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collection highlights

Our collection, located in the Pennsylvania Room, is open for in-person research. The archives staff also accepts research queries and provide information via phone, email, and postal mail during library hours.
 

Our Pennsylvania Room is a welcoming research environment used by genealogists from across the United States. Our primary focus is Somerset County with an emphasis on the Meyersdale area, although we also have some materials on adjacent counties, including those across the state line.

 

This is a listing of the highlights of our collection:

Marguerite Cockley Collection –  contains an extensive number of family files representing decades of research and correspondence.

Harvey Shumaker Collection – a collection totaling over 700 volumes of information on countless families.

Local History Microfilm Holdings

Various Pennsylvania and Maryland Census Records

National Archives Agriculture, Industry and Manufacturing, and Social Statistics and Supplemental Schedules for Somerset
and Other Pennsylvania Counties – 1850-1880

Reich Funeral Home Records, Meyersdale – 1885-1960

Tressler/Konhaus Funeral Home Records, Meyersdale – 1930-1974

Somerset County Native William H. Welfley’s Marriage – 1904-1910 – and Obituary – 10 Volumes, 1894-1918 – Scrapbooks

Somerset County Survey Warrants – 1700s-1800s

Somerset County Tax Assessments – 1795-1854

Somerset County Wills/Estates – 1797-1895; 1922-1960

Somerset County Orphans’ Court Dockets – 1793-1846

Tombstone Inscriptions (Somerset, Bedford, Fayette and Westmoreland Counties, Pennsylvania; Ashtabula County, Ohio) – Miscellaneous Years

Civil War Veterans and Widows (Somerset and Washington Counties) – 1890

Revolutionary War Soldiers (Somerset County and Beyond in Pennsylvania)

Berlin Muster Roll – 1813

Various Local Church Records – Including Reformed, Lutheran and Brethren

Local Marriage and Death/Funeral Records – Including Those of Bishop Conrad Lint and Rev. Benjamin Knepper

Somerset County Family Bible Records (Over 300 Names) Gathered by County Native E.C. Saylor – Late 1700s-Mid 1800s

Somerset County Newspapers

  • Meyersdale Commercial Newspaper – 1881-1912 (microfilm); 1913-1918 & 1929 (scattered issues; limited access to hard copies due to age, rarity, and fragility) NOW AVAILABLE ON MICROFILM and ONLINE at the Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive! (See link under Local History Digital Collections: Online.)

  • Meyersdale Republican Newspaper – 1900-1990 (microfilm)

  • The New Republic (Meyersdale) Newspaper – 1991-2010 (microfilm); 2011-present (hard copies)

  • Somerset County Star (Salisbury) Newspaper – 1899, May 1909-1929 (microfilm); 1891-1893, 1900-1904 & 1907-April 1909 (hard copies; scattered issues; limited access to hard copies due to age, rarity, and fragility) NOW AVAILABLE ON MICROFILM and ONLINE at the Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive! (See link under Local History Digital Collections: Online.)

  • The Turkeyfoot News – 1905-1912 (microfilm)

  • Somerset Herald Newspaper – 1828-1845 (microfilm; incomplete collection)

Local History Digital Collections: online

Local History Digital Collections: on-site use

  • Early Vital Records of Somerset County Families, Compiled by Genealogist Ora L. Flaningam – 1700s-1900s

  • Somerset County Naturalization Records – 1802-1854

  • Springs Area Oral Histories Recorded by Beth Holler Page of the Springs Historical Society

  • B&O Railroad Employee Oral Histories Recorded by Carolyn McKinney

  • Pennsylvania Maple Festival Photograph Collection

  • Reich Family (Meyersdale) Collection of Photographs, Store Ledgers and Other Memorabilia

  • Digitized Videos of Local Events, Historical Milestones, Speeches/Presentations, and Interviews

Books and Other Resources

  • Ross Rush Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Post #361, Ursina, Record Books – On Permanent Loan to our Library by the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Mt. Union Church Camp #502, and its Ladies Auxiliary. View digital images of this collection, created by auxiliary member and library volunteer Linda Marker, HERE!

