Greene County, Pennsylvania Archives Project
Greene County, Pennsylvania is featured in this Library of Congress Video Presentation. – Watch and learn as we delve into the past with the women from our local history and family trees. Understand the challenges involved in uncovering their stories. Celebrate the details – big and small – that the records reveal about their lives, families, and communities. The lessons learned from these local women will help us to find our female ancestors wherever they lived.
The genealogy of a house. Built by Civil War veteran, Cyrus Pyle, in the early 1870s, this is the story of a Waynesburg house and how it matters to family and local history.
The decade-by-decade details that have been cataloged by United States Census takers since 1790, culminate in one of the most research-rich and personally insightful record sets regarding the everyday existence of our ancestors and communities. Available for public perusal for years 1790 to 1940 (excepting the damaged 1890 entries), census records indicate: where and with whom our relatives lived; when and where they were born; how they earned a living; the languages spoken at home; the values of their real and personal property; and, all of this for each of their neighbors too. As incredible as this information is, the thing that is really exceptional about the Census, is that it goes a step further – a step taken when the Census taker walked through our ancestors’ doors and into their homes.
Henry Clay Snyder and his wife, Hannah (McVay) Snyder, appear in the 1880 Census of Aleppo Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania. Their preserved entry reveals some of the few known details surrounding the lives and deaths of Hannah and her child just days after his visit.
This is the lesson of a missed clue that unraveled the story of a female ancestor. Follow along in the search for Grandma Elizabeth Mary (Garber) Staggers of Greene County, Pennsylvania.