Ancestors of Lancaster County, PA Genealogy

Conestoga Centre, Peter C. Hiller and Genealogical Gold
02/08/2014
 
It is that moment when you find out that you are related, not once, but twice to Peter Casper Hiller, that you realize that you have found genealogical gold. No relations to Kings, Queens, Royalty or inventors could top this finding. It is the epitome of going home.
   I, like, Peter C. Hiller, was born and raised in Conestoga Centre, Conestoga Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Me in 1966 and Peter in 1847. Peter's parents and grandparents were also in Conestoga, but I, on the other hand, was transplanted there. Let me explain:
  My parents were both born and raised in Lancaster City. They were married in 1956 and settled on Puseyville Road in East Drumore Township. Then they moved back to Lancaster City for a short time eventually removing from there to a big white house on Main Street in Conestoga Centre in 1963. My father, indeed, was never to Conestoga before he moved there. And my mother, was there for a short time when she lived with her father at the age of 16,  just a half mile down the road from where she finally settled with my father. My mother often said she felt as she were in the boondocks. She would often get lost getting back to the city. And it was many miles to the closest major food store. Shortly after my parents moved to the big white house in Conestoga, the house next to ours was for sale and mother convinced her mother to buy it. Soon, we were living next door to one another. However, my Grandmother Gladys moved out in August 1966, the month I was born, when she separated from her 3rd husband and moved back to Lancaster City. Never in our wildest dreams, did any of us realize or had therefore knowledge that we were walking on the hollowed ground of our ancestors; not only on my Mother's side, but also my Father's side.
  It was only when I began doing the family history that I stumbled on the first bricks of my yellow brick road back to Conestoga. The Markley family. My father's mother's side of the family; including the surnames of Bachman/Baughman, Lawrence, Dardinger, Brenner, May, Sourbeer, McMillan, Bruner and Zercher. Andrew Zercher, my ancestor, was the one who owned the Zercher funeral home on Main Street, Conestoga. The furthest I was able to trace my direct grandparent lineage back to Conestoga is my 7th Great-Grandparents, Philipp Heinrich Rudisuhle and Susanna (nee Beyer) Rudisuhle, who married in Conestoga on 29 October 1724. And so it is, through the Lawrence family on my father's side that I am related to Peter Casper Hiller.
  On my mother's side, the bricks that help to strengthen the yellow brick road is that my mother's father, John Melsom lived in Conestoga in his later years (with his 3rd wife) for quite some time until he left for Florida in 1971. My mother's mother, Gladys (nee Gentzler) Condon, also lived in Conestoga for a few short years, next to us, as mentioned above. Then, my Grandmother Gladys' grandfather, Emanuel Gentzler lived, prospered, raised his children and died in Conestoga. We never knew that before. There are close to 200 of my ancestors linked to Conestoga Centre in one way or another.
  Peter Casper Hiller, is a diarist. He wrote and his granddaughter published the Diaries of Peter C. Hiller. I acquired this diary in 2005. Mainly because it was written in the reflection of the life and times of Conestoga during the late 1800's and because some of my family names were referenced in it. (This book may be purchased at LancasterHistory.org) As I went through this diary, I always wanted to be related to Peter Hiller. He was the center of Conestoga Centre's history and knew everything about it. I honestly thought it would be groovy to be related to him. I wished on that wish since I purchased it on Valentine's Day in 2005. Nearly 14 years later, my wish came true. Today was that day. This great man, who wrote this diary which references so many of my ancestors... they were his friends, neighbors, acquaintances, students and customers. He gave me great insight to the life and times that my ancestors had lived in the same quaint little village that I was born and raised in, I played in. My own daughter went to preschool at the church where Peter was a member and is buried in the adjoining cemetery. I walked in the school where he taught that later became Leo's store where I bought penny candy, chewing gum and other silly things. They all called me 'Charlie' there. Peter was also the Justice of the Peace for Conestoga for four terms, a schoolteacher, wrote deeds for the County Recorder's Office, farmed there and even sold and repaired organs. He only lived to be 50 years old, but led a full life that was outlined and detailed in his diary that I will treasure forever. He often talked about his headaches, especially the last few months in his diary and I could feel an overwhelming sense of compassion and relation to that whenever I would read an entry of how he was not feeling well. I, too, suffer from the same types of headaches (migraines), how debilitating they are. Peter died of a brain aneurysm on 21 June 1898.
   In doing the family history, and as I keep stumbling on finding ancestors who have been or lived in Conestoga, I feel that that is where I should be. I believe that my parents were brought to Conestoga for a reason, that I was born and raised there for a reason. I believe that reason is for me to find my ancestors and return to them. Conestoga is a beautiful place. It has lost its little Mom & Pop store and the bar is no longer there that my great-grandparents often went to. But it is rich in history, beauty and good stock of people who were the backbone of Lancaster County and of mine and my children's lives. It is my wish to return home to my little village and continue the legacy that was started for me.

