For years, I had wondered what had happened to the wedding certificate from my parents, as my mother was an incredible saver of all things. They were married by Friends Ceremony at Reading Meeting in 1955, but the document was nowhere to be found until it recently turned up in its original metal canister, tucked away in an old box. Since many folks frame these documents and display them prominently, I was surprised that Mom hadn’t done so, unitl I unrolled the large certificiate and realized that there were so many signatures that they continued on the back of the sheet in order to have room for them all. I’ve transcribed the certificate, and added the listing to the site’s Data section here.

When I was young, both sets of grandparents lived a few miles from each other in Berks county, and we usually spent several weeks each summer visiting them. Dad’s parents lived on an old farm, just off of Route 10 near Elverson, and Mom’s folks were a few miles north, on the Alleghenyville Road. It’s was Dad’s mother who first got my interest started in family research as she was the one who had the two-volume Andrew Moore genealogy and showed me the descent.

It was my mother, though, who had actually started doing some research into the family lines, mostly on her mother’s side, so I had a bit of info on that side to start with too. Over the years, as my own research progressed, I was very appreciative of the fact that Mom happily collected bits and pieces of family history, even if they were never organized very well. Part of my challenge now is to try to make sense of all of it, documenting as I go.

One of the more frustrating aspects of doing genealogy research online can be finding sites that are actually useful sites with real data, rather than just lists of links to other sites, but sometimes you find a gem, such as the Strausstown Roots site. Created by Kathy Jo and Mary Alice Berger, the site focuses on a single area, Strausstown, and it does it very well. The site was built using the TNG software, the same software used by this site for the Family Files section. There’s lots of great information on the site, so if your Berks County roots include Strausstown, you’ll definitely want to take a look!

Please pardon the dust while I rearrange some things around here - lots of new data bits will be added in the near future as I work my way through a backlog of information, so check back often to see what’s new!