Liesel's Family History Finds

Welcome to Week 4 of Amy Johnson Crow's genealogy challenge for the year: writing about 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks ( www.amyjohnsoncrow.com ). Week 4: Education When I looked at the prompt "Education," my first thought was of my grandpa, Edwin D. Pirl. In several ways, education was a cornerstone of his life. Ed Pirl was born in 1928 in Adah, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and grew up in a coal-mining "patch" town called Gates. As soon as he graduated from German Township High School, he joined "the service," as he always called it, and he served about 4 years in the Army Air Force, in between World War II and the Korean War. When he returned home he went to college at West Virginia University, thanks to the financial benefits of the G.I. Bill, and he became a vocal proponent of programs like it. Ed Pirl during his service in the Army Air Force, ~1946-1949 Ed Pirl was a dedicated and respected public school teacher and lifelong union member. He served as ...

Welcome to Week 3 of Amy Johnson Crow's genealogy challenge for the year: writing about 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks ( www.amyjohnsoncrow.com ). Week 3: Out of Place As soon as I saw the theme for this week, I knew exactly who I was going to write about. My grandma, Arlene Dolores Vrana, was MISSING in the 1940 Census! Arlene Dolores Vrana, or Dolores as she was known, was born August 30, 1935 in Washington, Pennsylvania. Her parents were Joseph Vrana and Lillian Wisniewski. At the time of the 1940 Census, she would have been almost 5 years old. US Census, 1940. Delliner, Dunkard Township, Green County, Pennsylvania. As you can see, Joseph Vrana, his wife Lillian, and four sons: Joseph Jr., Raymond, Robert, and Regis are all listed in the census. But Dolores is not there. Why was she not counted and recorded? I don't think she was living with other family at the time, as she never mentioned it to me or to my mother. And she was too young to have been at a boarding school or living ...

It's Week 2 of Amy Johnson Crow's genealogy challenge for the year: writing about 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks ( www.amyjohnsoncrow.com ). Week 2: Favorite Photo Choosing a favorite photo is almost  as hard as choosing a favorite ancestor would be. But, one of   my favorites is this portrait of Margaret (Maggie) Cumberland, my 2nd-great-grandmother on the Pirl side of my family tree. Margaret Cumberland (1879-1945). Copy of framed photo shared with me by a cousin. Photo undated. Enhanced, repaired, and colorized by MyHeritage's free photo enhancement tools (www.myheritage.com). I think this one is the oldest in my collection. I love that it shows some personal resemblance to myself and my daughter. I think I see strength and resilience in the set of her jaw and the directness of her eyes. One of the reasons I love photos is that they raise so many questions. For instance, why was this photo of Maggie taken? She looks fairly young here, and based on that and her hair and cloth...

Today I decided to attempt a genealogy challenge for the year: writing about 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, created by Amy Johnson Crow ( www.amyjohnsoncrow.com ). Each week of 2023 Ms. Crow has provided a prompt. They are intentionally broad or ambiguous to allow for lots of options and interpretations. I'm going to just jump right in (one week late)! Week 1: I'd Like to Meet Really, I'd love to meet all of my ancestors and collateral-line relatives. But, I have to pick just one, so I'm choosing George Pirl. George Pirl (Perl/Purl/Pearl) was my 3rd-great grandfather on my mother's side. He was born around 1806 and died in 1889 in Pennsylvania. The reason I'd like to meet him is that he is one of my biggest "brick walls" in my family history. On one census it says his parents were also both born in Pennsylvania, so I have some confidence that the Pirls were in the U.S. since the mid-late 1700s at least. But I do not know George's parents' names. Oth...

Hello, and welcome back! Today I'm sharing a little more about childhood of Esther and Ruth Caskey, Cecelia's daughters. Please read the first post in this series for more background. As I shared in the first post of this series, two of my cousins (first cousins twice removed, to be exact), spent much of their childhood in an Orphans' Home in the 1930s and 40s. Their mother, Cecelia (Wisneski) Caskey, died suddenly and quite tragically in 1927. Their father, Jacob, was alive, but apparently became unable to care for the girls, since he was a patient in the Mayview state mental hospital by 1930.  On the 1930 and 1940 Censuses, it says that the Orphans' Home was located in Jefferson Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania. This was a little surprising to me, because the Caskeys, including Jacob's relatives, lived in the Pittsburgh area. Butler County is north of Pittsburgh, but adjacent. The Wisniewskis lived south of Pittsburgh, in Washington, PA by 1930. On the census...

Hello! Thanks for joining me today!           My great-grandmother, Lillian Wisniewski, had an older sister named Cecelia (Wisneski). Cecelia was born around 1899-1900, probably in Allegheny or Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. She had older and younger siblings and lived with her family in Bethel Township, Allegheny County, PA in 1910. At that time her father Frank and older brother Stanley worked in the local coal mine.           In November 1918, Cecelia eloped with Jacob Caskey (alternate spelling Kasky), a young man who had just registered for the WWI draft. He was a pipe fitter helper in the steel mill in Pittsburgh. They were married in Wellsburg, West Virginia, where she provided her name as Cecelia Wesley, her age as 21 (older than reality), and her residence as Castle Shannon, PA (which is in the Bethel Township area, and where my great-grandmother eventually got married). Marriage License of Jacob Kasky and Cecelia ...