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Saturday, August 24, 2013

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.

6 comments:

Nancy said...

How exciting, Heather. It's not exactly like having your original copy back in perfect shape but at least you have a clean copy. Congratulations!

Heather Kuhn Roelker said...

I was pretty excited to find this link, Nancy. I think I could have scanned mine, but now I don't have to worry about damaging it further.

John said...

Heather: In case you might still have the original book, it is quite possible it could be restored for you. It might be worth consulting with Cat Tail Run Bookbinding outside Winchester, VA. See my post of January 21, 2013 at
http://www.filiopietismprism.blogspot.com/search/label/Cat%20Tail%20Run%20Hand%20Bookbinding

The Carpenter genealogy that Jill Deiss and her crew restored for me was in REALLY bad shape (held together with rubber bands, leather cover dried, torn and missing in many places, etc.) and and you can see what a great job she did in reparing it. Just a thought if you still have the Kuhn genealogy and want to attempt a rescue so you have your old hard copy to sit and read again and show your children. :-)

Heather Kuhn Roelker said...

That is a great tip, John! Somehow I missed that post so I'll go back and check it out. Thank you for the idea.

Woogie said...

Heather, we are obviously related somehow because I'm definitely a descendant from this book. And it makes it super cool that you have the same first name as me too!
Heather Kuhn Gallo

Heather Kuhn Roelker said...

That's doubly cool...I've never meant someone with my name! Send me an email and let's see how we're related! H.Roelker@gmail.com


Heather Kuhn Roelker ;)