Question about research strategies

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kate Wagner on January 21, 2013 at 9:27am

"At this time, I do NOT know who, the Parents and Siblings of Jacob Arney were."

If the Arneys were Brethren, you will not find baptism records of infants. Baptism was not performed until adulthood.

Also, the settlers here did not necessarily remain in their original religious group.  Check all church records just in case.

"York(town) was established in 1741, meaning it would have originally been in Lancaster County.

York County was established in 1749, that's why I say York(town) would have been in Lancaster 

County, prior to being in York County, Pennsylvania."  The original records stayed with the government agency of the county of origin but you need to check both Lancaster and York libraries (i.e., historical societies, other repositories).

I would start with finding the ship manifest and see who came over with that last name and who traveled with them.  Then work your way backwards and forwards using the German naming conventions to determine relationships and birth orders.  This is how I recently confirmed the origins of the ancestor I've been working on for the past four years.  I should say the "SOLE" ancestor to give you a better idea of how painstaking it is to search these records..

I've found the most assistance has been the York Heritage Trust, however, some of the townships do have their own repository.

Tax records are also a good resource for information.  These exist even though the land records may not.  You can find them on ancestry.com.

You can also find transactional documents and wills on lancasterdeeds.com but they are not in order nor are they indexed in any way.  Takes a lot of time and patience and to go through the imaged books page by page but they are there.

Kate

Permalink Reply by Susi (Susan C Jones) Pentico on January 21, 2013 at 6:08pm

HI,

1. Do you belong to a society in this region? Have you floated these questions past them?

2. Have you looked at Deeds, Wills, Tax Lists especially road TAX for that time frame?

3. Have you looked at Dr. Hively's books or maps regarding this region?

4. The name is familiar to me but I can not recall why except I dug in York Co. for Patterson very early.

5. I will look in the two books I have here but if you have not contacted the local societies for these areas your missing much help. 

SusiCP@cox.net

Permalink Reply by Susi (Susan C Jones) Pentico on January 21, 2013 at 6:10pm

Do not forget to use usgenweb.org and the rootsweb list for these regions and their query pages.

Permalink Reply by Kate Wagner on January 22, 2013 at 8:14am

I will probably be up in York doing research in the next month.  Get in touch with me and I will see what I can find for you.  For any other period, Susie's suggestion that you look in Deeds and Wills would be a good source but since I assume you are referring to the colonial era, before 1800, these documents largely did not exist in PA as they were not required. Tax lists are a good source but they are not indexed so be prepared to make a painstaking search to make certain you have covered the entire area (Lancaster, York, Adams, etc.).

Permalink Reply by Stan Arney on January 22, 2013 at 9:58am

Ms Wagner,

I wrote the York County Archives, about this last night, and below is their reply (from this morning):

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Mr. Arney,

You are correct, York County was created from the western portion of Lancaster County in 1749.  For records prior to that date, you will need to check with Lancaster County.  The problem that you will find is that your family did not stay long in either county.  Pennsylvania did not require marriage or birth records be kept at the government level until much later in the 19th century.  Therefore unless they died in either county, you may find very few records at the government level. 

We have an abstract of "Lancaster County Wills from 1732-1785" as well as an abstract to "York County Wills 1749-1819".  We checked for Arney/Arny/Erney/Erny/Orney/Orny/Urney/Urny but found no record.  The abstracts would mention them, if they had been listed in someone else's Will even if they themselves did not die here. We could not find any Arney/Arny entry in our will and bond index. We did try the published 18th century volumes of church records and found a baptismal record for Anna Elisabeth Erny (Vol. 3 pg 257). If you would like a copy of the record, the cost would be $1.50 [This I already have a copy of]

We tried early warrant and patent records for Springettsbury Manor (where Yorktown was located at the time) but again found no record.  It is quite possible that they did not own land here.  York Boro tax records do not begin until 1789.

Have you been able to locate them on any ship registries?  You many also want to contact the York County Heritage Trust and the Lancaster County Historical Society to see if they have any additional records in family files or church records.

If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.  Good luck with your research.

York County Archives

150 Pleasant Acres Road

York, PA 17402

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Permalink Reply by Kate Wagner on January 22, 2013 at 11:04am

Stan (call me Kate :) ), I'll be glad to look for records at the heritage trust. I've gone the route of the archives before and they were only able to locate one deed for me and it was discouraging.  That's why I swear by doing my own research hands-on. The Anna Elisabeth Erny baptism is promising :).  I know I've seen this name in my travels. Also, don't discount any "misspelling" of the name.  Take the suggestion of looking on the ship registries.  I'll be going up there in a few weeks (I live a little over an hour south of York).

