Finding an Ancestor in the Digitized Archives

Most of us do not have direct or indirect ancestors documented in books or historical materials held at archival research repositories. The exception is ancestors listed in the standard civil and religious documents.

One rare example in my ancestry is my great grandfather Rev. James S. Royer’s half-sister Mary Buch Royer, a missionary in India for about 33 years between 1913 and 1947.

Known as B. Mary Royer, she was born in 1881 to Benjamin J. Royer and Laura (Buch) Royer in Rothsville, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

. . .

Finding an Ancestor in the Digitized Archives Story
Finding an Ancestor in the Digitized Archives Story Slideshow

Courtesy Elizabethtown College High Library Special Collections / The Internet Archive

Could a Langer in my Family Ancestors have visited Yosemite National Park in California sometime in the early 1920s?: A Study of an Unidentified Photograph

When my maternal grandfather Irma passed down to me some of her father’s photographs in the mid-1990s, one of the photographs depicts 3 men and 1 young woman standing on a high rock ledge overlooking a barely visible foggy valley. You can tell it is a tourist attraction because of the metal railing in the lower left, with three horizontal rails.

One of the men and the woman are wearing knickers and knee socks, with the woman wearing a woman’s tie and possibly high boots. The man in front is holding a walking stick. They appear dressed for a hike for that time. The man with the walking stick appears the eldest in the group.

The distance between the photographer and these 4 people is enough to have blurred their faces. The type of camera used and the weather conditions likely contributed to the image quality.

The photographic print measures 9½ inches tall and 7½ inches wide; a good size.

There are no markings on the front or back; completely unidentified.

Given my Langer family's presence in Aalborg, Denmark during the early 1900s, I have assumed that the image was taken somewhere in Denmark or Europe. And, never really researched it online.

I could not have been more wrong.

. . .

Could a Langer Have Visited Yosemite National Park in California in 1920s Story

Could a Langer Have Visited Yosemite National Park in California in 1920s Story Slideshow

Overhanging Rock at Glacier Point,

Yosemite National Park, California, undated

The Langer Family in Aalborg Denmark Story

There is one photograph in my entire family photos archive that both fascinates me and remains a mystery.

That photo is a 1904(?) family group image of the Langer’s in Aalborg, Denmark.

Both my great grandfather Langer and his father, my great-great-grandfather, are in the photo, as are about nine other Langer’s.

There is no description of the image, front or back, except that someone wrote “1904 / Denmark” on the back.

I was not aware of this photo until about 2005, as it was held by another family member.

I have been researching this photo ever since.

. . .

The Langer Family in Aalborg Denmark Story

The Langer Family in Aalborg Denmark Story Slideshow

The Langer Family Postcards of 1906 to 1910 Slideshow

The Langer Family in Aalborg, Denmark, ca. 1904

A Story of Newly Discovered Historical Family Documents

One of the things that excite me, personally and professionally, is discovering and bringing to light new historical documents.

Even in 2020, new documents, both in my family history and at work have been discovered.

I am here to share some new family historical documents.

. . .

A Story of Newly Discovered Historical Family Documents

A Story of Newly Discovered Historical Family Documents Slideshow

Niagara Falls Through the Generations Story

Are there tourist destinations that generations of your family have visited?

For my family, it is Niagara Falls.

As an archivist who specializes in ‘reading’ photographs, I like to take in the details of photos.

For photos taken at Niagara Falls, that detail is the distinctive ornamental design of the wrought iron railing along the parapet walls.

According to the Niagara Parks Commission, the first section of this wall was begun in 1904 and completed in 1923. It was extended to other sections in the 1930s.

The ornamentation of the wrought iron may have been the work of blacksmith Frederick James Flatman (1876-1957), who worked for the Commission in the 1930s and 1940s.

The accompanying slideshow depicts 4 generations of my family visiting Niagara Falls from 1948 through 2000, and all with the same railing detail in the background. Postcards and photographs in the collections of the City of Niagara Falls Museums also include this same railing detail.

Niagara Falls Through The Generations Story Slideshow

The Oil Spill Summer and the Beginnings of My Environmental Awakening

My “Up at The River” Story described my time during the mid-1970s to mid-1980s at my maternal grandparent's house along the upper end of the Felix Dam recreation pool of the Schuylkill River, Muhlenberg Township, Berks County, where they had built a house in 1967-1968.

In that story, I wrote that "in July 1980, somewhere along the Schuylkill River, significantly upriver from the Ernesto’s, there was a major industrial oil spill, which covered the Felix Dam recreational area pool in black and ending that summer’s activity in the river.”

I had one fact incorrect. The oil spill likely occurred no more than 2 miles upriver from my grandparent's house, from an industrial plant. As a July 26, 1980, Reading Eagle photo caption of me and my brother describes, the spill came from a Reading Industries, Inc. plant in Ontelaunee Township, along the Pottsville Pike (Rt. 61). Reading Industries was a refiner of copper scrap and a manufacturer of copper tubing and had multiple plants in Berks County. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1981 and was acquired in 1982 by new ownership.