  • Over 1,200 Family Surname Files and Approximately 225 Family Genealogy Publications

  • Three Filing Cabinets of Subject Files Related to Meyersdale, Somerset County, and Pennsylvania

  • Somerset Past: The History and Genealogy of Somerset County, Pennsylvania – 13-Volume Set

  • Sanborn Maps of Meyersdale (late 1800s-early 1900s) and Salisbury (1924)

  • 1876 Beers Atlas and Index

  • Early 1900s T.M. Fowler Maps of Meyersdale, Salisbury, Confluence, Rockwood, Berlin, Somerset, Boswell and Windber

  • Union Cemetery Plot Map

  • Somerset County Railroad Maps

  • Somerset County Plat Books Representing Years 1964, 1976, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2001

  • 1903 Somerset County Directory

  • History Books About Somerset County and Its Various Communities/Towns

  • Books About Other Pennsylvania Counties, Along With Maryland, West Virginia and Ohio

  • The Casselman Chronicles (Springs Historical Society, 1961-Present), Laurel Messenger (Historical and Genealogical Society of Somerset County, 1960-Present), and Other Pennsylvania/Maryland Historical Society Newsletters

  • Church Records (Primarily Lutheran and Reformed) and Histories – Including Amish, Brethren, Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed Mennonite, and United Brethren in Christ

  • Catholic Vital Records of Central Pennsylvania – Five Volumes, 1793-1869

  • Extensive Obituary Collection from Somerset and Meyersdale Newspapers – 28,000 Index Cards, 1970-2003

  • WPA Somerset County Cemetery Inventories – circa 1934

  • Somerset County Poor House Records – Early 1900s

  • Somerset County Historic Resource Survey of Selected Significant Structures – Published in 1986

  • Local Event/Organization Programs and Records – Including Those Pertaining to the Pennsylvania Maple Festival, Somerset County Fair, Meyersdale Service Clubs, and Meyersdale Borough Council

  • Somerset County School Publications and Record Books

  • Pennsylvania Archives – Seven-Series Book Collection

  • Substantial Photo (Nearly 1,000) and Accessioned Paper Items/Object (Over 800) Archives Collections, including the extensive collections of Frances Livengood Imler and Marguerite Cockley

Thanks to the efforts and generosity of Mrs. Marguerite Cockley, the Pennsylvania Room is home to the Cockley Collection mentioned above. Charter members of the Historical and Genealogical Society of Somerset County, the late Mrs. Cockley and her husband Eber served as the organization’s genealogists for many years. Also remembered as a beloved librarian at the Meyersdale Public Library, Mrs. Cockley was responsible for the creation of our Pennsylvania Room. We will always pay tribute to this respected Meyersdale historian and genealogist, her talent, and her commitment to our community.

 

We at the Meyersdale Public Library also fondly remember archivist and avid genealogist Cynthia Mason, who served as director of the Pennsylvania Room for over 17 years. A member of the Meyersdale Area Historical Society’s Board of Directors, Cynthia’s invaluable contributions to the preservation of information about this area and its people will forever benefit those seeking more knowledge about our past and those who shaped it.

 

A native of Meyersdale who moved on to reside in Ohio, the late Harvey Shumaker was a United States Marine Corps veteran and high school teacher of both history and English. Mr. Shumaker had a genuine fondness for libraries, history, and genealogical research. We are most fortunate to now provide a home for his life’s work related to genealogical research.

 

Our eternal thanks to devoted volunteer, the late Keith Petenbrink, for his compilation of over 3,000 records pertaining to county veterans of this war.

 

None of this would be here without the foresight of Frances Livengood Imler, who pioneered the idea of founding a public library in Meyersdale.

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Research help via email is available. Please contact jhurl@meyersdalelibrary.org

 

NOTE: If you have attempted to email us in the past year and not received a response, please try again at the address shown above. We have been in a period of major transitions, and some emails may have been lost.

 

Please be sure to email us at the address provided on this page.

The old meyersdalelibrary.com addresses are no longer valid

as that web domain is no longer owned nor operated by our library.

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