How I Feel About My Ancestors
02/01/2014
 
People often think of me as a strange sort of muff'n'stuff type of person. I guess you can say that I don't fit into the category of "normal"as it is defined in the dictionary. When it comes to genealogy, it is a passion that has grown since childhood.
When I was a child, I had a dad, mom and three brothers. We also had an attic. It was often filled with treasures. Most of which I didn't appreciate until I got older. I didn't appreciate them, because I didn't understand the validity of their presence. I used to go up to the attic and play up there. I remember the boxes of old games, the smell of the old newspaper clippings and old pictures in frames of people who I resembled, but I did not know. Sometimes I would ask questions, sometimes it may go in one ear and out the other.
Our family would go to the cemetery every holiday and put flowers on graves. To be honest, I didn't always enjoy that. I had no understanding at the time of what it all meant. But somewhere deep down inside, a seed started to grow. As I got older, the seed got a little bigger. More questions were asked and answers were more well received. My interest began with the Bachman family, my paternal side. (I know now that it was my paternal side. I did not know that then. I thought everyone in my family was a Bachman. I thought Mom grew up with the Bachman name! Imagine my surprise when I began to understand that I have a paternal and a maternal side! There was a whole other side to research!) Soon boxes were being opened, the family Bible came out, and I was beginning to take notes. I soon learned that the Bachman name that I had been carrying, was not the original spelling. It was that moment that sparked my journey in genealogy. Being that my father was very ill and bedridden, my mother took me out to the Lancaster County Historical Society. This was when the old building was there, the old microfiche was there and you could peruse the old books. I remember the smell of everything being so old. I remember being little and looking around me, everything being so big. Mom and I searched through the microfiche in the census records and found our ancestors, the Baughman family. The script writing was so beautiful but very hard to read. Mother and I struggled, trying to jot down notes and decipher what this miraculous code meant. To us, that is what the script writing was... a code. We were so young in genealogy then. I laugh about it now. I still have some of those notes from when I was nine years old in 1975. I have attached a page of mine and a page my mother wrote also. My note taking hasn't gotten much better. I take notes now on everything and I am not much more organized.
Over the years, my family tree has grown to almost 30,000 people. I cannot remember each and every person, but each person when I go to their page, holds a place in my heart. When I research someone, I feel it is my duty to make sure that they are remembered and not forgotten. It becomes personal with me,
that person becomes real to me; alive again in a sense. I become very emotional about them. I feel like I knew them. Depending on their story, I may cry or laugh, I get very sad or very excited. I even talk to them, sometimes asking them to help me or to tell me their story. Sometimes I find myself apologizing to them for what they went through. Sometimes, I even yell at them because I can't find them! And then I apologize again. Much like we do today with family; argue, love, cry and laugh...it's just that the ancestors are on the other side. To me, genealogy isn't about how many people you can get on your family tree. It's about... family.
My Mother's Notes Above, My Notes Below. 1975

 

