Westbound Day 2 New Holland, PA to Martinsburg, WV 200 miles

Don't be misled by the title of this post.  The distance from New Holland, PA to Martinsburg, WV is about 149 miles.  I logged 200 miles on the odometer today.  So my 51 miles of driving around Lancaster, PA makes up the difference.

I began by going cross country (read, no double lane restricted access roads) from New Holland to Route 340 which meanders to Lancaster (city).  You really get an appreciation for farmland.  Makes me think this is what America would look like if there had been no Industrial Revolution.  The country is rolling farmland all well manicured and neat.    The landscape is dominated by huge silos and plowed fields.  True farming communities populated, it seems, by Mennonites/Amish.  The first time you encounter a horse drawn buggy on a 25 degree, frigid, windy day in January it's a novelty and you try to get a picture without drawing attention to it.  But after similar encounters all day in all places (I so wanted to take a picture of the buggy parked outside the Target) it becomes no more unusual than a pick up truck would be in the Boston burbs.

This sight was a surprise...a team of four mules spreading fertilizer.  Not as common as the buggy commuters, but this was not the only farmer I spotted doing this.  It must be the time of year to fertilize as the aroma of manure was common in the area.  I spent most of the morning driving around East Earl Township.  This is the northeast corner of Lancaster County and according to a map in the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society this township has the greatest concentration of "Old Amish".  These people seem to reflect the popular notion we have of the Amish.  I learned at the museum the ways of the Mennonites/Amish range from very conservative to less-so and cannot be stereotyped anymore than one could stereotype all Catholics.  This is also the area that my ancestor Hans Graf was said to have originally settled.

About 10 miles from East Earl Township is the Lancaster Mennonite Museum which I had programmed into my GPS along with the address I had of the nearest Starbucks.  I thought I would go to the museum first then to Starbucks.  What a great surprise the musuem is directly across the street from the Starbucks.

I spent almost two hours here. There is a great bookstore and friendly staff.  The library is well maintained and it contained both Volume I and II of the Groff book.  They had a genealogical pedigree chart showing the descendants of Hans Graf originally drawn in 1867 and updated in 1932.  I was able to buy a facsimile of this and I will pore over it to determine my line.  As I paid for the chart the cashier told me she should get one since she too is a descendant of Hans (we both agreed we could use his first name since we are "family").  Here is a bit more about Hans.

It took about 2.5 hours to get from Lancaster to Martinsburg.  My route took me through Harrisburg, PA, across the Mason-Dixon line into Hagerstown, MD across the Potomac River into West Virginia.  In keeping with my efforts to eat local cuisine I can't decide whether to go to Waffle House or Chick fil-A, both within sight of my hotel room.  I am in the "south" after all.

I've heard from Jim and Stella Mainero, Steve Loo, Pam Hall, Janey Price, Aunt Jo Kocourek, Jim and Jean Smith keep reading.  To all my Fugitive Bill Literary Society members I will not be at the meeting on Thursday, I should be in Ohio along the National Road US Route 40.

Westbound Day 1 Norwood, MA to New Holland, PA 389 miles

After almost 72 hours of moderate to heavy snowfall in the Boston area overnight, today was bright, clear, and cold.  I got on the road about 8:30 bound for my first family connection stop in East Stroudsburg, PA.  My father's first cousin Betty Ann George is in East Stroudsburg.  We had a good visit, went through old Cliff family photos and caught up on her family and mine.

From East Stroudsburg to New Holland is about a 2.5 hour drive and the GPS worked great getting me to my first night in New Holland, PA which is in Amish country in Lancaster County.

Now I have never claimed to really understand the Amish faith, other than what our mass media tells us.  I'm pretty sure I missed hearing about Amish (Dutch) cooking but I was really surprised with my meal at Yoder's Restaurant and Buffet in New Holland.  It's a good thing it was a buffet because it gave me chance to sample ham balls, pork and kraut, potato filling, baked oatmeal, beef stew, buttered noodles, stewed tomatoes with cheese sauce.  I think I've discovered a new American cuisine, well at least new for me.

East Earl Township is near here and I intend to scout a few of the Amish museums in the area and do some genealogical research on the Groff and Grove surname at the Lancaster Historical Society.  I've already noticed several Groff references in the area.  Groffdale Road is a well traveled Lancaster County route.  And the placemat at Yoder's advertised Groff's Auto Repair.  I'm pretty sure I share in this gene pool.

Day 2 should end with me in Martinsburg, WV.

The bags are packed, the route is planned.  Now I just need fair weather to be on my way on January 4, 2010.  My first stop is in East Stroudsburg, PA.  East Stroudsburg is about a 5 hour drive from Boston.  I will be making a short stop to see my father's first cousin Betty Ann George (nee Smith).  Betty Ann's mother Mary Clarissa (May) was my grandmother's (Margaret) older sister.     Betty Ann is not in my Grove genealogical line but she was born in Parker, KS.    I plan to spend the first night in Lancaster County, PA which is approximately 2 hours from East Stroudsburg.

The Early Graff/Groff/Grove Roots

A Bit of Earl Township PA History
The link above will give you a good overview of the Graff/Groff/Grove's family initial presence in the colonies and specifically Pennsylvania.   From Lancaster County PA my Mennonite ancestors left the state and apparently the faith, as from what I have researched none of my Grove line are Mennonites today.

Here you can see the birth record of William Young Grove as recorded in the records of Jacob's Lutheran Church in German Township Fayette Co. PA.  Also recorded in this book are the births of 2 older brothers, Johannes(John) 1818 and Henrich(Henry) 1820.  So my Pennsylvania roots span the state from east to west.  Oddly enough by 1840 Shepherd and the family are in Berkeley County WV and William married Sarah there in 1846.  They remained in Berkeley County until the early 1850's.  Within 50 miles of Martinsburg, WV are many sites with documented births, marriages and deaths of many of my Grove ancestors whether it be in Virginia or Maryland the Grove surname is frequently spotted.

