To all BCGS members and friends:

Think of yourself first. That statement would horrify the nuns that taught me. We were taught to put others first and that we didn't count. To this day, I hold the door open for EVERYBODY.

 

However, in genealogy, we should remember that OUR descendants will need our information going forward. So pull out the graduation invitations, the marriage and birth certificates, the photos of momentous times in our lives. List employers. Add that resume. Attach the media to your tree. At the very least, it will make it easy for them, when the time comes to write that obituary, to conduct our memorial service.

 

We count as people. We have lived lives of note. When I was working on my BSN at LaSalle, I commented in the Public Health Nursing course that I worked at a clinic in North Philadelphia in the late 60's that was part of a program for Office of Economic Opportunity. The instructor was amazed and told me how I was part of a momentous, historic project. Who knew?        

 

So write your stuff down.  Future generations will thank you and know who YOU were with more clarity and detail.

Mary C. Butash, President,  [email protected]

2017 BUCKS COUNTY ANCESTRY FAIR

Saturday, November 11, 2017

Volunteers Needed!

OUR DATABASE HAS GROWN AGAIN! 

 

Check the site on a regular basis to see what is new; here is the link. 

Search the Database 

Fight, Flight, and a Deathbed Confession

by Ann Morton, BCGS Member

I started my genealogical journey with the typical unorganized box of family papers.   Almost immediately, I found a mystery that I am still working to unravel.   My first clue was two-thirds of a letter on Gettelman Brewery letterhead.  The paper looked as if it had been folded in thirds to fit in an envelope and the bottom third was gone. My maternal grandmother's maiden name was Gettelman and I knew there was a brewery in that family that had been sold to Miller Beer Company in the 1970s but that was the extent of my knowledge.  My mom was an only child.  Her mother moved in with us when I was 10 and died when I was 25 so I thought I knew my grandmother fairly well. She was a very proud woman and often told stories that we knew were not true.  She never mentioned anything about her grandfather, Jacob, and judging from what I found in my research, she skipped the most interesting story of all!

The letter I found was sent to a Lorenzo Elea and was addressed "Dear Nephews and Nieces".  The letter indicated that the author had been searching for Lorenzo's father, Jacob, for quite some time and stated that he had no idea why his father would have changed his last name.  At this point, I began to think I was in over my head!  Brand new to genealogy and the first thing I find is that my relative changed his last name? 

Ok, stop panicking and focus. It looked like the author of the letter might be the owner of the brewery, Adam Gettelman. So I researched him and found that he did indeed own the brewery and he had brother named Jacob and a nephew named Lorenzo.  My great-grandfather's name was Lorenzo so maybe I was headed down the right path.  I decided to do a newspaper search and hit gold.   The first article I found was from the Milwaukee Daily Record in 1891 and it described a 20 year ongoing search for Jacob Gettelman.  The article said Jacob was "scolded" by his father and subsequently disappeared.  Ten years later a brother-in-law found Jacob and tried to broker a reconciliation. However, Jacob wanted no part of his family and shortly after the brother-in-law's visit, Jacob moved even farther away.  Jacob's parents were getting older and really wanted to find him so they began to advertise in papers around the country.  

Unfortunately, they died without finding him but left some money to Jacob and his heirs.  The brother-in-law also died and left $5000 to Jacob.  Adam Gettelman, Jacob's brother, continued to search for him and added a $500 reward to the newspaper advertisements but never got any credible leads. This all happened between 1870 and 1899 so these were fairly significant amounts of money.

I found a second newspaper article which was published in 1899 after Jacob died.  It indicated that shortly after the failed reconciliation attempt, Jacob changed his name from Gettelman to Elea.  He moved his wife and 6 children several times, eventually settling in Huntington, Arkansas and working for the Missouri & Arkansas Mining & Merchandising Company.  On his deathbed in 1899, he told my great-grandfather, Lorenzo, that he should write a letter to a certain man in Wisconsin and tell him that Jacob Gettelman had died.  Lorenzo dutifully did this and reconnected with his father's family.   My great-grandfather, Lorenzo, was 29 when his father Jacob died and he discovered his true name was Gettelman.  It appears that Lorenzo and his siblings moved back to the Midwest and some of them went to work in the brewery.   At 29, Lorenzo was a manager in the same mining company that Jacob had worked. So he did not change careers but did move to Missouri and eventually had two children, my grandmother and a son named Charles.

I've verified the relationships and the relatives through the traditional sources and I even found the gravestone for Jacob Elea Gettelman which his brother Adam had commissioned.  However, so much of the mystery remains.  What was the original fight about?  Did my grandmother know this story and if so did she ever tell anyone?  I am trying to trace some of the descendants of Jacob and Adam Gettelman to see if anyone knows anything else.  How many times have we all said, "if only I could talk to my ancestors"?   

This bit of research was my entry into genealogy and I describe it as falling down the rabbit hole in the Alice in Wonderland story.   There are family stories I heard from my grandmother; some of which are true and some of which are not.  Then there is Jacob's story that is missing some crucial details.  Hopefully, I will find someone in the family to fill in the rest of the story.   

TECH TIP - PASSWORD HELP

Are you overwhelmed with the number of passwords that you need to remember?  Do you have so many that you have written them down - or worse, have put them on a spreadsheet on your computer?  It may be time to install a password manager, change all of your passwords so that each one is different, and let the password manager remember them for you.

If you need help in selecting a password manager, check out the PC Magazine article: The Best Password Managers of 2017.  The review of several password managers is at the top of the article. Scroll down past the review list to read information about password managers. There is also information about free password managers; just scroll further down in the article. 

Here it is:  The Best Password Managers of 2017

RESEARCH TIP

This tip may be helpful to Bucks County residents who have a Bucks County Free Library card. If you have a card but don't have a PIN, ask your local library to give you a PIN. Armed with your library card number and PIN, there are genealogical sites that you may visit at the local libraries or online from your home.  (If you're not a Bucks County resident, check with the library in your area to find out what is available for you.)

The library edition of Ancestry.com is not available from your home; you can access it only when you visit your local library. Login to one of the library computers with your card and PIN and have free access to Ancestry.com. 

There are other sites that you may access from your home computer. Go to this website,  www.grundylibrary.org, click on the Research tab,then Articles & Databases, and scroll down to the sources that are available for your free access.  Be sure to check the Genealogy and Newspaper sections! When you click on one of the sources, you will need to sign in with your Bucks County library card number and PIN. 

Membership Fees for One Year Membership

   Individual $20      Dual/Household $35         Lifetime $250       

Or ganization $75   

Our membership fees help to pay for speakers, facility rental, website costs, insurance and more.  Membership in BCGS is on a rolling basis and lasts one year from the month you join. 

You don't have to have Bucks County ancestors to enjoy the benefits of membership!  Won't you join and help us continue to grow?

See a list of BCGS Member Benefits on our website: 

http://www.bucksgen.org/index.php/membership

Join or renew by mail using our membership application/renewal form, on line on the Society's website via PayPal or by paying with cash or check at our next meeting.  

 

If you have questions and to get access to the above discounts, contact Peg Felter, VP-Membership at  [email protected]