Hi folks....here's a discovery we made that still makes our spines tingle !!!! My wife and I met in 1984, in Johnson City, New York, which is located just outside of city of Binghamton,NY. Our families never knew each other, never even met each other. Tammy's family was from the east side of the county, and Ron's from the west side. Our paths just never crossed, until the day we met. 3 years later we got married in Binghamton in 1987, and bought a house in Vestal, NY. At this time, we didn't give family genealogy a thought. Ron got very interested in his side when he attended Tammy's family's 76th
annual Family Reunion. He couldn't believe the family records that were kept....much more than he ever knew about his own family. Well, it didn't take long for him to jump into the Genealogy Pool !
Research started slow since our first daughter Lindsay was born in 1990, and Robin soon followed in 1992, and time for research was extremely limited. Four years later, Ron took an employment transfer to North Carolina, and we moved to Concord, 20 miles northeast of Charlotte. That year, we bought a PC, and he got interested in our family history's, and the internet was a fantastic tool for genealogy. Ron, being the history lover, took to the PC and libraries and uncovered some information about his Ohnmacht side of the family. He discovered a lot of facts, and found that his immigrant ancestor, his gg-grandfather, Leo Ohnmacht, arrived in America in 1854, and settled in northeastern Pennsylvania, where he married Barbara Market. Census records indicated Archbald/Blakeley, Jermyn, and Carbondale as residences from 1870-1910. The 1900 census had Leo and his family located in Jermyn, PA. After hitting a few brickwalls, Ron then moved to Tammy's family, the McKercher side. From family records and other resources, learned that James & Sarah McKercher and their family were also in Jermyn,PA in 1900 ! We thought, "wow, maybe the families knew each other at one time, maybe they even spoke to each other"! Then we found out that the Ohnmacht's and McKercher's lived very close to each other !!! There is no doubt that they must have spoke on the streets of Jermyn.
So time passed, with more census records indicating that the Ohnmacht family and the McKercher family were practically neighbors in Jermyn.
Soon , we tracked down more cousins and relatives that we never knew we had. In our searching, Ron attempted to find out where his ancestors were buried. Tammy's side of the family had records of their ancestors, the McKerchers, and they were buried in Valley View Cemetery in Montdale,PA, just near Jermyn. Ron started searching for the Ohnmacht's, and started in Carbondale, since that was the last residence of Leo & Barbara. Nothing came up. Nothing at all. As he worked the circle around Carbondale, after finding nothing in at least 40 cemeteries. Then one day, a newly found great-aunt found an obituary of his great grandfather, John Ohnmacht, and called him, and told him the obituary of his g-grandfather read that he was buried in Valley View cemetery. Ron called the curator of the cemetery, Mr. John Babyak, and inquired about the Ohnmacht's buried there. John Babyak, the records keeper, told him several Ohnmacht's were buried there, including his gg-grandparents Leo & Barbara !!! Finally!!!!!...we found them, and in the same cemetery that Tammy's gg-grandparents, James & Sarah McKercher, are buried ! Ron inquired about the McKerchers, and there was silence on the other end of the phone. Mr. Babyak asked if that was James & Sarah McKercher, to which his reply was "yes".
He then said to us,in a "unbelieving" voice, "You are not going to believe this, but James and Sarah McKerchers plots are right next to Leo & Barbara Ohnmacht's plots. They are buried side by side in adjacent plots."
We were ABSOLUTELY STUNNED ! We still are !!!!
Our gg-grandparents are buried in plots next to each other !!!!
Now....what are the odds of 2 people meeting each other, 87 years after their gg-grandparents lived near each other, and nearly 80 miles from where they lived at the time, and finding that their gg-grandparents are buried right next to each other !!!!!
You can view our genealogy story above, with a few added special effects at:
http://www.geocities.com/rohnmacht/stories.htmltake care...Ron