Here is the rest of that portion of the story.

For the remainder of that summer, we relied on a baby pool and hoses to have water fun!

As a kid, I was never concerned about water quality in the river I was swimming in; until the summer of 1980. At the age of 13, the oil spill began to awaken my environmental consciousness. During my 8th grade school year of 1980-1981, I entered the school’s science fair regarding the oil spill. There once was a family photo of the poster board I entered, which, unfortunately, has been lost for many years.

As I described in the “Up at The River” Story: “The river’s water quality seemed to decrease during the 1980s, after the oil spill. We still swam in it; a lot during the early 1980s. But, increasingly, especially during the mid-1980s, you would see groups of white bubbles with loose brown ‘stuff’ underneath them floating down the river, spanning the entire width of it. Sometimes, we would be in the river, and splash the stuff floating toward us away. We did not think it was sewage, but it baffled us: what was it and where did it come from?”

I attended a liberal arts college which required 1 full year of a science course. To meet that requirement, during my freshman year, I took an environmental science class. College chemistry, physics, or biology did not appeal to me and just seemed too hard. In the end, it was one of the better class choices I made.

The course was taught by Professor Candie Wilderman, who founded Dickinson College’s Environmental Studies Department/Program in 1981. There was extensive fieldwork during the course. We gathered water samples from local area streams and brooks and tested them back in the lab. We wrote field notes in our K&E issued yellow covered field notebooks. We visited a farm that produced electricity using trapped methane gas from cow manure; likely an innovation for the mid-1980s. We visited a trash landfill.

I fully enjoyed it, and still apply some basic science knowledge from this class as an archivist today, especially regarding watersheds.

Taking this class also sparked a general interest in trying to discover the root cause of the pollution floating down the river. My grandfather was semi-active in an organization called the Schuylkill River Greenway Association, and likely a member. The SRGA was founded in 1974 (incorporated in 1977), and until 2003, had its offices in Berks County. In the early 1980s, he had an SRGA newsletter, and I possibly recall that he also had a letter from them regarding a water quality test for that portion of the river, and he even possibly may have introduced me to someone regarding my water quality concern.

I even hatched a plan in my head that I would row my grandparent’s canoe upriver until I found the source of the pollution, have it tested, bring the wrongful party to justice, and restore the water quality of the river. I never actually went through it.

However, I do recall that through my studies and conversations, one theory developed around the potential of high levels of phosphates (from detergents?) as a potential cause of the white bubbles; and the brown stuff being excessive algae due to the phosphates. I am not a scientist and these theories were discussed while I was a young adult.

The decrease in the Schuylkill River’s water quality during the early 1980s likely had some role in my grandparent’s decision to install an in-ground pool in fall 1985, overlooking the river. Beginning in the summer of 1986, the pool would become the extended family's summer recreational gathering spot, rather than the river. From then on, we only used the river for boating, which, by the late 1980s, was a pontoon boat, rather than a speed boat. The traditional seasonal docks were no longer installed by the late 1980s.

While I am not an environmental activist, I have been concerned with environmental issues throughout my adult life. As an archivist and historian for a state forests and parks agency and a state metropolitan region water supply system, environmental records and issues surround my professional work.

It has been fascinating to learn about and talk to co-workers about forests and trees, and their pests; watershed management for a water supply system; the water quality of drinking water, of rivers and brooks, lakes and ponds, and beaches; and the value of open space.

© Sean M. Fisher, 2020

Oil Spill Summer Story Slideshow

Resources

The 1982 acquisition of Reading Industries is told in two articles by one of the buyers, Mark Furstenburg.

Mark Furstenburg, “One Man's Mission: To Save the Soul of an Old Machine,” Washington Post, July 10, 1983
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1983/07/10/one-mans-mission-to-save-the-soul-of-an-old-machine/ae45d9ea-a242-4473-858b-bf17529ff775/

Mark Furstenburg, “In Search of Survival,” Inc. Magazine (January 1, 1984)
https://www.inc.com/magazine/19840101/3965.html
“It was November 15, 1982, when Reading Industries became ours. Suddenly, I owned more than 20% of a company with three plants, 420 employees, a company that refined copper from scrap, extruded it, and finished it, a company that produced about 12% of the water tube made in America and had revenues of about $85 million a year.”

Racing Models Up at The River Story

Reading, Pennsylvania was once home to a well-known race car track called the Reading Fairgrounds, located in Muhlenberg Township, just over the northern end of the Reading city line.

It was a ½-mile oval dirt racetrack that hosted races from 1924 to 1979. Beginning in 1955, weekly races were held for the next 25 years.

One of our hobbies, inspired by our older cousin, was to buy car model kits and transform them into our favorite cars/drivers from the Reading Fairgrounds.

Read the Story and see the associated Slideshow.

Racing Models Up at The River Story

Racing Models Up at The River Story Slideshow