also the New York, Pennsylvania, and General Societies of Sons of the Revolution. The new enthusiasm for America’s origins also stimulated the growth of publications devoted to history and genealogy. While the venerable New England Historical and Genealogical Register's first published in 1847, and the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record first appeared in 1870, the number of historical and genealogical magazines and journals it *Editor’s Note: The author was editor of the Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine, 1989-1993, and is currently consulting editor and chairman of the Genealogical Society’s Publications Committee. He is also an editor o/Lawmaking and Legislators in Pennsylva¬ nia: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume 2, 1710-1756 (University of Pennsylvania Press, forthcoming 1996). 5 6 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine increased dramatically after the 1876 Centennial. Riding the crest of popular enthusiasm, the Genealogical Society’s parent organization, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, which had issued its first publication as early as 1824, launched its Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography in 1877, The early 1890s were especially fruitful years for historical magazines, with, for example, the first appear¬ ances of both the William and Mary Quarterly (1892) and the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (1893) , For the fledgling Genealogi¬ cal Society of Pennsylvania to enter the publications field as soon as sufficient funds were in hand to do so was perfectly in keeping with the temper of the times, As would remain the case until 1947, when the first editor, John Goodwin Herndon, was so designated, the first issue of the Society’s publications was the result of a collaborative effort by the Publica¬ tions Committee, rather than the work of a single editor. The first “Committee on Publication” consisted of Levi Taylor Dickson, a founding vice president of the Society; Philip Syng Physick Conner, an original director of the Society; and Thomas Allen Glenn, noted for his pioneering work on the early Welsh settlers of Pennsylvania. Dickson, Conner, and Glenn prefaced their effort with an address to the members of the Society. Explaining the reason for the new publishing venture, they wrote, “The Board of Directors of the Soci¬ ety has long thought it desirable to place before you some part of the valuable papers from time to time received, and which, if bound up in the regular manuscript volumes of our collections, might not be so available or interesting as if published.” The justification offered by Dickson, Conner, and Glenn for producing books and journals remains as valid in today’s culture of electronic technology as it was a century ago. The Society’s first Publications Committee was concerned with making important documentary material available to researchers. Dickson, Conner, and Glenn wrote that “family history, properly speaking,” could only be compiled by authors who were familiar with original source material. They feared that such material might be lost among the bound volumes of the Society’s collection. The technology of today, which enables storage and retrieval of vast quantities of historical and genealogical data on film or in computerized form, makes the com¬ mittee’s fear for the loss of information amidst a pile of books seem almost quaint. Nevertheless, the danger that errors might (in the An Anniversary and a New Beginning 7 words of Dickson, Conner, and Glenn) “creep in when the author is not familiar with the original sources of genealogical information” is as real today as it was in 1895. The danger today lies not so much in the loss of access to information as it lies in that information being taken out of context. Today’s technology brings with it the tempta¬ tion to retrieve a particular piece of information from an electronic or filmed source without giving thought to the context of the infor¬ mation or of the reliability of the source. Misunderstanding of the context of a particular piece of genealogical information can lead to error just as easily as lack of access to reliable source material. Presumably the entire issue of “Miscellany No. 1” was the work of the Publications Committee. Each article was published anony¬ mously. The contents of the first volume consisted of an edited transcript with introduction of the log of the ship Submission, which sailed from Liverpool, England, to Chesapeake Bay in 1682, bringing several families who settled in Pennsylvania; a collection of inscrip¬ tions of tombstones that were removed to Pine Street from the origi¬ nal burying ground of the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, on Bank Street; a biographical sketch ofJohn Hart, governor of Mary¬ land from 1714 to 1720; a list of individuals who received bounties on wolves from the court of New Castle, Delaware, in 1677, taken from the court records, along with a list of taxables within the juris¬ diction of the court in that year; and biographical sketches of the justices of the New Castle court in 1677, along with sketches of the high sheriff of New Castle and of the court clerk. The contents of “Miscellany No. 1” exhibit two important features that would recur throughout the first century of the Society’s publications (and will continue to do so into the second century). The first feature is the emphasis on publication of primary source material, such as the log of the Submission and the New Casde tax list. The second feature, exemplified by the biographical sketch of John Hart, is a willingness to go beyond the geographical limits of Pennsylvania and the Dela¬ ware Valley in the interest of scholarship. The first Publications Committee assured its readers that only “a lack of encouragement