Wednesday, December 13, 2006

A New Addition

I decided today to add a new item to my favorites list. This one is actually a website, not really a blog, but it's one of my favorite places to visit - both online and when the opportunity presents, in person too.

What trace remnants are left of this former prosperous coal mining town are located about a mile and a half from my house. It was to this little place that my great-grandparents, my grandfather and at least five of his siblings migrated in 1884. The town they left behind, McIntyre, PA, located in Lycoming County of Central Pennsylvania is also a ghost town and has been for many years too.

The gentleman who started this website is a professor at a college in northwestern Ohio and between his teaching, research for his job and trying to be a good husband and father to two little ones, he has found it very difficult to keep up with information and changes that need made from time to time with the website. So, he is looking for someone to take it over, "run it" so to speak and I might be doing that in the near future. But, we have to determine first if he can give me a crash course in website information plus I will most like need to add space to my computer with a massive upgrade, add some software to it as well and then see if I can actually handle the job. Cross your fingers that this idea/plan will work because I would hate to see it go to the great Cyberspace cemetery where ever that may be!

The research I have mentioned from time to time in the Writers Life Group as well as in my blogs has to do with reading old newspaper issues from the local daily paper here (accessed through the historic newspaper data base with Ancestry.com) and transcribing items about Peale and other villages in the township, events of the date I am reading about along with including data on the residents at that time.

Remember the game that was popular a few years back - Six Degrees From Kevin Bacon - or is it Five Degrees TO Kevin Bacon - not sure which there right now - but it is my theory that many people who came to Peale, were born and raised there and then migrated to other points across the country now have descendants who could be classified as being X-degrees From Kevin Bacon type people, except in this case it would be X-Degrees from Peale!

Because I have roots in my family to Peale, to McIntyre, PA and also to another ghost town here in Clearfield County (Gazzam), studying these places, learning about the towns themselves as well as who lived there over the years, is a fascinating part of my history and that of many, many others too!

I've written several articles about this town and events around it over the past two years and am hoping to compile some more in the near future.

But for now, I just wanted to share this particular interest of mine and show you what there is currently available on the web about Peale - a beautiful little ghost town that was once a major hub in this region.

Check it out - it's the second link on my favorites list. Let me know if you too don't find it just a good bit on the fascinating side!

1 comment:

Berni said...

Interesting site, I like history too. I have generally only read European history, but I should learn more about North American history.