| FAMILY HISTORY THROUGH FRAKTUR |
| Imagine finding your ancestor's baptism certificate hanging on the wall of a museum! If you have Pennsylvania German ancestors, your ancestor's decorated "fraktur" might be in a museum or proudly featured in a book about American folk art. Fraktur are 18th and 19th century decorated manuscripts and printed forms made by and for Pennsylvania Germans. Most are birth and baptism certificates that were made in southeast Pennsylvania or anywhere Pennsylvania Germans settled including New Jersey, western Maryland, the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, Ohio and beyond. Collectively called fraktur, these genalogically rich manuscripts are America's equivalent to monastic manuscript art of medieval Europe. As a whole, they represent a wonderful body of personal records and primary sources often overlooked by family historians. Since 1971, Russ and Corinne Earnest have recorded more than 30,000 fraktur, including many examples inaccessible to genealogists. The Earnest publish books about fraktur, including books that translate the genealogical texts from these early German-languauge manuscripts. Search our publications at this site or write for our free catalog of books on fraktur. Write Russell D. Earnest Associates, PO Box 1132, Clayton DE 19938 or email us at RDEARNEST@Aol.com. |
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Russell D. Earnest Associates
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