Delco Daily Top Ten: Top 10 Family and Local History Sources

1. Make a flow chart of your?family tree, there are many sources on the Internet.? I use ancestry.com the free version to organize my facts and chart. Record what you know for certain, first.

Photo courtesy of the Keith Lockhart collection.?

This is a photograph of the Crozer Home for the Incurables.

2. Talk with senior family members grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles.? Go through pictures ask for the names in pictures and write them on the back if you can without damaging the picture.

3. Ask permission to scout around in your parents attic it my be filled with all kinds of treasures and clues to your family history and spark some good memories.?

Photo courtesy of the Keith Lockhart collection.?

This is a photograph of the Washington Hotel and Washington Theater in Chester, Pennsylvania. 4.? An old family bible, may have a listing of ancestors, it looks like it used to be a tradition.? The one I found had the list but the lines were blank.? Both my parents were big keepers of holy cards you receive at funerals and they were helpful in identifying the date of death of several relatives.? It gives you a base and a source to go from. I came across my grandfathers prayer book with holy cards stash in it and my great-grandmothers common prayer book.? It is over 100 years old. I also found my mother's First Holy Communion Book.? I swore all my life it was mine but her name and date of Communion is written on the 5th page in.? My name was printed in the back.? It is one of my most prized possessions now.

5. Another source of information would be to visit or contact the cemetery where your relatives are buried and ask for records of who is buried in the family plot.? You can start by asking, who is buried in Grants tomb, of course that is just an example.? If you have last names of your paternal and maternal grandparents and maiden names that is a good start. Most of the larger cemeteries have these records but for the ones who do not the WPA (Work Project Administration) went around and recorded the headstones from the early days until 1936 according to historian Keith Lockhart.? Some of these records can be found on the delawarecountyhistory.com website.? Other records may be obtained by contacted the cemetery but a fee may be incurred.

6. The Delaware County Historical Society is located in the City of Chester at 408 Avenue of the States.? The Museum is opened on Wednesday and Friday 9pm-4pm, Thursday 1pm -6:30pm and on Saturday 9am - 2pm.

7. Familysearch.org is one of the most popular genealogy search sites and it is free of charge.

8. If you know for a fact you had a family member arrive through Ellis Island, this is also a good source to find records, and it's free.

9. Census record are yet another excellent source to use.? You can see who was living in what household during certain years.? All the census records are not available to the public yet but the 1940 census just became available to the public on April 2, 2012.

Photo courtesy of the Keith Lockhart collection.?

This arch marked the entrance to Nether Providence was a World War I Memorial to 282 men and 2 women killed during the war.? In 1958, when the road was widened the arch was taken down.??The tablets with the engraved names are now?at the entrance to Smedley Park. 10. On Wednesday April 11th, 2012 , the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) located at 1300 Locust Street in Philadelphia is hosting a lecture on preserving photographs. Check their website for the time and a listing of other upcoming events.

If you are interested in local history, I highly recommend Keith Lockhart's website delawarecountyhistory.com and blog dtimeshistory.blogspot.com.? He has a ton of stuff out there and loads of pictures.http://dtimeshistory.blogspot.com/

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