Honoring my Yellets Family Members
07/13/2012
 
My latest education comes from my Yellets side of the family. I have also become truly humbled by them as I learn about them. You might find this interesting, but I am not biologically or legally related to the Yellets family. But I adopted a man who had children with a Yellets woman, or he adopted me. Here is how this goes.
  Remember in a earlier post, where I mentioned my grandmother Gladys L. Gentzler Melsom Metz Condon? Well, in the month of August of the year 1966, she met Albert F. Jenkins. They became companions and lived together until Albert's death in October of 2000. I call him Pappy.  Gladys, I call her Nanny Condon. I was born 25 August 1966. So Pappy and Nanny Condon had been together my whole life. Pappy was more of a grandfather to me than my bio granddad was. Being that he was that important to me, I adopted his whole family. I had known his two daughters all of my life as well. Janet and Linda (who are my Aunts in my opinion). I was close to Aunt Linda when I was little, but am really close to Aunt Janet in later years. Their Mom, Ethel Marie Yellets, was also a companion of Pappy's before he met my grandmother. I never got the chance to meet her unfortunately. But Aunt Janet invited me to her funeral and my family went to say goodbye to her. It was then that I realized that I needed to add Grandma Ethel to the Family Tree Maker as well. After all, she is Aunt Janet's and Aunt Linda's mom. At some point, a very important person in Pappy's life. Knowing Aunt Janet makes me want to know more about Pappy's lineage and Grandma Ethel's lineage. Aunt Janet is a incredibly patient and loving person. A gentle spirit, one you don't come by often. Someone from the old days of rearing children, who has hospitality and makes it seem as if the tech days do not exist. When you go to her house, it is like going home again in so many ways. What makes her like this? I have done some research on the Jenkins side and have come to brick walls. The Yellets family, have almost been yelling (no pun intended) out at me. Grandma Ethel had 16 brothers and sisters for pete's sakes! There was more to find out though.
  As I was researching backwards, I came across BENJAMIN Yellets. He would be Grandma Ethel's great-grandfather, Aunt Janet's great-great-grandfather. On his military records for the Civil War, his complexion was listed as yellow. Well, this was new for me. What did this mean? I thought at first maybe he was Asian or Native American. I called the Lancaster County Historical Society and asked them the question. I felt that I perhaps should had known what it meant by the tone of the researchers voice. Ok, so black and white. Mulatto. Wait.... mulatto? Black? This means slaves right?
  Tears came down my face as I thought about the fact there may have been slaves involved. I watched Roots, I mean who didn't? I had nightmares ever since. (I was a very sensitive child... you should had seen me after watching JAWS on the big screen... oh Lord). I was raised in a half and half house. One parent was as non-racial as ever and the other parent is very racist and uses the N word quite frequently. It was hard deciphering what is right and wrong when growing up in a all white community with a overbearing parent teaching me bad things and my softer parent trying so hard to instill good values in me which won in the end and overstepped my overbearing remaining parent. With watching Roots, which aired in 1977 when I was just 11 years old, I had only seen one black person in my life. She was a cashier at JC Penneys. My mother refused to go to her register. I stood there and stared at that woman for the longest time. I actually wondered if she was a slave. I wanted to tell her I was sorry for all that happened, but Mother rushed me off to another register. I didn't see many more black people until I moved into the city when I was on my own. My father taught me that it was our fault, (the whites) it was our responsibility or the lack thereof that African Americans had such the life they did. Being a of the white race, I guess I always owned the responsibility of "manning up" as Dad would had put it, to say "I am sorry."  I was raised that blacks were to stay with blacks and whites with whites and so on and so forth.  
  I am uneasy even writing about it, because I have such an ignorance of knowledge of African American history. And now it is staring me in the face. Benjamin, yellow complexion, serving in Company A, Musician Corp, rank Private in the 25th Reg't Colored USCT. I was excited and anxious all at the same time when I found this information. Excited for the new challenges that lie ahead of me in genealogy. Something new I never did before. Anxious, did the family know? I called Aunt Janet immediately. She never knew. Anxious, wondering if I will be able to go back any further, because I already was in the Civil War Records, meaning I will not be able to find Benjamin before 1864. I began searching... I found more. I found him in the 1860 census and the 1850 census!!! Whoa, what does this mean? Then I learned that his Daddy was James. And I was able to find him all the way back to the 1810 Census! They were listed as Free Colored Persons. So were they ever slaves? I was always told that African Americans got their surnames from slave owners. So where did the Yellets surname come from? Surely, I do not know yet. What I do know is that Michael is the father of James, James is the father of Benjamin, Benjamin is the father of Charles, Charles is the father of William and William is the father of Ethel and Ethel is the mother of Janet. 
  With speaking with someone else who is doing the Yellets tribe, she had told me that most of the Yellets knew there were interracial marriages, and others just did not know. I wonder what Grandma Ethel knew or did not know. At any rate, with seeing the members of the family, you seriously would suspect that they are of the white race. Which is where the problems lie in the census records and other matters. Some census records, they are marked as white, mulatto and black. Benjamin's own brother, Samuel, was in a white troop during the Civil War while Benjamin was in the colored troop. 
  It has been a challenge to find information that I need to figure out where to go from here. Benjamin is missing as far as burial. Another one was buried in a African American cemetery in Mount Joy. This cemetery, called the Lincoln Cemetery, is no longer considered its own entity. There is a simple concrete wall separating it from the much bigger and elaborate Mount Joy Cemetery. They used to be two different cemeteries. Now you have to enter the Mount Joy Cemetery to get to the Lincoln Cemetery, but by being there you would never know it went by another name. No cemetery sign. Just a wall, to separate the blacks from the whites. I felt an bit of uneasiness entering back into that all white cemetery. I felt ashamed and guilt. Thomas Yellets and his family were separated because they were Mulatto. 
  This guilt and shame may stem from the fact that my great grand uncle, Paris Bostic, was the leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Lancaster City. Mother being so proud of this fact, my father who was the direct descendant of Paris, was always filled with shame and didn't care to discuss the situation. 
  Well, to my Yellets family and all those connected, I honor you. And Benjamin, I hear you... I promise to find out as much as I can. You are not being forgotten and when I find your grave; there will be no colors to my tears... for we are one and of one great family. 
  I will write more about Benjamin in another blog, as he has a story to be told; that he wants told. I only have so much about him and his kin, but maybe someone else in the family will find this blog someday and be able to help me.

