Category: Hershey Family

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HowManyofMe.com

Strolling through Facebook you can find many unusual items to read. I found this one particularly interesting because I frequently get asked if I am related to Milton S. Hershey, Founder of Hershey, PA and infamous for his chocolate town. Most people will recognize the name of Hershey. As a genealogist, I can tell you, my husband is a first cousin three times removed. When you tell most people this relationship, their faces go blank. I could explain this, but then I can imagine you would change to another blog.

Back to HowManyofMe – I found this website and thought I would find out how many Deborah Hershey’s there are in the United States. The results:


HowManyOfMe.com

There are
18
people with the name Deborah Hershey in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?
http://www.howmanyofme.com

I thought this was a little low as I know there are 4 Deborah Hershey’s in the Hershey area, but there are also, last time I checked, 100 Hershey families in the local phonebook (back when you were listed in a phonebook). As we have traveled around the USA we have stopped in other towns named Hershey, but I didn’t think to look in their phonebooks. There is a Hershey, Nebraska, for one.

This is a fun exercise, how many of you are in the United States?

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Samuel E. Hershey, “Mr. McCaskey” of Sports

So proud of our Sam Hershey, for all of his sports accolades he has received this year. He was named All-American for 2020 in soccer and more recently to the 2021 Big 33 football team as a kicker. Sam also plays on the McCaskey basketball team. He follows a history of sports standouts in the Hershey family.

https://lancasteronline.com/sports/mccaskey-soccer-standout-sam-hershey-named-all-american-for-2020-season/article_d09fc16e-3e66-11eb-ba49-8f4e7a1cdf1b.html

Trevor Hershey, Sam’s father played soccer at James Madison University and his mother, LindaLee (nee Papuga) scored the first ever goal in women’s soccer for Gettysburg University. Grandfather, Al, was an All-American soccer player for Elizabethtown College. All of them have coached on a collegiate level with Trevor and LindaLee at Millersville University. Al coached soccer at his Alma mater, Elizabethtown College and for 10 years at Franklin and Marshall College.

For those of you who do not know the Big 33, it is a team of high school seniors, chosen to represent Pennsylvania in a football game against Ohio or Maryland. Every Super Bowl has had at least one player who was on a Big 33 team.

https://big33.org/2021-big-33-team-pa-release-video/
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Isaac Long Barn Remembered

Cousin Bill McCord ran across a photo that belonged to Great Grandma Effie Long Bell and passed it along to me. The back of the photo reads “Isaac Long Barn of Landisville (it is really in Landis Valley), Lancaster Co., Penna. From this farm David Long came to Pfoutz’s Valley in 1812. My earliest known ancestor, Effie Long Bell.”

It is a wonderful picture of the Isaac Long Barn that is famous because it was at this farm that the first American born denomination was organized in 1766 -The Church of United Brethren in Christ Church. The farm is six miles northeast of Lancaster city.

Much has been written about this farm. The blue State Historical markers placed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission dedicated the marker June 16, 1960. The text says”The United Brethren in Christ, and the Evangelical United Brethren Church trace their origin to the joint efforts of Rev. Philip W. Otterbein of the German Reformed Church and Martin Boehm, a Mennonite preacher, at a revival held here about 1767. The barn stands a mile and a half to the north off PA 272 (Oregon Pike) at Landis Valley Museum. ” (Ref. Beyer, George R., Guide to the State Historical Markers of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1991)

Although Effie Long Bell may not have known ancestors before David Long/Lang, William Gabriel Long in his book History of the Long Family of Pennsylvania with the help of the Long Family Organization, was able to take the Long/Lang family back a few more generations. David was the son of Abraham Lang and Maria, born in 1743 Manheim Township, Lancaster County, married Catherine Hershey. Aha, I’m descended from the Hersheys as well as being married to one. Abraham Long fought in the revolutionary war as did Catherine’s father, Abraham. Both of these ancestors have been proven, by me, for Daughters of the American Revolution. Just let me know if you want to join the Daughters or Sons of the American Revolution. I have all the paper work.

Abraham Long’s father was John and mother, Anna Long. The Long/Langs had lived in Lancaster County, PA until David moved to Perry County, PA. John was the son of emigrant, Christian Lang, who was said to be from the Palatinate Germany. I have not gone back any further, but it is on my list of research.

