Sox, wow, I'm behind on info. Well, welcome to Penn's sylvania.

My mother, who was born in 1916 and who is doing pretty well these days, played bridge with her contemporary Peg Kemper, whose father was an MD in Pittsburgh, so, in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Peg said that they had to wash their curtains every week, there was so much soot in the air.

Except for some shopping, visiting the sister, and cultural stuff with the family or school field trips, I didn't spend much time anywhere except around my home town. I moved to Calif. just a few years after high school. But! I went to a 50 yr. reunion of contemporaries of my parents at their son's house on Burry Avenue in Bradford Woods -- isn't that part of Forest Hills? Very pretty. I know Sewickley better from horse world stuff.

eta: after a little Google mapping, nope! It's pretty shocking how bad my geography is for anything not right next to the old hometown.

If anyone is interested in ancient (i.e. 19th century) Pittsburgh history, I have been doing some genealogy about my family there. My family dominates Washington, PA, from about 1790 on and my branch went to Pittsburgh in the 1840s; my grandfather was born in Shadyside in 1913. The Pittsburgh family memoir The Spencers of Amberson Avenue by Ethel Spencer (a good read!) is by his first cousin. Everybody is buried in Allegheny Cemetery. I think one of these years I'm going to need to do a Pittsburgh and Washington genealogy field trip.

My Pittsburgh people are Pernells. If any of us are related that would be fun.

flea! Did any of your people wander down to Greene County? My folks are all over the central part of Greene County, Whitlatchs and Brocks and Whites and Fordyces and Livengoods and and and . . .

I have Achesons in Washington and Pittsburgh, and after the move to the big city I have Irwin, Hays, Hawkins, and Reiter. Very highfalutin' too - bankers and judges and industrialists.

Ah, I've got no rich folk. Farmers and laborers and distillers (which I don't think is a polite way of saying moonshiner, but I'm not sure).

edit: though I'm very proud of my Dutch pirate who sailed for the Salee Rovers out of Morocco. He sacked the town of Baltimore in Ireland!

though I'm very proud of my Dutch pirate who sailed for the Salee Rovers out of Morocco. He sacked the town of Baltimore in Ireland!

Cool! I've been to the town of Baltimore in Ireland. It is indeed a port town worth sacking.

Dear Great-Grandpa Jan Jansen van Harleem, dba Murat Reis.

I pretty much said it all last time: dcp "Delurking 1: Because we don't always check our e-mail." Oct 1, 2009 4:34:44 pm PDT

All I can think to add is that I made an effort to go to the F2F in Providence RI in June, and I'm very glad I did. Met some great people, saw some neat things.

My parents and grandparents told stories of the soot covering everything--practically permanently scarring you if you got a skinned knee, and how the skies burned orange.

Bradford Woods is near where my mom grew up. We're in the same end of town as Shadyside. We lived there when I was in law school.

My family is mainly from Armstrong and Allegheny Counties--Williams, McKeags, Rebolts, and Rawlinsons. My mom and I have piles of my grandfather's genealogy research to organize, but all sides of my family seem to generally have arrived here during the Industrial Revolution and were the railroad workers, mill workers, coal miners, and farmers. Then there's my one grandmother's side--nothing as exciting as a pirate, but we've got bootleggers, gamblers, and a madam.