 
Where In The World is Selma (nee Newlin) McGuire?
06/02/2012
 
Selma May Newlin, daughter of Joseph and Lillie Carpenter Newlin, was born in May of 1895 in Parkesburg, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Selma married John W. McGuire on 25 June 1920 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In January of 1927, Selma became the libellent in a divorce from John W. McGuire. In February of 1927, there is another record of a divorce, which I have not acquired yet. Term: Feb 1927, No. 38, Date of Decree: 26 Mar 1927. No further information is found about Selma. I have not been able to locate her in the 1930 Census. Where in the world is Selma? Did she remarry or suffer an early death?
Later comment:Possible mother's maiden name may be Carson. Marriage record for Selma and John McGuire state that Selma was born in Lancaster, PA. She was a teacher in June of 1920. There is a family tree reference for Selma on Ancestry.com that is ran by cldonahue. He has that Selma's mother died in 1953 and that her name was Lillie Carson. This has to be impossible as the marriage license clearly states that Lillie was deceased in 1920. Her father Joseph, was a signal policeman who resided in Parkesburg, PA. Wow. As they say in "The Godfather": Go to the mattresses. For me, that means, go to the censuses, and look for Joseph and Lillie. See if she is alive in 1920 and 1930. Wouldn't that be something if she is? Must get the divorce record to see if it leads me to any clues as to where she may have went after the divorce.

 
Having A Sense of Being Overwhelmed? Genealogy Does That Sometimes!
02/19/2011
 
Ever feel like you have been swallowed up in a stack of papers that a million cans of stackable Pringles can't touch? I think I have finally reached that with my Bartch/Schlossman lines. I have a big ol' file here that isn't really a file anymore; stacked so that it's fat insides are spilling out. Names, places and dates that I have not yet recorded. Pieces of the puzzle that I have been trying to get back into the Family Tree Maker. I used to think that there wasn't much to my Bartch/Schlossman line. An unusual name on both parts, especially Schlossman... there wasn't going to be much difficulty in doing these lines. Hence, I have learned to never assume anymore. And the mysteries and stories that revolve around these fine people are great. Maybe I can understand now slightly why people only do their paternal lines. But not me, the more the better. You cannot get a full story of your ancestry from just a paternal line. Even cousins and 5th cousins are rich in history, bringing in their own part of the family that is just as important. And the women of our ancestry... the backbone of the descendants to be... without these remarkable women, we wouldn't be here to do our family history! Think about it! Every time I find someone, I need to find their spouse, their children, grandchildren... their stories. Even if I find just a census record and it tells me what they did for a living, I realize and appreciate how hard they have worked to bring us all full circle. The Schlossman family has a mystery of its own. They were from Germany. And somewhere in Lancaster County, PA there was band that played bearing the name. The Schlossman German Band. Googling it, I have found only one link that is now defunct. Asking a cousin, Dennis, he said he had heard of them once but knew nothing further about them. How to solve this mystery is something that is out of my league. Until I am able to get back to being a member of the Lancaster County Historical Society to research it, I may never know about this band. Trying to get organized is almost easy to do. Really, it is. Have files for obits recorded, a file for obits not recorded and the such. But sometimes things come to you at a rate of speed, that your desk becomes your filing cabinet and you begin to make stacks. Ok, I found this piece of information, I will put that to the side until I find the next record and so on and so forth. I never seem to sit down and just record what I do have into the FTM2011 before I collect more records. I believe I am a genealogy hoarder. And as painful as it sounds, the only way to solve that problem is to sit down with this fat file and put it on a skinny diet. Sit and record without getting the urge to look something else up.... Oh, did I tell you that Harry Melvin Bartch's birth father was Harvey Abel and that I spoke to my other cousin, Frances today and she stated that there were Abel's that lived next door to the Bartch's? Harvey may be from that family... I should go check it out! See what I mean? Genealogy Addiction is real.

