By chance does anyone on the list have a copy of the book -- History of Montgomery County Pennsylvania Illustrated 1884 Edited by Theodore W. Bean I know that it is transcribed on the Montgomery County Gen Web site but was wondering if the actual book had any listings of sources or an introduction that might give some hint where Mr. Bean obtained his information. What I am trying to learn is where his information was found for page 763 regarding "Early Schools" in which he names "Nathan Smith, from the Gulf, in Upper Merion announces the opening of a boarding-school for young gentlemen and ladies, January 20, 1814". In the Norristown Newspaper abstracts (generously supplied by another researcher) from that period the person associated with the "Norristown Boarding School" is only identified as "N. Smith" so obviously Mr. Bean was not using newspaper entries for his source. If anyone knows or has any ideas where Mr. Bean may have found records to identify N. Smith as Nathan Smith I would be so very grateful to hear from you. Susan McIntyre Michigan

Susan --- The full text for this book is available online at Accessible Archives. While he will occasionally reference a source for his information such as an act or order of a legislative body, he does not mention a source of the information in connection with the section you quoted. It might be helpful to note that this particular passage did not appear in the section of the book dealing with Education but rather in the section dealing with the history of Norristown, PA. Given that I would assume that he was using city and school records and other historical information dealing with Norristown when he researched it. Hope this helps. Mike Ziegler -----Original Message----- From: Susan McIntyre [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2003 9:50 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [PAMONTGO-L] History of Montgomery Co. by T. W. Bean By chance does anyone on the list have a copy of the book -- History of Montgomery County Pennsylvania Illustrated 1884 Edited by Theodore W. Bean I know that it is transcribed on the Montgomery County Gen Web site but was wondering if the actual book had any listings of sources or an introduction that might give some hint where Mr. Bean obtained his information. What I am trying to learn is where his information was found for page 763 regarding "Early Schools" in which he names "Nathan Smith, from the Gulf, in Upper Merion announces the opening of a boarding-school for young gentlemen and ladies, January 20, 1814". In the Norristown Newspaper abstracts (generously supplied by another researcher) from that period the person associated with the "Norristown Boarding School" is only identified as "N. Smith" so obviously Mr. Bean was not using newspaper entries for his source. If anyone knows or has any ideas where Mr. Bean may have found records to identify N. Smith as Nathan Smith I would be so very grateful to hear from you. Susan McIntyre Michigan ==== PAMONTGO Mailing List ==== http://www.rootsweb.com

Mr. Ziegler makes an excellent point that the name Nathan or Nathaniel Smith may have come from early 1800 Norristown city and school records. Does anyone on the list have any suggestions where such records might be housed? They do not appear to be offered by Montgomery County Records Dept. and to be quite honest I can't afford the $25 an hour that would be charged at the Historical Society of Montgomery Co. Is there a genealogical library or Norristown Historical society that might have records from early 1800 Norristown? Any ideas where such early school records might be archived (they appear to have held Norristown teacher meetings in 1814)? Is it possible that when Mr. Bean finished his research he (or his family) donated his work papers to a group that would keep and make proper use of them (such a school, library or historical association)? Any thoughts or suggestions on where to look will be welcomed! Susan McIntyre Mike Ziegler wrote: > It might be helpful to note that this particular passage did not >appear in the section of the book dealing with Education but rather in >the section dealing with the history of Norristown, PA. Given that I >would assume that he was using city and school records and other >historical information dealing with Norristown when he researched it. > >Hope this helps. >Mike Ziegler > > > >