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Christian Eby – Revolutionary War Patriot

My granddaughter, Kali Martin, approached me about joining the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. I was elated that one of the younger generation was interested in joining a group in which I am so involve. It didn’t take long for me to get started on her application. I started with the most interesting ancestor, John Slaymaker, that I knew was related. The Slaymaker home is still occupied and is known as White Chimneys, Lancaster County, PA.

The Slaymakers are well known in Lancaster County, so what could be so hard to prove this ancestor. Ah, but for some punctuation, it was not accepted. The only proof that I found connecting the dots to the correct line was an Orphan’s Court record that names all the children and grandchildren, but used no commas to delineate who belonged to whom. Instead of beating my head against the wall to find another document, I took the easy route and found another ancestor.

This time, I researched the Eby’s, another familiar name in Lancaster County. Plenty of Eby’s, so one of them had to provide service or pay taxes in support of the revolution. Without too much effort I was able to prove that Christian Eby was a Private in the Revolutionary War and is also eligible as a patriot for paying the Pennsylvania supply tax in 1779. It is also her grandfather’s middle name. Wahooo! Kali Martin, Junior Member NSDAR. I hope she gets as much out of being a part of the largest, wholly owned and operated by women organization, as I have. So many women who have God, Home and Country as their service motto. We have almost 200,000 members and hope to reach our goal of 250,000 members by the time the United States celebrates our 250th anniversary.


Posts

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Looking for Living Charles Family Members of Pennsylvania

I am working on a project for the Hiram Charles family of Lancaster County, PA and would like to hear from any members who are willing to provide a DNA sample for family research.  Depending on your family relationship, a DNA kit may be provided.

This project will use Autosomal DNA, so you won’t be excluded because of gender.  The results may be uploaded to GedMatch, but would not be identified with any of your information.

For further questions about this project, send an email through this website.

Thank you,

Deborah

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Frank and Lydia (Buckwalter) Hershey Family Reunion Aug. 26, 2018

The Frank and Lydia (Buckwalter) Hershey family reunion will be held at Paradise Community Park on August 26th, 2018, Pavilion #2, starting at 1:00 pm.  The park is located on Londonvale Road off Rt. 30 in Paradise, Lancaster Co., PA.   Bring a large dish to pass, table service, lawn chairs and drink.  Share your family updates and pictures.

There is a playground, baseball, basketball and tennis available, but bring your own equipment.

If you have any questions, reply to this website.  We look forward to continuing this long tradition of Hersheys gathering in Paradise.

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Frank and Lydia (Buckwalter) Hershey 2017 Reunion

It is that time again to let you know that the Frank and Lydia (Buckwalter) Hershey Family Reunion will be held at Paradise Park in Gordonville, PA August, 27, 2017 at 1:00 pm.  Please share this information with your family.  Postcards will be going out to those who have not given me an email address.  You can leave a message through this blog if you have changed your email/address, way of notifying you about the reunion.  We hope you will attend this year and bring your children.

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300th Anniversary of Hershey Family Planned

The 300th anniversary gathering of Christian and Oade Hershey’s arrival west of Lancaster in 1717 is planned for September 16, 2017.  Please mark this date on your calendar and watch this site for further updates.  Chairman of this event is Carl E. Hershey (dhersh48@gmail.com) if you would like to contact him directly.  They are working on a website for announcements.

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Hershey Reunion 2015

We had another successful Frank and Lydia (Buckwalter) Hershey reunion on August 23rd.  The younger generation continues to attend and bring yet another generation of great grandchildren.  The Hershey Reunion booklet got quite a few additions of marriages and births.

We had no deaths to report, however two days after the reunion, we lost Raymond Denlinger.  Ray had regaled us with a story about Elmer Hershey’s chicken coop washing down the Pequea Creek during a flood, chickens and all, and lead us in “How Great Thou Art”.  We will all miss Raymond and his wonderful music at the reuions, however for those who were lucky enough to get one of his CDs a few years ago, we can still enjoy his music.  His memorial service will be September 19th at the Neffsville Mennonite Church.

We look forward to next year’s reunion when Esther Hershey Kolb’s family will be hosting the group.  Until we meet again.