Connectedness

When the Pennsylvania-German pioneer and Revolutionary War veteran, Jacob Minerd Sr., first came to live in the mountains of Western Pennsylvania in 1791, he and his wife Maria could have had no way of knowing that someday their offspring would number 40,000, spread throughout the United States and overseas, and that these descendants collectively would play a role in building -- and defending -- their nation.

Minerd.com is an award-winning online archive that chronicles this vast extended family's experience since the early 1700s. The site's encyclopedic content features more than 1,100 individual biographies of descendants born between the 1700s and 1900; scores of other feature pages analyzing their specific activities; and more than 4,000 rare photographs, news clippings and postcards.

This unique archive, free for all to enjoy, has attracted the Googlers of the world who have sought their family roots and contributed their own collection of one-of-a-kind materials. It protects and preserve a fragmented family history and culture against the ravages of time and erosion of memory, public disinterest, destruction of interpersonal relationships, and dispersion of families throughout the world.

Because of its unique role in promoting Western Pennsylvania to cousins whose ancient roots are based here, Minerd.com and our national reunion were licensed to use the logo of "Pittsburgh 250" to help celebrate Pittsburgh's milestone anniversary in 2008.

They're off! -- James and Lydia (Miner) Brown and other pioneers rush to stake their land claim in Oklahoma in 1889	The "Peopling" of America - Many descendants of the 1800s had the insatiable "wanderlust" and ventured westward from Pennsylvania, forging into the unknown. In the process, these pioneers, faced cruel hardships, hopelessness, sickness and even death. By persevering, they helped transform vast empty spaces into thriving communities. See our special pages devoted to the Ohio Bicentennial, Western Migrations, Central Illinois, Northwest Missouri, Oklahoma Land Rush and Kissin' Cousin Marriages. Our research on "In Lasting Memory" documents a staggering number of family deaths since 2000, one every 5.41 days on average.

Civil War veteran Robert Rankin	Military Service and Sacrifice - Many hundreds of cousins have served in the United States Armed Forces during wartime, in every known major conflict from the American Revolution to the Iraq War, including more than 100 in the Civil War. At least 32 lost their lives in the service, the supreme sacrifice so Americans can enjoy our freedoms. We continue to tally the cousins who fought in the Philippine Insurrection and Spanish American War and World War I.

Coke ovens in Fayette County, PA, the backbone upon which Pittsburgh's great steel empires were built	Coal, Coke and Steel - More than 400 descendants have toiled in the coal, coke and steel industries of our nation, including more than 30 who have died in the workplace. One union organizer met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt to help settle a coal strike. Several entrepreneurs have owned their own mineral and steel production companies. In 2002, a cousin was a key player in the "Nine for Nine" coal mine rescue in Somerset County, PA, which gripped the nation and was featured on CNN and Fox TV.

Eliza (Hess) Minerd and fellow elementary school teachers in Fayette County, PA	Public Education - A Sense of Wonder - the field of education has attracted an extraordinary number of people in our family. Over many generations, more than 370 cousin-educators have touched thousands of lives and conveyed a sense of wonder. They have opened young minds to the vast universe of words, numbers, athletics and arts. Cousins have worked as administrators, teachers, coaches, aides, secretaries, bus drivers and custodians, from one-room country schoolhouses to our nation's most prestigious universities.

For 60 decades, cousins have helped construct, care for, conserve and interpret Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece, Fallingwater	Pittsburgh Regional Landmarks - Some branches have remained in Western Pennsylvania over eight to 10 generations. Many have had decades of involvement with the construction, care, conservation and/or preservation of some of the Pittsburgh's region's most beloved and important landmarks -- ranging from Fallingwater, Braddock's Grave, and National Turnpike to the Minerd Funeral Home (a Uniontown landmark) and Westmoreland Homesteads (Norvelt), built during the Great Depression with support by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to benefit coal miners' families.

