GSRC Past Events

Barbara Gottlock, Bannerman Castle author, talks about her newest book, New York's Palisades Interstate Park. This pictorial history reflects the long-term changes of these 100,000 acres including the march of the Hessians in the American Revolution, the growth and demise of eleven hamlets and the development of the current recreational park.

at the Haverstraw
Brick Museum

12 Main St.
Haverstraw, NY

845-947-3505
 

Our meeting at the Haverstraw Brick Museum will feature a program on the history of the Brick Industry in Rockland County. The museum is located at 12 Main Street, Haverstraw, NY. (From Route 9W north, turn right on New Main St. at the light at the old Haverstraw Railroad Station and go across the tracks and down the hill, which becomes Main St.)

Location:
Creative Gatherings
224 West Main St.
Goshen, NY

Creative Gatherings, a scrap book and stamping store in Goshen has formed a free heritage scrap booking group and members from Orange, and several surrounding Counties meet monthly. Whether you enjoy scrapping, but are unsure of how to research your family’s history, or you are your family’s historian and would like to learn how to scrap the results of your research, or you would just like to get together with others who share your interests and talk, you are welcome to join the group. There is no membership fee.

Speaker: Alan C. Aimone, Assistant Librarian, United States Military Academy Library, West Point, NY. Team member and leader in all divisions of the library including reference, government documents, cataloging, special collections and archives. Founding member and Past President of the Company of Military Historians, West Point Chapter.

Speaker: Sharon DeBartolo Carmack , CG, is a partner in the Salt Lake City-based research firm Warren, Carmack & Associates. She specializes in writing, mentoring, and editing narrative family histories, as well as Irish/Irish-American family history research. Sharon is the author of sixteen books, including Discovering Your Female Ancestors, and You Can Write Your Family History, and hundreds of articles that have appeared in nearly every major genealogical journal and publication. She has a B.A. in English from Regis University and a Diploma in Irish Studies from the National University of Ireland, Galway. This is possibly the only chance you will have to hear this nationally recognized writer and speaker for free!

Bonus Presentation: Primetime’s 20/20 Dateline: Sharon Carmack Interviews the World’s Oldest Living Genealogist, Ole Smirnoff Bernatelli . (Joint presentation by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack and Jim Warren.) Ole's been around since 1897. But it wasn't until his column, “Bringing Up the Rear,” appeared in the NGS NewsMagazine in 2004 that Ole shot to fame. Join us to howl at the sage (and strange) advice that results when genealogy's brightest star questions it's most unusual senior citizen.

Speaker: Nancy Wagoner Dixon. Nan Dixon, a noted Palatine historian, is the author of the popular book, Palatine Roots: The 1710 German Settlement in New York as Experienced by Johann Peter Wagner. This book gives a wonderful background of why the Palatines came to New York, and of their adventures in the Hudson Valley. Mrs. Dixon is Vice President of the New York Chapter of Palatines to America and comes to us from upstate New York, near Lake Ontario.

Speaker: Sherrill Wilson, PhD, former Director of the African Burial Ground

Dr. Wilson will give a slide presentation on the on the African Historical Presence in New York City, including the African Burial Ground.

Speaker: Barbara Gottlock, coauthor of Bannerman Castle and volunteer coordinator for tourist visits to Bannerman Island, near Newburgh, NY.

On maps it is Pollopel Island: 6 3/4 acres of mostly rock; 1,000 feet from the eastern shore of the Hudson just north of Cold Spring; 50 miles north of New York City. During the Revolutionary War, patriots unsuccessfully tried to stop the British from advancing north of the island by sinking 106 upright logs tipped in iron points in the Hudson. Later, General George Washington approved plans to use the island as a military prison.

The castle's builder, Frank Bannerman VI, was a Scottish patriot, very proud of his descent from one of the few MacDonald's to survive the massacre at Glencoe in 1692. Acting on behalf of the Crown, a rival clan, the Campbells, slaughtered all MacDonald males ages 12-70. One escaped to the hills with the clan banner -- and from that day on, his family name was Bannerman.

The Bannerman family immigrated to the United States in 1854, when Frank was three, and settled in Brooklyn. At the close of the Civil War, the U.S. government auctioned off military goods by the ton, mostly to be scrapped for their metal. Young Frank was one of the first to realize that much of what was being sold had a market value higher than scrap. Under his guidance, Bannerman's became the world's largest buyer of surplus military equipment. When they outgrew their store at 501 Broadway in NYC, they looked around for a larger and safer location in which to store their ammunition. Pollopel Island was selected.

