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June 19, 2015
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Times-shamrock communiTy newspapers 149 Penn Avenue Scranton, PA 18503 Phone: (570) 348-9185 Fax: (570) 207-3448 E-mail: advantage@ timesshamrock.com
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Peckville’s Genealogical Research Society turns 20
by Christopher Cornell ADVANTAGE EDITOR
It was in October of 1994 when four men visited Joe Bryer with the thought that Lackawanna County was in need of a Genealogical Society. “We had the local historical societies,” Bryer recalled, “but they felt there was a need for an organization to preserve and record the life and times of the ordinary resident.” It was decided for this society to function and grow, it should attempt to gather every document on every person who ever lived, married, worked or died within Lackawanna County. This scope was later expanded to include those who lived, worked, married or died in a six-county area of northeast Pennsylvania, since many of our ancestors were born in one county, married in another and may have died within yet another county. With this goal, they filed as a nonprofit corporation. These five men provided the seed money of $500 to establish a checking account and pay for the incorporation. The society has come a long way since then, and it will hold a 20th anniversary open house Saturday, June 27, at 2 p.m. at the society’s headquarters, 1100 Main St. in Peckville. “Two of those original founders were retired and spent four hours a day in the Clerk of Judicial Records office entering that data into a laptop,” Bryer said. “With the advent of computers and scanners, that same procedure is still our means of recording our stalwart ancestors’ history. Today, we can access two terabytes [1,000 gigabytes] of local data with the click of a mouse.” After the collection of data outgrew Bryer’s kitchen, they moved to Grant Street in Olyphant, where they remained for eight years.
Two terabytes of searchable data is available for research.
When that building was torn down, the society moved to the corner of Hull Avenue and Lackawanna Avenue for one year before it bought the former Sacred Heart Church in Peckville in May, 2006. The Society has benefitted in the past 20 years because volunteers in 26 states have recorded bits of information from local newspapers about former northeastern Pennsylvania residents. One of these members does not own a computer, but is a voracious reader of many newspapers in New York and New Jersey. She extracts and sends all articles mentioning a town in northeastern Pennsylvania. This data, coupled with data from all other volunteers, is entered into the society’s our searchable database. “Many people who have visited our society say they regret they had not asked their grandparents, while they were alive, the questions they need answers to now,” he said. “We have helped visitors from many foreign countries connect with their northeastern Pennsylvania kin. Many visitors to our society first met on the Internet and decided our location was an ideal
place for them to meet, face-to-face. We have members in 47 states and four foreign countries — all with roots in northeastern Pennsylvania.” In addition to Bryer, the current board of directors includes: Connie Cooper Baruffaldi, Bernadine Grzybowski DePietro, Elaine Kupcuanas LaGreca, David Beggan Lucas, Maureen Maher-Gray, James Shemanski and Robert A. Walb. The Research Library is open to everyone Mondays through Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The society recently kicked off its slate of monthly talks, on the third Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. The schedule includes: July 15: “American Indian Tribes in Northeast Pennsylvania,” presented by Shadow Spirit Echo. Aug. 19: “Archaeology of the Conrail Site,” presented by Ted Baird. Sept. 16: “The Lost Park at Lake Lodore,” presented by Jane Varcoe. Oct. 21: The annual end-of-season smorgasbord, share your favorite family dish. For more information, call 570-383-7661 or email info@grsnp.org.
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