ROOTS & BRANCHES

I’ve opined – more than just once or twice – that the local expertise of genealogists can be worth more than many database searches.

This is because the “granular knowledge” that such experts possess – about the history, geography and people of single townships or even part of a township – is an often-overlooked asset in the genealogical world.

A recent e-mail exchange with a longtime correspondent made me realize that, oh, I guess I’m one of those experts for the Bern Township area of Berks County.

Linda Peters from California and I have been in sporadic touch ever since we discovered that my immigrant surname ancestor Johannes Beydeler and an ancestor of hers possibly came to America on the same ship in 1727.

“I’m looking for some information and hoping that you already know something about it,” Peters began. “I would like to know the current location of the attached surveys of the land belonging to Philip Seifert/Siefert in Bern Township.”

Peters had a copy of the 1862 township map of Berks County and saw a Beidler property close to a Fisher, the surname of one of Seifert’s adjoining property owners. “Perhaps it’s a long shot; but since it’s close to your home territory, I had to ask,” she wrote.

Using my knowledge of the area and online tools, I was able to find the rough location of the Philip Seifert properties … although they were nowhere near the 1862 location Peters had looked at.

That’s because at the time Seifert bought his properties in the 1700s, Bern Township included what is today five townships, so today the Seifert properties are in the border area between Penn Upper Bern townships.

Because the shapes of the Seifert properties were distinctive, I was able to find them on the Warrantee Township Maps that the Pennsylvania State Archives has on its website, (use the URL https://www.phmc.pa.gov and search for “Warrantee Township Maps”).

From there, it was easy enough to use the county mapping department’s Berks Assessment Parcel Viewer, at the URL, http://gis.co.berks.pa.us/parcelviewer  to find the area on the modern-day map, along with references to the current owners.

And if Peters wants to do a deed chain back to Seifert, she can use those references to use the online deeds from the Berks Recorder of Deeds office, http://www.co.berks.pa.us/Dept/Deeds/Pages/OnlineRecordsSearchInstructions.aspx

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We’re just a few weeks away from a conference at the York County History Center titled “Researching Pennsylvania Germans,” sponsored by the South Central Pennsylvania Genealogical Society.

June Lloyd, York County History Center’s librarian emerita, is the keynote speaker with her address “The Pennsylvania German World of Lewis Miller.” Miller was a folk artist born in York and captured scenes of everyday life from the era before photography existed or was common.

The conference will be held on Sept. 22 at the history center, 250 East Market St, York, PA 1740

There will be workshops on Pennsylvania German research and general genealogy. Your “Roots & Branches” columnist will speak on Pennsylvania German church records.

For further information and to register, see the society’s website at the URL,  http://www.scpgs.org/