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Showing posts from March, 2022

My Quaker Holloways

Welcome back! I've recently spent time researching my Holloway direct-line ancestors, who were Quakers in America back to Colonial times. My great-grandfather, Basil Russell Holloway, was a United Brethren Church minister and a farmer in Henry County and Huntington, Indiana. But he came from a long line of Quaker ancestors, stretching back into Ohio, Virginia, and New Jersey. Quaker records are detailed, many are transcribed and digitized, and because Quakers recorded each time a person or family moved from one "meeting" to another, it can be easier to follow families across the country through time than with some other groups.  Here's the line I've confirmed so far for the Holloways (in green, with other lines and spouses in blue): From the East to Ohio George Holloway was born in Burlington, New Jersey in the early 1700s. George and his wife, Ruth Wood, had a son named Asa Holloway, who married Abigail Wright and eventually moved to Virginia, participating in th

The Pirl Family Farm

Welcome back! Today I'm sharing a little bit of what I know about one of my earliest Pennsylvania ancestors, my 3rd-great-grandfather, George Perl (Pirl). George Perl, my 3rd-great-grandfather on my mother's side, was born in 1806 in Salt Lick Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. According to later census records, both of his parents were also born in Pennsylvania, but I have never been able to find any records revealing their names. George Perl married Elizabeth Grim (maiden name tentative) and they had nine children. George was a farmer, and by 1872 owned a farm in Springfield Township, as shown on this map (as with many families, the surname spelling changed from record to record over the years, eventually settling firmly on Pirl, but here is it shown as "Pearl"). I'm confident this is the correct family, because the neighbors' names match names found in the censuses as well. Map accessed from US Gen Web Archives:  springfd.jpg (1800×1500) (usgwarchives.