 
The Mystery of Sarah
02/15/2011
 
Ever find yourself facing a brick wall that turns into a double brick wall? In fact, I am not even sure it is made out of brick anymore! Perhaps concrete with Gorilla glue in between the cinder blocks. Sometimes, I even wish I could die temporarily; go to Heaven, interview these people who are endearingly my ancestors and travel back to my piles of unorganized paperwork and make more notes. But obviously, that isn't going to happen. And perhaps, if I could do that, who's to say I would want to come back? Oh, wouldn't that be a glorious trip? I often wonder if they know I am working on their story. I wonder if they know I am trying my damnedest to make sure they are not forgotten! Each one of them has become so real to me. More than just a name, a birth date, death date, marriage date, a census statistic. When I find their graves, I pause... in reverence to them, secretly thanking them for the journey they gave me. Without them, I would not be here. "Never forget where you came from!" was a term so often thrown at me as a curse sentence. But I was able to later in life take that and transform it into the meaning it should have. "Never forget where you came from!", your roots, the ancestors who immigrated here with maybe only 1 or 2 bags for a whole family and a couple of dollars... not even being able to speak the language. Some escaping countries who have fallen into great despair and starvation to only come to the United States seeking prosperity, freedom and happiness. Only finding themselves being shoved around and placed into certain categories or little cities that are meant only for them. Some to be scalped by the Indians, some to die in a war against their own native countries... some to struggle and die from starvation here and others to prosper by inventing things, opening stores and becoming merchants, opening restaurants and introducing us to new foods. I wonder if I will be forgotten. I wonder if someone will want to find me in a hundred years. To look at my name and wonder what type of person I was. I wonder who that descendant will be. Anyways, I totally got off track of the topic I came here to write about. I will write about her in short, as I only know very little at this time. Perhaps, I can chip at the wall of mystery I have in finding Miss Sarah. Sarah Ann Mills (Paternal Grandmother of husband of 1st Cousin 3x removed of Yvonne Colleen Bachman Johnson) -- I am already confused.... was born abt. 1827. She was the daughter of Abraham and Lydia Mill or Mills. Sarah married John Bartch on 10 March 1853 in Lancaster City, Pennsylvania. I have her marriage record. In both records, Sarah's parents are both listed as Mill and not Mills. We have not been able to find Abraham and Lydia Mill or Mills in any census records or local listings. Records of Zion Lutheran Church in Marietta, Lancaster County, PA indicate that John and Sarah lived in or near the borough of Marietta until at least 1865. Also, they had a son named Adam who was born 09 Sep 1855 and died 12 April 1860 according to the same records. In the 1870 census record; we find John who is now remarried to a woman named Mary May and they are living in Littlestown, Adams County, Pennsylvania. We traveled to the Adams County Historical Society and have never been able to find Sarah's or Adam's burial. In searching many of the Columbia and Marietta cemeteries, we also have not been able to locate the resting places either. John and second wife; Mary May Bartch are buried at Mt. Bethel Cemetery in Columbia, Lancaster County, PA. Sarah's parents, Abraham and Lydia have also never been located, either in records or gravesites. It is like Sarah only existed for a short while. What ever became of her? And where are her parents? How can three people fall off the face of the earth with no other records than those listed?

