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.

Trudy, a neighboring family in Ligonier PA was the Purnells. One of the triplets owns/runs the Post and Rail now: [link] Don't suppose that's a typo? I love a good coincidence.

My parents met in engineering school (Alfred U) and both are from upper NY state. I don't think of my family as being from Pennsylvania at all, as a result. My mother's side of the family has been in the Americas forever, the spidery handwritten geneology that I have puts selling land to one of the signers of the Dec. of Independence on page 3. On the other hand, my paternal grandfather immigrated from Great Britain when he was 16, so that geneology is all over there, back to the 1400-somethings. You'd think that I'd get into geneology since I have the actual documents but ... not much.

Pittsburgh is really beautiful now*. It is also spectacular in mid to late May and mid to late Sept. and early Oct. (That's when the weather is like the Bay Area's - clear blue skies, crisp in eve, just right temp during the day) I've often thought it would be an excellent spot for a mid or late May F2F.

• Now as in 2010. It might be beautiful right now also! Check weather cam here during east coast daytime. Weather in Pittsburgh is the same: >[link]