Fifth Annual Report, March 1, 1897 (Original)

FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA. The fifth year of the Society's progress has been such that your Board of Directors feel justified in saying that the purposes and objects for which the Society was founded have proven conclusively by experience to be the proper ones, and the Society is now on a basis and so well known to persons interested in Historical and Genealogical research, that its future work and prosperity is based only upon the number of such persons who become members of it. During the past year the Society issued No. 2, Vol. 1, of its publications, comprising Philadelphia Wills, 1682-1692, List of Members, and reports, etc. It is hoped at an early day to issue another publication. Your Board of Directors, following the custom of sister Societies of like character, have issued blanks to members asking them for their pedigrees and other facts. These blanks when properly filled up and returned make a collection of valuable information of their respective localities, and it is hoped that members will not consider them in the light of a personal report, but rather as a family history which will in time add greatly to the value of the Society's records. Eighty-eight of our members have complied with this request, and we hope that the remaining ones that have not done so will at their earliest leisure give the matter attention. The Board are pleased to report that the books and collections of the Society are placed now in a large case adjacent to the Jordan annex, where they are much more accessible to persons wishing to inspect them than they (155 ) 156 Fifth Annual .Report. were heretofore ; our thanks are due to the Historical Society and to their Librarian and Assistant Librarian for this improvement and for many other courtesies at their hands. During the past year the Board beg to report the following work which has been brought to a completion : 1. First Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, burials copied, indexed and being bound. 2. Wills of Lancaster County, 1721-1820, abstracted and bound ; 1,144 pages, about 4,500 Wills, 30,000 names. 3. Index to Lancaster County Wills (separate), about 500 pages, finished and bound. 4. York County Wills, 1749-1820, indexed and bound ; 608 pages and index, about 3,000 Wills. 5. Records Great Valley Baptist Church, copied, indexed and bound. 6. Records Old Dutch Church, Walpack Township, Sussex County, New Jersey, copied, indexed and bound ; obtained through John W. Jordan, Esq. 7. St. Gabriel's (Morlatton) Protestant Episcopal Church at Douglassville, Berks County, copied, indexed and being bound. 8. Dutch Reformed Church of Smithfield, Monroe County, Penna., copied, indexed and bound. 9. Augustine Lutheran Church (Old Trappe), completed and bound. 10. St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, being copied. 11. St. Michael's and Zion Church, Philadelphia, one volume completed and being bound. The Board of Directors beg to acknowledge, with sincere thanks on behalf of the Society, the following gifts during the past year : 1. Calendar of New York Wills, 1626-1836, presented by Charles Hare Hutchinson, Esq. 2. The Salem (New York) book, presented by Mrs. Harriet M. Williams. Fifth Annual Report. 157 3. 26th Annual Report Director of City Trusts, presented by Heber L. Thompson, Esq. 4. Magazine of New England History, presented by the publishers. 5. Thompson Family, presented by the author. 6. Whitaker Genealogy, presented by the Hon. Samuel W. Pennypacker. 7. 19th Century Magazine, presented by the publishers. 8. Gazzam and De Beelen Families, presented by A. De B. McKenzie, Esq. 9. Sir George Yeardley, Governor of Virginia, presented by Thomas T. Upshear, Esq. 10. Catalogue Central High School, presented by H. S. Hopper, Esq. 11. Putnam's Monthly, presented by the publisher. 12. LaFayette at Brandywine, presented by the Chester County Historical Society. 13. Notes on Ancestry of John Platt, presented by Franklin Platt, Esq. 14. Index to Records of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, presented by Francis Olcott Allen, Esq. 15. Roster of Masons at Meeting at Tun Tavern, presented by Julius F. Sachse, Esq. 16. Biography of Richard Hough, Provincial Councillor, presented by Oliver Hough, Esq. 17. Address of Judge Mitchell on District Court, presented by the Hon. James T. Mitchell. 18. Ebenezer Greenough, memoir presented by Franklin Platt, Esq. 19. Essex Institute Collections, Vol. 31, presented by Essex Institute. Mr. George H. Earle has contributed the sum of fifty dollars as a special contribution for the purpose of copying inscriptions on tombstones in Chester county, and the work is now under way, and will be completed as soon as the weather will permit. 158 Fifth Annual Report. From March 1st, 1896, to March 1st, 1897, we have elected 22 new members, and there have been 5 resignations. The Treasurer's report, which is presented, shows a balance of $567.69 in the treasury at this date ; there is also in the treasury a fund of $524.05 from life memberships. Your Board have to report the death during the year of the following members : HOWARD SPENCER, ESQ., HON. EDWIN H. FITLER, HON. JOHN SCOTT, GEORGE B. ROBERTS, ESQ., GEORGE F. TYLER, ESQ., DR. A. SYDNEY ROBERTS, T. RONEY WILLIAMSON, ESQ. All of which is respectfully submitted. EDWARD SHIPPEN, M. D., U. S. N., President. EDWARD S. SAYRES, Recording Secretary. March 1, 1897 .