In a previous article, Don't Judge a Book by its Cover: The Drawing Book of Verena Fehr, we established that occasionally a book gives in unexpected ways. Such is the case with this Guide to the Old Moravian Cemetery of Bethlehem, Pa. 1742-1910 by Augustus Schultze, D.D., L.H.D. Lancaster, Pa 1912. From a historical standpoint the title had already caught my eye, but when I opened it and saw the wealth of unpublished information, I just had to share.* We also decided that this kind of information would make a fantastic category here on Passed time, "Genealogy from Books."  This is not to include the printed information, but the old notations genealogists, researchers, and historians, often provide in their research material. 

   This particular effort, Guide to the Old Moravian Cemetery,  will have to follow in the footsteps of my "Dear Alice" series, in that I will not be able to cover all of the information in one fell swoop. It will be unveiled in stages, sometimes very slow stages, depending upon my workload. Unsurprisingly, the book has fallen into a few different hands through the years, so there is genealogy from a couple of families.  

    The first name that is revealed by its owner's inscription is that of "Thora M. Beckel," May 20, 1921. In fact, the first endpaper is filled with information about Thora Almira Mulgrav Beckel (21 June 1880-February 26 (28) 1935).** Yet, a second inscription reads, "E. Pauline Leibert Stocker. A notation on the front endpaper indicates that Thora had given the book away slightly more than a month before her death in 1935.

`  E. Pauline Leibert Stocker was the wife of the Reverend Frederick P. Stocker Rev. Stocker who served in Moravian churches in New York City, Indianapolis and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. You can read his obituary in the July 12, 1992 edition of the Morning Call (click on the link provided). About Mrs. Stocker, scant information can be readily found, except that the "E" might have stood for Edith. If Thora Beckel indeed gifted the book to Stocker, Stocker appears to have been more concerned about providing information about her friend, lest she be forgotten, for more information about Beckel is written on the reverse of the first endpaper. She writes that Thora Almira "Mallgrow" (Mullgrove, Malgrave, Mulgrav) was born to Anna Mathilda and Emerick Mallgrow in Fredericksted, St. Croix, West Indies. See the picture, for more details. As always, please feel free to share any information you have. HK 1 July 2015 

Update 17 September 2015: This is a really popular article on Passed Time. Thank you. Although our intention is to keep PT free for readers, there are ways you can help. If this information is useful and you intend to share, please credit Passed Time. The more readers we have, the more reason to keep posting relevant information. Secondly, on the Passed Time home page, you will notice an "Amazon Widgets" icon. (right column, middlish). If you intend to purchase from Amazon, please do so through our widget. We have partnered with Amazon and they give us a small percentage. We have no intention of charging our readers for this section of Passed Time, but we do incur costs. Best, Pat

* I do like letting the researchers/historians/genealogists recorded in my finds, speak for themselves. As such, I would prefer to give a slight introduction and let the reader proceed from that point. There is less chance of mistake in spelling, typos, misunderstanding and misrecording of names (so important in genealogy). However, search engines, as I understand it cannot pick up, words within photos. I am not trying to insult the reader by transcribing what is shown, but I want to make sure the names are picked up in searches. 

** This actually supports what I just said. An online source gives Beckel's date of death as the 28th of February. This book, presumably given to a close friend of Beckel's, specifically records Beckel died on February 26, 1935.

Author HistoryKeeper, currently lives in Dover, Delaware, with family, both two- and four-footed. I am a history enthusiast, who has great regard for the past and is especially proud of the Pennsylvania German culture. In addition to Passed Time, I am currently working on a project for the German Historical Institutes Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies (http://www.ghi-dc.org). I also contribute to various newsletters and I am working on another book...or two. Feel free to email me at pcsuter@passedtime.com for questions, comments, information, a shared love of history, an idea, or just because you want to share on Passed Time, but are too shy about getting started. But be aware, Files with Attachments will not be opened, but immediately deleted.