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About this Project
I first became interested in the history of our family in 1977 when my sister had a Family Tree Project as a school assignment. My uncle, Melvin Bock, sent us a pile papers showing our family tree tracing back several generations for both my father's and mother's ancestors. He also included a page listing several of my maternal relatives and how they connected with my paternal ones. As simply as I can explain it, my mother married a Smeal, her sister married a Smeal, and her brother also married a Smeal. And no, the respective spouses were not siblings. I was aware of this from the time I was a child because my cousins and I fought about our last name being Smeal. Their last name could not be Smeal because our mothers were sisters and our fathers were not brothers (the thoughts of an 8 year old). I didn't understand the connection until I received those papers from my uncle. At that time I learned that my mothers siblings' spouses were descendants of Nicholas Schmehl, as was I. Another thing I discovered at that time was my mother was also a descendant of Nicholas. I was hooked. My paternal GGGG Grandfather and my maternal 5G Grandfather was the same man. "Cool".
My grandparents were unable to give us many material gifts during their lifetime, but the one gift they were able to give to us was the lesson on the importance of Family. To this day that gift still exists. My mother is one of ten children, my father one of thirteen, and they all get along and get together frequently. My father felt it was important that his clan be recorded . I think he wanted to do that so he could keep track of which children and grandchildren belonged to which sibling. As the family grew, this tree was continually updated.
Computers became a household item making it easier to store and retrieve information. I copied all my handwritten pages into a very simple family history program. I added to that the information that was relevant to my direct ancestors that was compiled and published by Melvin Bock. My children arrived in middle school and high school and were given assignments to trace their family tree's. They had alot of fun looking through the compiled information and designing a report clearly showing the tie to Nicholas through both their grandmother and grandfather. My son used a computer generated report and my daughter chose poster format. To clearly show the scope of her ancestors, and also the links in the family, the poster became quite large. Her father's family took up one whole sheet, and my family used seven additional sheets taped end to end. When this poster was displayed at her school, it hung from the ceiling to the floor. Big Family.
Enter the Internet. Now I was able to access information on other descendants of Nicholas and the families that married them. What I discovered was the vast convergence of families from the Clearfield County Pennsylvania area. I wasn't the only person that descended from an ancestor more than once. Some people descended three, four, or more times. Because of this, I could not limit my compiled information just to persons directly related to Nicholas Schmehl.
It is important that I acknowledge and thank everyone who's research and hard work have contributed to this project. Starting with Melvin Bock, who compiled 2 books; Descendants of Frederick and Maria Reichard Bock and Joseph and Mary Ryder Dale and their Descendants. Also, Jean Hubler Carr, Ki Ensminger, Helen Pearce, Beatrice Daggitt, JuDee Langham, Eileen M. Jenkins, Sue Collins, Chuck Bush, Paul Forcey, Meg Stearns Smeal, Alton Overton, and many many others.
These pages will always be under construction. I am finding new relatives on a daily basis. Some of the information contained is documented, some is tradition, not proven. Please use this information as a starting point for your research. Additions and corrections are always welcome. If you find a person on these pages that ties into this family, but is not a descendent of Nicholas, check out my database at ROOTSWEB WORLDCONNECT.
"When assembling data from many sources, it is expected for errors and omissions to occur. Spelling which seems to be incorrect in some cases is as it was recorded from the previous source. A name may be spelled incorrectly for one person; however, it may be the correct spelling for another. For example, Catharine, Catherine, Katharine, Katherine, Kathrin, Kathryn, and Cathryn are variant spellings of one name. Which spelling is correct?" (Bock, "The Descendants of Frederick and Maria (Reichard) Bock. preface, page x.).
"English census takers listened to German immigrants and wrote what they heard. German farmers listened to Irish laborers and wrote what they heard. A's are E's; H's are silent; K's are C's and so on." (Guide to Genealogical and Historical Research in Pennsylvania, 1990 Supplement II, xiv.). "Early German and Swiss often gave all boys in a family the same name. For example....Johann Adam, Johann Daniel, Johann Georg, Johann Henrich, and also one named just Johannes. Girls might have Ann for their first name with different middle names. Customarily, these children were known by their middle names." (Heisy, "Genealogy Helps, Hints and Hope. p4)
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