Departure Date

Departure date is January 4, 2010, approximately 120 years after William and Sarah began their westward migration to Kansas where they homesteaded just west of Parker.  William and Sarah were married in Martinsburg, West Virginia in 1846(it was part of Virginia then) which will be one of my first stops. They began their westward migration over a period of years departing from Martinsburg, making stops in Springfield, OH, Urbana, OH and Richmond, IN based on the birthplaces of their children.  It appears they headed for Kansas from Richmond, IN ca. 1873.  Their vehicle may have looked like the one above.  My vehicle will be the 2009 version of the above closely resembling the one here.

So...Who Is My Great, Great, Great Grandfather

Any genealogists knows that researching one family line only reveals a slice of who your ancestors are.  It was fairly easy to research back to my great, great grandfather, William Y. Grove.  Others had done most of the work for me.  My task was finding who had done what. I began making contact with them in the pre-internet era, seeing what they had and determining where they got their information.  After 35 years I had found all of William's descendants, documented how we are related and in some cases met them and re-connected long lost family members all over the USA.

But, I could not find the link to who William's parents were.  I know from his Union Army enlistment papers he was born in Fayette Co. PA in 1822 (he enlisted at age 40).  But nowhere could I find his parents or siblings referenced.  I did find some likely candidates who could be his parents from census records in West Virginia but no solid document listing Willam Young Grove as the offspring of _???__ and __???__.  Until November, 2009.  While surfing and googling William's name I found a message board that listed a person researching the surnames of Grove, Bower and Shepherd.  This caught my eye.  I knew that William named his second son Franklin Shepherd.  Shepherd seems to be an unusual name but likely it was the maiden name of a mother or grandmother.  I posted a reply to this posting and within a day I got this response:

.....checked my copy of "Jacob's Lutheran Church, German Township, Fayette County, Parish Records, Part II 1793 - 1885" by Paul Miller Ruff. On page 53 of that volume, entry #890, I found the baptismal record for a William who was born on 20 November 1822, the child of "Shepperd B. Grove and Maria." Possibly Maria is the Mary Bower mentioned in the above reference in the Groff Book.

The AHA!!! moment.  A record was found.  Shepherd B(rown) Grove and Maria Bower Grove had a son born in Fayette Co. PA within a month of the date I had for the birth of my William.  This is likely  to be the link I was missing.  Back to the Groff Book (see posting December 7, 2009). Further documented evidence shows that Shepherd's mother was Mary Brown.  Hence Shepherd's middle name, Brown. Furthermore, Shepherd's grandmother on his mother's side was Elizabeth Shepherd. Could it be that Shepherd and Maria's son William named one of his sons Franklin Shepherd to continue the tradition of keeping the maternal maiden names going in future generations.  Franklin Shepherd Grove is seated in the photo on the left surrounded by his family.


But, where did William get his middle name, Young?  Through my new found link could I find evidence of a maternal ancestor with the Young surname?  Another AHA!!! moment.  Earlier genealogists had documented the ancestors of Maria Bower, William's grandmother on his mother's side was Elizabeth Young.  So this can no longer just be a possible link.  This baptismal record connects my William to Shepherd and Maria.

This link provides a connection to published genealogical histories taking my Grove line back 4 and maybe 5 generations. 

Another stopping point on my genealogical journey is Mason Town, PA.  I must visit Jacob's Lutheran Church in German Township Fayette Co. PA.  I also want to see, or own, the book Jacob's Lutheran Church, German Township, Fayette County, Parish Records, Part II 1793-1885 by Paul Miller Ruff.

Surnames

According to Wikipedia, in Europe, surnames began to be used in the 12th century, but it took several centuries before the majority of Europeans had one. The primary purpose of the surname was to further distinguish people from one another. In the 13th century about a third of the male population was named William, Richard or John. To uniquely identify them, people began referring to different Williams as William the son of Andrew (leading to Anderson), William the cook (leading to Cook), William from the river (leading to Rivers), William the brown-haired (leading to Brown), and so on. Eventually these surnames became inherited, being passed from parents to children. 

So how did I come to have Grove as a surname?  My research shows that the Grove surname I have inheirited began in Germany or Switzerland as Graff.  It appears my original ancestors modified it slightly perhaps due to the Great Vowel Shift and after emigrating to the new world the spelling became Groff.  For several generations they continued it's use.   For some reason my 5th great grandfather, John Groff, had a son, Jacob, who was born in Lancaster Co. PA in 1737 and the surname was recorded as Grove.   Not sure why this shift occurred but it seems to have happened in several branches of the family tree not just mine.  Nevertheless, genealogists continue to recognize Graff, Groff, and Grove, and Groves as a linked surname.

Through my life the Grove surname was very easy to communicate since grove is a common noun in English.  At times people have misunderstood it to be Grover or Groves.  Overall, it's been an easy surname to spell and pronounce.

My father, John Virgil Grove (1925-1991) had more trouble however.  His Illinois birth certificate incorrectly lists his last name as Groves.  An error acknowleged by both his parents but never corrected officially.  He grew up in Parker, Kansas where the Grove family had roots so he didn't find any problems until leaving Parker for Wichita and enlisting in the Merchant Marines in 1943.  At this point he was forced to assume the surname "Groves" due to the birth certificate error and hence his military career was under the name of John Virgil Groves.  He made sure his children had correct spellings on their birth certificates and Grove prevailed.