Saturday's Source - For descendants of Peter Kuhn

Peter Kuhn, born in Germany in 1748, has a lot of descendants. Clara Stamy Venable, one of his many descendants helped to write a book about Peter and his lot entitled, "History and Roster of the Peter Kuhn Family in the U.S.A." published in 1932.

I have a long relationship with this source. When I was very young, maybe 8, my father showed me a copy of this book which was kept on the shelves in his office. I was fascinated...this was history and it was my history! I didn't know a single person in the book but they were my relatives. And then the book mysteriously went missing. For years I thought it about and wondered where it could have gotten to.

Turned out, I stole it! Many years later a big storm went through Kansas City and a tree limb fell on my parents' outdoor shed. They had stored a lot of "excess" stuff from my room in that shed and asked me to come over to save what I could. In one box I found several high school memories and my mysterious missing Kuhn family book. Unfortunately, the fallen limb had smashed the box open and the book was soaked. I left it out for a week and let it dry out, but the pages were now molded and brittle. However, I couldn't bear to part with my little bit of history.

Flash forward another 10 years and my patience and persistence in tracking down another version of the book have come to fruition. A cousin brought to my attention that the Allison-Antrim Museum in Greencastle, Pennsylvania had a digital copy available online. Fantastic! Thanks to cousin M and to the Allison-Antrim Museum for bringing back this little bit of me!

To learn more about Greencastle and it's history visit the Allison-Antrim Museum website.