Permalink Reply by Stan Arney on January 22, 2013 at 11:40am

Kate,

As far as Anna Elisabeth ERNY, Parents: Jacob and Anna Ursula

She was the fourth "known" child, of Jacob Arney and Anna Ursula KRON.

Their other 3 children:

Christian "Christy" Arney, Sr. (1750-1834)

Adam "Lawrence" Arney (1751-1802)

Johann Heinrich "Henry" Arney, Sr. (1755-1830)

All four children, were born in the area of Yorktown, York County, Pennsylvania.

(Possible alternative spellings: ARNEY, ARNY, EARNEY, ERNEY, ERNY, ERNE, etc.)

May I ask you, how should I go about looking in Ship Registries?

Thank you, for your time, consideration, and cooperation, I truly appreciate it.

Permalink Reply by Kate Wagner on January 22, 2013 at 1:27pm

Try this link:

http://immigrantships.net/bremenproj/bremenproject.html

Also, familiarize yourself with the German naming conventions: http://www.kerchner.com/germname.htm

Permalink Reply by Stan Arney on January 25, 2013 at 3:25pm

Kate,

I also wrote York County Heritage Trust, and received two responses (see below):

What do you think of what they said?

Thank you, for your time, consideration, and cooperation, I truly appreciate it.

--- Stan

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mr Arney

 

Thank you for contacting the York County Heritage Trust. We have information on over 8500 different surnames including references to the Arney which is controlled under our surname systems as Erney. Even though we were not York County officially until 1749 we had individuals living here with active churches etc. The fact that he leaves this area in the 1760s does not leave a large window of time for any evidence of a paper trail, such as church baptisms etc. Our information is available during our hours of operation Tuesday thru Saturday  9 until 5 with a daily user fee. We also offer a limited research by mail service which focuses on one individual and is described on our website www.yorkheritage.org under library & archives.

 

Cordially,

 

Lila Fourhman-Shaull

Director of Library & Archives

York County Heritage Trust

250 East Market Street

York, PA  17403

Phone – 717-848-1587, ext. 223

Fax – 717-812-1204

www.yorkheritage.org

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Mr. Arney,

 

The York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives has family files for families from York & Adams Counties.  We do have a family file for Arney/Erney.  Family files contain obituaries, family trees, correspondence, & genealogies under 40 pages.  We also have church records, some of which date back to the 1750’s.  There could be church records pertaining to one or more of the family members.  Because the family did not stay long it York County, it may be difficult to find many records of them.  We do have several books indexing ships’ passenger lists & some naturalization records on microfilm.  We also have <ancestry.com>.  These sources are available to researchers.  We are open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 am until 5 pm.  There is a $6.00 fee per day to use the Library/Archives (this fee is waived for members of the York County Heritage Trust).  We also offer a research service for those living over 100 miles away.  For a full research request, we would search the church records, family files, <ancestry.com>, & other appropriate sources in the Library/Archives.  There is a $50.00 fee ($35.00 for members), which covers research time & up to 15 copies.  Additional copies are $0.50 each.  A full research request usually takes 6-8 weeks to complete.  We have the research request form on our website: a href="http://www.yorkheritage.org>" target="_blank">www.yorkheritage.org>;.  It is located under the “Library/Archives” tab, & then under “Genealogy Request.” 

 

I hope this is helpful.  Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

 

Jenna Entwistle

Registrar

York County Heritage Trust

250 East Market Street

York, PA 17403

(P) 717-848-1587 ext. 234

(F) 717-812-1204

registrar@yorkheritage.org

www.yorkheritage.org

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Permalink Reply by Kate Wagner on January 25, 2013 at 3:36pm

Standard reply. The family files can be a treasure trove or like in my case, a lot of recent obits and an ages old letter from someone inquiring about the Turnbaugh family who is now deceased.  I will look into the family file when I head up to York next time if you like.

Permalink Reply by Stan Arney on January 25, 2013 at 3:50pm

Kate, I would deeply and sincerely appreciate it.

Permalink Reply by Kate Wagner on January 22, 2013 at 8:16am

Also, the danger in using an online resource such as rootsweb is the uncertainty of the data and the citation (if one exists).  I will use an online source to get an idea of what/who to look for but never trust it as the be all end all.  That's placing my work in someone else's hands. I want to see the source document for myself.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page