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Give thanks to ancestors, learn their stories Tom Mooney Out on a Limb

Sunday November 15, 2009 | 12:00 AM

Soon Americans will be gathering to give thanks for all the good things they’ve enjoyed. There’s no better way to say “thanks” to the ancestors who got us where we are than by learning their stories, whatever those stories are. Let’s see if we can help these researchers.

1) Charlene Judson writes that she’s researching great-grandparents William Williams and Hanna Dick Williams. “I need to find out where he and Hanna are buried. She died in November of 1911. He was born about 1851.”

• Charlene, the Wilkes-Barre Record Almanac list of deaths for November, 1911, has no Hanna Williams listed. Perhaps she lived outside the immediate Wilkes-Barre area. Do you know where?

Here’s my suggestion. If you can pin your great-grandparents down to a neighborhood or town, you might be able to look in the almanac circa 1911 and find out what church (probably a Welsh one, based on the name) they likely attended. That would help you find funeral records.

Also, since Hanna died in the era of Pennsylvania death certificates and you know the month, you can go to the Bureau of Vital Records Web site, print out a records request form and pay for a one-month search.

From there you have a better shot at finding an obituary for Hanna in the Wilkes-Barre papers of the time — The Times Leader, Record and The Evening News. All are at the Luzerne County Historical Society, and the Record is at the Osterhout Free Library, both on South Franklin Street in Wilkes-Barre. An obituary would tell you the cemetery’s name, and that would give you a means of finding husband William.

2) Henry Frieder is researching grandfather Philip “Fred” Frieder — the subject of a Times Leader article on Aug. 13, 1913, that said he was accused of bigamy.

• Henry, I found the article. It says that while Philip once operated a store in Luzerne, he was proprietor of the Cottage Hotel in Old Forge at the time of the accusation. Since Old Forge is in Lackawanna County, it is probably there you will have to go for legal paperwork.

If you go to www.lackawannacounty.org and click on “clerk of judicial records” you will find helpful phone numbers to call.

Here’s the story. A woman named Harriet Frieder showed up at Philip’s hotel, with a 1901 marriage certificate from New York, hired a lawyer and told a story of Philip having run away after three months with one Mollie Moskowitz plus Harriet’s savings. Philip, by then a father of four, was arrested, after which he posted bond and waived his hearing, meaning the case was slated for court.

Remember, though, that not all cases sent to court actually go there. Many are settled before trial.

News Notes: The Nanticoke Historical Society will offer a free genealogy workshop 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday. It will be held at the Samantha Mill House, 495 E. Main St., Nanticoke. Speaker will be Kathleen Smith, lineage research chairman for the Pennsylvania Daughters of the American Revolution. Society president is Julianna Zarzycki. Contact the society at (570) 258-1367.

• Ron Kordich will offer “An Inside Look into Stained Glass” at the next meeting of the Genealogical Research Society of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The meeting is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the society’s research center, 1100 Main St., Peckville. The public is invited. To inquire about membership contact the society at (570) 383-7661.