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What do you have that you did not receive?
One
might apply a question from the Bible to both one's family and to family history: What do you have that you did not receive? Family history by its very nature is communal. We hope that the Gindlesperger Family
History Association, Inc., will be a vehicle for gathering and sharing information about the family that no one could possibly assemble alone. Beside such factual data as the date and place of birth, marriage, and
death, there are hundreds of stories, coincidences, and adventures to be told that gave meaning to the lives of our ancestors and can enrich our own.
My personal interest in family history was ignited after the death of my second parent. As we cleaned out the attic we found a carton of coal-dusted
photographs. As we asked each other, "Who are these people?" I realized that the memories and information of a whole generation had passed away and that now only my siblings and I could know some of the family
history, lore, and sense of self. Clearly, the next generation was not yet interested. So we were it.
By a combination of coincidence and generosity, I learned very quickly about four generations of ancestors, including the sole immigrant ancestor,
that I could not have imagined before. Until then, family lore extended back to the Civil War, but with no definitive lineage or names. Then, literally in a click on the Internet, I learned that our immigrant
ancestor was about ten years older than George Washington and had arrived in Philadelphia 27 years before the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed there. A theme came to mind: the story of a family (the first
five generations of which in my particular line could not write their names) and its participation in the founding and development of the nation.
As intimate and personal as a family's history and meaning are, I realized that recapturing it is not an individual, but a communal, engagement. A
colleague introduced me to the Lybarger Memorial Association, which became the corporate model for the Gindlesperger Family History Association, Inc. Our hope for the GFHA is that it will serve to encourage,
compile, publish, and preserve the collective results of research into the history of the Gindlesperger family.
There is much to be done, to be learned, and to enjoy. To date, the current members all represent and know most about that branch of the family for
which Somerset Co., PA, was the nest from at least as early as the 1780s to the present generations. We are looking forward to meeting our cousins who settled the old Northwest Territory region, as well as part of
Canada. The year 1999 will mark the 250th anniversary of the arrival of our single identifiable immigrant ancestor. The GFHA would like his Gindlesperger descendants (by whatever current spelling) to find a way to
celebrate that landmark event in some communal way, even if it is not possible to be physically together in the same place.
Rev. Norman L. Gindlesperger
President
ngindlesperger@cox.net
October 25, 1998
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