Washington County "Little Washington" Pennsylvania
Genealogy and Family History 

       What are the "Who's Who" files?

In the course of researching our families, we made hundreds (thousands?) of 8"x11 1/2" Xerox pages to capture needed items.  These pages also had articles, obituaries, marriage notices and other information about other families. 

I transcribed all readable material from these copies that contained names or interesting items about the county.  I will be posting the items over the next year into "Who's Who" pages on this website. 

These articles span over 150 years.  I do NOT have successive dates, only what is typed here.  ALL articles appeared in Washington County newspapers, generally from The Observer or The Reporter (with the various name changes these newspapers had over the years.)  The citation given will be as complete as I have it (some citations have missing pieces however), along with the researcher and transcriber names.  You may use these for your genealogy, but would appreciate that you credit who found the item.

Births, Marriages, and Deaths were separated to their own web pages (check all "years" files, though, in case something was missed.).

I give here special acknowledgement to my sister, Catherine Louise [Florian] Caldwell, who helped me research the newspapers.  She spent thousands of research hours and hundreds of dollars in copying these articles from microfilmed newspapers at the Citizen's Library in Washington, Pennsylvania.  (Or hand-copied the items found.)  She had been going blind, but she still used the hard-to-read microfilm on the old-and-often-broken microfilm readers to collect obituaries and other items for our families.  My sister researched up to the day-before her unexpected death, June 2, 2003.  Cathy should be recognized for her perseverance and dedication to genealogy research, and for her unyielding generosity and open heart towards others.

Our family does have connections to *some* of these surnames, but my lines may not be related to the individual people.  Other families are not related in any way to my lines.  Please see my family pages for lists of my surnames and family research.

Some articles are just "excerpts" of the names in the article and the citation (date etc.).  These are ones that my sister jotted down, and had intended to go back to make Xerox copies when she had more time and money. (It was typical that the microfilm reader with printer was broken, or in use by other library patrons, so copies could not always be obtained in just one visit.)   But, my sister died before she was able to go back for the actual copies.  

Although the ones that are excerpts just contain names, they still have value for researchers; since the newspapers are NOT indexed, the excerpts will at least give you the date and sometimes the page numbers.  With that information, you can make a request through the Citizen's Library  for them to check that newspaper date if you want the full article.  

It is my sincere hope that you will find these articles helpful to your research.