Annette Hanshaw, named the "most popular woman singer" in the nation in the 1930s	Popular Culture, Entertainment and Creativity - Cousins have entertained millions of Americans as actors, singers, TV/radio hosts and writers. One was named by the New York Times as "one of the most prolific recording singers in the late 1920's and early 30's." Another was an influential Illinois news editor attacked in Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology. Among writers, one had his fiction published in the North American Review, and two others (in Pennsylvania and Illinois) had their poems appear in a 19th century anthology alongside the likes of Walt Whitman and James Whitcomb Riley. A current-day cousin is a movie and reality TV producer, and another is director of entertainment at a major Texas theme park. Click for our Online Quilt Museum and our Online Museum of Creativity.

Rebecca Minerd and Civil War hero Thomas Custer, the general's brother, whose affair produced a son	Custer Connection - Our website tells the award-winning saga of a forgotten Ohio oilfield laborer whose father, Capt. Thomas Ward Custer, was a two-time Medal of Honor winner in the Civil War, was the brother of General George Armstrong Custer, and were among five Custers slain at Little Big Horn. This story, also published in the Research Review Magazine of the Little Big Horn Associates, received the organization's prestigious Frost Award in 2006 for "Best Article."

One of many books linking the name "Miner" to research of mixed-race families of West Virginia and Ohio.	Almost White - One branch of cousins, centered in Philippi, WV and Athens, OH, descends from a Pennsylvania German father and a Native American mother of the mid 1800s. Considered of mixed-race, these cousins were cast out of society, neither white nor black, and faced lifetimes of discrimination because of their skin color, with one marrying a former slave. Authors of books such as Almost White (1963), journalists and scholars have studied the group, which often are derogatorily nicknamed "guineas." Minerd.com's proprietary research documents a wide range of racism, from willful destruction of birth record and imposition of extra taxes by county officials, to prevention of children from attending school with whites. There have been more than 50 marriages between the Minard-Miner and Mayle-Male clans of West Virginia and Ohio.

NASA's space shuttle far above earth, symbolic of our cousins' significant contributions in science and in space exploration	Science and Space Exploration - At least four of descendants played key roles in the U.S. space program since the 1960s -- one as an Army nurse on the splashdown recovery stations for astronauts in the Mercury program; one as an Apollo rocket engine navigation systems engineer, who received a commendation letter signed by the astronauts in the program; one as an astro-physicist in Italy who researched gamma ray bursts in deep space; and one a physicist with Switzerland-based CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Others have been scientists and researchers featured in the National Geographic, and inventors who hold numerous patents.

Dr. Roy Sheppard Minerd, an early physician	Medicine - Escaping from the grip of early illiteracy and the peculiarly German fear of formal education, cousins have become leaders in the medical field, including a Civil War surgeon wounded by enemy sharpshooters; a co-founder of the first Minerd Reunion in Western Pennsylvania; and an Ivy League researcher in early childhood diseases. Cousin-healthcare practitioners have worked in rural communities and at large metropolitan hospitals.

Harvest-time for farmers Lawson and Lutitia Minerd of near Mill Run, PA	Farming and Agriculture - The earliest Minerd pioneers in Western Pennsylvania made their living off the land -- farming, hunting, timbering and boiling salt found in natural springs. Today, many of our cousins continue to make a living in the fields of agriculture. One cousin in Indiana is the fifth generation to reside on the family farm, dating to 1847. Others have been forest rangers and fire wardens, protecting our natural resources.

	Corporate, Business and Entrepreneurship - [under construction]

Calvary Methodist Church in Uniontown, PA, founded by Rev. David Ewing Minerd	Religious Faith and Evangelism - Scores of our cousins have served as clergy, planting churches, pastoring congregations planting, evangelizing as overseas missionaries, educating students and preserving our religious heritage. Many church buildings constructed under the leadership of cousin-pastors still serve as houses of worship today in Pennsylvania, Ohio, California and beyond.

