New Search ( Lountzis )

Wow, Here I go again. I was ask to research the name of a Greek family here in Lancaster, Pa. I thought, " Sure, No Problem ". Well was I ever wrong.
To me they are a pramonent name here in Lancaster. They came to the US in 1973. But it seems the later someone comes over here, the harder it is to research their surname.
I looked everywhere. On alot of different web sites. Alot of Greek web sites, and Italian web sites just incase. I even search for the origin of the Lountzis name, and it never came up. Then finally I got to Lica Catsakis' web site. It seems that, that may be my best bet for any answers at all. I still haven't contacted her on my problem, but I plan to do so today and see where I stand. She may be able to guide me in the right direction. I will let you all know what becomes of this no adventure. In the meantime, if you all can give me hand in this, I'd sure appreciate it. Till Then...............

My Dads Passing

Well, last week on the 22nd of May, my Aunt called me and gave me news that I didn't think I would hear for I while. She told me my Dad passed away. That's disturbing in it's self, but what is really disturbing here is that, I haven't seen my father in about 6 years. He has been in and out of my life for about 40 years now. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. His wife causing most of the camotion between us.
Now I'm struggeling with my emotions, which I find strange. I knew I would be upset, I knew I would miss him, which I did most of my life. But now it's like a perminite emotion I must deal with. That I'm not used too. Before, I could just pick up the phone, or write a letter to him. Now he is no longer on this earth, and it's like he was never here. Other then a few things he gave me years ago, like his gold fish cuff links, his lions club pin, and a iron bank that he had when he was a child.
I 'm also lucky to have great memories of us down at the Chesapeake Bay, boating every summer, eating crabs at Gabblers Crab Shack, and him teaching me how to swim and fish at a very early age. Boy, those were the " Good Ole Days ".
Anyways, I guess I just wanted to write something down about him. It's a part of my life and his. Now he's gone home to His Lord where he can rest.
I planted a flower in his memory this week where I can go to a reflect. It helps to have something like that near.
Well, that's my story for this week, I guess I'll work on getting his birth and death certificates for my records, and put it all behind............

The Prince of Wales

I have been working on my own family tree for sometime now, and decided to add my husbands branch on. Wow !!!! What suprizes were there to be found.
He remembered some talk of Blackfeet Indian blood being in his family. Another person in the family who is researching also told me the same. One thing that had me stumped was the Blackfeet Indian Tribe is from Montana, not Connecticut, where this family was from. So I got to really researching on this story. I actually contacted the Blackfeet Tribe, and they knew who I was talking about. They actually gave the linage, some records, etc., of the people I was researching. I was really thrilled also to find out that the family lore, was really true. My Mother-in-Laws, fathers, mother, was an Allyn. The story was said that it was spelled Allen, but because the ancestor married a Blackfoot Indian, he was forced to changed his name. Hence Allen to Allyn. The ancestor was Henry Allen. He married Anna Gobert. Anna was the daughter of Rock Gobert ( white blood ) and Margret aka Mary Ahkatah ( full blood Piegan ), Margret aka Mary Ahkatah was the daughter of Chief Mountain of the Blackfeet Tribe.
I did go into a web site that has Blackfeet Genealogy, and I found the linage there, which helped me with following the census records.
I now want to find the marriage certificate of Henry and Anna who married in March 1909, I also found that Anna Allen died shortly after marriage to Henry in 1909 as per the records in the Blackfeet genealogy page. It looks like she came back on the reservation to either die or to be buried.
The census can really tell you alot. It's really like reading a book about a persons life.
I also found that my husband has a Prince in his family dating back to the 13th century. That will be another blog..........................

Stranger meeting

This has been a fun week for me. I got an email asking about a family tree I've been working on for several months now. She claimed to be a relative, and wanted to get in touch with someone because she was raised outside the family because of her mothers early death as a baby. So I called my friend and told her about the women, and gave her name. She said it sounded familiar, so I should give the lady her phone number and have her call her. Well I did this, and low and behold, the two are 2nd cousins. And better yet, only live miles from eachother. She got alot of info she needed from my friend, and they will get together and exchange pictures and information with one another too. You never know what you will find on Ancestry.com family trees. I've made several contacts which panned out to be gold mines.
Now I'm in the search for my linage all the way back to the Revolutionary War so I can join DAR. It seems it will be a struggle till I get there, but I won't get upset if it doesn't happen over night. Who knows what I'll find along the way.....................

Blue Eyes Six

I have recently started to research my fathers ancestors, which are very famous in Lebanon County Pa. They were the " Blue Eyed Six ". His ancestors involved were Charles Drews, his Great Grandfather, and Franklin Stickler who was a Great Uncle. I don't know if anyone out there knows the story, but it is quite scary even to modern times. To cut the story short. six men ( all with blue eyes ) George Zechman, Charles Drews, Israel Brandt, Franklin Stichler, Josiah Hummel, and Henry F. Wise decided to make some extra money by buying a life insurance policy on Joseph Raber. They planned to then kill him for the money. Joseph was reportedly pushed into the Indiantown Creek and was held under the water by two of the six on 7 Dec. 1878. The two that were hanged on 14 Nov. 1879 for the crime were, Charles Drews and Franklin Stichler. The others were hanged on 13 May 1890, George Zechman was found not quilty. There has been a Documentary made on the story, and a play. The book also is fact based, written by Gary Ludwig.
I'm looking forward to getting all I can on these guys, but being it was back in the late 1800's and they were dirt poor, I know of no pictures except those drawn during the ordeal.
It's fun looking in Newspaper archives for family history. I've been doing it for the past several weeks on and off. Just make sure you have the right dates to match your ancestors. It can be fun to see what they were up to back then, and then again....................................