alone” would "prevent them from printing” further issues “in the near future.” In fact, the Publications appeared at somewhat irregular intervals over the ensuing years, until 1906, suggesting that encouragement, in the form of funding, was not always readily available. After the appearance of the first issue, three 8 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine No. 1. VOL. I. Publications of tl)C dracalngtrsl Snrtpto of Pmnsnhmnia Sflnuars, 1895 Jfliscello ng No. 1 PHILADELPHIA PRINTED FOB THE SOCIETY BY Bpwuw Snu A Co,, fare, 111 AJC«> 114 Xo«n Twnrn Bi. Title page of the first issue, Publications of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania. An Anniversary and a New Beginning 9 more issues of the Publications were produced through 1898, to complete the four-issue first volume. Thereafter, no Publications were issued until 1900, when the first issue of volume 2 appeared. Ulti¬ mately that volume consisted of only three issues and was completed in 1903. The first issue of volume 3 did not appear until 1906. Begin¬ ning with that issue, the Publications essentially became a journal that appeared once a year, with three issues comprising a volume, or one complete volume issued every three years. The journal was issued regularly in that form until the completion of volume 12 in the Depression year of 1935. For the next 15 years publication was again irregular, until the appearance of the first issue of the two-issue volume 18 (1950-51). Volumes 19 and 20 (1952-54 and 1955-57) each again consisted of three issues, and volume 21 (1958-60) consisted of four issues. The present format of two issues per year, with four issues per volume and one complete volume issued every two years, began with volume 22 (1961-62). Meanwhile, with the one-issue volume 16 of 1948, the title of the journal officially became The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine. In addition to the journal and the newsletter, Penn in Hand, which first appeared in 1980, the Society has from time to time also issued other publications. A volume of Palatine church visitation records was published in 1930 as a special issue of the journal, and several smaller items, most of them reprints from the Magazine, have been published which have come to be known collectively as “Special Publications.” The most recent addition to this “Special Publications” series is the 464-page Genealogist's Guide to Pennsylvania Records, by the late Helen Hutchison Woodroofe, which originally appeared as a series in the Magazine. As the Society begins its second century of publishing, the Publications Committee is also pleased to announce the beginning of a new series of publications, to be known as the “Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Monograph Series.” This new series will consist of important original works that are more suitable for publication as individual books than as articles in the Magazine. The first volume in the Monograph Series is the Guide to the Mortgages of the General Loan Office of the Province of Pennsylvania, 17241756\ compiled by James M. Duffin for the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Hereditary and Genealogical Societies, and published by the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution and its Color Guard. 10 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine Comprising over 4400 entries, the Guide enables genealogists and historians to access a greatly underutilized set of records in the Phila¬ delphia City Archives. The General Loan Office was created by an act of the Pennsylvania Assembly passed in March 1722/3. In re¬ sponse to a severe economic depression and a chronic shortage of currency in the province, the colonial government decided to issue paper money. The money was backed by real estate mortgaged by individuals to the provincial government. The loans made in ex¬ change for the mortgages served as the means by which the money was placed in circulation. The mortgages were recorded in a series of volumes, now in the Philadelphia City Archives. The mortgages contain a wealth of information of interest to both genealogists and historians on individuals and landholding in eighteenth-century Pennsylvania. The Guide to the Mortgages of the General Loan Office will be followed by a Guide to the Records of the Sale of Commonwealth Property in Philadelphia County, 1780—1798, also compiled by James M. Duffin. This volume will enable scholars to access records, also in the City Archives, of property seized from the Penn family during the Ameri¬ can Revolution and sold by the revolutionary government of Penn¬ sylvania to retire an emission of paper money made by the state in 1780. Along with the new “Monograph Series,” the Publications Commit¬ tee plans to continue the “Special Publications” series from time to time. That designation will now be reserved for reprints of especially important articles from the Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine. Along with the Magazine and Penn in Hand, the two series of publications will carry into the twenty-first century the Society’s proud tradition of scholarly publishing begun by that modest little volume issued one hundred years ago. Author's Note: Hannah Benner Roach, editor of the Pennsylvania Genealogical Maga¬ zine, 1962—1972, published “Retrospect and Prospect: An Editorial, ” a brief history of the Society ’s publications program and editorial policy, in Volume 25, number 1(1967), pages 45—50, of the Magazine. She listed (pp. 45, 49) the Society s first Publications Committee as Levi Taylor Dickson, Philip Syng Physick Conner, and Gilbert Cope. The discrepancy with Volume 1, number 1, page 5, where the address to the members of the Society is clearly signed by Dickson, Conner, and Thomas Allen Glenn as the “ Committee on Publication, * has not been explained.