I help genealogists research their ancestors in Pennsylvania through books, workshops, and a membership community.
The 1926 fair was a rained-out flop. Your ancestor's records from that year are not.
Your PA ancestor in 1926Reader, 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 records from 1926 are excellent. This is the decade where twentieth-century recordkeeping takes over. The 1920 and 1930 censuses bracket the year and capture immigration and naturalization status. But the record I want you to find this week is one most people skip: The WWI draft registration card. Between 1917 and 1918, the government required men across a wide age range to register — which means nearly every adult man alive in Pennsylvania in 1926 filled one out a few years earlier. The card records his full name, home address, exact date and place of birth, occupation and employer, and nearest relative. For a man in his thirties or forties in 1926, that single card is often the best snapshot of him you’ll ever find. Add the SS-5 Social Security application (which names both parents, including a mother’s maiden name) and post-1906 passenger lists for immigrant ancestors, and 1926 becomes one of the most documented years in your tree. Full method on the blog: Where Was Your Pennsylvania Ancestor in 1926? Let’s discover your Pennsylvania ancestors. —Denyse P.S. Once you’ve pulled the draft card, the census line, and the city-directory address, you have the makings of your grandfather’s story — not just his dates. Turning records into a story your family will actually read is what we do over at Chronicle Makers.
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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 1976 Reader, 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...
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...