June 1998

Through the kind help of cousin Beth Caporali of Vandergrift, I now have a little information on the elusive Hiram Held branch of the family. Beth is a cousin through our Frantz (Regina's husband) connections, and is a librarian at one of the local genealogical societies in Armstrong County. The library had a private scrapbook donated that contained newspaper obituaries of local people, and many were the Held and Riggle obituaries. In this scrapbook were obits of old Hiram Held, Isabella Young Held, and several of their children.

As an interesting side note, one of the pages cousin Beth sent just happened to have the obit for the father of a very close youthful friend of mine, Dave Harmon. It describes the terrible auto accident he had at the Dime Road - Leechburg Road intersection.
 

June 1998 visit to Pennsylvania

The was our first trip back to Pennsylvania since Christmas time. It was planned as both a family visit and to visit some of the old churches where the Helds, Riggles, Bowmans, Lessigs, and Allshouses lived in the middle 1800s. We finally found the gravestones of the original Helds, Johann David and Christina in the St. Michaels Cemetery at Brick Church. We had visited this cemetery a year ago and somehow missed the gravesite. In our travels to Bethel, Boiling Springs, and Forks-Zion Churches we also found the gravesites of many other Helds and relations.

Link to July 1998

Copyright 1998 by Fred H. Held

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