I help genealogists research their ancestors in Pennsylvania through books, workshops, and a membership community.
1976 is the anniversary your family actually remembers
Your PA ancestor in 1976Reader, We’ve walked back through 1826, 1876, and 1926. This week we reach the anniversary you may have lived through yourself. In 1976, the country turned two hundred. The tall ships, the flags on every porch, the bells rung across the country on the Fourth — for millions of Americans, the Bicentennial isn’t a research problem, it’s a memory. Pennsylvania was at the heart of it, with events around Independence Hall and a new home for the Liberty Bell. And that changes how you research it. The records are recent, which means privacy rules limit access — you can’t even use the census, since the most recent one released is 1950. You lean instead on the Social Security Death Index (the fastest way to pin a death date in this era), post-1906 vital records within the access rules, and city and telephone directories. But the most valuable source in 1976 isn’t a document. It’s the people who were there. This is the one era where living memory is still available — and it’s the source that disappears a little more every year. What the family did on the Fourth, who was still living, what the old house and the neighborhood were like, the stories no one ever wrote down. Capturing that is real research. Record the interviews. Ask specific, sensory questions, not general ones. And do it now — the archive will still have the document next year. A ninety-year-old’s memory may not. Full method — records and how to capture memory — on the blog: Where Was Your Pennsylvania Ancestor in 1976? Let’s discover your Pennsylvania ancestors. —Denyse P.S. The Bicentennial generation’s stories are the ones most at risk of being lost — recent enough to remember, old enough to slip away. Turning those memories into a written story your family will keep is exactly what Chronicle Makers is for.
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Hi! I'm Denyse Allen, Founder of PA Ancestors
I help genealogists research their ancestors in Pennsylvania through books, workshops, and a membership community.
Your PA ancestor in 1926 Reader, In 1926, the country turned a hundred and fifty, and Philadelphia threw another World’s Fair — the Sesquicentennial International Exposition in South Philadelphia. You’ve probably never heard of it, and there’s a reason. It rained on 107 of the 184 days it was open, drew about 6.4 million of the 10 million visitors planners expected, and lost more than twenty million dollars. An honest civic flop. But here’s the thing: the fair flopped, and your ancestor’s...
Where was your PA ancestor in 1826? Reader, We just spent the spring on 1776. But your ancestor lived through every American milestone after it — and each one left a different paper trail. Over the next six weeks I’m walking the anniversaries: 1826, 1876, 1926, 1976, and then two posts on what makes Pennsylvania research genuinely its own animal. We start with the hardest one. In 1826, the country turned fifty. On July 4 — the exact half-century mark — John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died...
PAancestors.com Free this week: immigration records for your PA ancestors Hello Reader! If you have an immigrant ancestor who landed in Pennsylvania, the arrival record is one of the most useful documents you can find. It often names the ship, the port of departure, the date, an age, sometimes a last residence or a relative waiting in the States — the bridge that carries your research back across the ocean. MyHeritage keeps a number of these collections free to search and view. I went through...