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Updates Posted by Mary (2009/5/25)
The Forum section has been upgraded and is the preferred place to post queries (rather than in the Blog as some have done). There is also a new Googlemaps section that will be expanded as time goes on, showing the locations of churches and cemeteries

Chester Chatter

The Minqua - People of the Welsh Mountains

10. November 2009 — alani2 (Views: 121)

As a child growing up in Coatesville, my mother shared stories about our ancestors who lived in the Welsh Mountains. She told of the Natives, escaped slaves, and disenfranchised whites who settled there.  When we visited the people there I feld a sense of awe at it’s beauty and sadness at the poverty of some residents. It seemed the further away I lived the more fascination there was for the Welsh Mountains. I researched and documented my family history over a period of twenty years, and wrote two books, Pieces of the Quilt: The Mosaic of An African American Family, and Notes and Documents of Free Persons of Color. I am currently working on my third book, Minqua: People of the Welsh Mountains, and on a Documentary of the same name.

As a Mixed-Raced descendant of the Welsh Mountains I hold a unique perspective on the people who lived there. Two of my ancestors, Henry Green and Uriah Martin, came out of the Mountains to fight in the Civil War. Several ancestors lived and worked on farms in the area to earn money. They were not just those people, they contributed to the history and culture of the area.

If there is anyone who would like to share their family stories please contact me at, ntawls@gmail.com.

The Minqua site link is: http://minqua.ning.com

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In The Spotlight

My family is notorius for taking interesting pictures without ever bothering to label them, so I wasn't particularly surprised to come across several old snapshots of an old stone home with a sign declaring it to be Reynolds Hall. I vaguely recalled that Isaac Reynolds, my great-grandfather, had at one point owned land across from what was once the State Normal School in West Chester, but I hadn't drawn the connection between the old family home and the current Reynolds Hall at West Chester University until I came across an old map section from 1912 showing the property.

From the Gallery

ReynoldsHall1.jpg
SteamLaundryWagon.jpg

Chester County Genealogy

Chester County, PA and the genealogy of its people have been a part of my life for so long now that it's hard to remember a time when I wasn't actively engaged in research in the Chester County area. Though my interest in genealogy in Pennsylvania predates my involvement online, the real start for me came when I volunteered in the summer of 1996 to coordinate the Chester county site for the PAGenWeb Project, then in its infancy.

Having a large numbers of ancestors who were Quakers made it much easier in some ways to find information on their history and because of that, a large amount of the data here is related to the early Quaker families of the area. When I first started working on my Chester site for the PAGenWeb Project, I was acutely aware of the tremendous amount of history for the area and the importance that the Chester County area played in the early history of our country. As one of the three original counties created when Pennsylvania was first settled, nearly all later parts of the state derive their roots in this original section as it was a major point of entry for settlers coming to Pennsylvania.

During my time as coordinator, a total of about 6 years altogether, I collected an enormous amount of genealogy and history data pertaining to the Chester County area and the neighboring counties and have been actively putting it online ever since.

If you've been here before, you'll notice that the site is sporting a brand new look. You may also notice some changes in the way some of the data is arranged - the new Site Map will help locate files if they've been moved from their original spots.

All of the information on this site is viewable by all visitors, though it will be necessary to create an login and be logged in if you wish to post in the forums or add other forms of data to the site. We will always respect your privacy and will never share your contact information with anyone!

If you find this site useful, please consider creating a link to it from your own web pages and let other folks know about it - the more people that find us, the better able we are to share valuable information! Enjoy your visit!