I have some fantastic news from Addie Glotfelty of the Local History and Genealogy Dept at the Ruth Enlow Library in Oakland! Addie has been working on a project to compile an online Obituary Database with images from The Republican, which began publication in 1877 in Garrett County, MD.  The fully searchable database is now online and is totally functional, with obituaries from 1877. You can go to Ruth Enlow Library http://www.relib.net/ and click on "Local History and Genealogy" and find the link at the top of the page OR get there directly by typing in the url: www.relib.net/obits What a huge ongoing project this is and it should prove invaluable to all of us. Make sure to Bookmark the site or add to your Favorites and check back often since they will continue to add to the database!   Passing along information from Patricia Shaffer  ~ Information is needed on VETERANS from the area of Windber, Somerset Co., Pa., for a black granite wall which is to be erected. You may contact Patricia Shaffer at: pdshaffer@comcast.net         Photo courtesy of Dick Crow who received it from Connie Hamilton Beachy

LEGACY FAMILY TREE  GENEALOGY PROGRAM BY FAR THE BEST AND EASIEST TO USE PROGRAM FOR BEGINNERS AND ADVANCED USERS.   Legacy is a full-featured professional genealogy program that helps you track, organize, print, and share your family history. Includes source documentation, dozens of beautiful reports, expert merging capabilities, To Do list, pictures, videos, Web page creation, spell checking, Internet searching, relationship calculation, name tag printing and more. The program imports and exports standard GEDCOM files as well as directly reads PAF files.

The focus of this research is on the Early Families of Maryland and Pennsylvania who settled in the area in the late Eighteenth Century, their ancestors and descendants.   Our site began originally with the Crowe, Humbertson, Layman and Weinbrenner/Winebrenner families who had roots in Maryland and Pennsylvania, but has grown to include many more Pioneer Families.   Some of the descendants of these families migrated into Ohio, Indiana, Virginia and West Virginia.   If you are connected to any of these early families, please join us in our efforts.  We may be able to help each other in our genealogical research.   When we started this site it was with the hope that others would find a tidbit here and there to help break down their own BRICK WALL, and perhaps have a morsel or two to share with others.   Please feel free to submit any little thing you may have, whether it's pictures, a date of birth/death/marriage, burial location, an obituary, Military Record or whatever, that pertains to these early families of Maryland and Pennsylvania, and  their related Ancestors or Descendants.   Happy Hunting! Carol and Genie

OUR MISSION To What End ? Anyone researching "orphan" family members of Maryland and Pennsylvania is invited to join us in our sleuthing. Our concentration is on those not-very-well-documented family members. These are "orphans", because we need to find their parents and connect them to the rest of the families.  Most often, these are our Brick Walls. Please be aware, that some of the information we gather, is undocumented and not proven. Thus any undocumented data presented here (and elsewhere), should ONLY be used as leads, not actual fact. Where documentation is available, we will provide it or its source. You should always verify any information you find, before accepting it. There is some data that has been 'generally accepted' as being fact. Quite often this information is based solely on assumption. We will include what has been accepted, along with any notes regarding the questionable data, and let you be the judge. Whatever documentation we find to substantiate or disprove that information will be added, to aid you in your research.   In climbing through family trees, we have come across many inconsistencies in the "generally accepted" family lines which we would like to resolve. We don't want to accept assumptions such as: "John Doe was the father of Jane Doe" when he was only 8 yrs. old at the time of her birth.  And we can't accept a death as "Oct. 15,1850", when the wife is already found to be a widow in the census taken in June of 1850 and the final payout of the estate has been distributed on Oct. 15, 1850.  Obviously, the person was dead before probate of the estate. So join us in our pursuit of these pioneer families of Maryland and Pennsylvania and we'll help each other in giving them their rightful place in their family histories.