Greene Connections
Greene County, Pennsylvania Archives Project
Category: Featured
Connections Across Collections: Lazear and Crow Families
When the Greene County Historical Society established a permanent home for its museum collections at the old County Poor Farm in the late 1960s – early 1970s, local families came forward to preserve their pieces of the past. Half-a-century later, a new generation of dedicated curators collaborate with Greene Connections volunteers to make connections across collections, as we tell the stories behind the artifacts!
The Downey House Fire: Locals Rally Christmas Spirit in Defiance of Tragedy
Beneath a cheery holiday banner, Christmas Eve headlines of 1925, reported a local tragedy that took the lives of five young, volunteer firefighters and destroyed an iconic corner of Waynesburg’s business district. In spite of the devastation, residents rose up to help their neighbors, often at their own risk, in acts of heroism and generosity befitting the Christmas spirit.
Rev. Luther Axtell Marriage Record Ledger, 1840s-1880s
Rev. Luther Axtell [1820-1886] was a Cumberland Presbyterian minister in southwestern Pennsylvania. His rural circuit meant that he preached and performed the sacred ceremonies of the church across county lines, touching the lives of families living in Allegheny, Fayette, Greene, Washington, and Westmoreland Counties, Pennsylvania, as well as across state lines into Ohio and West Virginia. Among his many duties as a traveling clergyman, Luther performed roughly 200 marriages, which he recorded in a ledger now available in the Greene Connections Archives.
Finding the Women in Our History
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.
Love Stories in Shades of Greene
Romance genealogy-style, as we share the tales of courtship from a handful of Greene County, Pennsylvania family histories.
The House That Cyrus Built
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.
Civil War Letters in a Family Bible
Two letters tucked into the pages of a family Bible, reveal how a family pulled together to bring home a fallen soldier.
The Long and Sad Goodbye: World War I Families Wait to Bury Their Fallen Soldiers
On Memorial Day 1920, most WWI families were still waiting to bring their sons home for burial. Highlighting the circumstances of Greene County, Pennsylvania’s fallen soldiers, this is a brief explanation of the reasons for the long delay between temporary battlefield graves and final resting places.
Flu 1918: Greene County, Pennsylvania
The flu epidemic of 1918 impacted Greene County, Pennsylvania families in ways that are hauntingly familiar today as the world fights a similar battle in 2020.
The Census – The Personal Public Record
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.
Cornerstone Genealogical Society
Greene County Historical Society
Memory Medallion, Inc.
Rain Day Boys / Fallen 58
Waynesburg University Museum
Greene Connections 