Fowarding this along with permission.... > >Dear Kim, > >Yes, you can forward my questions to the mailing list. I just returned >from St. Peter's, Chester County where I was able to locate the graves of >David (Switzer) Keim's son; James Keim and his wife Julia Keim. I have >ruled him out as Mary's father, since he would have only been a teenager, >and his wife would have been something like 11 years old. On a truly >fascinating note, I was able to locate the graves of Jacob Keim and his >wife Hannah Switzer Keim and their children Samuel and his wife Eliza(beth) >(the stone says Eliza, but I think her given name was Elizabeth), Kezia >Keim and others in a remote cemetery in Schenkel. I know that I need to >get my hands on the 1860 census for that region for me to find out the >answers to some of my questions. This is Sandra's first email.... My name is Sandra Klinger. I recently started researching my family genealogy and I had hit a stumbling block with tracing my maternal g-g-grandmother and I have a few questions. I don't have a lot of information, but what I have is this. My grandmother told me her grandmother's name was Mary, and she married William Trythall, who had been born in England and had immigrated with his parents, siblings, cousins and uncle and aunt in the mid-1850's. My grandmother had a small article from the newspaper recording the marriage of my g-g-grandfather, William Thomas Trythall to Eliza Keim, Christmas Day, 1867 in the Bethel Methodist Church, Coventry Twp., Chester Co. William Trythall's father, John and his Uncle James, subsequently purchased two parcels of land, located a few miles west of St. Peter's Village, along the old Wilmington-Reading rail line in the village of Trythall Station. According the the map that I have of the St. Peter's area dating to the 1870's, there are several Keim holdings in the region that included St. Peter's Sta., Harmonyville, Trythall Sta., and Knauer's Forge. Since David (Switzer) Keim died in St. Peter's, I concluded that a few of his sons must have remained in the area, and that his granddaughter, Mary (or Eliza as they may have called her) may likely have married the fellow from the nearby village, William Trythall. I was able to locate the graves of William and Mary in St. Mary's Cemetery, Warwick Twp.(about 8 miles west of St.Peter's on Route 23), which lists a Mary E. Trythall (4/18/1851 - 7/20/1928) and William Trythall (5/3/1845 - 4/18/1907). I assumed that Mary E. was Mary Eliza, which would have been consistent with what my grandmother had told me before she passed away. The family lore was that Mary had been a local girl who had married very young, which is supported by this evidence. She was also an excellent baker, who loved to bake Shoo-Fly Pies. The couple had 10 children, five of whom died in childhood and are buried alongside of their parents in the same cemetery. None of my relatives have been able to recall the names of Mary's parents and I have been unsure of where to go. I assumed that there was a relationship to "The Founder", but I didn't know how or where. My questions are these, and hopefully you can help me when you have the time or direct me where to go. In your opinion, which one of David (Switzer) and Sarah Turner Keim's sons would most likely be Mary's father? I'm leaning toward James, since one of Mary's sons was given that name, but that could have been just a coincidence since William's uncle was also a James. Since I am so new to this, do you think the Bethel Church in Coventry would have records from marriages dating back that far? I know where the church is located, and I am planning to visit it sometime soon. Correct me if I am wrong, but there are no birth records in the County Courthouse for the period of time when Mary would have been born, are there? Do you know where David (Switzer) and Sarah are buried? I wonder what happened to his first wife, Rebecca? Also, where the heck is Smedley. I've been running across that name for some months, and I can't locate it anywhere. If Smedley is very close to Harmonyville, then it may be possible that Mary could be a niece of David's, being the daughter of Samuel (Switzer) or George (Switzer) Keim. I have some information about Mary's children if you are interested, let me know. You can contact me at Klingers@Enter.net > > >Thank you, > > >Sandy _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp