Genealogy - I've been researching my family history since I was
in
high school, but have been able to advance greatly with the advent of the internet and the ease of conferring with other researchers. My ancestral lines originate in eastern Northampton County, Pennsylvania, stemming from original peoples and from immigrants who came over from Europe through the Port of Philadelphia in the early 1700's. Although there was some migration of family groups during the mid-1800's to the western U.S. and Canada, I still have many cousins living in this
area.
Surnames: I am researching LABAR, LABARR, LABARRE, LEBAR, SUPERS, RANDOLPH, LYONS, STEINMETZ, WEIDMAN, PAUL, SHOOK, ROSS, JENNINGS, MILLER, MICHAEL, GRUBE, JOHNSON, GRONER, ZIEGENFUSS, OYER, ARNDT, MUFFLEY, BURCH, WINDFIELD, SMTIH, ODENWELDER, TREIBLE and the many spelling variations of each.
Jennings Family Genealogy Books - The Jennings Family Reunion Association has copies of its family history available for $30 each, plus postage to your location. The compilation is in a large looseleaf binder, and it includes the 1958 edition of "The Genealogical Account of the Jennings Family", by Milton Jennings, the 2004 updated Jennings Family Genealogy compiled by Marianne Baltrosky, vintage photographs, and family related newspaper clippings. Send me an email if you'd like more information.
DLVGC: The Delaware/Lehigh Valley Genealogy Club. This is the local
genealogy club to which I belong. I've volunteered to enter all the members' Pedigree
Charts into a database, so that we can share information with other researchers. Right
Click DLVGC GED and choose "Save Target As" to
download the GED file for personal use. If you find you connect to someone in the database, contact me for further information, or visit our local message board to post an inquiry to the membership.
Church Records Transcription Project - I've transcribed records
from the three Lutheran and Reformed churches in Upper Mount Bethel Township that joined in
the 1970's to form Prince of Peace Lutheran Church. The three churches were:
St. Paul's Lutheran Church in North Bangor, Pa., Grace Lutheran Church in East Bangor, Pa., and
Bethel Lutheran and Bethany Reformed Church at Stier (now Johnsonville, Pa). Prince of Peace
Lutheran has been built adjacent to the site of the old Bethany Church and
cemetery.
Hard copies of the transcriptions are in the Bangor Public Library and the Marx Room of the
Easton Public Library. If you have any relatives who may have records in these churches,
email me and I can send you the
4 documents or do lookups.
Funeral Home Records Project - I'm currently working on photographing burial
records from local Funeral Homes. I've finished six volumes of records for the Horton Funeral Home, Johnsonville,
PA. The earliest entries are for 1909, the latest are 1960. These can be valuable resources for tidbits
of information not found in other places, like a person's physical characteristics, close kin, mother's maiden name, etc.
I will be moving on to other local Funeral Homes before doing any more recent books
for the Horton Home. A Name Index and Photo CDs will be available for use in the Bangor Public Library
and the Marx Historical Room of the Easton Public Library. I can also help with limited lookups
of the records. Email me with the book and
page number for lookups. Click this link to see the Index for Vols 1-6.
Cousin's Group - A relative started a LaBarre Cousin's
e-mail group for the LaBarre Family, and we keep in contact to share new
information. Members can post queries, pictures, ged files and other
documents. This sharing and discussion has led to many breakthroughs. Anyone
interested in LaBar research is invited to join. Being in this group has
also helped me with other family lines who lived near the Labars.
Reminiscences of George LaBar The Centenarian of Monroe County, Pa., who is still living in his 107th year! and incidents in the early settlement of the Pennsylvania side of the river valley, from Easton to Bushkill. By A. B. Burrell; Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger, 819 & 821 Market Street, Philadelphia. Published 1870, no longer in print. Transcription by Tom Labarr. Right click this link and choose "Save Link Target As" to save this Word document to your hard drive.
Descendent Lists - Click the links to open the text files, then save as a text document for your personal use. All information should be considered unconfirmed. There are plenty of things that are shared from other researchers and I may not have been able to confirm the sources. If you find something that is of interest, be sure to write and I can let you know my sources. (Note of warning: there are a
couple of errors in the database that haven't been figured out yet, mostly unconfirmed links. But to have names appear in descendent lists, I have them linked into the database in their tentative locations. Feel free to use the information, and
email me with any questions or comments if you run into anything that doesn't jive. I may be able to clear it up.)
Abraham De LaBarre, born about
1650, from the town of Lemé, in the Department of Picardie, France.
- this is the supposed French ancestor of the family members that first
immigrated to the U.S. It hasn't been proved, but I have him linked here for
ease of use of the database for me. There is a family story that three brothers came over from France, but this has never been proved. In fact, the "three brother" story is so prevalent among different families that it just makes one wonder. Hopefully, one of us cousins will have the time and resources to clear this up one day.
John LaBarre, 1800-1872, who
married Mary; his link to my Jesse is not proved yet.
Peter Schuck, bef 1720-?,
who married Anna Catherine
Bernhart Mueller, 1722-1792
who married Maria Eva Muller. Cynthia Smith of Mt. Bethel has a
web site with extensive
Miller information. Be sure to check it out if you're a Miller descendent.
- This is
my entire database of about 20,000 people, always growing. I am no longer posting updates, as the file is getting too large. Write me to get a full current one if you are interested. Note that there are some known errors that we haven't resolved yet, so use of the database should be subject to your own verification. I have many cousins who share information and I can't always confirm their sources. Sources for my own information are available on request. If you find any errors, I welcome any corrections. Copy as a text file (be sure to change the extension back to ".ged") and import it into your favorite genealogy program for reference. Note that this file is over 8 mbs, so it may take a while if you don't have a high speed connection. If you need help, contact me.
LABARRE
FAMILY page - Alice Labar's web page, highlighting information about our immigrant ancestors and another
ancestor's diary about moving the family westward during the frontier days.
Birding - I've been birding seriously since taking a college course that took nature study from a
casual pursuit to something much more passionate. I started traveling internationally in the late '80s. Once I got
a taste of different cultures and the amazing varieties of birds, I was definitely hooked. Most of my traveling has
been to Latin American countries. I've seen 2825 of the roughly 10,000 bird species in the world (my "life list").
- a five year census of the breeding birds of Pennsylvania. I'm a volunteer atlas worker for a number blocks in my area. The highlight so far was a confirmed Prothonotary Warbler breeding in my township; a rare eastern Pennsylvania record, and the first in the county for over 30 years. We've also had the first confirmed Bald Eagle nesting in the township in recent memory.
Digiscoping - I started watching the developments in this new type of bird photography a few
years ago when I stumbled on the site of Laurence Poh, a Malaysian
birder who discovered the techique of using a digital camera in combination with a high-end birding scope to take
images of birds. He started a group for people to share their photos. The results were incredible from the beginning,
and have continued to advance with the technology. Tragically, Laurence died in 2004 of cancer, but not before
uniting birders and photographers from around the world and giving them a forum to share their discoveries. I
recently purchased a digital camera and hope to post some pictures in the near future. Check out the Miscellaneous
Photos for my first try, a Lincoln's Sparrow through hand-held binoculars
on a cloudy fall morning, along with some others. My most recent is an American Woodcock nest I found in my local swamp late one afternoon. The eggs had just begun to hatch. The following morning, all had hatched and the mother had led them away from the nest.
contact
me if something here piques your interest, or if you have questions or
comments.