Warren Miner of the Pennsylvania Railroad	Transportation - Cousins have helped design, build and serve in our nation's vast, sophisticated transportation infrastructure -- from the National Turnpike, Panama Canal and early railroads to rural road and bridge building, pioneering commercial airline flight and the Interstate Highway System. More than 25 cousins and their spouses have been killed in railroad and streetcar accidents, with scores more losing their lives in vehicular mishaps.

John Fridley, one of the University of Pittsburgh's all-time leading rebounders	Professional and Collegiate Sports - Only one of our known cousins has played professional sports -- a pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers in the early 1970s. Many others have performed in minor and semi-pro leagues during their heyday in the early 1900s, while others have excelled at the collegiate level, including the winningest coach in the Ohio Athletic Conference, and the University of Pittsburgh's men's basketball record-holder for rebounding. One cousin is a former golf pro in San Diego at a prominent course which hosted PGA tournaments won by Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods.

Campaign card of Dr. Harold Daniel Minerd, one of the most politically active cousins in Western Pennsylvania	Political Service - Many cousins have served the public through elected and appointed political leadership and government service. In Western Pennsylvania, one cousin was a Pittsburgh City Councilman who helped lead the Steel City's 150th birthday in 1908. In California, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kansas and Oklahoma, their roles have ranged from county treasurers, prothonotaries and directors of the poor ... and common pleas court judges ... to small town mayors, town councilmen, school board directors and tax collectors ... to federally appointed postmasters ... and to top regional political strategists and organizers.

The Minerd.com website and national reunion regularly are in the news and make news.	Cousins in Print - Cousins have been quoted and mentioned in such leading American publications as the New York Times, Time, USA Today, People, Fortune, Reader's Digest, National Geographic and Wall Street Journal. Other cousins have been authors, editors and writers for the Miami Herald, Harvard Business Review and North American Review. Newspapers in Southwestern Pennsylvania, the epicenter of our family's growth since the 1790s, contain thousands of stories and obituaries of our cousins over the years.

Unique family newspaper that helped fuel the "Great Younkin Re-awakening" of the 1930s	Genealogy, Family Reunions and Historical Research - Minerd.com is an online repository for archives of early reunions of the Minerd-Miner, Harbaugh and Younkin families of Western Pennsylvania and the Minard clan of Knox County, OH. Cousins have co-founded the Ohio Genealogical Society; Churches of God Historical Society; and Abraham Lincoln Centennial Association, while others have been leaders of local historical societies and family reunions. This rich legacy has set the stage for today's themed National Minerd- Minard- Miner- Minor Reunions, held in Western Pennsylvania.

	Literacy and Name Spelling Variations - Our family knowledge is obscured by a lack of written history. One cousin said this was due to illiteracy and to “Burning of cabins, destroying records, if any were made." Many early cousins signed their name with an "X." While our name originally was the German "Meinert" or "Meinhard," it became Americanized via a gradual evolution. Today the most common variations are Minerd, Minard, Miner and Minor, with isolated cases of Meinder, Minord and Minarde. The earliest known example is in a lawsuit from 1841 in Fayette County, PA, where the court clerk wrote two versions of the name: "Christian Seneff ads. Henry Minor (or Minard)."

	The 99% Factor/Kissin' Cousin Marriages - Before genetics were known, it was common for cousins to marry each other at all levels of American society. In fact, more than 20 such marriages occurred within our clan. President Thomas Jefferson encouraged his daughters to marry within their own family, and they did. The Minerds were particularly intimate with the Younkin and Mayle-Male clans.

	Erosion of German Culture - Over time in America, it became increasingly unpopular to claim a German heritage, most especially during World Wars I and II. Today, few traces of the clan's German roots remain. See Our Lost German Culture and Minerd/German Migrations.

Minerd.com homepage as it appeared in January 2004	Minerd.com's Role in Preserving History - Minerd.com has been named one of the "Top 10 Family Website in the Nation" by Family Tree Magazine, has received national awards, and been cited in more than scores of newspapers, magazine articles and books. Since its launch in May 2000, Minerd.com has been in the news and made news, with postcards from its archive regularly published in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.