 
Bartch Family, Interrelated on my Mothers' Side and How (Vintage Blog from Blogger 15 February 2011)
02/15/2011
 
I finally found my blog again. I found out that my new relationship with blogging back in April of 2009 didn't last long. I have one follower, my husband. Wow. Is it worth writing a blog? Maybe I just am not good at it. I found re-interest while watching the Julie & Julia movie yesterday that The L, (daughter Danielle) loves. Never seen it and I was fascinated. Then I wanted to see if Julie Powell's blogging was real. It was. Now she is famous. Voila, yay for her. It amazes me how some people get famous easily or get rich easily while the rest of us troddle (yes, I realize that isn't a proper word spell checker, but I like it and I made it up!) along life's path and struggle for every little thing we get. Perhaps that explains my genealogy and my ancestors. On my mother's side, they are split. One side was rather rich with furs and indoor plumbing and the other side were a poor farming family with barefeet and a outhouse. Yet, the Bartch family brought these two families together in marriage. (Long before my mother was thought of... sort of). They had no clue. Here is the information on how this all goes. See how good your puzzle sorter is in your mind! Now, Here is something interesting. My mother's parents are both related to Bartch's and the common ancestor between them is John Mills Bartch. Let me see if I can outline this just a bit to amuse you while I can't talk. My mom's Mother is GLADYS LAVERNE GENTZLER. She married JOHN McGUIRE MELSOM. (They both had other marriages, but for the moment we will only discuss this one. This was both their first marriage.) Gladys Gentzler's grandfather is EMMANUEL GENTZLER. Her Uncle HARRY WINFIELD GENTZLER had a son named HENRY GEORGE GENTZLER who married a MARY LOU BARTCH. They married 02 June 1951. Mary Lou Bartch is the daughter of HARRY MELVIN BARTCH and MILDRED SILTZER. Harry Melvin Bartch is the child of ANNA K. BARTCH daughter of JOHN MILLS BARTCH & LAURA STIPE BARTCH. OK?? That makes my mom and Henry George Gentzler and Mary Lou Bartch Gentzler ALL 1st Cousins 1x removed, (meaning that they share a great-grandparents, in this case, that would be John Mills Bartch and Laura Stipe Bartch.) Now, on my grandfather's side. JOHN McGUIRE MELSOM. His parents were GEORGE HILTON MELSOM and MARTHA CATHERINE KIEHL. Martha Catherine Kiehl's parents are DANIEL KIEHL AND ELIZABETH BROSEY KIEHL (she too, also married several times). Elizabeth Kiehl had a sister named MATILDA BROSEY who married a WILLIAM FARCHT. They in turn had a daughter named BESSIE FARCHT who married BENJAMIN BARTCH, son of JOHN MILLS BARTCH and LAURA STIPE BARTCH. So.... BENJAMIN BARTCH AND BESSIE FARCHT BARTCH ARE ALSO 1st Cousins 2x removed, meaning they all share the same GREAT-GREAT GRANDPARENTS being JOHN AND SARAH ANN MILLS BARTCH and for BESSIE FARCHT: SOLOMON AND LAVINA (nee unknown) BROSEY. Got that all? Fascinating stuff that curls my toes. When I found it, it blew me away. However, I realized that on both sides of my parents, they were interrelated and also their ancestors were interrelated on both sides and with one another. This often makes me wonder if this is why we are dealing with so much illness in our families. Honestly, no one knew who was gonna marry who. But sometimes, I wonder about that too. Did they know? Some of the Bartch family had money also, and some just died from tragic deaths. Tobias Bartch e.g. born June 1844 died on 28 June 1917 from falling out of a cherry tree and landing on his head. He dislocated his vertebrae and fractured his collarbone. Bessie Farcht Bartch, born 19 November 1884 and died 15 April 1946, was cooking and an oil cloth above the wood stove caught on fire and she burned more than 3/4 of her body. She later died at the hospital. Parker Clay Bartch, born 07 Aug 1918 and died 18 Apr 1980, was out mowing the lawn for his brother who was vacationing in Florida when he was felled by a heart attack. Henry Gerald Bartch, born 01 May 1920 and died 08 May 1982, died while sitting on the commode waiting to go into the club's pool. He died from an aneurysm. He was once buried at the Laurel Hill Memorial Gardens in Columbia, PA... but his wife; Marie Keys Bartch had his body later exhumed and moved to Fort Indiantown Gap Cemetery in Pennsylvania. That is a military cemetery. There are many other stories of trials and tribulations amongst my Bartch family and ancestors. There are many brick walls to break as well. I found they are a family full of love, a great sense of humor, talent and very humble people. Some were merchants who owned stores and others were just hard laborers. Some are disconnected from their children and some are very connected to their children. The Bartch siblings are close and loving, whereas the Bachman siblings are disconnected from one another. This is where balance is necessary.