Frank Bannerman personally designed the island's buildings, docks, turrets, garden walls and moat in the style of old Scottish castles. Almost all of it was done without professional help from architects, engineers and contractors. And all of it was elaborately decorated, from biblical quotations cast into all fireplace mantles, to a shield between the towers with a coat of arms, and a wreath of thistle leaves and flowers. The castle was constructed between 1901 and 1918. It was primarily an ammunitions storage site but the Bannermans summered there too.

Attend this interesting talk about a little known architectural wonder and learn about the struggle to maintain its existence.

For more information, visit:

http://www.hudsonriver.com/bannerman.htm
http://www.bannermancastle.org/

Co-sponsored by GSRC and the New City Library.

Speaker: Karen Lamberton

Ms. Lamberton, author of Angels in the Gate: New York City and the General Slocum Disaster, will take her audience through that tragic day from its band-playing gay beginnings to its devastating and silent end; how it impacted the City of New York and especially the German-American community; and how the greatest marine disaster, fire, and single event loss of life in New York’s history prior to 9/11* impacts us to this day. Ms. Lamberton will then connect her research to her family tree and show how various record sets in the New York Municipal Archives became instrumental in proving the family connections.

Copies of the book will be available for sale.

*Excluding acts of war

Speaker: Harrison Bush and Geoff Welch, Curator of Harmony Hall

Speakers: John Perrotta, Jr., Chairman, and Harry Miesner, Vice-Chairman
Historical Society of the Palisades Interstate Park Region

Many Rockland County residents are surprised to discover that much of the park system was created by the takeover of the scattered hamlets that once dotted the area. Today, little more than a few gravestones here and there remind the summer hiker of the communities that once thrived among the mountains. Mr. Perrotta and Mr. Miesner will speak for approximately 45 minutes which will be followed by a brief question-and-answer period. Refreshments will follow.

Speaker: Rudy Hansen, resident of Pearl River.

Refreshments will follow the presentation.

Because of a computer glitch, the September program was presented without slides. Sally Pellegrini, the New City Local History Librarian, will catch us up briefly before the party with slides of postcards and photos from the Lower Hudson Heritage Project.

Speaker: Wallace Dennison

The focus of this talk will be the Ramapough Indians, who lived in Rockland County. Mr. Dennison's  interest is based in his family’s genealogy.

On your way into the meeting, please stop at the display cases outside the Meeting Room to view some of Mr. Dennison’s exhibit on his family’s genealogy.

Refreshments will follow the presentation.

Speakers: Sally Pellegrini, Local History Librarian, New City Library

Sally Pellegrini will give an overview of the online Rockland Images Project of the Library Association of Rockland County (LARC) and show a few of the postcards and photos which have been scanned into the project. Bob Knight will join Mrs. Pellegrini in discussing the historical content of the postcards.

Speaker: Barbara de Mare, Esq.

Barbara de Mare, a member of our society, has practiced estate and real estate law in New York and New Jersey for over 35 years. Additionally, she is involved in several county and state genealogical societies. As a result of the interaction between her vocation and her avocation, she was able to identify a document given to amongst a group of papers as a petition for partition. One glance, and she realized she had struck gold.

The document was a petition for partition involving land in Thiells. By careful study of this document she was able to identify about 50 descendants of Daniel Phillips and Hannah Osborne, none of whom she previously knew existed. Her identification of these individuals meets the current genealogical proof standards.

The main thrust of her talk on Tuesday night will be to explain how to identify such documents, and once identified how to extract the most information from them. She will bring with her the descendancy chart showing the individuals identified from this one document, and will explain how each identification appeared in the petition. Handouts will also be available for further explanation.

Sticking to true stories from this same family line, she will also describe some common pitfalls of which we should all be aware. These include innocent-looking commercial family histories and notes found in Family Bibles.

Finally, if time permits, she will say a few words about the invaluable New York probate and administration packets as well as deeds and wills which transfer property to heirs.

Librarians, click here for program flyer.

Speaker: Tom Reilly

Orphan trains, which left from Manhattan with cargoes of children, traveled to many remote corners of the United States, dropping off children at each stop along the way. Some of those children ended up here in Rockland County. Come and find out what made these trains necessary; how the young riders fared after being handed over to families at the stations; when did the trains stop. This is a fascinating and largely unknown segment of our history! Librarians, click here for program flyer.