Wow, the stories so far.

I am like a ping pong ball doing genealogy.  I'm all over the place. 

I've been working on the Lichtenwalner family from Pennsylvania.  This is my husband's family and they have been interesting family.  Now, let me qualify that.  ALL the families I have worked on have been interesting. This is the current one.  The newest shiny object.

One of the brothers moved to Ohio and started using the name Lichtenwalter.  I am curious as to why.  So far no reason found.

Catharina Staettler.  I wonder if the name was changed to Stettler or if some of the family changed their name to Stettler and then I wonder if I'll find a connection to the rest of the Stettlers in the database.  I love finding connections.

Benjamin Schlabach is a 2nd cousin, 5 times removed. At the age of 20 he fought with the Pennsylvania Regiment 153 Co D at Gettysburg.  The story goes that he was shot the first day of the battle, taken POW, paroled, and treated at a field hospital  He then died about 30 days later.  Not all of the information has been confirmed.  He is buried at Gettysburg.  That I do know. 

Another Lichtenwalner changed his name to Lightwood.  I have been unable to pinpoint when exactly he changed it and why.

The Lightwood fellow lost his parents when he was young.  His mother died when he was 9 and his father, who was 56 when the son was born, died when the young man was 15.  The maternal grandfather was named as guardian.  The estate was worth $14,146.91 in 1915.  Wow!  That was a huge amount of money back then.

I thought this was the family with the suicide/cremation, but now I don't think so..  The object of the story had some sort of issues from newspaper articles I could find.  Didn't get along with his parents.  Lost a child.  Wife died.  Remarried.  So far it looks like his wife was married to two men at the same time although I'm sure I'll find where there are two women by the same name in the area as that is not unusual.  He ran into some financial difficulty.  Applied for a loan.  Then something pushed him over the edge.  He set his barn on fire and then committed suicide.  The family thought he was missing until they found his remains in the ruins of the barn.  Back in those days the newspaper articles were a little more blunt than they are today.  The headline had something about committing suicide and then cremating himself.